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UEFI BIOS Type in PowerEdge T20
Hello community.
I have a question about BIOS type in PowerEdge T20 Server.
I want to install a PCIe SSD and boot Windows from it, but I have info about that only UEFI BIOS can support this feature. The question is; What type of BIOS have the PowerEdge T20 server?.
The PCIe SSD that plan to use is a Kingston Hyper Predator 460 GB on the PCIe 16x 2.0 x4 expansion slot.
Additionally, can I connect a SSD 2.5" without optional card controller?.
Thanks.
Regards
DELL-Daniel My
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August 28th, 2016 19:00
Hello
You can set the mode to either BIOS or UEFI.
PCIe SSDs are not validated on the T20. You may be able to get it to work, but it would not be supported. You may not be able to select the PCIe SSD as a boot device.
The system supports SATA SSDs in the 4 standard slots. You can read more in the T20 manual:
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/poweredge-t20/manuals
Thanks
JamesMX
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August 28th, 2016 19:00
Hi Daniel!, thank you for the answers.
I need a server than can support without problems the PCIe SSD boot, because we need a high IO transfers rate operations with a photogrammetry software (Pix4D).
Of course that we want to save money. Any suggest?
Regards!!
Dev Mgr
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August 29th, 2016 20:00
If you cannot get that server to boot from that PCIe SSD, just install the OS on a SATA SSD (can be as little as 128GB) and then use the PCIe SSD for a data disk.
You may want to check the nature of the IO of your application. Not all SSDs are the same; some (a lot of them) are made for the average home user, which means that they will degrade/fail sooner if you're doing a lot of writing to the SSD. This is why Enterprise class SSDs are typically (much) more expensive than home-user SSDs; they are made for doing a lot of writing.
If you were to separate the OS from the data, and you're not afraid to go the Ebay route, check Ebay for Dell S3710 400GB SSDs. These can be had for around US$200 right now and they are made for enterprise data center usage (i.e. a whole lot of writing). You would run the OS on the SATA SSD (or even just a harddrive like the one that probably came with the T20) and put the data that is sensitive to high IOPS on the Intel S3710.
Note that that model SSD is SATA, but made for doing a lot of writing. The T20 comes with a 1Gbit network port, so an SSD that can sustain 500MB/s will still be throttled by the network interface unless you put in a 10Gbit network card.
I have a Samsung 950 Pro 512GB (NVMe/PCIe) in my current PC. To be honest; the difference from running my Samsung 850 EVO SATA SSD is not really noticeable in day-to-day usage.
DELL-Daniel My
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September 2nd, 2016 10:00
I would suggest contacting sales to discuss what options are available. If you need a tower server then I would suggest getting a tower server that meets your needs. If you do a lot of business with us and have a dedicated account team then your sales reps should be able to provide suggestions. If you do not do a lot of business with us then you will only have access to transactional sales reps. They are not well equipped to help choose systems. Transactional sales reps are available to help with the purchase of the system you choose.
If you are a transactional customer but need guidance on choosing a system then you may want to reach out to a Value Added Reseller. They provide many of the same benefits of a dedicated account team:
http://dell.force.com/partner/spf__partnersearch?c=us&l=en_US
Thanks