PowerEdge 6950 - CPU Upgrade Questions, Power Draw & SATA Support

Also one add on question to the power usage.  When running AMD PowerNow! did you see any significant decrease in power usage under vSphere?

Question 2:

All SAS connectors will take SATA drives (the opposite is not true however) - it is part of the SAS spec.  You can even have both on the same backplane, but they cannot be mixed in the same virtual disk (not sure why you would want to either).

Unfortunately, I don't have any direct or indirect experience with your other questions to be able to answer them :)

Anyone else?

The following processor stack is available for the PowerEdge 6950.

Processor        Speed          L2 Cache       Core   Max DDR2 MHz    Power

8220 SE           2.8 GHz       1MB x2             Dual   667                         120W

8220                 2.8 GHz        1MB x2            Dual    667                          95W

8218                 2.6 GHz        1MB x2            Dual    667                          95W

8216                 2.4 GHz        1MB x2            Dual    667                          95W

8214                 2.2 GHz        1MB x2            Dual    667                          95W

8212                 2.0 GHz        1MB x2            Dual    667                          95W

All others are unvalidated in this server.

For actual power ratings as it setup, here is some information gathered from the Data Center Capacity Planner:

System heat/power: 628.3 watts

Flow Rate: 130 CFM

Total Weight: 118.7 lbs

Total current: 3.02 amps

Declared A-Weighted Sound power level: 6.9 bels

C13 Power cords: 2

Air Temp Rise: 15.6 F

Requires 0.1 Tons of Sensible cooling

Hope this helps,

Geoff,

Thanks for the reply.  Can you provide a link to the datacenter capacity planner you used?  the link I have does not contain the 6950 in the list of machines.

Also - on your verification of 8200 series CPU's.  I think that may be old information, as Dell actually sold the 6950 with the 8347, 8347HE and 8350 at least officially.  You can see the info at the following google cache:

webcache.googleusercontent.com/search

I did verify the 8360SE will work in the SC1435 and as it was released at around the same time I hope it will work on the 6950 as well.

Here is the link to the  DCCP: http://dell.to/w3ZSGp  Add a rack, doesn't really matter which one, then add the server and edit the server properties to add all the memory and drives to get your total solution.

The  8347HE and 8350 were dropped in 2007. 8346HE,OMB,1.8,55W,4C,B3  was also available as well.  In the list of validated processors, the 8360SE is not listed.  

Okay I can confirm the 8360 SE's work in the 6950 with upgraded BIOS and BMC.  Boy oh boy does it suck some power.  Over 5 AMPS on 120V.  Looking at swapping them out for Opteron 8376 HE's.  I'll update once I get them and if they work.

Update:

Disappointment today.. I installed the 4 Opteron 8376 HE's (Shanghai) into the 6950 (with most recent BIOS and BMC Firmware already installed) and the system would not post or give any LCD errors.  It just sat there with the fans spinning but nothing on the screen.

I pulled the 8376HE's out of the 6950 and put them in my SC1435 and they all worked flawlessly in the SC1435.  A lot lower power utilization than the processors I was using in the SC1435 too..  They run great.

Question:

I thought the SC1435 and PE6950 were based off the same design/time?  Shouldn't the processors be supported in the PE6950 the same as the SC1435?

I guess if not, I'll just have to use 2 SC1435's as my VMWare lab instead of the PE6950 and sell the 6950.. :(

Thanks for the update.  If 2 or more processors are installed, it will require Non-Uniform Memory Architecture (NUMA) to be enabled.  You will need to make sure Node Interleaving is disabled in the F2 bios to allow this mode to function.  If NUMA is already selected, the 6950 won't run these processors.  That will leave you with the SC1435's to use with these processors.  

One solution for reducing the wattage used is to remove any additional cards on the system. This somehow also reduces the fans rpm and noise.

Hi,

I'm in the same situation I have four SC1435, and I just get two 6950, same socket, same generation,

I bought many 8381 HE, they are working in SC1435 but not in the 6950 ! (blank screen).

I think there is a missing bios update, Dell should do something for us !!, It is said everywhere 6950 is working with 8300 series ..., this is unfair.

Nicolas

I am looking on buying a 6950 to use with four 8389s! I guess it will not work. On dell's site, it states that 6950 supports Opteron 8300 series; 8389 is included in the 8300 series, right? Anyways, what is the fastest quad-core CPU supported in the 6950? Anyone know? THanks

Hi I'm really interested to know if you did manage to get 8376 HE's (Shanghai) HT1 STEP C1 CPU to work on the PE6950.

Why inquiring ?

I just bought a PE6950 running 8218 Dual Core's(4 cpu's) & I want to upgrade to Quad. If I only can go to the Barcelona HT1 Chips Only thats fine,

But if i can go to the shanghai HT1 CPU's that would be better.

On this post I read you got the 8360 HE's to work so I'm planning to get 8356 for lower power usage.(I have the latest 1.4.6 BIOS.)

Could anyone please consolidate with me on this issue

Thank you

Doofoo Please can you help me im interested in ur CPU finding for the dell PE6950

Im in the same delema can we upgrade to shanghai or only Barcelona

thank you

hi

I need you help to understand what is wrong with my system, if server said about 8360 - wrong type of CPU...

my system has the following versions

System Information

Description PowerEdge 6950

BIOS Version 1.4.6

Host Name DELL6950

BMC Information

Name Baseboard Management Controller

IPMI Version 2.0

Number of Possible Active Sessions 5

Number of Current Active Sessions 0

Firmware Version 1.33

LAN Enabled No

waiting for your promps

Anatoly

gaiver@gmail.com