Dell Poweredge t610 into gaming pc

[rusststone1]

I have been given possession of a Dell Poweredge t610 server. I would like to turn it into a gaming PC. At the very least, use it for rendering 3D animation. I looked up the specs and here's the link. https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/server-poweredge-t610-specs-en.pdf

What are my possibilities

 

[Mussels]

those specs dont say if the PSU(s) have any 6/8 pin PCI-E cables, but basically you should be able to slap a GPU in there and away you go.

Servers like that usually have more cores at lower clock speeds, which is not ideal for gaming, but it can be done.

 

[rusststone1]

those specs dont say if the PSU(s) have any 6/8 pin PCI-E cables, but basically you should be able to slap a GPU in there and away you go.

Servers like that usually have more cores at lower clock speeds, which is not ideal for gaming, but it can be done.

Thank you for your response. I will be picking it up tomorrow and will have that info for you. I noticed that it didn't seem to have wifi support. What would I have to do to have that work? Would I be able to replace the CPU's with CPU's more suited for gaming?

 

[ShurikN]

Do you know the exact model of the CPU?

 

[jboydgolfer]

they are normally good to add in a mid to high end GPU, as many often support some form of business class 3D rendering GPU, cabling on the other hand might not be so easy, as Dell is really cute with theyre specifications not being all too specific

Dell R710 T610 870 Watt Power Supply

Dell R710 T610 570 Watt Power Supply

 

[rusststone1]

Do you know the exact model of the CPU?

No. I will get it tomorrow and post that for you. Anything else should I provide to help?

 

[lexluthermiester]

With the limitation of 8x PCIE slots on that motherboard, your GPU choices are likewise going to be limited. Getting a GTX 660 or 670 or an RX 460 or 470 are going to give you the best bang for your money. Anything better is going to be bottlenecked by the motherboard. As for a CPU, if it's already got an X5660, X5670 or X5675, you're going to be good. If anything slower, an X5680 would be a good upgrade and worth the $70ish you'll spend. As far as ram goes, if you have 9GB or more you'll be good. But if you've only got 6GB, you'll want to get upto 9GB or 12GB. Remember that you have triple channel ram access and you'll want to stay in multiples of 3 to get the most out that system.

But for free, you've got a great system for some gaming! And it's got some headroom for upgrades.

EDIT; a PCIE USB 3.0 card would be a good and inexpensive upgrade. If you're interested, I can give you links to products that I use in my clients systems.

 

[Mussels]

To answer your questions:

1. USB wifi will work fine, if you cant add an internal one for some reason
2. You may be able to get better CPUs for gaming, but even the best gaming CPU for the server platform will likely be average, compared to a mainstream i5 CPU


To make it clear, yes you can turn a server into a gaming PC... but its not going to be as good as a traditional gaming PC.

With the limitation of 8x PCIE slots on that motherboard, your GPU choices are likewise going to be limited. Getting a GTX 660 or 670 or an RX 460 or 470 are going to give you the best bang for your money. Anything better is going to be bottlenecked by the motherboard.

A GTX 1080 has on average a 5% performance loss at 8x 2.0, that wont be an issue

 

[ShurikN]

No. I will get it tomorrow and post that for you. Anything else should I provide to help?

Asking because the CPU might actually be crap for gaming if you get the low frequency ones

 

[lexluthermiester]

A GTX 1080 has on average a 5% performance loss at 8x 2.0, that wont be an issue

Just that little? I tested my GTX 770 in an 8x slot and it lost about 12%. I wonder what the difference might be..
EDIT; Read through that. Very interesting. Gonna have to do some more testing..

 

[rusststone1]

With the limitation of 8x PCIE slots on that motherboard, your GPU choices are likewise going to be limited. Getting a GTX 660 or 670 or an RX 460 or 470 are going to give you the best bang for your money. Anything better is going to be bottlenecked by the motherboard. As for a CPU, if it's already got an X5660, X5670 or X5675, you're going to be good. If anything slower, an X5680 would be a good upgrade and worth the $70ish you'll spend. As far as ram goes, if you have 9GB or more you'll be good. But if you've only got 6GB, you'll want to get upto 9GB or 12GB. Remember that you have triple channel ram access and you'll want to stay in multiples of 3 to get the most out that system.

But for free, you've got a great system for some gaming! And it's got some headroom for upgrades.

EDIT; a PCIE USB 3.0 card would be a good and inexpensive upgrade. If you're interested, I can give you links to products that I use in my clients systems.

Yes I would be very interested. Thank You!

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yes I would be very interested. Thank You!

PCIE USB 3.0 card
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZWC7TL
Xeon X5680
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00EMZSXCG
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SLBV5-Inte...ix-Core-AT80614005124AA-Processor/19241360698
GTX 670
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-GTX670-2GB-PCIe-x16-Video-Card-HDMI-GDDR5-VCGGTX670XPB/292422632301

These are of course just suggestions.

 

[Mussels]

all those parts get my tick of approval as well, although if his budget supports it a more powerful GPU would of course be a good idea

 

[lexluthermiester]

all those parts get my tick of approval as well, although if his budget supports it a more powerful GPU would of course be a good idea

Good point. A GTX 770 4GB would be a great card for this system. But with prices so out of control right now, getting one for less than $200 is going to be dicey.

 

[rusststone1]

So here are some pics. It has one power supply of 570w. Don't see a place for gpu.

 

[Mussels]

GPU would need to go into the x4 slot, you may need to modify the plastic at the back of the slot for that to work

 

[lexluthermiester]

@rusststone1 So what CPU did you get with it?

 

[rusststone1]

@rusststone1 So what CPU did you get with it?

This crappy one.

On servermonkey I found some good priced refurbished ones. Xeon 3.0 for about $35.

 

[lexluthermiester]

This crappy one. View attachment 96436

On servermonkey I found some good priced refurbished ones. Xeon 3.0 for about $35.

That is literally the slowest 1366 CPU they made. Ebay is better, if you're in North America.
You can get a much better 6 core for about the same price.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SLBV3-Inte...104382&hash=item2f144360d5:g:4hkAAOSwqaJaXlUt
Get two of them and you're good to go.

 

[rusststone1]

I'm looking at one of these http://www.servermonkey.com/processors/intel/intel-5600-series.html

 

[lexluthermiester]

I'm looking at one of these http://www.servermonkey.com/processors/intel/intel-5600-series.html

Are you happy with a single CPU or were you planning to go dual?
Either way, as long as shipping is reasonable, one or two of those quads are a good deal.
http://www.servermonkey.com/2-93-ghz-quad-core-intel-xeon-x5647-quad-core-12-mb-cache.html
The six core CPU's are the best bet to make the system go the distance for you. And they're a reasonable price, if you can or want to afford them.
http://www.servermonkey.com/2-66-ghz-hex-core-intel-xeon-processor-with-12mb-cache-x5650.html
But really, anything would be better than that dual-core..

EDIT; Just looked at those PCIE slots and none of them seem like they have the end open for mounting a normal sized GPU in them. Can you confirm? Might limit your GPU selection.

 

[rusststone1]

Are you happy with a single CPU or were you planning to go dual?
Either way, as long as shipping is reasonable, one or two of those quads are a good deal.
http://www.servermonkey.com/2-93-ghz-quad-core-intel-xeon-x5647-quad-core-12-mb-cache.html
The six core CPU's are the best bet to make the system go the distance for you. And they're a reasonable price, if you can or want to afford them.
http://www.servermonkey.com/2-66-ghz-hex-core-intel-xeon-processor-with-12mb-cache-x5650.html
But really, anything would be better than that dual-core..

EDIT; Just looked at those PCIE slots and none of them seem like they have the end open for mounting a normal sized GPU in them. Can you confirm? Might limit your GPU selection.

Looking at going with 2 of six core. Kinda a noob at this so what am I looking for specifically when looking at the slots? It does look like its going to be a tight fit for the GPU itself, but from eyeballing the slots with some of the pics I've seen online of GTX660 it looks like it fits. I'm at work right now, will upload a better pic of the slots when I get home this afternoon. About 5pm Eastcoast time.

 

[Mussels]

the problem is that the connector on the GPU will hit the solid plastic end of the PCI-E slots

The very ghetto solution is to EXTREMELY CAREFULLY cut out the plastic at the end of the slot, so a GPU will fit in - i have done this before and had it work (its the same as how W1zzard has tested GPU's here at TPU with 1x/4x/8x bandwidth, by taping over the connectors on the GPU)

However even if the slot mod works, you still need to make sure the rest of the card doesnt physically contact anything, and that you meet the power requirements (6 pin/8 pin PCI-E power cables)

 

[rusststone1]

the problem is that the connector on the GPU will hit the solid plastic end of the PCI-E slots

The very ghetto solution is to EXTREMELY CAREFULLY cut out the plastic at the end of the slot, so a GPU will fit in - i have done this before and had it work (its the same as how W1zzard has tested GPU's here at TPU with 1x/4x/8x bandwidth, by taping over the connectors on the GPU)

However even if the slot mod works, you still need to make sure the rest of the card doesnt physically contact anything, and that you meet the power requirements (6 pin/8 pin PCI-E power cables)

I have one 570w power supply. A compartment for another one. Should I get it, or does it even work that way? Should I get a bigger power supply? What would you suggest? I plan on having only one 2TB hdd, and two six core CPUs in addition to the GPU if I can make the proper modifications.

I may be getting ahead of myself here anyways. This is a server from work they had to replace because some port went bad on it. It was about 2 years ago so I am a bit fuzzie on the reason. I think it was an ethernet port. It does not have a power cord or hdd, so waiting on both of those to come in. So I haven't even been able to power it up to see whats going on. Worst case scenario, what if it has a bad motherboard. Do they make mother boards for this still? What should I consider getting. Money is a bit of a factor, but willing to spend what's necessary to get it going right.

 

[phill]

Have something similar myself, but just using it as a back up data storage and a cancer cruncher as I'm swapping out the quads for some base X5650 CPUs, not the most efficient or fastest I suppose, but it serves the purpose

With regards to the PCIe socket, what about using a riser card? Saves having to damage it then, might that be an option?