Poweredge 2850 unable to install a PCI-E graphic card

If you need a 2U system with support for a videocard, check out the Precision Workstation R5400. It has 2 PCIe 16x slots and is offered with videocards as an option. It supports dual Xeon 5400-series processors, so it would also be a nice upgrade in processing power (from the 2850).

Hello,

Do you mean that even if it has 2 PCI-E slot, the poweredge 2850 don't accept PCI-E graphic card ??? (My graphic card is a PCI-E 1X nvidia 8400 and I have 2 PCI-E slot on my poweredge : 1 PCI-E 4X and 1 PCI-E 8X, it should be compatible !)

Thanks !

You can try some PCIe 1x videocards (I've never seen any PCIe 8x cards), but the servers' bios wasn't designed to accommodate a videocard. It seems the system requirements (memory address ranges and other internal resources) aren't available for the videocard to take.

This is why maybe a different card from a different manufacturer might work, but there's no list with supported videocards, just supported raid controllers, fibre channel HBAs, and NICs, as those are cards you typically find in a server.

I would also like to upgrade my graphics card for my dell poweredge 2850 server form the current - "Embedded ATI Radeon 7000-M with 16MB SDRAM" to a more modern graphics card, preferably from the same vendor "ati".

What should I be looking for in that new graphics so that it will work well with the dell server?

My goal is to have a dell 30 inch monitor "DELL ULTRASHARP 3008WFP" work with my dell server. Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

A graphics card is not an option.  Most Dell servers will not accept an add-in graphics card as the BIOS is not setup to disable the onboard graphics - either automatically on detecting an add-in card or manually through the BIOS.  Your best option would be a workstation, as recommended previously.

While I see your point - it would be nice - but I would rather have the Dell servers as they are than to sacrifice price/reliability/upgradeability/features for something that isn't necessary for 98% of server use.  Their workstations were designed with those types of use in mind - practically a server with Desktop compatibility.

DELL cannot include some simple micro-code to disable onboard graphics?  At times, I really wonder why we support DELL :emotion-42:

I have a PowerEdge T310 that I bought a little less than a year ago to use as a workstation, but only recently have I had time to set it up as one. As you know, the most critical part about the transformation is a better graphics card, so, I just went to BestBuy and bought a PNY PCIe graphics card with an Nvidia GeForce GT 545 chipset and 1536MB DDR3 memory for a grand total of $160.49. At first I was looking at that nice black screen as well, but I found a setting in the BIOS setup in the Device setup menu that allowed me to disable the onboard video. As soon as I saved and exited from the BIOS setup, the monitor pluged into the new graphics card lit up.

To confirm, for the people willing to live on the edge(no pun intended), my PowerEdge T310 is working perfectly with the PNY GeForce GT545 PCIe card.

More Detail:

-My T310's topmost PCIe slot is being used by the stock raid controller, and the PCIe slot right below it is where the PNY card is.

-For audio I'm using a 24bit Creative Labs USB sound module

-It runs Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit (it's for my father.)

There are a number of posts on the 'server forums' attempting the very same thing. These posts contain detailed information you may find useful, just search for 'video' via top right search option on the server forum page and a few will pop up :emotion-5: This one may be of interest but there are others you should also read :emotion-10:

Anyway, according to the PE2850 System Users Guide, System Setup, Integrated Devices BIOS Screen you do not have an option to disable the integrated on-board video controller. Unfortunately this means that your on the back foot and it will be a very hit and miss affair trying to get a specific PCIe card to work in your system :emotion-9:

In any case, if you knew a specific card (ATI5670?) would perhaps function if inserted into your system, the PE2850 does not have a raiser card that supports x16 PCIe slots. You will have to either modify the raiser cards x8 PCIe slot so it is open ended or modify the graphics card so it becomes an x8 PCIe graphics card. In either case you have to resolve power and heat issues to your satisfaction so the new card will operate without killing your machine down the track :emotion-18:

In my case, i have a T610 where i can disable on-board video in bios so i started on the front foot so to say. I also had a cheap  32W low power Geforce 7600 GS that is a few generations old but it can feed my Dell U2711 at its native resolution, something the on-boards graphics couldn't do. Unfortunately the T610 does not have a x16 PCIe slot but i modified my cheap graphics card so that it will fit into a x8 PCIe slot rather than modify an expensive motherboard. After more research, i was satisfies that the card was close enough to the power and heat envelope allowed that i would not kill my machine. It now works a treat with my monitor and can play many games bar the most modern ones which are outside its capabilities. The main reason though was to utilize my monitor at its native resolution and as a learning exercise, not to play games :emotion-5:

As yet i haven't resolved all PCIe/PEG power and heat issues so as to modify and install a new modern GTX580 in my T610 :emotion-43:

'Manana' :emotion-2:

And the T710? Does any one now if possible to disable on-board video in bios? Thanks 

Hi pscouto,

Yes, you can disable the onboard video controller in the T710.

To do so, press F2 at the Dell Splash Screen on startup, go to Integrated Devices using the cursor keys and press Enter. You should see a box appear in the middle of the screen - using the cursor keys again, highlight Embedded Video Controller and press Space to change the setting to Disabled. Press Escape twice and then select Save and Exit.

We don't sell video cards for servers so we can't confirm whether or not a video card will work in the server, however this link suggests that it can be done for the T710: social.technet.microsoft.com/.../91b293df-f558-406a-928f-3de5245c04f5

Hope that helps!

I just successfully installed an eVGA 1024MB DDR3 into a PowerEdge T710. By disabling Embedded Video like John C said, it switched to the Nvidia. So...it is possible.