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Split 12v, 8-pin Power Connector Between Motherboard and Graphics Card on T410
Hi
On my Dell PowerEdge T410 there is a single 8-pin connector that comes straight out of the PSU's and provides 12v to the motherboard. I really want to install a graphics card on this server to improve graphic performance but there isn't any additional connectors to give the GPU extra power.
I have looked over the specifications in the manual and it is indeed a PCIe ×16 slot but running at ×8 speeds. The current card I have currently installed is a really old 512MB, DDR2 GPU with a large heatsink and there is no extra power needed for it.
I had to disable the integrated graphics in the server's BIOS settings to get the card working and I had to run the driver installation in Windows 7 compatibility mode.
The interesting thing is 8-pin splitter cables do exist and it's the same connection that is required to power graphics cards. Could I not take the 12v connector from the PSU's and feed one line to the motherboard as normal and the second connection to the GPU?
I know that Dell doesn't recommend a GPU in this server but I got a fairly cheap deal with it and had intentions of running virtual machines on it using something like Windows Server 2012 R2 or Server 2016 as the host operating system. The on-board Matrox GPU has 8MB of video RAM and is so laggy when running a GUI based virtual machine such as Ubuntu. In fact, even when I have no Hyper-V servers running, I often find the mouse and keyboard input slow just navigating around Windows.
I know my way around Linux fairly well through command line if I really had to install the server flavour of Ubuntu as a last resort. On the other hand I was just hoping that I could test GUI based operating systems like I would on my personal PC considering the server has more physical cores and 32GB RAM.
Many thanks in advance.
willowen100
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January 26th, 2020 05:00
Bump
DELL-Joey C
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January 28th, 2020 17:00
Hi,
Is there by any chance that you continue using the existing card, since it is working on the server. You too understand that server's hardware isn't built to accommodate GPU card installation, not until the recent PowerEdge models.
I have worked with another user in a GPU thread here, and the server seems to have bricked the GPU card, though we are unsure if the card it self is DOA. But wouldn't want to take the risk again to install another similar GPU card with the 12V cable.
willowen100
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January 30th, 2020 16:00
Thanks for the reply Joey.
I was thinking of buying one of these, connecting one end the motherboard as normal and on the other split cable test the voltages with a voltmeter.
I know the PCIe slots are limited to 25w but if I was to buy a slightly older Nvidia Quadro GPU without the additional power connectors that purely runs off PCIe slot power, and was rated at 65w would it just simply not run?
DELL-Josh Cr
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January 30th, 2020 16:00
Most likely, it is a lot more power draw than the slot supports.
willowen100
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February 4th, 2020 09:00
I've actually settled with purchasing a Nvidia GT 710 2GB GDDR5 GPU which has a power consumption of 19w.
It's Windows 10 compatible so installing drivers should be a lot easier than my current one which was last supported on Windows 8.0, plus the card has x4 more storage. Its not by any means a gaming card but it will certainly give the server a graphic boost.
Daku7
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May 25th, 2020 23:00
Please let me know if the Nvidia GT 710 2GB GDDR5 GPU worked on the Dell T410? Did you need an extra power source?
I bought the AMD W700 GPU and I can not figure out how to power the card. If your solution worked, I will use it.
All I need to do is run two monitors, no gaming or video editing.