Here are some descriptions of what others have been up to with their Dx0Q.
In October 2018 I heard from Ammon who had set up his Dx0Q as a file server:
With a bunch of information from your site (and a few others), I bought a Dell Wyse Dx0Q with the intent of replacing my old, heavy, power-hungry file server. Quad core, 4GB RAM, gigabit ethernet, USB3.0, and 15W for $25? Yes, please!
I finally finished the project last weekend, and it runs beautifully. I made a couple of modifications to mount a second hard drive in it and learned a few things along the way:
- For the primary hard drive, I used a Sandisk SSD Plus 120GB, as mentioned on the site. It fits in nicely, although it's not quite parallel to the motherboard due to a standoff toward the front of the case.
- It won't boot if you only have one DIMM, and it's in the bottom slot (closest to the motherboard).
- CN1700 works just fine to supply power to a second 2.5" hard drive. The two pins where you measured 5V have continuity with the 5V pins on the primary SATA socket. I soldered a cheap 1.25mm pitch JST connector to a SATA power connector, and it functions perfectly.
- I designed and 3D-printed a mounting bracket for a second hard drive. There are two threaded mounting holes on the motherboard (one near CN1700, the other near the mPCIe slot) which have the same spacing as the holes on the under side of a 2.5"" drive, and I used those to mount my bracket.
- My thin client arrived with a few screws missing (and a couple rattling around loose behind the motherboard!). On the inside, all the screws appear to be M2.5. There are three more on the rear panel which I believe are M2.
Overall, I'm very pleased with how the project turned out.
Ammon also included some photos of the result:
This is the mounting bracket for the 2.5" hard drive. If you have a 3D printer (or have
a friend with one) the STL file can be downloaded here.
Note: This file is at 10x scale. It needs to be reduced to 10% before printing.
This shows the drive and bracket mounted in the Dx0Q.
A closer look at the cabling for the hard drive.
You can see the data cable from the on-board
SATA socket. Note that the board end of the cable has a right-angle plug fitted. The power connector
from the drive has been wired to a JST 1.25mm spacing plug to match the CN1700 connector on the board.
Finally we have a photograph showing the new Dx0Q based file server lying on top of the old large and
power hungry file server that it is replacing.