unRAID OS has built-in virtualization hypervisor that uses KVM. If you wish, you can run ESXI OS instead of unRAID on this set up. The R710 set up that I'm using supports Intel VT-x and IOMMU that are necessary hardware architectures to virtualize hardware. Here are considerations and requirements to run VMs. docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/manual/vm-management/#:~:text=To%20create%20virtual%20machines%20on,d%20or%20AMD%2DVi).
Nice video. I am wondering now what CPU could be better than x5670. Obviously the x5680 or x5690, but those are overpriced. Maybe the w3670 if the motherboard can be compatible.
Yes, for faster processing power on the R710 (11th gen) platform, which uses the LGA1366 CPU sockets, 6 Core X5680 (12M, 3.33 GHz) and 6 Core X5690 (12M, 3.46 GHz) would do the trick. The w3670 is spec'd to use the FCLGA1366 socket, which is the same socket as LGA1366. I don't have any experience with w3670, but would say that it should work in the R710 LGA1366 socket. Last I checked, the X5600 series 6 Core CPUs are far cheaper than the w3670. Unless you can get w3670 cheaper than the X5600 series, the X5600 series are better on the wallet, yet still have darn good processing power for the buck, the 2 main points of this exercise. I'm sure many on this thread would love to know how the w3670 goes with the R710. If you do go with the w3670, please let us know how it went. Thanks! R710 Technical Guide: i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/business/solutions/engineering-docs/en/Documents/server-poweredge-r710-tech-guidebook.pdf
Nice job! Just built a new r710 for my daughter and hoped it would be able to do their video and photo editing. Looks like you answered that for me! Thanks so much!! Happy New Year!
I bought my R710 from a friend and it came with pre-notched x8s and also a single x16 board. Either can be placed in the same socket. To this day I have not gotten that server up and running. I have more memory sticks, HDDs and extra fans and PSUs than I need to. He gave me a half height rack with it. Nice unit with wheels and a solid chassis. Also gave me enough PoE and standard Switches to choke a horse. It came with a pair of X55xx Xeons and I bought a matching pair of X5660s to replace them 3 years ago and still have not placed them in. This video may inspire me to actually use the server as this very project was the first thing I wanted to do. See if I could run an instance of Windows 10 and a standard gaming GPU as a desktop. If that worked i'll want to get a newer server with faster cores so I can do that AND run a slew of other programs in the background. From FreeNAS to some sort of DHCP server to a firewall. I want it all to run and have some room left to run a game server.
I know it's been a few years since you posted this video, but it really looks like it could be the answer to my problem. I want to put a quadro P4000 in my R710, and have been trying to find good ways to power the card for a couple of weeks now. It looked like connecting directly to the PSU was the answer, but I couldn't find any instructions for doing this. You mentioned in the description that since you posted this you also found a way to tap the power without soldering, do you have details on how you do that? I'd rather avoid soldering anything in my machine if I can manage. By the way, Ithink you mentioned it here, but it is possible to get a PCIe 16x riser card for the R710 instead of cutting the back of the 8x slots. That should at least allow you to put one card in with minimum effort.
Yep, still running these beasty servers! One server still takes care of my NextCloud server, 2 VMs for video processing, and multiple web hosting sites. The farm has grown and donated same set up (with spade power connectors instead of soldering) to SpaceInvader One back in 2020. No complaints yet.
Hello thanks for the info. I just picked up one of these r710's , my first physical server not in a farm far away. I have a Tesla k40m I would like to do this mod with, but I'm concerned that the bios needs above 4g decoding available and that option isn't available anywhere I've seen in the many many config areas of this server weather bios, system services, idrac ..... Anybody know if a card that normally requires "above 4g decoding" could work with this sort of mod? my other does happen to be a 970, but I really want to get my tesla working in this server if any possibility exists as I already got headless windows parsec working with it on a different setup (see craft computing's video any headless gpu proxmox) .
@@TrevorHaagsma the k40m doesn’t work because of the required 4g decoding. I got a 1070 8gb that worked. I just used an external power supply. There was a mod to flash the Tesla bios to change it to a k40c instead of an k40m because that’s the consumer version that does t require 4g but I bricked my card trying it. But now those things are dirt cheap so may be worth a try again if you can find the forum post. Also requires a lot of physical modification and cutting cages and stuff like that.
Hi Pete, there's like less than a 3% chance you are still monitoring comments on this video, but I'm just getting back to even more r710 modding - going to install onboard SSDs, and get back to installing a gpu :)
I have one of these right next to me, its getting MODDED!!!! (edit) its been modded and has a radion in it, works fine, just disable default display in the bios and it will work.
I'm very interested in how to add solderless PCIE power contacts to an IBM x3650, which already has full length PCIe 3.0 x16x slots on risers. Do you have any videos showing the technique?
Hey Pete! Great video! I have an r610 I am trying to add a 2x 8pin GPU (Radeon 6700XT)...will this power splice technique work for up to 300W? Can I safely split the 6pin power into 2x8pin? I've got an extra PSU for now, but would love to consolidate this down!
Wonderful video. I am looking to repurpose poweredge r710 to add. How can I add power to GPU without having to soldering. Can you communicate via email mansoor@xxact.com. Thanks
Hi thanks for the video. Can I ask is it worth to invest and convert into gaming server ? I have an old unit but does it performs better than the normal desktop ? I'm using Dell optiplex 7020 currently. Any big difference when it comes to gaming performance or overall usage ?
If you're using an optiplex rn than that's completely different from what's shown in the video, what's shown in the video is a server, with 2 server proccessors in them and ECC memory, it also supports up to 384GB of RAM, I've looked up the specs for your optiplex 7020 and it's only consumer hardware with support up to 16GB of RAM, there's prolly nothing wrong with whacking a cheap GPU into your optiplex to make for a good but cheap gaming pc, I recommend the 3050 or 6400, but don't mix up this server and your optiplex, they have radically different hardware
I want to do the same for VR and gaming. Since this is a hack and this video is 1 year 9 months and 1 week years old, did you notice any performance issues from running the card at 8x vs 16x during gaming?
Thanks for comment, Alicia! Not really a hack because GPUs, CPUs, server motherboard are fully compatible with & compliant to same PCIe standards. It's a matter of understanding standards & technology and taking advantage of available platforms. It's common practice for OEMs to exercise "artistic license" toward the physical shape of their products to exclude competition and promote "upgrades". This is the case with my servers. I could pay a few hundred/thousand $$$ more to get this "hack" upgrade from Dell. PCIe x8 has half the data rate of PCIe x16 no matter which platform or application is run. As for the GPUs in my servers, they're running fine ever since with no performance issues nor degradation except that I'm getting half performance of PCIe x16. These servers are purpose built for clients and suit just fine - running mostly video/audio editing tools, sorry no games :( Servers have been running 24/7 since with occasional power downs during California's brown-outs :) If you want full performance of PCIe x16 GPU, it's best to have MOTHERBOARD that fully supports GPU's PCIe performance level. If the program/game you're running does most of its computing (i.e., >98%) in the GPU, then any CPU that is compatible with the motherboard will suit just fine.
Hey PeteDiful . Tnx for the video ! I've two R710 servers and HP ProLiant DL380P at my home lab and i cant make it work with even 1 GPU [ Nvidia 1650S and Nvidia Quadro P2200 ] . i am getting in the bios of those servers in the PCIE slot " Nvidia Corp VGA adapter" or " Unknown PCI " , what should i do ? i am also using external PSU for the 1650s..nothing works .
2:12 I've been searching for those cables forever but i can't find them anywhere. Is there another solution like 6 pin to 2x 8 pin or is the cables not powerful enough?
You could use PCI risers and an external power supply, in theory, to do this without the modifications. Don't use the risers with this soldering method shown in the video though, it would be unsafe from my understanding.
I have decided to like your video. It's half doable for me. I can melt my pcie slots for my video cards but I'm not going to solder power wires to my power supplies. I can just as easily use an external power supply and route the power wires out the back of the server. It appears that mining power supplies power up independently of the motherboard because they have an on/off switch on them.
Sorry for delayed response. Google moved my RU-vid feedback comments to "Social" mailbox, which I never check; and I've been busy with other projects (69GByte network storage transfer to SSD!) since to be checking on this hobby thread. You probably figured things out by now :( R910 - nice. Absolutely! Similar process on notching if need be & GPU power tapping.
I feel bad now, I bought a passively cooled GT1030, which (if you get the crappy DDR4 variant) fits natively into an x8 slot and falls under the power limit for a slot. Performance leaves something to be desired, but it lets me offload long term CUDA stuff to it.
Hey Pete, thanks for the great video! I was wondering, what happens with the GPU fans airflow after you close the server lid? On the video looks like there is no space between the lid and the GPU fans. Since you run that for very long time I guess the GPU's are not overheating...
Sorry for delayed response. Google moved my RU-vid feedback comments to "Social" mailbox, which I never check; and I've been busy with other projects (69GByte network storage transfer to SSD!) since to be checking on this hobby thread. You probably figured things out by now :( Great, observant question! Honest answer is I'm not sure but guess that the GPUs (& other cards) will restrict the 5 main server fans' airflow, while the GPU fans will "suck" air through the ~1/2inch gap with lid, and all that forced air goes out to the rear of server. My observation is that the R710 airflow design is superior with a forced airflow channel from front to rear with the PCIe Riser cards arranged inline with airflow to minimize flow obstruction. Generally the overall server/CPU temps are about ~32C, and things run really good. The server automatically throttles performance down if temp gets too high, which I have experienced on rare occasions when a particular server is placed in ~110F environment.
Hello, excellent videos, I have a question, is there a possibility to connect to the pci directly?, My question is because of my rx480 it gives poor performance when connecting to this r710, it seems that the bandwidth greatly affects performance ;c
Sorry for delayed response. Google moved my RU-vid feedback comments to "Social" mailbox, which I never check; and I've been busy with other projects (69GByte network storage transfer to SSD!) since to be checking on this hobby thread. You probably figured things out by now :( You may connect the RX480 directly to R710. However, the R710 "Riser 2" is PCIe 2.0 x8 (max ~4GB/s), whereas the RX480 is PCIe 3.0 x16 (max ~16GB/s); basically the R710 architecture only provides 1/4 the PCIe throughput that the RX480 potentially can do.
Hello good afternoon, very good channel! Maybe you can help me, I have a dell poweredge R210 II and I add a video card, a geforce gt 1030 and I can't get it to raise an image, I have a fixed prompt at the top left and that's it, nothing else, the rest is screen in black. For more data I tell you that it was working with an old ge force 8500gt board and it worked correctly. Another fact that can help is that a friend has the same server and I add a geforce gt 730 and it works without problems ... Any idea what is happening ?? Thank you very much in advance !!!
In the case of say video editing or rendering does a workstation card still do better than a gaming card ? What was the reasoning behind putting both a gaming card and a workstation card in this server build?
Sorry for delayed response. Google moved my RU-vid feedback comments to "Social" mailbox, which I never check; and I've been busy with other projects (69GByte network storage transfer to SSD!) since to be checking on this hobby thread. You probably figured things out by now :( These servers were purpose built. I.e., this particular video's build was for office workers to do some medium duty marketing videos on the gaming GPU, while the workstation GPU card was for heavy video & computational work. I have this popular build for general purpose video & computing: "Riser 1" = {Quadro K2000 , 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD (HUMUNGOUS $L4) ~2GB R/W caching, HBA controller} ; "Riser 2" = {Quadro K2000, Quadro K2000}.
Sorry for delayed response. Google moved my RU-vid feedback comments to "Social" mailbox, which I never check; and I've been busy with other projects (69GByte network storage transfer to SSD!) since to be checking on this hobby thread. You probably figured things out by now :( You may use x16 riser card in the x8 slot ("Riser 2" slot). The x8 riser card may be used in the x4 slot ("Riser 1" slot) but will be under-utilized with just 2 x4 slots. The x4 riser card has bifurcation to utilize 3 x4 slots - basically you get one more x4 slot than you would get from the x8 riser card.
Yes, you may plug in 3x single slot cards. The x4 "Riser 1" has 3 x4 slots. The x8 "Riser 2" has 2 x8 slots. You have a total of 5 PCIe slots that you should try to maximize their total bandwidth however you choose. For example, I have this configuration on several servers: "Riser 1" = {Quadro K2000 , 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD (HUMUNGOUS $L4), HBA controller} ; "Riser 2" = {Quadro K2000, Quadro K2000}.
I`m looking forward to buy one myself. What i wanna do with it: NAS, fiveM server, Minecraft Server, few Web Servers, VPN service, Mail service and later on PLEX. I do have few of those listed in a old Dell Latitude D520 but 2gigs of ram can`t really hold up well, when is under stress + limited to 100mbps. Any suggestions or issues you came by? here is my mail: mileamihai@outlook.it
Hi Pete! Thanks for the extremely informative video. Question: I just replaced an RX580 Sapphire Pulse from my main PC and would like to adapt it into my R710. Managed to tightly fit it inside Riser 2 and currently looking into pulling the power supply according to your video. I have an 8pin male to 6+2pin male cable lying around which came with my main rigs' PSU and I'm wondering if I could use that instead? Or would that be incompatible considering the R710 pins are 6?
Thanks for feedback, Athan! (Cool name by the way) Yes, the 8 pin male to 6+2 pin male will work. Either ends can plug into the RX580. The +2 lines are connected to ground. I have a setup similar to yours with an RX580 & a Quadro and use the same technique as in the video. If your cable reach is just long enough and you don't have an 8 line extension cable like I do (as in video), then one end of connector will need to be sacrificed, preferably the 8 pin end to leave the 6+2 end available for flexibility in using on a 6 pin GPU in the future. Good luck! and let me know how our goes.
@@PeteDiful Hey, greatly appreciate the prompt reply! So on the PSU end I'm left with 5 ground cables for 3 "grounding pins" on the motherboard. Do I leave 2 dangling or do I just solder all 5 to ground (i.e. 1/2/2)?
@@athanastrein6347 The +2 wires can be ganged with any of the other 3 ground wires to make total of 5 ground lines. So 5 ground lines & 3 12volt power lines. I believe some GPUs use the +2 ground lines to sense that external PCIe power is present.
@@PeteDiful So! Went with some male spade connectors instead of soldering and somewhat kinked them so it's easier to wedge as you recommended in another comment. Works like a charm! paste.pics/8YE1N Had to saw off part of riser 2 and remove the plastic "cover" from riser 1 in order to get a hint of tension from the components as the 580 was a tight fit but everything worked eventually. Thanks for your help!
Implementation is on virtualized hardware & software. Fancy words but this is pretty much what all modern computing is all about. Butch of HW and SW and one master hypervisor (unRAID OS) that orchestrates everything to run concurrently as if each virtual machine is running on its own HW, which it pretty much is except for shared resources like storage, network, maybe some IO peripherals, and the physical server enclosure/case. Lots of fun!
I’m trying to mod my T610 to take X16 gpus. I don’t have the correct tools however. Would a tiny dremmel work if i can borrow one somewhere? Or do i need a soldering iron as u demonstrated in the video?
Thanks for watching and commenting, SpookyDOTexe! Awesome T610! I'm jealous. It's your choice of whether to Dremmel or melt or route. My case is to use whatever I have available to me and most comfortable in using. I have all three methods available and use my router as seen in my other video. But if I didn't have a router but the other 2, my preference is to use a solder iron because it's forgiving and typically has better access than the Dremmel. Note that your X16 GPU will work in T610 but will be limited by T610 X8 bus.
@@PeteDiful i did it! i now have a GTX 650Ti Boost in mine ;D I modded the slot in the stupidest way ever. KNIFE & TWEEZERS AHAHAHAH but i was really careful. It worked out!
I would love to hear about your solderless method to tap the power supply rails. If you could drop me a line about how you did this I would Greatly appreciate it!!!
Thanks for watching and commenting, TB! Please check out my replies to "Antonius" or "Thomas Tomchak" about solderless connections - it's pretty easy. But, man, I've been swamped lately with work and really wish I can get a video out on how to do this just to inspire others like you. In the meantime, probably can put a link up to some pix. Good luck!
