Welcome to the short and succint guide to the Dell Wyse 5070 thin client
(Very much a work in progress)
So why should you care (as a home labber)?
It's a medium sized-ish thin client from Dell Wyse with some decent performance.
How much CPU and GPU firepower can I expect from one?
What’s my path to expandability?
• 2 DDR4 Notebook RAM slots (currently supporting up 32 GB via a pair of 16GB DDR4 SODIMMs , but only stable in Linux. Official support is 16GB in 2x8GB modules)
Upgrade Compatibility
The following bas been tested and known to work:
• Intel i340-T4 Quadport GigE adapter
Is there a guide to working inside the chassis?
Dell Wyse is known to publish guides on how to do simple things to your chassis
What does the power usage look like?
(TBD)
OS Compatibility
The following has been tested and known to work:
Proxmox 5.2/6.1
VMWare ESXi 6.0U3/6.5U3 (requires custom ISO for Realtek NIC)
Windows 10 IoT/Pro
Debian Linux 10
How much am I expected to pay for one?
As of Q3 2021, about 50-150 USD for a refurb unit, but they will get cheaper as time goes on.
Advantages
Disadvantages
• No IPMI, and noAMT/ VPro
• RAM ceiling dependent on OS
So, what can I do with it?
- Use it as a thin client.
So yes. Use it to drive multiple screens - delight friends, intimidate enemies.
- Run a “much more powerful” firewall.
Many people here swears by the t620 Plus, but if you have some serious packet filtering, you could in theory toss in a dual port 1/10/40GbE card on the 5070 extended model, toss up a virtual function or 2 via SRIOV to accelerate throughput, and work successfully with higher line speeds.
- Medium performance expandable hypervisor.
Yeah, it’s about the same as a gimped out C2700 series and VMX/ept-i is enabled. SRIOV is supported in Linux but VMDirectPath (its VMWare equivalent) functionality needs to be investigated, unfortunately. You could in theory load up at least 8-12 VMs (with 64GB of RAM) and do some useful stuff with it. Oh yeah, since it has a PCIe 32.0 x4 slot, you are somewhat limited in terms of pure bandwidth.
- Use it as an HTPC or as a living room PC.
Are there similar products out in the market today?
?
Are there active discussion on STH for this device?
(Very much a work in progress)
So why should you care (as a home labber)?
It's a medium sized-ish thin client from Dell Wyse with some decent performance.
How much CPU and GPU firepower can I expect from one?
What’s my path to expandability?
• 2 DDR4 Notebook RAM slots (currently supporting up 32 GB via a pair of 16GB DDR4 SODIMMs , but only stable in Linux. Official support is 16GB in 2x8GB modules)
Upgrade Compatibility
- RAM: DDR4 SODIMM
- M.2 type: SATA
The following bas been tested and known to work:
• Intel i340-T4 Quadport GigE adapter
Is there a guide to working inside the chassis?
Dell Wyse is known to publish guides on how to do simple things to your chassis
What does the power usage look like?
(TBD)
OS Compatibility
The following has been tested and known to work:
Proxmox 5.2/6.1
VMWare ESXi 6.0U3/6.5U3 (requires custom ISO for Realtek NIC)
Windows 10 IoT/Pro
Debian Linux 10
How much am I expected to pay for one?
As of Q3 2021, about 50-150 USD for a refurb unit, but they will get cheaper as time goes on.
- Silent / passively cooled
- Intel iGPU with virtualization capabilities
- Rather efficient for what it is
• No IPMI, and noAMT/ VPro
• RAM ceiling dependent on OS
- Use it as a thin client.
So yes. Use it to drive multiple screens - delight friends, intimidate enemies.
- Run a “much more powerful” firewall.
Many people here swears by the t620 Plus, but if you have some serious packet filtering, you could in theory toss in a dual port 1/10/40GbE card on the 5070 extended model, toss up a virtual function or 2 via SRIOV to accelerate throughput, and work successfully with higher line speeds.
- Medium performance expandable hypervisor.
Yeah, it’s about the same as a gimped out C2700 series and VMX/ept-i is enabled. SRIOV is supported in Linux but VMDirectPath (its VMWare equivalent) functionality needs to be investigated, unfortunately. You could in theory load up at least 8-12 VMs (with 64GB of RAM) and do some useful stuff with it. Oh yeah, since it has a PCIe 32.0 x4 slot, you are somewhat limited in terms of pure bandwidth
- Use it as an HTPC or as a living room PC.
Are there similar products out in the market today?
?