Video Card for DELL Server

[PingSpike]

I think I found the diagram. It does appear that the v12 pins are only on the 1x portion. But I honestly don't know what most of these labels are so I could be wrong!

 

[cacasodo]

Hey guys,
Here's that Tom's Hardware article re: PCI Express scaling:
http://www.tomshardware.com/20...ress_scaling_analysis/

Rrahman,
I made my life a bit easier and got a video card that does not require an external power connector. Mainly because I thought I might encounter space problems between the edge of the card and the server cover. I'm pretty tight as it is with the BFG 8500GT. Of course, I was too lazy to measure the exact distances. If you purchase a different card, be careful with card dimensions. That little blue separator that clips into the slot in the power supply and hangs above the cards also gets in the way.

As to the aspect of the card working in this server, I have a feeling that I more or less just got lucky with it. However, maybe difficulty with video on this box is only in relation to PCI video, not PCI Express video. I dunno. I'm just happy it works. Time to get the Dremel out and fit that bad boy in clean!

'sodo

 

[TheMick]

Any updates on this? Card still working? I bought the sc1430 for a great deal also and would like to utilize the pci-e slot for video.

 

[cacasodo]

Mick,
Yes, my BFG 8500GT is still working fine in the box; albeit with the 8x-16x adapter in place and the little door that hold the PCI cards in place swung open.

Perhaps I will dremel off the unused connectors and see if she works fitted nicely in the slot. Then I could close that door.

'sodo

 

[TheMick]

Thanks for the reply. Anyone else using a pci-e card, possibly a better one with no issues? I kinda wanna see what these dual quads can do hehe.

 

[taltamir]

um... get a non crappy motherboard?

The dell motherboards are atrocious... replace the mobo and put in a pcie 16x video card and be done with it.

 

[dajeepster]

I put in an HIS Radeon X1550 PCI-e x1... it fits right in the PCI-x x8 slot... works great... recognized right away. Vista64 recognized it as a x1300 originally... I just went to ati and downloaded the drivers... good to go as x1550

x1550 from newegg

 

[waffleironhead]

Originally posted by: taltamir
um... get a non crappy motherboard?

The dell motherboards are atrocious... replace the mobo and put in a pcie 16x video card and be done with it.

not really a good option....price out a dual xeon mobo that will work in a dell server, then come back with a response.

are those x8pcie slots open in the back? Some servers and other mobos have the back ends open where you can drop in full x16 cards.

 

[cacasodo]

Dajeepster,
Cool! I saw this card, but I am running on Linux and the ATI drivers for Linux are horrible. Thus, I opted for the NVidia-based BFG 8500GT. Good job!

Waffle..
The 8x slots are closed:
http://dcse.dell.com/IFR/Power...images/sysbrd_full.jpg

'sodo

 

[cacasodo]

Guys,
FYI - had success dremeling the end off of SLOT3_PCIE to make room for a 16x card:
http://www.techanswerguy.com/2...ng-up-dell-sc1430.html

Now, no need for 8x-16x adapter! Nice!

 

[JmsAndrsn]

As another alternative, you can cut a notch into a PCI-Express video card so that it will fit into an X4 or X8 slot. You just have to make sure you count the pins very carefully and don't saw away too many. Whether or not it makes sense or not, that would be a personal decision. If it's a cheap video card like an X300 or NVS285 then it's not that big of a risk to try. But if we're talking video cards upwards of $100 then you might not want to try it.

Here's a whole slew of people doing this about 3 years back. If you go towards the end then someone actually indicates how many pins you have to keep and I believe they even provide a picture: http://www.poweredgeforums.com/showthread.php?t=1899

 

[cacasodo]

Also, I just bought a BFG 8800GT:
http://bfgtech.com/bfgr88512gtoc2e.aspx

This also works in the box.

Since November, I've thrown together a few videos on the Dell. One showing a scared Cacasodo dremeling off the end of his PCIe slot, no less! Another shows a chip modification to get a higher front side bus speed (from 1066 to 1333Mhz) out of this baby.

Feel free to check them out:
http://www.techanswerguy.com/2...ng-up-dell-sc1430.html

sodo

 

[baskar]

So far this has been a interesting thread for me.
Bought this lane converter/adapter PEXP16-SX-16/8 for $25+shipping
http://adexelec.com/pciexp.htm#PEXP1-RX1
Thanks to Cacasodo and PingSpike.

All these cards worked using the above adapter.
PNY GeForce 8600GT 512mb, BFG GeForce 6200 OC 256mb
and Diamond Radeon X1650Pro 512mb.

Now my plan is to get either a 8800GT 512mb or HD 3850 256mb (single slot cards).

Cacasodo, I have a question.
How you were able to get BFG 8800GT work in the dremelled PCIe slot.
Spec of this card says it is 9 inches long.

Southbridge? comes in the way, if you installed the card in SLOT3_PCIE
and the 3 SATA ports if SLOT1_PCIE is used.

Did you use the adapter?
If not, then how did you install the card? Please let me know.
Thanks in advance.

 

[cacasodo]

Hi Baskar,
Doing well. Thanks for asking. Hope you are doing well, too.

The BFG 8800GT works nicely in the box. I dremelled SLOT3_PCIE, as shown in the mobo jpg here:
http://dcse.dell.com/IFR/Power...images/sysbrd_full.jpg

I did use the adapter before I dremeled the slot. At the bottom of my blog entry below, the video with a date of 11/11/2007 shows me dremeling the slot:
http://www.techanswerguy.com/2...ng-up-dell-sc1430.html

The southbridge does not get in the way. When I get home from work, I will take a picture of the setup for you. Be aware that the little OC sticker on the 8800's fan may fall off and be sucked into the fan, so remove it soon after you get the card. Helps if the card has been running for a few hours to soften the glue.

I do my video editing using Cinelerra on Fedora 7. Though I have no data yet to confirm this, my feeling right now is that we are somewhat restricted on getting the most out of these cards as any graphics card inserted into the SC1430 will only utilize 4x out of the 16x lanes. However, I am going to run CPU-Z in a WINE session on the box tonight to see what it tells me.

'sodo

 

[baskar]

Thank you much Sodo for the quick response.
In fact I've been following this thread very closely.

That's good to know from you that there is no interference while installing lengthy cards like 8800GT.

I noticed a very significant performance boost when upgraded to PNY 8600GT 512mb from
RAGE XL PCI (that came with SC400) which is expected of course.

Now eager to see the picture of this installed card in the box.

Thanks

 

[cacasodo]

Hi Baskar,
Looks like the pictures I took of the inside of the box with my cell phone cam got corrupted for some reason. Also, CPU-Z did not run properly in Wine.

You win some, you lose some. I will try for the pics again tonight.
'sodo

 

[baskar]

Hi 'sodo

No problem. Thanks for your effort though.
baskar

 

[cacasodo]

Hi Baskar,
I posted the shots of the card as installed in my box on my blog entry about the SC1430:
http://www.techanswerguy.com/2...ng-up-dell-sc1430.html

not the best, but they'll do.

'sodo

 

[baskar]

Thanks 'sodo for your time and effort in taking those pictures of inside of the box.
They serve the purpose well.

baskar.

 

[cacasodo]

no problem.

 

[BubbaJudge]

I've been meaning to thank cacasodo for his postings on turning our 1430s into workstations, they were a really big help to me, and just want to add my info for the record.

I was able to use an old Radeon 7000 PCI card without a hitch, and it gives me dual monitor capability and DVI support for cheap.

I solved my lack of sound by buying a SBLIVE USB external box for $50 and it also works like a charm.

Did the CPU tweak when I first got the 1430, and now I have a fully functioning workstation from a great server.

thanks again

 

[cacasodo]

Glad to be of service, BubbaJudge. Be assured you're all benefitting from my pain.

take 'er easy,
'sodo

 

[Terracode]

I was able to get the new nVIDIA 9600 GT installed and working on my Dell SC1430. It has been running for almost 24 hours now and no glitches. Very fast card. I have details on the install and pics at
http://terracode.com/SC1430_N9600GT/SC1430_9600GT.html

VasR

 

[jorrami]

Hi there,
I just wanted to share that I also:
- Dremel the slot
- Installed Unika nVIDIA 9600 GT on my Dell SC1430
- Installed Sound Blaster Audigy2 Value
All is working correct
just some points:
After booting, after the CMOS information, I have a black screen (nothing on it) for some 1-2 minutes before Windows 2008 Server appears, that only happens after I installed the video card.

Links:
http://www.unika.com.cn/index....oductid=311&cataid=232
(sorry, chinese only)
http://sg.creative.com/product...&product=14189&listby=
(same as displayed but Audigy2 Value, but I have Microphone-In and Digital I/O slots)

If somebody wants to know more details or would like me to run some tests, please contact me.

Regards

jorrami
jlry in hot mail (.) com
(you know how to create the correct email address right?)

--------UPDATE--------
The below information is an email I sent to a friend, you can know more information about my installation.

Hi,
for the Video Card, I put one chinese with nVidia 9600 GT 512mb
I decided to use that specific model because of the size to fit inside the case without any adapter in the case, I bringt the case to the pc shop and tried the card inside after I dremeled (cut) the slot. As you know, the slot inside is only PCIe 8x but the card size is PCIe 16x, therefore the last part of the card connector "hangs" freely in the slot. Also, even the PC slot is 8x, it is only wired as 4x, meaning that it doesnt matter how fast the card is, it will only work at 4x maximum, instead of the 16x possible.

For the sound, it was pretty straight, as I mentioned, I bringt the server to the pc shop and requested some sound cards, I decided to use a soundblaster card that has what I wanted, 5.1 channels, Digital I/O and it was compatible with Vista (windows 2008 x64 server is almost identical to Vista x64).

I think there is a limitation with Windows and memory, windows will take only max 4 GB unless you run a server edition and it should be a server enterprise edition, so, check before installing more memory, I think you dont have this limitation with another OS.

I dont really play games but I installed Crysis to see what about my performance in audio, video, etc, it can run it but still video is not as smooth as it should be because it only runs at 4x remember?

The installation of the Windows 2008 x64 Server was without any problems, I installed it using the DELL Mananagement DVD (you can also download it from DELL) and it will do the preparation with special drivers, partitions, etc, then you have to use the Windows 2008 DVD software, which I also downloaded from MS and it is still as trial but I hope to convert it into original in the next weeks.

Drivers for video and audio were downloaded directly from their respective sites (nvidia and soundblaster)

Only problem is still that every time the server is re-started, it takes 1-2 minutes after the POST Bios information until the harddisk (windows 2008 system) starts, I believe it is related to the disabling of the onboard video. I didnt make any change at all in the BIOS configuration for the onboard video, nvidia card, sound card. Therefore I am interested if someone also have this same problem.

When you talk about quiet video card, I believe that is not a problem because the server makes noise that cancel any video card sound.

Let me know how was your experience!


Regards
jorrami