Supermicro X11-DPi-NT for $273 OBO. Shipping from CA extra.

[Samir]

I stand partially corrected..lol. But the concern still remains that many monitors (esp even more so with newer ones) with DVI inputs might not have be able to accept analog signal through their DVI since most of the reason why monitor manufacturers would have a dvi input on their monitor in first place is to move away from vga analog signal.

Also, this adapter with its analog signal would not let you use a dvi-HDMI adapter to connect to HDMI inputs on most new monitors because HDMI is all digital signals. So this adapter still leaves a lot of concern and compatibility with newer hardwares that are mostly digital only

At no point did I state that a $10 passive adapter will adapt an analog signal to a digital one.

If all you have is a digital screen then your choices are active adapter or a cheap monitor (duh). If a DVI to HDMI adapter is the active type, it would still work with an adapter like this, but then you can just get an active VGA HDMI adapter in the first place instead.

Most racks will still have VGA KVMs, and for looking at CLI output VGA is perfectly adequate--hence why manufacturers are just putting another VGA port on a newer server. They're not going to bend over backwards for the homelab crowd who are using servers outside of their intended environment.

 

[nabsltd]

Or you can spend a more (lot more) and get a full blown vga to dp solution that should last for a long time:

I went with cheap VGA to HDMI adapters from Temu. The only time I have issues are with the console display of modern Linux distributions that refuse to use a text-only format for what should be a text console.

 

[Samir]

Still doesn't leave the fact that you can't use it with dvi-hdmi adapter so you can use most of the newer monitors which has hdmi inputs.

Unless you use an active dvi-hdmi adapter, but then you can just use an active vga-hdmi one.

And I've found most newer monitors are actually displayport vs hdmi, so you have to adapt hdmi to dp if you have hdmi. DP has become the new VGA port after the shakeout from vga/dvi/hdmi/dp.

And this mess of adapters is really why I wish they wouldn't have messed with vga connector--I had no problem running my preferred 2560x1600 res on a 22" crt it would have been nice to just have some smart signaling that would have worked the same as dp over the same port. Would have saved a lot of trouble.

 

[BlueFox]

I've found that most anything with a DVI will accept both I and D. ymmv.

On the output side of a GPU, sure. Good luck finding a monitor with a DVI-I or DVI-A port on the input side. I have never seen one and would like to see an example.

 

[Koop]

Why are you guys connecting a monitor to this at all lol ... Just use IPMI? Quite the discussion in here haha.

 

[RolloZ170]

On the output side of a GPU, sure. Good luck finding a monitor with a DVI-I or DVI-A port on the input side. I have never seen one and would like to see an example.

if some now plans to buy a monitor for this case, i recommend to buy one with DVI and VGA input. best solution thought.

 

[RolloZ170]

Why are you guys connecting a monitor to this at all lol ... Just use IPMI? Quite the discussion in here haha.

pssst...they have only this computer/server. for IPMI you need second PC thought.

 

[RolloZ170]

Why are you guys connecting a monitor to this at all lol ... Just use IPMI?

what (in the rare case) if you can't login because you need first in the BIOS to set up the IP stuff ?

 

[Koop]

pssst...they have only this computer/server. for IPMI you need second PC thought.

That sounds like a pretty farfetched scenario. No other computer that you can connect to it over the network- not even a smartphone? Is this being configured in an isolated bunker or something? Eh lol

what (in the rare case) if you can't login because you need first in the BIOS to set up the IP stuff ?

I'd use IPMIView to scan the network. Or I'd check my DHCP server to see what IP was assigned to the IPMI connection. I guess barring that I'd use a KVM or at worst a VGA monitor.

Can't you also connect over serial? Never done that before though.

 

[wildpig1234]

if some now plans to buy a monitor for this case, i recommend to buy one with DVI and VGA input. best solution thought.

I have to keep one around just for this purpose, a dell 19in lcd. And this thing is around basically just for the only purpose of having a vga and dvi inputs... lol...

 

[piranha32]

It was for a non-server project, but I've got from ebay one of the cheap LCD panels with a controller, and mounted it in a 3-d printed frame. It should be possible to mount such screen in a 3U server case.

 

[nexox]

It was for a non-server project, but I've got from ebay one of the cheap LCD panels with a controller, and mounted it in a 3-d printed frame. It should be possible to mount such screen in a 3U server case.

Looks nicer than mine, I didn't pay attention to the orientation of the driver board when I purchased it and it ended up with the VGA connector sticking out the top, with no option to rotate the input in the controller settings.

 

[izx]

I've found the $12-15 active VGA-to-HDMI adapters with USB power work well enough (no issues with low-current USB 2.0 ports either).

But this thread makes me want to scrounge up an old 18" Samsung that I have....somewhere...

 

[piranha32]

Looks nicer than mine, I didn't pay attention to the orientation of the driver board when I purchased it and it ended up with the VGA connector sticking out the top, with no option to rotate the input in the controller settings.

It was designed to hide all connections inside the device, so the board was located to give enough space for all the plugs to fit within the outline of the monitor module


BTW. there are server cases with a built in monitor https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804230577499.html

 

[nexox]

It was designed to hide all connections inside the device, so the board was located to give enough space for all the plugs to fit within the outline of the monitor module

I went with a 5" screen and the control board is almost the size of the display, plus the ribbon cable is very short, I didn't have many options for placing the two. Naturally while that item was slowly shipping across the Pacific I found a better setup, but I don't really need two...

 

[piranha32]

One comment about vga-hdmi adapters: they are not created equal. Some don't work at all, some don't support this one video mode which your motherboard uses to display image, in many cases the mode switching delay is long enough that some of the important information is gone by the time the image re-appears on the monitor (e.g. "Press ... to enter configuration")

 

[Sean Ho]

VGA for compatibility with KVM console servers, e.g., Avocent. Sometimes IPMI arrives set to static IP, and it's easier to connect a monitor to flip it to DHCP than to sniff the network. But this is all just for console work; we're not gaming on the BMC graphics, we don't need high resolution.

 

[Fritz]

It was designed to hide all connections inside the device, so the board was located to give enough space for all the plugs to fit within the outline of the monitor module


BTW. there are server cases with a built in monitor https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804230577499.html

Shipping is a deal breaker. They can keep it.

 

[wildpig1234]

there's nothing like directly interfacing with a real keyboard and live display of the bios without the hassle of having to boot up another computer . I have always been playing with these MB with direct interface! And i prefer to do that!

 

[nexox]

I'm sure somebody out there has instructions on how to make a VT100 console out of an arduino and a dot matrix LCD, peak direct interface computer experience.

I do really need to borrow a serial console server from work one day... thought I grabbed one a while ago but I didn't look hard enough and ended up with an SDR IB switch that's the same size and color...