Turn Dell Server into a gaming rig

k3rn3l

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Oct 11, 2015
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Hello,

I own a Dell server that I am interested in turning into a gaming rig. I received this machine from my work and they had already made some very minor upgrades to it so I'll detail the specs below to help assist, but essentially my main concern is motherboard compatibility with upgrading the graphics card. My boss prior had used the machine as her home computer on windows 7, and I have used it with Linux for running various server style tasks and compiling Linux versions of my programs, and various other geeky tasks (I am programmer), so I'm sure it'll be fine from an operating and software standpoint, it just needs a better graphics card.

It is a Dell PowerEdge t110 ii

Processor: Intel Xeon e3 1220 v2 quad core 3.1 ghz
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 6200 LE
Motherboard: Dell 015th9
Ram: 4gb DDR3

I would like to upgrade the RAM of this machine as well as the graphics card. Upgrading the RAM obviously won't be a big deal but the graphics card I would like to update to is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970.

I assume that since this motherboard is already compatible with a GeForce series graphics card that I wouldn't have any issues but I'd hate to spend $300 and be totally wrong.

So any verification on whether or not this is will work would be awesome. It seems plausible to me, but I'd like to be sure.

Thanks!

 
Solution
It does meet the requirements. The x8 slot is x16 physically so the card will plug in. It will be somewhat limited on the bandwidth back to the motherboard because of the x8 electrical connection. You won't get maximum performance compared to other people using the same graphics card.

The 305W power supply is going to be the problem. You will have to replace it.

kanewolf

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The question for graphics card compatibility will be supplemental power connections. Determine what supplemental power your 970 requires (8 pin, 6 pin, dual 6 pin, etc) then see what connections are available from the power supply. It may not have the required connectivity.
 

k3rn3l

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Oct 11, 2015
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According to Nvidia the GTX 970 supplementary power connectors are: 2x 6-pins
Source: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-970/specifications
And according to their user guide under the minimum requirements for the motherboard are:
PCI Express® or PCI Express 3.0-compliant motherboard
with one dual-width x16 graphics slot.
Source: http://www.nvidia.com/content/geforce-gtx/GTX_970_User_Guide.pdf

And according to Dell the PCI Express Slots on the poweredge are:
Two x8 slots (one with x16 connectors)
One x4 slot (with x8 connector)
One x1 slot
Source: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-t110-2/pd

According to that information, it seems a little shaky to me. I'm not sure if the x8 slots with the x16 connector satisfies the x16 on the graphics card or not. If it does then it looks good, but I definitely need a second opinion. Let me know if you need more details I can do some more digging around.

 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
It does meet the requirements. The x8 slot is x16 physically so the card will plug in. It will be somewhat limited on the bandwidth back to the motherboard because of the x8 electrical connection. You won't get maximum performance compared to other people using the same graphics card.

The 305W power supply is going to be the problem. You will have to replace it.
 
Solution

k3rn3l

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Oct 11, 2015
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Yeah I just noticed that as well. Would that be a simple thing to swap out? Not sure how the power supply effects the motherboard as far as connections go.
 

ubermik

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May 6, 2011
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You can actually get a 20/24pin to Dell 8 pin connector on ebay, then you can use an ordinary single rail PSU like the corsair CX series in place of the dell PSU which will also allow you to find one that has the right GPU power connectors

When I found the link I had hoped it would have been more to do with a gaming CPU upgrade doh, oh well, back to my search :)
 

seniorcheesecake

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Aug 31, 2016
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I have a T110 ii as well and trying to get a XFX AMD R9 380 to work. I upgraded the PSU to a 600w EVGA because the standard one blew and had to replace it anyway...I connect the gpu's power direct to the power supply and plug it in the 8x pci port but the server wont turn on when i plug it in. Just get a white cursor on the top left of the screen. I have tried everything.

However, i have a Radeon 5450 which works fine.

So i would say dont invest in any proper gaming card. I am between trying to sell mine and thinking of just buying another motherboard and replacing the whole thing ...

Some say the limitation is due to how the bios is programmed and others say its within the motherboard itself because of the limited pcie power but i am using the PSU so i dont know. Someone had success using the AMD R9 270 with a 600W power supply but i couldnt find the 270 specifically....

 

ubermik

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May 6, 2011
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ubermik

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this might be barking up the wrong tree but while I have been looking at some older motherboards to put a Pentium chip into so I can upgrade an "old" ML110 to a 1220 xeon chip I have noticed several boards with PCIe 3.0 x16 sockets say that the socket is only supported by intel I5 and I7 chips

So could the problem be that on the higher cards they "need" PCIe 3.0 functionality whereas lower cards might be happy to work under PCIe 2.0 functionality?

I honestly don't know if a PCIe slot is like a USB socket and has the ability to offer a fall back to PCIe 2.0 for older cards but is it possible that your chip doesn't natively support PCIe 3.0 and your high end card only wants to work in a PCIe 3.0 enabled socket?

If the lower card is happy in either standard then that might explain why the one card works and the other doesn't

Please don't laugh too loudly if that's the stupidest suggestion ever, but as I said I am fairly new to getting down to this level of technical detail on modern motherboards but it was a thought that occurred to me while looking for a board to put my replaced Pentium chip into that seemed like it "might" be related to your problem
 

ubermik

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I actually gave up on the idea of swapping the PSU and GPU for mine, which infortunately didn't occur until AFTER I had bought a GTX 950 xtreme and a golden flower 80+ gold PSU lol (duh@me)

Instead someone nearby was selling an already built machine with a skylake 6600k, asus 170 pro gaming motherboard, 16gb 2400 ram, water cooled with an SSD and 1tb HD and a GTX 970 all three months old with boxes and receipts and some other bits and pieces for £550. So I took the lazy option and just bought that

So now I am just deciding whether to sell the 750 watt CX PSU and GTX 970 and replace them with my GTX 950 and golden flower PSU

Although I may still sell off my dell 3220 based T20 and buy the xeon version while the offer is still on so maybe I could still put the 950 and golden flower in that and have two reasonable machines rather than one good one and a mediocre one

If I try the 950 xtreme and golden flower PSU in my T20 though I will post back with the results and whether it works as the 950 xtreme is "almost" as fast as the 960 but doesn't use much more power than the OC 750Tis despite being 50% faster than them making it what seemed like a reasonable choice sitting between the cost and power useage of the 960 and the lower power but lower performance of the 750ti