one thing that might have caused confusion is 3010 MT and SFF have different BIOS by Dell.  That is incorrect.  Dell does not write different bios for same model pc of different form factor.  If you go to driver support, you can see there is only one bios for the model (although there are different versions). [URL] is no SFF bios lock on i5-2400.  The link I sent last time verified that they are compatible.  [URL]
Hi all, Quick question. I've got the Optiplex 3010 SFF (the motherboard only has 2 sata ports for example, rather than the 4 on the MT). I've been testing out some CPUs I was given and most work fine. These being: I5 3570 I5 3470 I5 3450 I3 2120 Thus suggesting my bios etc is all fine. I also have a i5 2400 that doesn't work in it. I know all the above CPUs have a max TDP of 65w (for the i3) and 77w or so for the others, whereas the second gen i5 is 95w. Can anyone confirm that the i5 2400 is definitely not compatible with the SFF version of the 3010, I guess for TDP reasons? I know there are plenty of examples of it working on the MT version, but does it definitely refuse to run it on the SFF version, or is my CPU broken  Cheers!
3010 SFF vs. MT CPU compatibility