OptiPlex 7070 Micro vs M920x
Dell or Lenovo: which 9th gen box is the better home server? The differences that matter for a home server:
- M920x has 2 M.2 NVMe slots; OptiPlex 7070 Micro has 1. That matters for ZFS mirrors or separating boot and VM storage.
- M920x can take a PCIe card (PCIe (dGPU option)); OptiPlex 7070 Micro cannot. Choose M920x for a router, 10GbE or an HBA.
- M920x has a built-in path to a second network port (PCIe 3.0 x8 low-profile slot (Lenovo lists an Intel I350-T4 NIC option; uses the 2.5" bay space)); on OptiPlex 7070 Micro you would need a USB adapter.
- The top CPU option in M920x has 12 threads versus 8 in OptiPlex 7070 Micro.
- M920x has a path to 10GbE networking; OptiPlex 7070 Micro is limited to 1 GbE plus USB adapters.
Full spec comparison
| Spec | OptiPlex 7070 Micro | M920x |
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2019 | 2018 |
| CPU generations | 9th gen (Coffee Lake Refresh) | 8th gen (Coffee Lake) / 9th gen (Coffee Lake Refresh) |
| Most threads | 8 | 12 |
| Chipset | Q370 | Q370 |
| Memory type | DDR4-2666 | DDR4-2666 |
| Max RAM (official) | 32 GB | 32 GB |
| M.2 NVMe slots | 1 | 2 |
| 2.5" bays | 1 | 1 |
| PCIe expansion | None | PCIe (dGPU option) |
| Onboard NIC | Intel I219-LM | Intel I219-LM |
| Second NIC option | USB only | PCIe 3.0 x8 low-profile slot (Lenovo lists an Intel I350-T4 NIC option; uses the 2.5" bay space) |
| 2.5/10GbE path | USB only | 10GbE (owner-reported) |
| AV1 decode | No | No |
| Transcoding | Good for 4K HEVC; no AV1 decode | Good for 4K HEVC; no AV1 decode |
| Idle power (measured) | about 13 W at the wall (ServeTheHome, Six-core Core i5-9500T ("just over 13 W")) | Not measured yet |
| Spec confidence | Widely confirmed | Widely confirmed |
Which one for which job
OptiPlex 7070 Micro
Upgrades: 2× DDR4-2666 SODIMM (max 32 GB official), 1× M.2 2280 NVMe + 1× 2.5" SATA.
M920x
- Two NVMe slots
- PCIe slot
- 10GbE
- 2.5GbE+ networking
- Plex / Jellyfin 4K
- Proxmox node
- OPNsense / pfSense router
- Budget home server
- vPro / AMT
Upgrades: 2× DDR4-2666 SODIMM (max 32 GB official), 2× M.2 2280 NVMe + 1× 2.5" SATA, PCIe 3.0 x8 low-profile slot (Lenovo lists an Intel I350-T4 NIC option; uses the 2.5" bay space).
OptiPlex 7070 Micro detailsM920x details
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