Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF Upgrade Guide: Graphic Card (e.g. GTX 1050Ti) and SSD (Hard Drive)

Dell Optiplex mainboard layout from the service manual:

(Image source: https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/optiplex-9020-desktop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf)

As you can see from the above layout, the mainboard has 2 PCI Express slots for powerful graphic cards, as well as 3 SATA connectors for additional SSD/HDD device.

1. Graphic Card

You can install up-to-date Low Profile graphic card to 9020 SFF machine, e.g. GTX 1050Ti 4GB LP.
However, note that only 4x PCI Express slot can be used for 1050Ti models because of the fan on the graphic card (16x PCI-E slot will be wasted). All 1050Ti LP products have a large fan and heat-sink taking an additional slot, which is the the 16x slot on 9020 SFF. Thus, if you want to use GTX 1050Ti, it is unavoidable to give up using additional device connecting to PCI-E slot. Of course if the new graphic card takes only one slot, both PCI-E slots can be exploited.

Regarding the performance for 4x PCI-E, compared to 16x PCI-E, most people on the internet say there will be little or no performance difference for 1050Ti class graphic card. Of course there will be quite a lot of difference for a higher graphic cards, such as GTX 1080, but 1050Ti is not powerful enough to get benefit from 16x PCI-E, meaning 4x PCI-E is fast enough to transfer all data between GPU and CPU.

I personally purchased and tried Gigabyte GTX 1050Ti OC LP (4GB) model on my 9020 SFF for 3 months so far, which is working perfectly without any issue. I haven't experienced any frozen or blue screen for this time even when I was running pretty heavy 3D games. Of course, don't expect to run the most recent 3D games in the highest configuration, which probably needs 1080Ti + 8th Gen i7 processor.

2. SSD/HDD

In most cases, the default 9020 SFF configuration comes with 1xDVD-RW drive and 1xHDD(or SSD), which are connected to two SATA data connectors (No 12 in the above photo), and one power connector (No 11). If so, there is one extra SATA data connector left blank (No 12 has 3 ports) which can be used for an additional SSD. Note that, if you want to 'replace' (no 'add') your SSD or HDD, simply remove the current one and insert a new one. The only tricky part will be mounting the drive to the chassis, which might need to use a sticky tape or 3rd party cradle.

If you want to install an new SSD in addition to the old drive, 2 more cables are necessary:

1) SATA power splitter (15pin) Y cable: one 15-pin male (that connects to the current cable's female part) and two 15-pin females (connect to the old drive and the new SSD).

(Image: Amazon)

2) SATA data cable

(Image: Amazon)

I found a YouTube video that made a custom power cable by soldering cables to the original cable, but it's totally unnecessary if you can get the power splitter cable. Do NOT buy any cable with the old 4-pin connectors. There are a lot of places you can get 15-pin SATA one male to 2 female power cables (from $1 on eBay..).

Once you have a new SSD drive and the two extra cables, connect the power splitter cable to the new and old drives and the data cable to the drive and the empty port on the main board (No 12).

In order to attach the new SSD to the chassis, you will need to use a sticky tape or purchase a 3rd party cradle. If you don't need the DVD-RW drive, it's even possible to remove the DVD-RW and use the space to put the SSD. In this case, up to 3 SSD/HDDs can be installed in total.

Conclusion

Dell OptiPlex 9020 SFF is such a small desktop provides full of performance and expandability. It comes with 4th Generation i5 or i7 CPU, Intel Q87 main chipset, 4x DDR3 1600 memory slots,  2x PCI-E slots, and 3xSATA ports.

If you're lucky enough to get this incredible machine at a cheap price (2nd-hand at around US$ 150-200), it's easy to upgrade the basic machine to a powerful Windows game platform by simply adding a good graphic card, extra SSD, and memory (if the basic machine has less RAM installed).
Enjoy any 3D game with this cheap and small machine!