Poweredge 1600SC Video Card Upgrade

Hi,

Third party video cards are not tested or validated on any PowerEdge Servers. Unfortunately, not all cards will function in our servers.

FYI, the onboard video automatically disables itself when a PCI video card is inserted in the system.

Thanks for the info mark. Is there any particular card you would recommend ?

Kevin

Hi,

I cant officially recommend anything we have not validated. But I can point you to another thread with some good information:

Mark, can you provide us links to threads where people may have successfully purchased alternative Video cards for the 1600SC systems?  (even though Dell cannot validate the success rate...)

I have a Visiontek GF4 MX420 in my 1600SC and it works fine.  Also have a PERC3/sc, SB16, and Intel 10/100 Dual Server NIC.  I am running Advanced Server 2000 w/SP3 and it all seems to behave nicely.  I guess I got lucky, but I do plan to test a SB Live and ATI 7500 later this week if I get time.

I have a 1600sc as well and I'm running a Raden All-in-Wonder VE (7500 PCI AIW).. On Win2k Adv. Serv.     The only problem that I had was with drivers, if you try to install the way ATI wants you to it just locks up but if you manually install them (tell it where the drivers are at) it seems to work fine, I have not had a chance to see if all of the card works right but it does play games just fine, maybe next week I will test to see if the other parts of the card work with the drivers installed this way.

I plan on making this a game server, file server, web hosting, and media center. It will be hooked to my t.v. all the time and I will remote connect to it.

I would be very interested to see if the tv tuner portion of the card works correctly (ie: capture/recording programs).  I have recently purchased a 600SC and I'm thinking of getting an All-in-Wonder 7500 for it, but I haven't seen anyone to confirm if the tv tuner portion works correctly.  I look forward to seeing how it works out for you!

Thanks

This is driving me crazy....Hoping that the newer bios will give me the option to disable the on-board video

MARK!!!! installing the pci card doesn't disable the on-board video, They need to put out a bios that fixes this problem!!!!   It only keeps the on-board video from fireing up but windows still plugs the thing, And Almost ALL ATI cards throw a fit over it!!! I was hoping to add a ATI All In Wonder to this system so when it wasn't running a server (like what I bought it for) It could also do something else... Hate to see a computer goto waste, But if I can't get this to install right this thing will goto waste I only need a server of this power 1 day every month the rest of the time it will just sit there unless I get this video card installed...

I'm freinds with one of the people that work at ATI in the driver deptment And will see if he can find anything for a work around for this but I wouldn't think so.

I'm a computer store manager and fix computer probelms everyday...This is not new to me..

I also think that they should create a bios for the 1600sc that disables the onboard video, Since we all know that adding a video card does not disable the onbard video, And that it is causeing lots of other problems that could be fixed by disabling the on-board video.

Yes this is supose to be a server, and most servers DON'T need good video to what they do, BUT I bought my server to run game servers at large gaming partys, When I told people the problems that I am having becuase I can't disable the on-baord video they where shocked that Dell had not releaced a bio's that would fix the problem. I have over 200 users on this computer at one time at the Gaming partys playing games that it hosts.

The problem with using the on-board video in my case is the fact that there are a lot of games out there that you have to be able to start the game to run a dedicated server....I never play the games on the server, just use it to HOST the games. I have since replaced the ATI 7500 AIW card with a Geforce 4 440, I'm not able to use the system for everything that I wanted when I bought it and now I'm building a second system to run the ATI AIW card.

Now I have a Gaming computer, A game server, And a multimeda server. Would have been nice to be able to use the DELL as the multi media server, But instead I have to spend $800 more to get what I need!! And have an extra computer that I don't use (The Dell only gets used once every 60-90 days now for 2-4 days then sits in my garage the rest of time)

P.S. for thous of you that are trying to install The ATI 7500 AIW, I have talked with one of the guys that right the drivers for ATI and he told me that there is a service running In Windows 2003 that cuases the drivers to not install, I don't have the card anymore so I can't test this nor do I remember what service is causeing the problems, If you call ATI tech support (good luck getting ahold of any body there) They maybe able to tell you what service you need to disable to get the card to install, This may or maynot fix the problem that that card is having with the dell servers??

I concur with the posters above.  How hard is it for Dell to include a "disable on-board Video" option in the BIOS?  This would be a tremendous help to me, who needs basic 3d functions for the video editing/titling work I've got my computer doing.

I've got a PNY GF4 440SE 64mb PCI card.  It works *sometimes*, other times the built-in weaksauce ATI card takes over, other times video doesn't show on either one.  From reading these forums, that seems pretty routine.

Bottom line after browing these forum pages - it appears that no 3rd party graphic cards are officially supported by the PowerEdge servers...this officially stinks.

I have wasted hours trying to get my PNY GeForce FX 5200 installed/working properly with no luck at all.  (Random BSOD's)

At this point, I'm ready to toss the complete system, let alone the graphics card. 

1600SC, 533 FSB, Dual 2.8 Xeon's, Win2k Server - seems like a fairly solid system but I've had nothing but trouble with it trying to use add-on's - USB keyboard support stinks and now I'm finding no support for graphic cards beyond the puny onboard video. 

There needs to be a list of user-tested boards kept somewhere by Dell, perhaps not 'officially tested' but at least 'user reported tested'.  I'll buy another video board and burn the money spent on this one if I know the next board I won't have to waste hours trying to get it installed properly. 

What's the best video board that works for this system for under $200?

Dell should put a warning on their sales pages that their servers don't support 'advanced' features like adding a video card or using such 'high-tech' devices like USB keyboards.