Dell PowerEdge R420 Systems Owner's Manual

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Expansion Card Installation Guidelines

Your system supports PCI Express Generation 2 and Generation 3 expansion cards.

NOTE: If you install a second processor, you must upgrade expansion card riser 1 to optimize PCIe slot 1 speed.

The following table provides the riser configurations for single- and dual-processor systems:

Table 1. Riser Configuration for Single- and Dual-Processor Systems
Number of Processors	Expansion Card Connector
Number of Processors	Riser 1	Riser 2
One	PCIE_G2_X4 iDRAC_Enterprise	PCIE_G3_X16
One	PCIE_G2_X4 iDRAC_Enterprise	PCIE_G3_X16
Two	PCIE_G3_X16 iDRAC_Enterprise	PCIE_G3_X16
Two	PCIE_G3_X16 iDRAC_Enterprise	PCIE_G3_X16

NOTE: The expansion-card risers listed in the above table cannot be interchanged between single- and dual- processor systems.

The following table provides a guide for installing expansion cards to ensure proper cooling and mechanical fit. The expansion cards with the highest priority must be installed first using the slot priority indicated. All other expansion cards must be installed in card priority and slot priority order.

Table 2. Expansion-Card Installation Priority
Card Priority	Card Type	Height	Slot Priority	Max Allowed Per Slot
1	RAID	Full Height Low Profile	2	1
2	Converged Network Adapters (CNAs)	Full Height Low Profile	2 or 1	1
3	10 Gb NICs	Full Height Low Profile	2 or 1	1
4	FC8 HBA	Full Height Low Profile	2 or 1	1
5	FC4 HBA	Full Height Low Profile	2 or 1	1
6	1 Gb NICs	Full Height Low Profile	2 or 1	1
7	Non-RAID	Full Height Low Profile	2 or 1	1