Dell PowerEdge T440 : first thoughts , some oddities and good results

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ElCoyote_

Active Member
Jul 22, 2016
193
118
43
Hi all,
Just wanted to share my thoughts on the Above equipment.
I got a new 'minimal' T440 to replace my maxed-out T130.
The config that I got was:
- 1* Xeon Silver 4110 (8C/16T)@ 2.1Ghz
- 8Gb DDR4-2666V
- PERCH330 (Will be relocated to the T130 for selling)

Once I got the machine, I tested it minimally and transferred the following equipment from the T130:
- PERC H730P
- Disks
- i350-4 NIC
- MSi/NVidia GT 1030 GPU (30W)

This is when things started to get ugly.
- First of all, at some point during transfer, the main 120mm system fan maxed out (4920rpm, unbelievably louder than my T430) and stuck there. Even a complete power off and removing cards didn't solve it. I did also reset the iDrac but the fan would spin back up to max speed shortly after power-up. (More on this later). I removed the GPU and set the NIC slot to 'Custom' LFM but it still stayed around 4900rpm.

- The NVidia card went into the only x16 PCIe slot and wouldn't even be detected (I do have the same exact GPU in my T430 and it also ran fine in the T130 so that came as a surprise). When contacted, Dell Support first attempted to talk me out of using GeForce cards in PowerEdge Servers but since my T430 ran just fine and was still under active support, I had them drop that pretty quickly. Then they said that a GPU would only work in Slot3 (x16) if I had -two- cpus, not one. With one cpu, the GPU could only be used in Slot2 (an x8). This is the first time I've heard something like this and unfortunately, I don't have a x8 GPU to test this theory with.

- The T440 seems very picky about memory. I initially tried with 4*16 DDR4-2133 P DIMMs I had purchased and the server refused to accept those DIMMs (HMA42GL7MFR4N-TF), stopping at bootup and saying: "Memory Incompatible: You are using a non-production memory module than is not Supported".
- The T440 also refused to use the 4*16Gb UDIMMs I had in the T130 (UDIMMs aren't supported).
- In the end, I transferred 2*32Gb 2133 LRDIMMs from my T430 to the T440 and it worked (pfew).

- The iDrac9 seems overall buggier than the iDrac8. During testing I ran into the following issues: 1) The LD complaining that a cannot schedule a job for the same part (BIOS) when the jobqueue shows no jobs. 2) at some point the LC stopped responding and an iDrac reset didn't solve it. I had to unplug the server and power it back up. I hope later firmware versions will fix this.

- I'm still researching the fan rpm issue but I've at least been able to reduce fan noise by using the old 'ipmitool' trick from RHEL: ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00 and ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x0d

Overall, I am quite happy with this server even though it's been quite a ride so far. The machine is fast and with the Fan set to 1080rpm, with just one PSU and one CPU, it idles at 60Watts with almost no noise. I still want to get a GPU going but I guess I'll have to find the Budget for a 2nd cpu + heatsink.
 

javajoe

New Member
Dec 7, 2020
5
2
3
Hi all,
Just wanted to share my thoughts on the Above equipment.
I got a new 'minimal' T440 to replace my maxed-out T130.
The config that I got was:
- 1* Xeon Silver 4110 (8C/16T)@ 2.1Ghz
- 8Gb DDR4-2666V
- PERCH330 (Will be relocated to the T130 for selling)

Once I got the machine, I tested it minimally and transferred the following equipment from the T130:
- PERC H730P
- Disks
- i350-4 NIC
- MSi/NVidia GT 1030 GPU (30W)

This is when things started to get ugly.
- First of all, at some point during transfer, the main 120mm system fan maxed out (4920rpm, unbelievably louder than my T430) and stuck there. Even a complete power off and removing cards didn't solve it. I did also reset the iDrac but the fan would spin back up to max speed shortly after power-up. (More on this later). I removed the GPU and set the NIC slot to 'Custom' LFM but it still stayed around 4900rpm.

- The NVidia card went into the only x16 PCIe slot and wouldn't even be detected (I do have the same exact GPU in my T430 and it also ran fine in the T130 so that came as a surprise). When contacted, Dell Support first attempted to talk me out of using GeForce cards in PowerEdge Servers but since my T430 ran just fine and was still under active support, I had them drop that pretty quickly. Then they said that a GPU would only work in Slot3 (x16) if I had -two- cpus, not one. With one cpu, the GPU could only be used in Slot2 (an x8). This is the first time I've heard something like this and unfortunately, I don't have a x8 GPU to test this theory with.

- The T440 seems very picky about memory. I initially tried with 4*16 DDR4-2133 P DIMMs I had purchased and the server refused to accept those DIMMs (HMA42GL7MFR4N-TF), stopping at bootup and saying: "Memory Incompatible: You are using a non-production memory module than is not Supported".
- The T440 also refused to use the 4*16Gb UDIMMs I had in the T130 (UDIMMs aren't supported).
- In the end, I transferred 2*32Gb 2133 LRDIMMs from my T430 to the T440 and it worked (pfew).

- The iDrac9 seems overall buggier than the iDrac8. During testing I ran into the following issues: 1) The LD complaining that a cannot schedule a job for the same part (BIOS) when the jobqueue shows no jobs. 2) at some point the LC stopped responding and an iDrac reset didn't solve it. I had to unplug the server and power it back up. I hope later firmware versions will fix this.

- I'm still researching the fan rpm issue but I've at least been able to reduce fan noise by using the old 'ipmitool' trick from RHEL: ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x01 0x00 and ipmitool raw 0x30 0x30 0x02 0xff 0x0d

Overall, I am quite happy with this server even though it's been quite a ride so far. The machine is fast and with the Fan set to 1080rpm, with just one PSU and one CPU, it idles at 60Watts with almost no noise. I still want to get a GPU going but I guess I'll have to find the Budget for a 2nd cpu + heatsink.
Why is it that they dont update the BIOS prior to shipping these things out... UPDATE your BIOS and anything else that needs it...
I did and my fan got quiet, hardly hear the machine now..
 
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ElCoyote_

Active Member
Jul 22, 2016
193
118
43
@javajoe I agree. On the other hand it took me quite a while to tame the T440 but when I did, I started liking the machine. After a while, I realized that the T440 didn't have enough PCIe slots for my use case so I sold the T440 and got a PowerEdge T640 to use as my workstation.
That one (the T640) had its share of gotchas too but I'm very happy with it and now use it as my daily driver.
 

javajoe

New Member
Dec 7, 2020
5
2
3
Why is it that they dont update the BIOS prior to shipping these things out... UPDATE your BIOS and anything else that needs it...
I did and my fan got quiet, hardly hear the machine now..
 

javajoe

New Member
Dec 7, 2020
5
2
3
Why is it that they dont update the BIOS prior to shipping these things out... UPDATE your BIOS and anything else that needs it...
I did and my fan got quiet, hardly hear the machine now..
Why is it that they dont update the BIOS prior to shipping these things out... UPDATE your BIOS and anything else that needs it...
I did and my fan got quiet, hardly hear the machine now..
IM already out of slots on my T440, selling and getting T640 may be a better idea!
 
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Reactions: ElCoyote_

javajoe

New Member
Dec 7, 2020
5
2
3
Yes, the T640 is a very good choice (check my other thread in the forum).
I was told by DELL sales that the T440 supported m.2 nvme bifurcation. Although he didnt lie, he stretched the truth.
I wanted to be able to use a Asus Hyper m.2 X16 Gen 4 Card with a filled regime of SSD nvme sticks.
It ONLY works with one SSD stick. Does not do the slot bifurcation on the X16 slot# 3..
 

ElCoyote_

Active Member
Jul 22, 2016
193
118
43
@javajoe I don't have NVMe drives that necessitate PCI-e bifurcation on my T640 (have two x8 single-drive PCI-e cards) but I've seen that option in the BIOS. Isn't the ASUS a card with 4 slots? In that case, you'd need to configure it as 4 times x4 PCIe bifurcation. (I -think- but I can't verify it).
 

javajoe

New Member
Dec 7, 2020
5
2
3
@javajoe I don't have NVMe drives that necessitate PCI-e bifurcation on my T640 (have two x8 single-drive PCI-e cards) but I've seen that option in the BIOS. Isn't the ASUS a card with 4 slots? In that case, you'd need to configure it as 4 times x4 PCIe bifurcation. (I -think- but I can't verify it).
Yes the card has capability for 4 nvme ssd sticks. On my T440 bios slotbifurcation, they dont list slot 3 which is the only 16x pcie slot.. :(