Dell Poweredge t610 into gaming pc

[rusststone1]

Really good idea about riser card! Thanks

 

[lexluthermiester]

I have one 570w power supply. A compartment for another one.

If you're planning on going dual CPU and get a video card that requires it's own power connector, yes get the second power supply. Remember that they need to match, in wattage.

 

[rusststone1]

These are the PCI up close.

 

[lexluthermiester]

These are the PCI up close.

I'm betting that you'll be able to gently snap the middle section out of the end on the second one from the right with a pair of needle-nose pliers and put in a GPU. Be very careful though.

 

[phill]

Really good idea about riser card! Thanks

Most welcome Sometimes I have good ideas lol

 

[Mussels]

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.

you cant just slap in a regular PSU to them, so it matters what cables the PSU has - you'll need to check that yourself and get back to us

 

[rusststone1]

I'm betting that you'll be able to gently snap the middle section out of the end on second one from the right with a pair of needle-nose pliers and put in a GPU. Be very careful though.

What about a riser? That should help some maybe.

 

[lexluthermiester]

What about a riser? That should help some maybe.

A riser extender, while normally a good idea, has the same problem in that the PCIE connector for the extender is going to need to fit into a 16x physical slot or an 8x with the end open unless you can find one with an 8x connector on the end. And even if you can, where will the card fit in that chassis? It'll take great care, but the end of one of those 8x slots needs to be opened up.
I've taken the pic you uploaded and marked in red the weak points in the plastic where you want to use a razor and very gently cut down about 1mm. You only need to weaken the top for the rest to break away clean. Then with needle-nose pliers grip the spots in yellow and bend, not pull, down in the direction of the orange arrow. That is what I've done to open up 8x slots for video card use. The key is to be patient, take your time and be very careful.

EDIT; There is this; https://www.amazon.com/Water-Express-Riser-Flexible-Extension/dp/B00P26HFVO
But you'll still need to figure out where to put the card and how to route cables.

I personally would still break the plastic out. But again, only suggestions here.

 

[rusststone1]

I see what ur saying. I think after seeing the pic it would be best to do the surgey. Thanks for the help

 

[lexluthermiester]

I see what ur saying. I think after seeing the pic it would be best to do the surgey. Thanks for the help

YW, no worries. Good luck and show us how it works out.

 

[rusststone1]

Just want you all to know that I haven't forgotten to let you all know how it's going. It's going slow. Time and money really. Plus dumb mistakes not paying attention to the small details like ordering the wrong cpus and having to return them.

Main thing I am running into is power. I got a second 570w power supply but when I installed it , the computer wont work with it. I uninstall it and server works fine again. Second, I have no idea how to get power to a video card. The PCi slots only produce 25w but the suggested video cards need at least 120. The power supplies for the server don't have sockets I can plug a sata into or any sockets for that matter.

 

[newtekie1]

Then with needle-nose pliers grip the spots in yellow and bend, not pull, down in the direction of the orange arrow. That is what I've done to open up 8x slots for video card use. The key is to be patient, take your time and be very careful.

I've had better luck in the past doing this with a straight razor blade and just cutting the back out.

Of course, there is always the option of just cutting the PCI-E connector on the graphics card itself too...

 

[lexluthermiester]

I've had better luck in the past doing this with a straight razor blade and just cutting the back out.

That requires a lot of force to be used and if you slip, down into the mobo it goes. The method described above has never failed. Have only done it half a dozen times but still.

Of course, there is always the option of just cutting the PCI-E connector on the graphics card itself too...

Oh good grief, I definitely would never do that... Keeping it simple is always best. The little piece of plastic on the end of the slot is the problem, removing it is the best option.

 

[phill]

I'd grab a PCIe riser... I'm sure that would be the easiest and safest option....

 

[newtekie1]

That requires a lot of force to be used and if you slip, down into the mobo it goes. The method described above has never failed. Have only done it half a dozen times but still.

Not really. If you use the right kind of razor blade and go slow it is controllable and won't slip. If you use one of these it is extremely easy cut out the back of the slot without much effort. It helps if you heat the blade too.

Oh good grief, I definitely would never do that... Keeping it simple is always best. The little piece of plastic on the end of the slot is the problem, removing it is the best option.

I have in the past, it depends on what you care more about, the motherboard or the graphics card. It's pretty simple, about a minute with a dremel and your done.

 

[lexluthermiester]

It helps if you heat the blade too.

Like with a blow-torch. That would make it much easier going all the way through.

I have in the past, it depends on what you care more about, the motherboard or the graphics card. It's pretty simple, about a minute with a dremel and your done.

Just cringed looking at that picture. On a cheap card, ok. On a nice card? Hell no.

 

[rusststone1]

Like with a blow-torch. That would make it much easier going all the way through.

Just cringed looking at that picture. On a cheap card, ok. On a nice card? Hell no.

How did you get power to the card. The t610 pci only have 25w.

 

[lexluthermiester]

How did you get power to the card. The t610 pci only have 25w.

Additional power is supplied through PCIe power cable connectors.

 

[rusststone1]

Additional power is supplied through PCIe power cable connectors.

Where does the power come from. There are no sockets on the power supply

 

[Assimilator]

Where does the power come from. There are no sockets on the power supply

Yeah, because these servers aren't designed for discrete graphics cards. You definitely aren't going to be able to install one that uses additional power connectors in there, because (according to my research) the T610's PSU backplane provides a grand total of 1 (one) SATA power connector and 1 (one) Molex power connector. That's it.

That means you cannot use a Molex-to-PCIe power adapter, because those take 2 Molex connectors and convert them to a single 6-pin PCIe connector. Yes, you can find such adapters that take a single Molex, but those are fire hazards waiting to happen. Yes, you could get a SATA-to-Molex adapter and then plug a Molex-to-PCIe into that contraption, but that's also a fire risk.

At best you could probably get away with a discrete GPU that uses only the PCIe bus for power, e.g. GTX 1050 - but you have stated that the PCIe slots provide only 25W instead of the 75W that the PCIe spec requires (interested to know where you got that figure), so that's not going to work either.

My advice: stop trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.

 

[rusststone1]

Yeah, because these servers aren't designed for discrete graphics cards. You definitely aren't going to be able to install one that uses additional power connectors in there, because (according to my research) the T610's PSU backplane provides a grand total of 1 (one) SATA power connector and 1 (one) Molex power connector. That's it.

That means you cannot use a Molex-to-PCIe power adapter, because those take 2 Molex connectors and convert them to a single 6-pin PCIe connector. Yes, you can find such adapters that take a single Molex, but those are fire hazards waiting to happen. Yes, you could get a SATA-to-Molex adapter and then plug a Molex-to-PCIe into that contraption, but that's also a fire risk.

At best you could probably get away with a discrete GPU that uses only the PCIe bus for power, e.g. GTX 1050 - but you have stated that the PCIe slots provide only 25W instead of the 75W that the PCIe spec requires (interested to know where you got that figure), so that's not going to work either.

My advice: stop trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.

Dell technical guide for thr t610

 

[lexluthermiester]

(interested to know where you got that figure)

Dell technical guide for thr t610

@Assimilator This ^ and also; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
In the area talking about power it clearly states that 4x PCIe slots are limited to 25w. This is a known spec. However, adding or replacing the factory power supply with a more conventional one is not outside the realm of possibility.

My advice: stop trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.

He's asking for help getting it working to it's maximum, not for advice on whether he should. Let's be helpful.

 

[rusststone1]

This ^ and also; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
In the area talking about power it clearly states that 4x PCIe slots are limited to 25w. This is a known spec. However, adding or replacing the factory power supply with a more conventional one is not outside the realm of possibility.

He's asking for help getting it working to it's maximum, not for advice on whether he should. Let's be helpful.

Can someone translate this for me. I have a iomega rev 35gb drive and the power requirements for it are --- 5.0 +/- 0.25 V D.C., up to 1.2 amps continuous current-- . That does not seem like much power. I was hoping to use the sata from it for a gpu

 

[Assimilator]

@Assimilator This ^ and also; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express
In the area talking about power it clearly states that 4x PCIe slots are limited to 25w. This is a known spec.

Incorrect. A PCIe slot provides up to 25W for "ordinary" cards and up to 75W for "high power" cards, like GPUs, that request it.

However, adding or replacing the factory power supply with a more conventional one is not outside the realm of possibility.

Actually it is, because the motherboard of this server has Dell proprietary power connectors. Good f'n luck finding a pinout for those... and even if you did, you'd have to do the mother of all hack jobs to convert from standard ATX PSU connectors to those. In fact I'd be completely unsurprised if some of those pins use non-ATX voltages.

He's asking for help getting it working to it's maximum, not for advice on whether he should. Let's be helpful.

Maxing out CPU and RAM is as far as this server is gonna go without a serious time/money/effort/blood/sweat/tears investment. Advising him not to save time and money by not making that investment, sounds pretty helpful to me. Or did the word get redefined while I wasn't looking?

 

[Mussels]

are external GPU cages compatible with PCI-E x4 slots?

not something i've dealt with yet