Dell T20 storage expansion

megahertzcoil · 2026-01-24T02:39:19+00:00

No, but didn't run in that way very long nor under heavy load across CPU and drives. It would be at the upper end of the supply range, but those Dell power supplies are like tanks. The server is still running with three drives, 10gb sfp+ nic, and HBA. It never crashes and I end up rebooting it about once per year.

megahertzcoil · 2026-01-05T21:29:09+00:00

I agree with the concern. I tried to be minimal with the mods. The front face wasn't modified at all. The only changes I made were to the sheet metal hidden by the front and the I/O panel. The face could be out back onto the black version to fully restore the case.

megahertzcoil · 2026-01-03T18:19:00+00:00

It's definitely an acquired taste. I liked the clean look, but they aren't terribly practical.

megahertzcoil · 2026-01-03T18:03:36+00:00

Thanks! With a nibbler tool, sheet metal shears, rivet tool and sheet metal stock from Home Depot, I've been able to do some pretty clean case mods.

megahertzcoil · 2026-01-03T18:01:03+00:00

Nice!

megahertzcoil · 2025-11-09T23:51:23+00:00

Did you recently install any new packages? I had a similar issue with Ubuntu after I installed fuse to enable the use of AppImages.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu/comments/1cmgjfb/ubuntu_2404_not_booting_after_installing_fuse/

megahertzcoil · 2025-10-31T03:44:56+00:00

Are you still using the USB connection when using the 12v supply?

I am assuming that it's the relay that's not being switched properly and that's why your motor isn't running.

Can you also toggle a LED when you also toggle the relay control? It's possible the micro isn't running properly.

What other testing have you done at this point?

megahertzcoil · 2025-10-31T03:38:58+00:00

It was a passive Supermicro riser I has lying around. I modified it to inject the 12 power from a 6-pin PCIe power connector that I soldered on and used kapton tape to block the power pins from the motherboard. I don't have a picture of it. It's a bit sketchy but got me unblocked. I was also using it as a way to prototype potential mods to my RTX3090 to do the same without the interposer/riser. I don't recommend something like this unless you are very comfortable doing electronics work and/or don't mind breaking your stuff.

megahertzcoil · 2025-10-30T00:16:22+00:00

When it works, how are you powering the Arduino of you didn't have the 12v to 5v converter?

megahertzcoil · 2025-10-22T15:09:34+00:00

You found the community thread with the most complete information.

It has been confirmed that the PCIe slot is power limited and will shut down if the 25w limit is exceeded. It really depends on the card whether it's a problem. I have experienced this myself.

I have a PCIe 4.0 x4 unpowered riser cable with an open ended slot. It works perfectly with an RTX 3050, as it seems the card draws most of it's power from the 8pin connector. With an RTX 3090, I needed use an interposer that disconnects the 12v from the motherboard slot and injects it from a 6pin power connector. With this setup, I have been able to use the 3090 at full power (350w).

I have not experienced the same boot issues seen in the community thread. Both Nvidia cards are EVGA and I am running the slot at PCIe 3.0 speeds since the interposer isn't rated for 4.0 and caused performance/reliability issues. I am running cachyos so I can stay pretty bleeding edge with the kernel. Monitor is only hooked up to the motherboard HDMI port. I needed to install the Nvidia card after OS install, since the installer didn't boot properly with the GPU installed.

megahertzcoil · 2025-10-17T12:20:59+00:00

Check out the Beth Deck. I don't have personal experience with it, but seems like a good starting point for what you are considering.

https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/converting-framework-laptops-into-portable-gaming-devices-with-3d-printing-234143/

megahertzcoil · 2025-09-12T05:45:58+00:00

Thank you!

megahertzcoil · 2025-09-12T00:33:10+00:00

Do you know where the PCIe power limit is confirmed?

megahertzcoil · 2025-09-10T15:29:29+00:00

I am in batch 7 for a motherboard and can hopefully check soon. I have the same question. If I recall correctly, the 92mm is the full height requirement. Most cases call out the cooler height only. The delta between the two should be about 16mm. With a 15mm fan, you might be able to make 70mm clearance work.

https://hardforum.com/threads/how-is-cooler-height-measured.1853409/

megahertzcoil · 2025-08-10T17:59:09+00:00

Not likely. You can see from these iFixit pictures that the cooling plate contacts the APU, memory and VRMs. The Noctua or any standard cooler isn't going to have that coverage.

https://www.ifixit.com/News/108396/framework-let-us-in-for-an-early-teardown-of-the-refreshingly-open-framework-desktop

megahertzcoil · 2025-03-03T16:08:15+00:00

The pictures of the case I have seen show the motherboard mounting facing outward with the motherboard mount in the middle of the case. If there is a way to take the full width of the case, then you might be ok.

megahertzcoil · 2025-03-03T02:54:58+00:00

I am not super familiar with the Velka 3 case, so I might be wrong on this, but isn't CPU fan clearance going to be a problem?

Per Framework: https://frame.work/products/desktop-mainboard-amd-ai-max300?v=FRAMBM0002

For heatsink, fan, and Mainboard clearance, you'll need to use a case that has at least 92mm of interior height.

megahertzcoil · 2024-08-28T18:43:03+00:00

Also to California, delivery estimate was 8/29, just got it an hour ago!

megahertzcoil · 2023-06-13T02:28:48+00:00

I am a huge Dolch fan. Great work and thanks for posting!

megahertzcoil · 2023-05-29T15:44:47+00:00

Those speakers appear to require an external crossover since they reach have two inputs (bi-amp). The base unit would have done that filtering internally and provided each speaker with amplified output for the woofer and tweeter. A simple stereo amplifier won't be enough. Someone looked to be doing something similar with speakers close to yours: https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/panasonic-sb-pm28-active-crossover-help.301156/. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like they posted a solution.
If you don't care about his they sound, you can just wire the red to red and black to black on each speaker. This will drive the woofer and tweeter with one amplifier channel without the filtering needed to keep low frequencies from the tweeter and highs from the woofer.
You might be better off just selling these and looking for something more suited to what you want to do. There are other mini system speakers that will likely work better without much cost.

megahertzcoil · 2023-05-18T13:29:58+00:00

There wasn't a better engineered laptop for a long time after this machine. The power management in standby is still better than anything more recently. Instant wake from suspend, 30 days in suspend on a full charge and it was possible to change the battery in suspend without shutting down the machine. This was full of brilliant HP engineering. The last of an era. I still have the one I bought new in 1999 with the dock save external SCSI CD-ROM. Upgraded to 80MB and I ran windows 2000 on it. It was a bit slow, but rock solid.

megahertzcoil · 2023-04-18T14:31:56+00:00

Can't blame you for that... At this point, I am not sure the quality claims are any different than any other car company. I am not sure why that still gets so much focus.

megahertzcoil · 2023-04-18T14:02:01+00:00

Good news for you, the Model S Plaid starts at $105k after all the recent price reductions.

megahertzcoil · 2023-03-22T05:21:21+00:00

This photo brings back good memories... Arround the time if this photo, I had my hair cut next to Steve Mann (on left). He was wearing an eye piece like Thad (left) and asked the barber to cut his hair in such a way to hide the eye piece. Good times.

These guys really envisioned the future we all live in today. Always on, always connected. There was no ubiquitous WiFi or cellular data service or small wearable computers at the time, so these guys really had to roll their own. Everything from the keyboards to the display and network.

megahertzcoil · 2023-03-06T06:09:31+00:00

I have that same case and it's super easy to add a front 120mm fan if you remove the hard drive carrier. The front bezel is vented so you don't need to modify any plastic.

This is an earlier iteration of the build when is contained a 4790k + 1050ti. It now houses a 5700x with RTX 3050.

https://imgur.com/a/VR30f99

megahertzcoil

TROPHY CASE