Latest info. on POWEREDGE T110 II Graphics Card That Works

I can offer a bit of an info dump from my own observations.

I rolled back to the earliest motherboard bios version(2.0.5) that supports the E3 1220 that's mounted in it.

These cards worked:

XFX HD 5450 512MB DDR3 (HD-545X-YRH2 V2.1)

Dell Quadro 2000

BFG GTX 260 (BFGRGTX260896OCB)

8800 GTX

These did not work:

NVS 300

Zotac mini GTX 1070

Club 3D R9 280x

Palit GTX 1060 6GB

Given the lack of pattern in what works, and what doesn't, I suspect it's an IRQ conflict with one of the built-in motherboard features. Though I've tried mixing around the IRQ assignments in the BIOS, but have had no success.

It doesn't appear to be a power issue.

I upgraded to the latest bios; made no difference to the behaviour of any card.

It might be a whitelist imposed by the bios.

More information that brings some new avenues of attack:

I upgraded to the latest bios; maked no difference. I've used a Dremel to cut down one of my NVS 300's to just an x1 slot.

This alone wasn't enough to get it working....HOWEVER!

If I install my 5450 into the x16/x8 slot, and then put my NVS 300 into *any* other slot, the machine posts and both GPUs work.

My next idea is to Dremel the 5450 down to x1, put it into the x1 slot, and see if it'll then allow the machine to post with an otherwise incompatible GPU(e.g. 1060) in the x16/x8 slot.

If this doesn't work, the next approach will be to return the 5450 to the x16/x8 slot, and connect the 1060 to the x8/x8 slot by way of a riser cable 

Ok, looks like I've solved the problem that's been plaguing PowerEdge owners for years!

You can run *any* GPU on the Dell PowerEdge T110 ii !

- power requirements don't matter (assuming the card has PCIe aux power connectors)
- PCIe spec doesn't matter

1) Find yourself a cheap, small, low power, 'compatible' GPU. I'd suggest an 512MB HD 5450, though be careful as my research indicates that not all work.
2) Using a Dremel, cut the 'compatible' card's PCIe pins down so it'll fit into the x8/x4, or x1/x1 slot. There are videos on YouTube, showing how to do this. If you don't feel confident DIY'ing your card, you could use a riser cable.
3) Install the 'compatible' card into the aforementioned slot.
4) Install your primary 'incompatible' card into the machine's x16/x8 slot.

Boom!
The machine posts, and both cards work!
Using this technique, I've successfully got a GTX 1070 working;
It's both stable, and within performance expectations (PCIe 2.0 x8 bandwidth doesn't seem to be significantly hurting the 1070's performance)

From all this research & experimentation, I'm almost convinced the problem is caused by a whitelist in Dell's bios.

AbU5e,

I have successfully installed nVidia P2000 in x16 slot using your method. Now this server is ready to become an awesome Plex server.

Many Thanks to you sharing the knowledge with the community.

Server = PowerEdge T110 II  -  Memory 32gb 

CPU E3-1275 V2 (Replaced stock CPU E3-1240 v2) QuickSync is a must for any Plex Server

Video-1 = nVidia P2000 5gb DDR5 4x Display Ports in x16 PCIe Slot

Video-2= 5450 512MB DDR3 in x1 PCIe Slot

Ubuntu OS = SSD

After purchasing two separate 5450, one from the link above and one from Dell, I still cannot get my system to post using BIOS 2.10.0. Anyone have any other suggestions or should I just trash this thing?

@jsrobo  Quick question for you, did you try both the motherboard port and the video card port  after installing the 5450?  How much video power are you looking to use, what are your goals with adding my video power to a server?  I added a Radeon 3450 to my T110 II because Ubuntu did not add the right driver for the onboard graphics chipset.

Just trying to get a little more video power for trans-coding plex. I did try both vga ports. Its the same behavior that everyone online describes. Will not post and the drive indicators light to indicate a hardware issue.