Re: Graphics Poweredge T310

Hi Richard,

Did you find a graphics card for your T310.

I am in the same boat.

I still had a  ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT which works for now.

Thanks Richard.

BTW what os are you using. I have Windows Server 2008 on the Poweredge T310

i'm running Linux (mostly) and Windows Server 2008

Richard

Can i use windows server 2008-32bit OS?

Which slot have you used this graphic card?

Where can i get the driver for Windows 2008 Server-32 Bit OS?

The T301 Hardware Owners Manual indicates the following on page 64.

Integrated Device Screen
:
:
Enable Video               Displays the total amount of video memory available in
Controller                     the embedded video controller
(Enabled default)

This is misleading as to what are we actually enabling or disabling. One would expect that we enable or disable the device itself. If so (as is the case on the T610) access to this field requires a graphics card to be inserted before one can access the integrated device field to set it to disabled.

The HOM also indicated the following on page 171:

8. PCIE_X8
9. PCIE_X16
10. PCIE_X8
11. PCIE_X1
12. PCIE_X1

Note that 8 is the upper most PCIE slot while 12 is the lowest slot.

If indeed the integrated video controller can be disabled, then insert a graphics card into slot 9, boot into BIOS and change the "Enable Video Controller" setting to Disabled. Shut down your system and connect the monitor to the new PCIe video card and restart your system.

If all works, you should see the system boot and your OS come up. If not, you can reset BIOS NVRAM and connect the monitor to the motherboard VGA port where you should again see the system booting. From within the OS, install the appropriate driver for your new graphics card (Win7 drivers are usually OK for Win2008R2 OS - usually).

If this works, then obviously the documentation is wrong but if it doesn't work, the documentation is still misleading.

Note that due to cooling issues, Dell limits the power draw to 25W on max 2 slots as mentioned on page 114-115.
Also note that the X16 slot may not have been designed for graphics cards to be installed and thus power draw may be limited to 25W max.

On this basis, i would recommend only using a low power (25W) graphics card. I have no recommendations as to which one to use.

WARNING: This is not supported by Dell so if you have stability or other issues, you will need to solve on your own.

Cheers.

dramesh.plc: 

the card sits in slot 2 from the top. I don't remember the Win settings, only using Linux.

Richard

Richard, the ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT you use likely consumes 40W according to Lenevo (which is the first site i came across with power figures listed). Just out of curiosity, have you had any stability issues with your system while the GPU is running at full speed? And what other PCIe cards do you have installed?

Unfortunately i don't have the equipment to check the PCIe power requirement negotiated at system start-up. Thus i don't know whether the slot can indeed feed 25W, 75W or 150W (the different slot power figures defined by the various PCIe standards) to the card itself.  I only know that Dell makes a statement that due to cooling requirements, no more than 2 cards can consumer 25W each while the remaining cards can consume 10W each. That gives just 80W's in total available to the PCIe cards from a thermal consideration.

as i said all I need is to drive a display with decent resolution.

no demanding graphic apps.

no issues under Linux.

I did read and understand your posts and that you had no demanding apps, only a desire for higher resolution. But I thought  you may have done some stress testing of your graphics subsystem to verify all works as it should when sucking 40W, or just from a curiosity perspective.

For your info, I have a modified a 30W graphics card in my T610 and I have not notice any issues when stressing the graphics subsystem, but as I am toying with the idea of adding a much more powerful graphics card to my T610, which i again would have to modify, I'm just trying to add to my knowledge base. Any results from tests you may have done could have be helpful to me, hence the reason i asked my question.

But thanks anyway for your replay and enjoy your T310 workstation.