R610 and cheap video card

Unfortunately the build in Matrox video card that ships with these can only do resolutions up to 1280 and is pretty terrible to use for a basic PC

Yep. It's a server, not a PC. It was never intended to be used as a PC.

You could cut out the back edge of the x1 slot, but your card will still negotiate only x1 throughput, as will a converter, so you are probably better off just getting an x1 card to begin with (or x8, but there aren't many of those around). Just remember that servers are not designed to upgrade non-server-essential parts like graphics, so it may be a game of hit/miss to find one that works.

I believe the riser slots must be populated with a riser card for POST.

npoilite2, there are lots of posts related to installing graphics cards on Dell servers. I've made many myself so a simple search should find the information.

Alternatively simply googling "x8 PCIe video card" yields a link to a review of a x8 PCIe card which you should consider. This card is within a 25W power budget so should not cause power or heat related issues (you would know what the allowable limits are if you read the documentation for your server).. 

And if the R610 is like the T610, insert the card into the PCIe slot, boot up into BIOS where you will find under integrated devices section an option to disable the integrated video (which is now accessable). Disable integrated video and save your changes then shut down. Now when you plug your monitor into your new PCIe video card and boot, you should see a new world of real graphics.

But as i said, all this stuff has been discussed to death on these forums, the answers have already been posted.

[edited to add]

Oh, and if the linked card doesn't do the resolution you want, then you could modify a more powerful x16 PCIe card to fit a x8 slot. But then you must carefully consider power and heat and mechanical issues which have also been discussed on is forum ad nausium(sp?). So search the forum and read the relevant posts is the best thing you can do. It's all lurking within. 

Skylarking, thanks for your link. The card only shows up to 1280x720 which is what the Maxtor currently does. My objective was to try to get a retrofit to the x8 card because I have a cheap $10 card. I tried using the dremel but it unfortunately broke one of the pins and now the riser card won't work.

I've ordered 2 more replacements to give it a shot melting it this time and seeing if that helps. If not we'll need to go and get a x1 video card for $50.

For me it was much easier to cut a slot in an old grahics card that i had lying around and thus turn it into a x8 card than it was to try and open the rear of the x8 PCIe slot on my T610 mobo just to allow for a x16 card to be inserted (when it will in any case operate at x8 speed). As you can appreciate, a T610 mobo is much more $$ than a riser card so it was a no brainer to hack the graphics card instead.

Anyway if you search my posts you'll see pics of my modded card and find lots of other info. One such post is here and if you notice, and follow the link in the next post, it will take you to a x8 PCIe DX11 graphics card that does 2560x1600 for example. I'd have thought a newer DX12 card would do at least as well wrt resolution - maybe the spec sheet is wrong [:?]

As already mentioned, there are many more relevant posts related to adding graphics cards to PE servers within the forum... some of mine even point you to where i found my information.. some other posts even give you methods to open the PCIe slot without damage using simple methods (like using a dremel with mini cut off wheel and part of old PCIe card inserted into the slot to protect the pins - melting is just not a good methid...).

But as already mentioned i found it much simpler to use a fine bladed hacksaw to cut a slot in a cheap x16 card than to open mod a x8 slot or buy a costly x1 or x8 card... 

Attempt #2 was a success. I had used a hack saw blade to start off and then used my soldering iron to melt and remove the excess plastic. I also removed the DRAC as some mentioned and was able to disable the on board video in the BIOS.

The ATI card I put in there at least will play back everything at a decent rate.

Just cause....

https://www.newegg.com/evga-geforce-gt-710-02g-p3-2713-kr/p/N82E16814487219 

$50. It works, no fussing