T410 Need power for Video Card

There are a few versions and/or configurations of a T410 PE 11 Gen server. However all seem to come with a mechanical x16 PCIe Gen2 expansion slot, #5 so plugging a graphics card into it is the easy part. However this mechanical x16 PCIe slot is only wired up with 8 PCIe lanes and can provide 25W max, not the 75W that a graphics capable PCIe slot can support.

All this just means that Dell has not designed or intended for you to install a PCIe graphics card within your server. It should work but some issues may crop up. Some IDRAC remote management features (boot capture for example) wont work, server fans may spin a little faster and you wont have a graphics auxilary power connector for your shiny new powerful graphics card.

Again, it doesn't mean it wont work, only that your on your own if you have issues.

So if you need a grahics card, choose a low power 25W card and install it into slot #5, jump into BIOS and disable embedded video graphics, save exist and connect your modern widescreen high res monitor to your new grahics card. - all should be fine but it wont be a graphical gaming monster.

If such a low power card doesn't meet your graphics performance needs, some users on these forums seem to have had success with 75W cards powered only by the PCIe slot (of various 11 Gen PE servers) so no need to worry about an auxilary graphics power connector in such cases.

If you still need more graphics grunt, you need determine how much power the card will need via the auxilary power connectors (2x3 7/or 4x4). Modern graphics cards can consume a further 150W to 250W via auxilary power connector on top of the 75W the PCIe slot provides. So keep in mind that it's up to 300W more power and heat from the graphics card which is now inside the case. It's something that Dell didn't cater for so it's something you need to manage.

Depending on which graphics card you choose, and what power supplies are installed on your T410, you may need to cut back on some of the internal components to provide the headroom that the graphics card needs.

Just keep in mind that a single x5570 CPU *** up 95W of juice, 190W for two of them. Then calculate how much power is needed for your RAM, HDD's, fans, motherboard, other PCIe cards, etc. This should give you an idea of how much headroom you have to spare for the graphics card from your 525W single PSU or the 580W redundant PSU's (being the only PSU options for the T410). 

If it all looks OK from a PSU power headroom perspective, because the server is not fully loaded with gear, then you can look at your Power Distribution Unit wiring and tap into the appropriate wires to make your own 3x3 auxialry graphics power connector wiring. Obviously you need to tap into the correct wires that feed the parts of the system that are not sucking the juice because the components are not installed. The T410 Technical Guide Book and the www should help you work this out.

Best to search www for "Dell T410 Technical Guide Book", of which i've seen two versions. The 56 page version with the black front page titled:
  Dell
  PowerEdge T410
  Technical Guide Book
  Inside The Poweredge T410
has more relevant connector and wiring details for the PDU that should be more helpful to you than the later July 2011 rev 1 white front page edition...

Also look/search www for details on different connector types and power levels for these connector types as well as power requirements for variuos components. Doing this will give you an idea what power you are not using for the unused connectors within your case. It sometimes seems easy to use an adapter to connect (as a bad example) a floppy connector to graphics card PEG connector with bad results, smoke and hissing..

If you want to put in a big grunty GPU and the PSU is not powerful enough, an of the shelf standard ATX PSU will not work and i'm also not sure if a more powerful redundant 870W PSU's from T610 would fit in your case. 

There are many many posts on installing graphics cards within various PE servers on these forums so use the search feature and read, read, read. If it's all too much for you and you don't have some basic electrical design skills, maybe selling teh server and buying a workstation could be a better choice.

As to why your unused sata power connector doesn't supply any power, i've got not idea.

But note a single sata power connector usually feeds a 10W consumer HDD while a sata power feed line usually has 4 consumer HDD's or 40W connected to the line so it's vastly under rated for a 300W graphcis card :emotion-10:

Server grade fast spinning HDD may require a little more juice but i think you get the drift :emotion-5:

Good luck with it all...

Today I received a fan less Gigabyte GeForce  gt1030 with 2gb gddr5, rated 30w on the internet (not written on the box).

It works very well for Minecraft win 10 or java (I don't play AAA, resource-hungry games).

I had to inactivate the onboard graphic card to make it work.

On cpubenchmark.com, searching t410, they show that the gt1050 and other graphic cards works as well!on this pc