Is it possible to connect a GPU to a server motherboard that doesn't have PCI-E?

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XelonHun

XelonHun

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Greetings everyone!

As the title suggests I'm looking for a way to connect a GPU to a server motherboard that doesn't have PCI-E. The board is from an M910 Gen2 Blade (4x socket) server.
Do you guys know of any methods that would allow me to use a graphics card with such a board? Mezzanine connectors, USB, Infiband, Ethernet, anything as long as it gets the job done.
Time to get creative :D Looking forward to your replies
 
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Do you only have the blade, no chassis? Without a chassis blades are generally useless. The chassis supplies power and network connectivity and usually has some time of KVM system for console use though blade servers are generally remotely managed. The mezzanine cards for that blade are for use with fibrechannel cards used with corresponding modules mounted to the chassis.
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XelonHun

XelonHun

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Thats the thing: This board has none of the mentioned.
I'm looking for a workaround.
 
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XelonHun

XelonHun

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Well according to the manual, this board has slots for "Four x8 PCIe mezzanine cards"
I can't find any by Googling, or am I just blind?
 
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captaincharisma

captaincharisma

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well any GPUs that have Ethernet ports are PCI-E cards anyway. if it has an option to connect some USB external ports you could go for a USB monitor like this:

https://www.amazon.ca/AOC-e1659Fwu-16-Inch-USB-Powered-Portable/dp/B00CMKOVMO

 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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The mezzanine cards are such things as lan switches etc basically just a daughter board. Seriously doubtful you'll find a gpu that'll fit mezzanine style in that server chassis. You'll pretty much have to move up to a second rack mount and use a gpu server in addition to the m910
 
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XelonHun

XelonHun

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Space is of no concern, I was just wondering whether or not I could use this board as an extreme performance workstation.
So yeah... Could you please explain how this could work in theory? pretty please :):):)
 
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triley

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Do you only have the blade, no chassis? Without a chassis blades are generally useless. The chassis supplies power and network connectivity and usually has some time of KVM system for console use though blade servers are generally remotely managed. The mezzanine cards for that blade are for use with fibrechannel cards used with corresponding modules mounted to the chassis.
 
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XelonHun

XelonHun

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Alright, I'm starting to get it now. If I understand this correctly, the motherboard cannot be powered without the chassis, and there are modules (blades?) specifically for mounting GPU's?
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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To put it basically, what you have is like a amplifier. You'll need other components like the tuner, CD player, equalizer etc to round out the system. That blade is just part of a server rack, the cpu/ram part, that just gets stronger with different Xeons either 2 or 4,and upto 1Tb of ram, all supplied by its own sockets and the mezzanine cards. But you'll still need the rest of the components, things like the tesla rack and ethernet switches.
Google tesla server rack.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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It's an understandable idea, it would end up being an unbelievable powerhouse of a pc if it was honestly feasible, but things like games don't really have the response to multiple gpus etc or even tesla cards. Server build components are workhorses, not racehorses, so in the end really don't work that well for gaming attributes. They've announced a $150,000 tesla card that'll replace 8 top line p100 gpus, and it gets mediocre results in Crysis 3. Having upto 4 Xeons and all that ram possible is honestly wasted in gaming situations where a simple 7700k and 16Gb of ram with a 1080ti is overkill for anything but 4k.

Now if you were actually building the game that'd be a whole different story.
 
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Thomas_303

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I've only read about the HP blade but just to add something about blades in general. With the HP blade servers, you can at least get windows on them and they only need 12 volts into the back of them. GPU's... look at part number 441884-004 but I'm not sure how or if that will output from the front port. Now a little less troublesome is to just buy a cheap 2U server. I recent bought an IBM x3650 M2 with 34 gig of ram and 2x xeons (it can run 5 series six cores) for about 120 USD and it has 4 x8 PCI-E slots and will take a graphics card no problem. I'm running windows 7 on mine lool. With the stand alone rack servers you have a lot less problems than trying to get a blade running and the proper servers are x10 times more well built than a desktop.

Link to the HP blade running windows below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9SXTRoFuSk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI7-XI0eMb8
 
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