Dell Workstation Owners Club

[sepheronx]

well, if I can overclock it using throttlestop to 4+ghz then its worth the extra $40 CAD for the W3680 then.

 

[Retrorockit]

yes, but how good are those cards for games? I assume pretty lousy, right?

They have no video output at all. They're basically a Floating Point processor. If the CPU is weak on physics, and the "game" or benchmark supports CUDA processing then the increase can be large. This will show up in situations like the start of a race when 30 cars are on a grid and the physics for all of them needs to be done at once, or huge battle scenes or aircraft simulations with many planes. It's very common for FPS to dip during these situations. iRacing, GTA 5, and firestrike all support PhysX. Many scientific, and mathematical programs can use a math co processor more than another CPU. I tend to buy and try just to see what actually happens. I may put one of these in a Dell T3400 LGA775 workstation to see if they can help an old CPU with DDR2 RAM raise it's weak Physics score in the benchmarks that can use it. Any program that's not optimized for it will probably gain nothing.
This is actually what Bitcoin miners should be using in stead of trashing perfecly good video cards.

 

[Retrorockit]

yes, but how good are those cards for games? I assume pretty lousy, right?

In the past when these cards were $6000 it was known that just buying another GPU and assigning it's ccores as CUDA cores would produce the same result. The thing that's changed is now these are $60 surplus. In a workstation environment all the RAM on these including caches is ECC, and the drivers are optimized for data integrity. In a technical environment these could be worth more than a 2nd CPU. As a video card for gaming they're pretty much useless. Except in those cases where the CPU boost can help. The C2050 does have a DVI port.

 

[TechyTed]

Well finally made time to get my T5500 motherboard installed in the T3500 case today. Very easy swap!

One thing I noticed...the T5500 power supply that I bought separately, came with a power harness that is identical to the T3500. Meaning it only has a single 8 pin CPU cable and a single 6 pin PCIe card cable. I think the official T5500 cable has two 8 pin connectors (for CPU 1and CPU 2) and two 6 pin connectors for two graphic cards.

Either the guy who sold me the T5500 power supply gave me the wrong power cable or some T5500s (single CPU config) come with the T3500 power cable as standard. My currenct config is single CPU so, the T3500 cable is fine, but if I upgrade to dual CPUs, will have to get the other power cable and install it.

Evga sr-2 is expensive as hell now, I've seen some with custom loops and dual x5690's at 5ghz which is crazy

They’ve show up on eBay for around $300-350 sometimes, but don’t last very long at that price. Even with a gamble on it working or not. So, I would say the demand on those boards is still pretty high.

 

[Retrorockit]

If you got the 875W PSU w/o the 2x EPS 8 pins you got scrood. Dell may have provided the same PSU in the single CPU T3500/T5500 and only supplied the bigger one in the 2 CPU or 2 GPU machines. You are correct the 875W T5500 PSU I bought has 2x 8 pin EPS and 2x 6 pin PCIe conectors.
But the 875W w/o the right cable is just a 525W setup.

One thing to keep in mind about the EVGA SR2 is that it's humogous and won't fit in a standard ATX full tower case. It also has 2x 8 pin EPS connectors plus 2x 6 pin CPU connectors that i've never heard of. So you might need a special EVGA PSU to run it.
https://www.evga.com/support/manuals/files/270-WS-W555.pdf

 

[TechyTed]

Since I didnt have a real dual CPU T5500 or even a single CPU T5500 around to compare, wasn't sure about the cable. I will see if I can find the actual Dell PN for the correct cable and contact the guy I bought it from and see if I can swap cables. If not, I see there are some on eBay for ~$15 that should work. I really dont need it unless I upgrade to a second CPU and that may be a while. But its nice to have the cable on hand as an option.

 

[Retrorockit]

That 875W PSU may have been used in some XPS or Alienware models also. Or even some older FBDIMM work stations. There may be many cable sets that will fit it. Some good and some bad depending on what you want to connect to it.
I got my Tesla C2050 yesterday. Looks NOS except I can tell it's been put in a PCIe connector before. It's GTX 480 level tech. Does have a DVI out on it.
It seems there are 2 drivers available for it. One as a CUDA workstation card, and another to use it as a PhysX gaming card.
I think I'll put it in a T3400 LGA775 QX9650 I've got sitting around ( TS overclocked of sourse). The single CPU could use the help. I'm guessing the PhysX drivers willl be the ones I want.
I'm open to suggestions as to what this might be good for from the more serious workstation users. Or some math oriented benchmarks to see what it can do.

 

[TechyTed]

FWIW - I saw an R9 285 2gb card on eBay for $60 shipped, so I pulled the trigger. My budget right now is tight. Really wanted to find a GTX 950 or GTX 960 at a decent price, but they’re all just a little more than I can spend.

 

[Retrorockit]

Read Susuehannocks posts, he says he gets Radeons to work in these. There have been some BIOS compatability issues with those cards. I know because I own a couple of them.
I think he joined around page 7 or 8.

 

[TechyTed]

This card claims to work with either UEFI or Legacy BIOS. That was partly why I bought. I have both types of systems and wanted the flexibility of using it in either.

I did read the posts where you mentioned problems getting newer Radeons working. Will let you know how it works in this T5500 mb when the card arrives.

The brand of card is Sapphire if that matters.

 

[Retrorockit]

I have the Saphhire R9-285 ITX 2GB with the dual BIOS switch. GCN2 is when the issue started. Up to the T3400 ( which is the last of the BTX workstations) it won't display the BIOS screens VESA 103 mode. The BIOS either requires F1 to proceed, or refuses to boot at all. Susqeuatch has gotten some very new Radeons to work. RX 580 I think. His fix is a chipset patch. Another I've heard of is to install a compatible PCIe 1x, or PCI GPU to get past POST. I own a pair of those cards and they are a potent combo in Crossfire. I'm afraid my workbench has been taken over by Automotive, and home improvemnet projects that I've been putting off for a long time. 1000 W E bike in the works also. So my computer projects are lagging right now.
BTW the R9 285 2GB performs just about the same as the GTX1050Ti 4GB. It just needs a 100 more Watts to do it.

 

[TechyTed]

I bought the Sapphire R9 285...2GB..non-ITX model. Price was too good to resist...$60.

Afterwards, I saw the seller had the R9 380 2GB for $20 more. The R9 380 4GB model was $70 more.

Hopefully this one will work in the T5500. But if not, I have another system I am certain it will work in.

And I can move the HD7750 that I have in that box to the Dell.

 

[Retrorockit]

I think the 380 is just a BIOS flash of the 285. They're the same hardware. I got the ITX for my dimension E520 overclocking project. With some trimming it will fit in an Optiplex BTX Mini Tower case. I also have Fury Nano cut down to fit those! The BIOS issue really sucks. I hope it works in the T5500.

 

[TechyTed]

The reviews on the ITX versions were quite positive from what I saw. Nvidia did not offer a higher end card with that form factor for a long time and Sapphire was smart to jump in there.

 

[TechyTed]

That 875W PSU may have been used in some XPS or Alienware models also. Or even some older FBDIMM work stations. There may be many cable sets that will fit it. Some good and some bad depending on what you want to connect to it.

Doing a some research on the Dell power supply P/N that I have (J556T) it does match up as one of the models used in the T5500 and other Dells too (Alienware as you indicated). The power harness that came with it is P/N 0R951H...definitely for the T3500, not the T5500. I think the one I really need is Dell P/N 0R166H.

When you’re piecing together a system, it’s one of those “learning curve” things.

 

[Retrorockit]

The reviews on the ITX versions were quite positive from what I saw. Nvidia did not offer a higher end card with that form factor for a long time and Sapphire was smart to jump in there.

Unfortunately the reviews I saw for the R9-285 ITX were for 4GB engineering samples. I've never seen anything but 2 GB ITX in the wild. I put that in my Dimension E520 4GHz QX6800. That's when I discovered the Dell/VESA 103/ BIOS issue. I've seen it confirmed several times since then in other systems.

I think you have a legitimate issue with the seller on that PSU harness. I always look closely at the listing to see what harness is actually included. Using an Alienware harness has it's own risks since the cables may be the wrong length for workstation layouts. Like most things Dell they're made for a specific purpose.

 

[david carey]

Well I think my beloved T3500 is well and truly finished , that is if no one has any good ideas . The PB12 ( 1 and 2 lights ) has morphed into 3 and 4 which think means the memory slots are finished ( as a last resort i had a friend try to repair it, he returned it as not working but i got it working after a couple of adjustments , although it threw up many error messages ,it started and i used it all night ( But showed only 8 gb instead of the 12 gb ) memory . Unless i am mistaken if DIMM 1 fails the basically all the other slots also fail ?

 

[TechyTed]

Could be the slots or could also be the CPU socket. If some of those pins get bent, you can get the symptoms you are describing.

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

Well I think my beloved T3500 is well and truly finished , that is if no one has any good ideas . The PB12 ( 1 and 2 lights ) has morphed into 3 and 4 which think means the memory slots are finished ( as a last resort i had a friend try to repair it, he returned it as not working but i got it working after a couple of adjustments , although it threw up many error messages ,it started and i used it all night ( But showed only 8 gb instead of the 12 gb ) memory . Unless i am mistaken if DIMM 1 fails the basically all the other slots also fail ?

You could always just replace the board...they are back down to about $45 USD on Ebay again. Also...typing this from my T3500 setup that's listed in my signature.

 

[david carey]

This is the thing , the complete T 3500 ( w 3565 and 6 GB ) computer ( from a dealer ) cost the equivalent of $150 including shipping and customs charges ( from the US ) and the dealers profit margin . A replacement motherboard will cost $100 , incl shipping , PLUS customs charges ( and that is a Very variable charge ) .

 

[TechyTed]

Bummer on the high cost of getting a replacement T3500 motherboard. I have a spare at the moment, because I swapped the T5500 MB into my T3500 case.

Got the R166H power cable and put it into the chassis, along with the T5500 power supply. Now I’ve got 800 + Watts. Woohoo!

In other news, the R9 285 did not boot, in three different systems that I tried. So, I am trying to return it to the seller and will probably end up with an Nvidia card instead.

 

[TechyTed]

Update, I got a refund on the DOA R9 285. Bought a used R9 380X, installed it in the T5500.

So far, so good. It booted and is running in Windows 10.

 

[Susquehannock]

So far so good with the set up below. Over the last three weeks have run about every diagnostic and stress test I can think of. These IBM # 49Y1415 were on the comparability list so gave them a shot. $78 shipped for 8x3=24GB of low voltage low latency modules running triple channel. Money saved by going to RDIMM more than paid for the T5500 board.

Still running the Nvidia Quadro 600. Not quite ready to pull that RX 480 out of the other case yet.

- Case: Dell T3500
- Mainboard: T5500 #D883F
- PSU: Dell 525w
- CPU Xeon X5687 (single)
- RAM: 3x8=24GB (RDIMM)
- GPU: Nvidia Quadro 600
- BIOS: A16
- Intel 5520 driver: A06

 

[TechyTed]

View attachment 104545

Here is my T3500/5500 with the R9 380x installed.

It’s a tight fit if you want to keep the RAM fan shroud.

I wanted to keep the original drive tray for now but it would not close properly with the video card in the PCIe x16 slot #1. Then I noticed you could remove part of the drive tray. Look close and you will see its held in by three screws. I removed that flap and clamped the SSD to the remainder with zip ties. Kind of ghetto but adequate for now .

Here is the piece of the drive tray I removed to make room for the video card. If you only have one drive on the tray you really dont need this extra piece. Removing it opens up a lot more room for a longer video card.

If you try to install a video card of any size at all, you will likely have to remove this plastic card retainer thingie. Its held into the chassis with a couple of screws. Easily to remove.

 

[TechyTed]

On another note...seen on eBay: