Dell Workstation Owners Club

[sepheronx]

Welcome to the club!

I would recommend the 1070 for that system. Much better card than the 970's which have had issues and can be problematic for reasons I'll not go into here. But if you've got a Vega 64 coming? Good card. You'll have fun with it. Also keep in mind that with either card, you'll need a PCIe power "Y" splitter cable to connect power to the card. I ended up buying an 1100w PSU with a matching wire harness for my system. Additionally, I bought two 80mm fans to mount in the back of the system to help with airflow. Nothing fancy or high speed needed, a pair of Logisys LT400RD fan's did the trick for me.


What CPU does it have now?

It's got a W3520 or something like that. The W3680 should be here this week.

Reason why I'm thinking of using the GTX 970 is because I can still get about $400 for the 1070 and I'm in need of the cash right now as is.

What will be problem with the 970?

And I'll try to use the standard PSU. But I do have a Seasonic 600w PSU at home as a spare if I need to use that instead.

The Vega is going into my mitx build (4770, 16GB ram, 500gb SSD, 650w PSU) so the Vega won't go into the Dell.

 

[lexluthermiester]

What will be problem with the 970?

The the VRAM issues. In some situations the design of the VRAM for that card can cause performance problems. If the system won't be used for high end gaming then you'll likely never encounter it. It is there though and I tend to shy people away from that card. GTX 770 4GB cards can be had for a reasonable price. Maybe you should sell both the 1070 and the 970 and get a 770. Only suggestions, your mileage may vary.

And I'll try to use the standard PSU. But I do have a Seasonic 600w PSU at home as a spare if I need to use that instead.

The nice thing about the T3500 is that it will take standard ATX PSU's. The only catch is that the mobo needs an EPS 8pin CPU power connector, so you'd have to use a PSU that has one.

 

[sepheronx]

The the VRAM issues. In some situations the design of the VRAM for that card can cause performance problems. If the system won't be used for high end gaming then you'll likely never encounter it. It is there though and I tend to shy people away from that card. GTX 770 4GB cards can be had for a reasonable price. Maybe you should sell both the 1070 and the 970 and get a 770. Only suggestions, your mileage may vary.

The nice thing about the T3500 is that it will take standard ATX PSU's. The only catch is that the mobo needs an EPS 8pin CPU power connector, so you'd have to use a PSU that has one.

I got that 8pin on the other PSU IF I have to use it.

Was thinking, maybe replacing the GTX 970 and the 1070 for a rx 480 8gb then?

 

[Retrorockit]

The Dell PSU are quite a bit different than aftermarket. A single rail aftermarket PSU has all of say 550W available to all the connectors. So you can adapt from 75W 6 pin to 150W 8 pin and it will work until you reach 550W total. The Dell PSUs are multi rail. Each rail has it's own power limit. Typically 18A.x12V.= 216W. Each rail has it's own color code. It depends on what else is on each rail whether you can adapt up or not. If you have 2x6 pin PCIe on one rail that's 150W. You could adapt one to 8 pin and be OK if you didn't run the other. Unless that rail is also powereing something else like SATA . 2x8 pin adapters would be way too much on a Dell but would work on an aftermarket PSU. Some 8 pin GPUs only draw 150W (GTX1070) so you can get away with it that way. A lot depends on what's on each rail, and whats being used,or not, and what GPU power draw actually is.

 

[Susquehannock]

Rx 480 perform about on par with 1060 and would be a downgrade from the 1070. My reason for buying one was price. $159 in Cyber Monday sale in 2016. Watching values skyrocket later on -- wish I bought 10.

In my experience installing an aftermarket PSU in these T3500 requires two things. First, the retaining tabs on case roof for Dell unit to hang from must be bent flat so aftermarket will sit right. Second, EPS header being at extreme opposite corner on the dell board some aftermarket wiring harness may come up short. An 18 or 24 inch EPS extender will take care of that.

If it were me I would use the W3520 Bloomfield (maybe) to get everything installed and updated. Then drop the W3680 in there.

 

[sepheronx]

Rx 480 perform about on par with 1060 and would be a downgrade from the 1070. My reason for buying one was price. $159 in Cyber Monday sale in 2016. Watching values skyrocket later on -- wish I bought 10.

In my experience installing an aftermarket PSU in these T3500 requires two things. First, the retaining tabs on case roof for Dell unit to hang from must be bent flat so aftermarket will sit right. Second, EPS header being at extreme opposite corner on the dell board some aftermarket wiring harness may come up short. An 18 or 24 inch EPS extender will take care of that.

If it were me I would use the W3520 Bloomfield (maybe) to get everything installed and updated. Then drop the W3680 in there.

Way ahead of you on that.

I would use GTX1070 but I can still get good money for it. No point keeping it for a side system for my wife and daughter. Wife doesn't even play games at all and daughter won't enjoy the type of games the card can play in at least another 10 years.

 

[Retrorockit]

I came across this for Spectre, and Meltdown patches for the T5500,T7500. Nothing for the T3500 though.
https://www.dell.com/support/articl...cve-2017-5754-impact-on-dell-products?lang=en

 

[sepheronx]

Question I have is I got a Dell T3500 and It only has a single 6pin PCI-E. So I got a VEGA 56 heading my way. I need not just the adapter to 8 pin, but a splitter.

Would I run into any issues if I used a 6pin to 8pin, then an 8pin splitter so I can use the VEGA 56?

 

[Retrorockit]

The Vega 56 TDP is listed as 210W. so 75W from the MB and 135W from the PCIe cables. One 8 pin is enough.
I loooked at a T3500 525W PSU and there's just too many other things on the same rail as the GPU connector for that to work very well.
My advice would be to get an 875W T5500 PSU with harness which has 2-6pin PCIe cables. Adapt them both to 8 pin and that should be good enough "FOR THAT CARD".
Or to be certain you could take the 2nd CPU cable and adapt that to 8 pin, and the 2-6pin GPU cables to 1- 8 pin and give it an actual 375W total.

 

[sepheronx]

I'll just get the 5500 PSU. But gotta find one that is.

Saw one for $52 cad with free shipping but no harness. Can I use the harness from the T3500 PSU? Then use splitters?

 

[jeanpat]

Blender benchmark:
The quick blender benchmark with GPU yields on my T5500 (GPU: GTX 960 (4Gb); CPU: xeon E5520, 2.27 Ghz; RAM :12 Gb; OS : Ubuntu 16.04):

More precisely, the render time for the different scenes is (second):

• bmw27 : 414 s (1350.67 s cpu only)
• classroom : 1137 s (3980.02 s cpu only)

I am curious of the results you would have. At first sight, the results of my GTX 960 are comparable to a 560 (in fact worst).

 

[Retrorockit]

Saw one for $52 cad with free shipping but no harness. Can I use the harness from the T3500 PSU? Then use splitters?

No you have to have the harness to access the extra rails in that PSU the 875W has 5-18Amp 12V. rails. The 525W has 3. This requires extra wiring. Also the harness in those runs behind the MB to the CPU, so your screwdriver will get a workout.

 

[sepheronx]

No you have to have the harness to access the extra rails in that PSU the 875W has 5-18Amp 12V. rails. The 525W has 3. This requires extra wiring. Also the harness in those runs behind the MB to the CPU, so your screwdriver will get a workout.

Guess won't be using that gpu then. Gonna use something else. Maybe GTX 1070 instead.

Used PSU aren't cheap for it and it defeats purpose of machine if I'm spending too much on it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

No you have to have the harness to access the extra rails in that PSU the 875W has 5-18Amp 12V. rails. The 525W has 3. This requires extra wiring. Also the harness in those runs behind the MB to the CPU, so your screwdriver will get a workout.

A 750w with matching harness will work as well.

 

[Retrorockit]

Guess won't be using that gpu then. Gonna use something else. Maybe GTX 1070 instead.

According to Nvidia the GTX1070 is 150W TDP card, and should work perfectly with an 8 pin adapter on the 6 pin PCIe cable you already have. Nothing will be running out of spec.

 

[Arjai]

Well, just found this thread. I initially found the TS overclock thread and was intrigued by the T3500. I did a "Little" research, decided I would go for the X5670. 6/12 threads. Also, more efficient than the W3xxx's but, not O/C-able. I have 2 of them now, one with an 80mm fan on the heatsink, it's the one with the tubed HS (the first one I got has the Alu fin stack).

I just use them for Crunching on WCG, so I bought a couple of inexpensive GPU's, a Nvidea GT 350 and an AMD R7 240. Interesting factiod, the system w/ the R7 240? Runs 30 W's less than the GT 350! I have them on Linux, one MINT, the other on Kubuntu. The KDE Kubuntu, Plasma, has widgets. I found one that shows my Cpu clocks, in real time!!! So, T3500-2, w/ the R7 and the 80mm fan, is running at 3.13 to 3.16 GHz! That means I am able to get the Turbo working in BIOS. That's for 6 cores. I have not, yet, done a single core run, to test max clock. But, I probably will, at some point, just for giggles.

 

[Arjai]

I just use them for Crunching on WCG, so I bought a couple of inexpensive GPU's, a Nvidea GT 350 and an AMD R7 240. Interesting factiod, the system w/ the R7 240? Runs 30 W's less than the GT 350!

Idiot alert!!! Hide your children!!​

OOps! The GPU is not a GT 350, it is a GeForce GT 710. For some reason, I have had 350 stuck in my head. I just realized I have misquoted this in a number of post's now....

 

[sepheronx]

Would a T7500 PSU work in a T3500? I can get the 1100W PSU for pretty cheap.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Would a T7500 PSU work in a T3500? I can get the 1100W PSU for pretty cheap.

Yes. The PSU's for the T3500/T5500/T7500 are interchangeable. The wiring harness might not be perfect, but it should still be workable.

 

[sepheronx]

I found one that has the harness and all for $50 CAD.

good thing about it, is that I can use said case/PSU for years to come if I decide to just remove the motherboard and put something else in.

 

[Retrorockit]

There are also Alienware ATX harnesses for that PSU.

 

[remixedcat]

Any 4C8T Xeon options for my T3400???

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

You're stuck with core 2 Quads on that machine.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Any 4C8T Xeon options for my T3400???

You're stuck with core 2 Quads on that machine.

I'm afraid he's partly right. You are limited to socket 775 CPU's with that system, none of which have HT. However, you are not limited to the Core2Quad range. There are a few very good Xeon options which are inexpensive. The Xeon X3360, X3363 and X3370 will all work in that system.
Presuming you're in the USA;
X3360;
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=xeon+x3360&_sacat=0&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15&LH_BIN=1
X3363;
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=xeon+x3363&_sacat=0&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15&LH_BIN=1
X3370;
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=xeon+x3370&_sacat=0&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=15&LH_BIN=1

 

[remixedcat]

aww man... oh well, how much better are those?