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PowerEdge SC440 Graphics Card
Okay i'm more than a little confused i have one of these i'm using as a PC.
I want to put at least a 512Mb card into it. Now the instructions say this.
Expansion Cards
The system board can accommodate up to five expansion cards:
• two 5-V, half-length 32-bit, 33-MHz PCI (slots 3 and 5)
• one 2.5-Gb/sec PCIe x1 (slot 1)
• one 2.5-Gb/sec PCIe x4 (slot 4)
• one 2.5-Gb/sec PCIe x8 (slot 2)
See Figure 6-2 for the location of the expansion card slots.
NOTE: The size of the expansion card connectors for the PCI x4 card is PCIx 8, and for the PCI x8 card is PCI x16.
Now i don't get what the PCI-E slots mean can i use them for Graphics card and if so what sort??
I've been looking at this.
Asus
Asus 8400GS Silent 512MB DDR2 DVI VGA Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Product Description
Graphics Engine - NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS
Bus Standard - PCI Express 2.0
Video Memory - DDR2 512MB
Engine Clock- 567 MHz
Memory Clock - 800 MHz ( 400 MHz DDR2 )
RAMDAC - 400MHz
Memory Interface - 64-bit
CRT Max Resolution - 2048 x 1536
DVI Max Resolution - 2560 x 1600
D-Sub Output - Yes x 1
DVI Output - Yes x 1 (DVI-I)
HDCP Support - Yes
But i can't work out if it will go in one of the slots i think it'll go in the x8 one but not sure.
Any help would be great
theflash1932
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March 30th, 2010 09:00
You might have two problems trying to get this to work ...
1) The x16 slot, while x16 in length, is blocked to only accept x8 cards (I'm not sure why is was made x16 length in the first place). It is also only wired at x8, so even if you were able to put an x16 card in, it would only run at x8 speed. As most graphics cards are x16, you would then need to find one that is x8 max (will also accept x4 and x1). There are not many non-x16 video cards out there. Same goes for the x8 slot ... it is x8 in length but wired x4, allowing you the versatility of putting in virtually any size of card, but it only runs at x4. Now, you may be able to cut the notches out that are blocking x16 cards, but that is not a recommendation and is completely up to you if you want to go down that road ... but know that your card will only run at half speed.
2) The other problem is that the onboard video cannot be manually disabled, so unless you find a card that can successfully disable the onboard and take over primary graphics operations, you likely won't get anything but a blank screen. PowerEdge servers are not designed to have graphics cards added to them, so it may be hit or miss on getting a solution to work.
theflash1932
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March 31st, 2010 09:00
That's a good call out ... I wasn't very careful with my word choice. I didn't mean it would actually run at "half-speed", but theoretically, there would be reduced performance, whether that translates to real-world degradation or not.
Dev Mgr
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March 31st, 2010 09:00
You actually only get half the bandwidth between the chipset and the videocard. This is not the same as half the performance. Several SLI implementation (e.g. Dell XPS 630i) uses 2 PCIe 8x slots to allow SLI, and the game sites' benchmarks show some difference, but not all that much. So if you can get the PCIe 16x card to go into the PCIe 8x wired slot, I doubt you'll notice a performance degradation compared to having a full 16x slot.
As for the other part; you might be able to run off of the onboard video, enable dual monitor (using the added card for the 2nd monitor), then swap their priority, and then disable dual monitor again. As the bios probably won't allow you to pick your primary videocard, during POST you may not see anything, but once the OS loads the video driver, you would then start to see something on the monitor attached to the added card.
sandip_mane
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September 7th, 2010 14:00
Hello Friend,
I have Dell PowerEdge SC440 with Nvidia XFX 8600 GT installed along with Creative Sound Blaster Audigy (7.1). NO ISSUES AT ALL.
You can certainly use your 16x Graphic card on Dell Poweredge SC 440 system. It automatically detects Graphic card as a primary display. Cutting the 16x slot is slightly painful but sharp blade can do the trick. I used sharp blade along with a small knief and candle. Detailed instruction are available on some site. Dell BIOS update does restrict it from running at 8X speed. Some utilities show the actual speed as 4X or 1X. But trust me it runs all the games smoothly.
I Feel PROUD to say that I play graphic intensive GAMES on SERVER machine which is ABNORMAL for most people.
Running short of time to give you link. Google it and you will find it within few minutes.
Bye bye and take care.
MacGruber
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December 28th, 2010 17:00
Hi. The 8400 -512 is only 64-bit and not for games. Other choice is ATI Radeon 5450-1Gb (64-bit). Either card can find a PCI-Ex1 version to install two video cards.
Another poster installed a Geforce 7900 GT in a PE2900 III x8 slot - worked no problems - just trimmed 8 lanes off of card.
My PE800 has a Geforce 6200 in one PCI-X slot and a Audigy 2 + FW sound card in the PCI slot.
As long as have enough reserve 12volt amps, why not go for a Geforce 9600 or 9800.