Dell PowerEdge C8220 Build and Questions

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
Excellent! I am glad that you got it up and working. Keep us updated as you progress.

@drabadue

Thanks for all your help here. I believe we have the same board and I did manage to get it powered on thanks to your posts. I am encountering the same issue you are and I cant get the board to detect my ssd.

What is that 2 pin connecter converter you have powering that sata attachment called and where can i get one. I think i'm going to need to purchase that converter (see screenshot). Also, how many volts are going to through there? Maybe I can make a makeshift connector for now.

I'm also curious to see everyones jumper configuration their boards. For example my board came with only 1 jumper next to the PCI Express x16 ports labeled PWRD_EN. Do you think jumper setting may have something to do with the onboard SATA ports not working?
 

Attachments

Last edited:

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
Excellent! I am glad that you got it up and working. Keep us updated as you progress.

I found @dradabue's old post about creating the jumper harness and recreated it myself. I'm installing windows 10 now and I'll try installing my GTX 970 Graphics card and second processor. I'll follow up after its done .
 

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
2nd Processor installed successfully. Graphics card installed successfully with no problems. Everything is running beautifully. I just need to pick up a molex-4pin for the CPU fans. I'll post videos and screenshots after work tomorrow. I've very excited.

specs
2x e5-2650
8 Gigs of ram
GTX 970

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 score 2614
Cinebench 1345

I'll run some DX12 and CPU benchmarks when I have some free time tomorrow and post videos and screenshots afterwards. I've very excited.I just wish I knew about the 2670's when they were at their cheapest.

Thank you all for your help.
 

Attachments

arcaster

New Member
Oct 11, 2016
10
0
1
34
2nd Processor installed successfully. Graphics card installed successfully with no problems. Everything is running beautifully. I just need to pick up a molex-4pin for the CPU fans. I'll post videos and screenshots after work tomorrow. I've very excited.

specs
2x e5-2650
8 Gigs of ram
GTX 970

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 score 2614
Cinebench 1345

I'll run some DX12 and CPU benchmarks when I have some free time tomorrow and post videos and screenshots afterwards. I've very excited.I just wish I knew about the 2670's when they were at their cheapest.

Thank you all for your help.
Any idea of how much power it was using?

I really want to throw my nVidia Titan X (Maxwell) into my c8220 compute server, not sure if my 750w gold rated PSU can handle the load. Then I wouldn't need to have a desktop which would be really nice.
 

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
Any idea of how much power it was using?

I really want to throw my nVidia Titan X (Maxwell) into my c8220 compute server, not sure if my 750w gold rated PSU can handle the load. Then I wouldn't need to have a desktop which would be really nice.
Nope, But I can do check that later today. 750w should be enough. Unless you using a crazy liquid cooler like the zalman lq320 which apparently has a 340w Max power draw! I'm using a 650w and havent experienced any issues but then again I havn't plugged in any of the CPU fans and have been strictly working off the radiators.

Its a good thing you mentioned this, I think I'm going to shop around for stylish CPU coolers that don't have a crazy power draw.


 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: igoresz

drabadue

Active Member
Sep 15, 2016
162
54
28
2nd Processor installed successfully. Graphics card installed successfully with no problems. Everything is running beautifully. I just need to pick up a molex-4pin for the CPU fans. I'll post videos and screenshots after work tomorrow. I've very excited.

specs
2x e5-2650
8 Gigs of ram
GTX 970

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 score 2614
Cinebench 1345

I'll run some DX12 and CPU benchmarks when I have some free time tomorrow and post videos and screenshots afterwards. I've very excited.I just wish I knew about the 2670's when they were at their cheapest.

Thank you all for your help.

EXCELLENT!!!! I apologize for not posting sooner. Still getting settled into the new place. I am glad that you found the information about the jumper i made to power that SATA panel.

@Gitrooman - I have questions about your graphoics card now. Since mine had issues, I have to ask


What Nvidia driver did you install?

Any other C++ drivers or anything like that?

Which PCIe slot are you in and how did you do it?

Did you use a riser cable to gain access to the PCIe slots on the board by cpu1?


I tried to use a riser cable on the rear edge PCI slot and that is the one I failed to make work. I need to get back after this project and get everything up and working. I really am glad to see that you got yours working. That leads me to believe with a fresh install of windows, I should be good to go. I am glad you got it working on Windows 10 with the GTX970. That gives me hope for my setup on windows 10 and the GTX780.
 

drabadue

Active Member
Sep 15, 2016
162
54
28
I would also like to know how to get the on board SATA connectors working. I know Wictar had luck with a jumper on the front panel connector that made his work, but when I tried it, I had no luck.
 

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
What Nvidia driver did you install?
The Latest one off the Nvidia website.

Any other C++ drivers or anything like that?
Nope


Which PCIe slot are you in and how did you do it?
Slot One, closest to the edge of the board.


Did you use a riser cable to gain access to the PCIe slots on the board by cpu1?
I'm using the onboard PCIex16 slot


I'm sure you'll get it to work with a fresh install, just make sure the first thing you do is install the video driver after windows boots.

Let me know if I can be any help.

I Have to read up on the progress you made on the front panel connector. I was lucky enough to have my board power on as soon as i plugged in my power supply and turned it on. Any chance you could summarize what you were able to accomplish?
 

drabadue

Active Member
Sep 15, 2016
162
54
28
What Nvidia driver did you install?
The Latest one off the Nvidia website.

Any other C++ drivers or anything like that?
Nope


Which PCIe slot are you in and how did you do it?
Slot One, closest to the edge of the board.


Did you use a riser cable to gain access to the PCIe slots on the board by cpu1?
I'm using the onboard PCIex16 slot


I'm sure you'll get it to work with a fresh install, just make sure the first thing you do is install the video driver after windows boots.

Let me know if I can be any help.

I Have to read up on the progress you made on the front panel connector. I was lucky enough to have my board power on as soon as i plugged in my power supply and turned it on. Any chance you could summarize what you were able to accomplish?

I did a bunch of testing to see what all the pins did. I tried my best to summarize that a few pages back. I basically used the one jumper for the board to power on and the other pin for PS_ON.

I know Wictar made his on board SATA ports work with a different jumper, but when I tried it, I had no luck.

@Gitrooman - are you saying you didn't use a jumper on the front panel connector to get the board to power on?
 

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
I did a bunch of testing to see what all the pins did. I tried my best to summarize that a few pages back. I basically used the one jumper for the board to power on and the other pin for PS_ON.

I know Wictar made his on board SATA ports work with a different jumper, but when I tried it, I had no luck.

@Gitrooman - are you saying you didn't use a jumper on the front panel connector to get the board to power on?
Yeah, I didnt have a jumper on there and my board powered on without without any jumpers on the front panel pins. As soon as i plugged in the power supply and flipped he power switch on the power supply it powered on.

My goal is to
1.Get the front panel pins associated with with correct panel buttons and lights
2.Get the Sata port on the motherboard working
3. Finding a case that can fit this sucker.
4. Find a way to get some PCU fan control so its not at %100 all the time.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to do any of these, i'm listening.
 

drabadue

Active Member
Sep 15, 2016
162
54
28
Yeah, I didnt have a jumper on there and my board powered on without without any jumpers on the front panel pins. As soon as i plugged in the power supply and flipped he power switch on the power supply it powered on.

My goal is to
1.Get the front panel pins associated with with correct panel buttons and lights
2.Get the Sata port on the motherboard working
3. Finding a case that can fit this sucker.
4. Find a way to get some PCU fan control so its not at %100 all the time.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to do any of these, i'm listening.

That's really interesting that your board fired right up. Your board only having one jumper near the PWRD_EN makes me curious. I am pretty sure I have 2-3 jumpers on my board. I will have to go back and look.

1. I am going to have to assume the front panel doesn't have pins for a headphone jack or microphone. I say this because my board didn't have any on board audio. maybe that's a driver issue, but my volume icon in windows 10 was unable to be adjusted. When it comes to HDD icon, I would think we can figure out that one. As for power and reset, I would guess they have something to do with the 2 pins that I need to jumper to get my board on. As I stated in a previous post, all 12 pins for the front panel connector were occupied and they ALL ran back to the power distribution board. I know that you can reset these boards via the on board Board Management Controller (BMC) at a different computer.

2. I am right there with you. I have a mini SAS cable I need to try and see if that perhaps makes a difference in how the SATA ports work.

3. With that SATA panel at the end of the board, the entire thing is WAY too long to fit in any standard case. At that point, you might as well begin making your own custom case from scratch (which is still an option). The alienware case I have will just barely fit the mother board itself in there, but that will require custom mounts for the graphics card and the power supply.

4. A rather expensive solution that I am pursuing is to use liquid coolers for the CPU's with Corsair Link. I currently have a H60 and H80i corsair liquid cooler. My plan was to use the H80i with Corsair Link to run the 2 fans for the radiators. The H80i plugs in to a 10-1 USB header (yes taking up 2 usb spots), but gives you software to control your fans and temperatures from the CPU under the H80i. I realize that taking a temperature reading from one CPU and applying it to both is rather risky, but I had the H60 hooked up to just one CPU with no fan on it at all (but the pump running full time) and I had no overheating issues until I started to really load up the system (benchmarks, etc.). Another option would be to run a case with a switch for the case fans. One that gives you 12v, 5v, 3v settings to adjust the fans manually. Not a great solution, but it will work so long as you remember to turn them up once you start laboring the CPU's.


@Gitrooman - I really want to see a picture of your GTX 970 plugged into the PCI slot. I wasn't able to get mine to plug in as the tray and connectors were in the way. The card would sit partially in the slot, but I couldn't get it fully seated.
 

drabadue

Active Member
Sep 15, 2016
162
54
28
Another option that I am looking into for fan control is the Master I/O board for the Alienware case.

Something similar to this:
Original Dell Alienware Area 51 Master I/O Board MS-4195 FDNW2 | eBay

I already have one in my case, but the interesting thing is, this board controls the fans for the HDD bays, PCIe area, RAM etc. As far as I know, it doesn't control the CPU, as there is a CPU FAN header on the Alienware mother board. But it also controls Wifi, bluetooth, vents to open and close the case, as well as LED's in many locations outside the case.

I haven't fully wrapped my head around what all you NEED to make it work, but I know it uses Alienware's Command Center Software to work, and I am pretty sure it gets its temperature readings either straight off the motherboard or else via sensors that you place within the case.

There is a lot of talk on forums about these boards not working or being a pain to get setup, but I wanted to play with one to see if it could be integrated into other systems. Just a thought.
 

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
That's really interesting that your board fired right up. Your board only having one jumper near the PWRD_EN makes me curious. I am pretty sure I have 2-3 jumpers on my board. I will have to go back and look.

1. I am going to have to assume the front panel doesn't have pins for a headphone jack or microphone. I say this because my board didn't have any on board audio. maybe that's a driver issue, but my volume icon in windows 10 was unable to be adjusted. When it comes to HDD icon, I would think we can figure out that one. As for power and reset, I would guess they have something to do with the 2 pins that I need to jumper to get my board on. As I stated in a previous post, all 12 pins for the front panel connector were occupied and they ALL ran back to the power distribution board. I know that you can reset these boards via the on board Board Management Controller (BMC) at a different computer.

2. I am right there with you. I have a mini SAS cable I need to try and see if that perhaps makes a difference in how the SATA ports work.

3. With that SATA panel at the end of the board, the entire thing is WAY too long to fit in any standard case. At that point, you might as well begin making your own custom case from scratch (which is still an option). The alienware case I have will just barely fit the mother board itself in there, but that will require custom mounts for the graphics card and the power supply.

4. A rather expensive solution that I am pursuing is to use liquid coolers for the CPU's with Corsair Link. I currently have a H60 and H80i corsair liquid cooler. My plan was to use the H80i with Corsair Link to run the 2 fans for the radiators. The H80i plugs in to a 10-1 USB header (yes taking up 2 usb spots), but gives you software to control your fans and temperatures from the CPU under the H80i. I realize that taking a temperature reading from one CPU and applying it to both is rather risky, but I had the H60 hooked up to just one CPU with no fan on it at all (but the pump running full time) and I had no overheating issues until I started to really load up the system (benchmarks, etc.). Another option would be to run a case with a switch for the case fans. One that gives you 12v, 5v, 3v settings to adjust the fans manually. Not a great solution, but it will work so long as you remember to turn them up once you start laboring the CPU's.


@Gitrooman - I really want to see a picture of your GTX 970 plugged into the PCI slot. I wasn't able to get mine to plug in as the tray and connectors were in the way. The card would sit partially in the slot, but I couldn't get it fully seated.
1.Now that you mention it the NPDB wire was connected from the power distribution board which i removed before attempting to power on. I should mention that although my board did power on as soon as I plugged it in, I didnt get video until I placed the jumper you see in the video at the end of the post.

I'm tempted to mess with the front panel pins, but I'm afraid i'm going to burn out the board, do you think its possible to burn out the board through those pins?

2. Please let me know how that works out for you. I bet we just have to jump one of these pairs of pins thats on this board that we have no clue what their function is.

3. I did find one case that might just fit. It will be a very tight squeeze, but it measures up exactly according to the specs. I would love to get my hands on one just to measure the inside. I might pass by micro center and see if they have one and measure it.
Thermaltake Core X5
Thermaltake Core X5 CA-1E8-00M1WN-00 Black SPCC E-ATX Cube Case E-ATX Stackable Tt LCS Certified Cube Chassis - Newegg.com

4.Thanks for the tip about the corsair. Do those plug into the USB headers or the USB port? I hope its the ports, because i only see 1 usb header. Ideally the least expensive solution is the best solution, if we are shelling out $100 for each cooler then we were better off buying a premade workstation

5. See pictures 3 and 4 attached. I noticed I have a set of headers that weren't shown in your system board v1 picture you posted on the first page. I wonder what they are for.

My graphics card barely fit. It is literally resting on the ram latch. It really all depends on the card. I also tested a GTX 570 before I stuck my 970 to make sure it was safe and it worked too. Heres a video on the board i'm working with.

 

Attachments

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
Another option that I am looking into for fan control is the Master I/O board for the Alienware case.

Something similar to this:
Original Dell Alienware Area 51 Master I/O Board MS-4195 FDNW2 | eBay

I already have one in my case, but the interesting thing is, this board controls the fans for the HDD bays, PCIe area, RAM etc. As far as I know, it doesn't control the CPU, as there is a CPU FAN header on the Alienware mother board. But it also controls Wifi, bluetooth, vents to open and close the case, as well as LED's in many locations outside the case.

I haven't fully wrapped my head around what all you NEED to make it work, but I know it uses Alienware's Command Center Software to work, and I am pretty sure it gets its temperature readings either straight off the motherboard or else via sensors that you place within the case.

There is a lot of talk on forums about these boards not working or being a pain to get setup, but I wanted to play with one to see if it could be integrated into other systems. Just a thought.
If only it worked with CPUs it would be the prefect solution. It has great potential nonetheless. I'll consider getting one to play with since they're only $20 on ebay.
 

arcaster

New Member
Oct 11, 2016
10
0
1
34
Can't seem to get my nVidia Titan X to show up even with the proper linux drivers installed?

When I run "lspci -vnn | grep VGA" this is the response:

06:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family [1a03:2000] (rev 21) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

The port appears to be enabled and running at pci-e gen3 speeds in bios, yet the card is still not visible to ubuntu server. Do I have to disable the integrated video adapter or change other bios settings to get the GPU to show up? To clarify I've installed the nVidia 367.57 64-bit linux driver on ubuntu server 16.04LTS.
 

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
Can't seem to get my nVidia Titan X to show up even with the proper linux drivers installed?

When I run "lspci -vnn | grep VGA" this is the response:

06:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family [1a03:2000] (rev 21) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

The port appears to be enabled and running at pci-e gen3 speeds in bios, yet the card is still not visible to ubuntu server. Do I have to disable the integrated video adapter or change other bios settings to get the GPU to show up? To clarify I've installed the nVidia 367.57 64-bit linux driver on ubuntu server 16.04LTS.
Come to think of it, I did disable the onboard graphics before sticking in my video card. That might help, but be careful, if you don't get video from your graphics card, you'll have to find a way to reset the bios. I thought I had that problem and tried resetting bios and couldn't. It turns out I just had to be patient as the board takes a minute or two to boot up.
 

arcaster

New Member
Oct 11, 2016
10
0
1
34
Come to think of it, I did disable the onboard graphics before sticking in my video card. That might help, but be careful, if you don't get video from your graphics card, you'll have to find a way to reset the bios. I thought I had that problem and tried resetting bios and couldn't. It turns out I just had to be patient as the board takes a minute or two to boot up.
Interesting, I'll give that a shot when I get home.

Were you by chance using a powered PCI-e adapter? I'm just using a pci-e ribbon that is not powered. I do have PSU connections to the 6 and 8pin power connectors on the GPU itself.
 
Last edited:

arcaster

New Member
Oct 11, 2016
10
0
1
34
I've actually played with mine a bit more. Currebtly trying to use the rear card edge PCIe slot for a graphics card, but coming up empty handed. The card shows up in device manager with the correct model number. I have the correct drivers installed. It's coming up with error code 43 in device manager. See the pictures below.

Here are the gpgpu extender cables:


And they have a power connector on the back side of them for +12v and ground. I have that wired up to a 4 pin sata power connector from the power supply.

Here is the setup with the graphics card:


And here is a picture of the error code in device manager:


I have tested the PCI slot with a wifi adapter and it connected me to the internet. So I know the slot at least works.

Now, the strange thing is, I took the same hard drive I was using here, and the same graphics card, and plugged then into my desktop PC motherboard and the graphics card was recognized and worked perfectly.

I wonder if I am missing a motherboard driver or a setting in the BIOS in order to get the graphics card working. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.
Would it be possible to get a link to these powered risers? The build quality of these risers appears to be much better than what I can find on Amazon.
 

Gitrooman

New Member
Nov 7, 2016
16
3
3
44
Interesting, I'll give that a shot when I get home.

Were you by chance using a powered PCI-e adapter? I'm just using a pci-e ribbon that is not powered. I do have PSU connections to the 6 and 8pin power connectors on the GPU itself.
Nope, no PCIe adapter, I plugged it into the motherboard PCIe slot and 6+6 pin connectors. I've had bad experiences with risers with another build as I did saw big performance hits and studdering. I still have them laying around, maybe I'll give them a try just for kicks when I have time.