Lots of PCIe slots! It also looks like its more of a standard form factor. That would make it easier to get in a case. If you experiment with one, let me know what you find out.
Dell PowerEdge C8220 Build and Questions
- Thread starter drabadue
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Lots of PCIe slots! It also looks like its more of a standard form factor. That would make it easier to get in a case. If you experiment with one, let me know what you find out.
A couple quick questions for those with functioning c8220/c6220 computers.
Is anyone using an Ethernet connection for internet? If so, what driver are you using? My Ethernet ports show up in device manager showing they need drivers, and when I plug them into my router I get nothing. I searched Dell's support site, but all the network drivers are for add-in cards. I tried to let windows find its own driver, but it had no luck.
Did anyone install the ASPEED 2300 display drivers? I installed the ones I found on Dells website, but the resolution options are very limited. I understand that it doesn't matter much, but it would be nice to have the right resolution on my VGA monitor when I have it hooked up.
@thomasz - did you end up leaving your 4 pin PWRCONN2 connector plugged in? Or have you been running without it?
From the sounds of it, are most of you guys running with the onboard VGA option disabled in BIOS? I have always left mine enabled. Whenever I disabled it, I could never get display out of my GPU. I always had to reset CMOS jumper to get the display back.
If you are running with the onboard VGA disabled, do you no longer see the 'configuring memory...done' screen? does it take awhile for the BIOS screen to appear? As in, its still doing the configuring memory screen, its just not showing up on the GPU display?
One more quick note, I have BIOS version 3.2.11 on my C6220 board. I searched Dells support site and the latest BIOS I could find was 2.7.1. I have no idea what the differences are, but i managed to extract the .BIN file of the 3.2.11 BIOS. If anyone wants the file, let me know. I would love to talk to someone who has experience with BIOS hacking to tell me what the differences are, or if its possible to get rid of the configuring memory screen.
Is anyone using an Ethernet connection for internet? If so, what driver are you using? My Ethernet ports show up in device manager showing they need drivers, and when I plug them into my router I get nothing. I searched Dell's support site, but all the network drivers are for add-in cards. I tried to let windows find its own driver, but it had no luck.
Did anyone install the ASPEED 2300 display drivers? I installed the ones I found on Dells website, but the resolution options are very limited. I understand that it doesn't matter much, but it would be nice to have the right resolution on my VGA monitor when I have it hooked up.
@thomasz - did you end up leaving your 4 pin PWRCONN2 connector plugged in? Or have you been running without it?
From the sounds of it, are most of you guys running with the onboard VGA option disabled in BIOS? I have always left mine enabled. Whenever I disabled it, I could never get display out of my GPU. I always had to reset CMOS jumper to get the display back.
If you are running with the onboard VGA disabled, do you no longer see the 'configuring memory...done' screen? does it take awhile for the BIOS screen to appear? As in, its still doing the configuring memory screen, its just not showing up on the GPU display?
One more quick note, I have BIOS version 3.2.11 on my C6220 board. I searched Dells support site and the latest BIOS I could find was 2.7.1. I have no idea what the differences are, but i managed to extract the .BIN file of the 3.2.11 BIOS. If anyone wants the file, let me know. I would love to talk to someone who has experience with BIOS hacking to tell me what the differences are, or if its possible to get rid of the configuring memory screen.
@thomasz - Thank you for the info. I will run mine this way as well for now.
Onto my problem with the Ethernet, I found a driver that works. I started out by looking for the technical specifications sheet to see if I could find what controller the ethernet used. In doing so, it looks like the C8220 and C6220 use the same controller. Intel I350.
So my next step was searching for the driver for the Intel I350 ethernet controller. A quick google search led me here:
Downloads for Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter I350 Series
Where I searched for my operating system (Win10 Pro x64), and after downloading and installing, I now have working ethernet ports.
I am not sure what the X540-AT2 means, but so far, everything is working as it should.
Attachments
@drabadue Glad to see your progress! I have a question for you regarding connect graphics card to the board via the Mezzanine port. There are Mezzanine to PCIe cables like DJC89 or XPW47. In addition to the PCIe sockets, they appear to be equipped with 2-pin (?) power sockets and some other signal sockets. Are they supposed to be connected somehow to somewhere? Thanks!
@thomasz - In this post, you can see how I had the GPGPU riser cable hooked up:
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.
The power connector on the back of the card is a 4 pin connector. It is a molex microfit connector.
I figured out the pins by studying pictures online and assuming yellow is +12v and black is ground. There are 2 +12v pins and 2 ground pins. I made a small adapter harness from a molex power connector. The 2 pins closest to the board are +12v and the 2 furthest away are ground. See the image below. Yellow is +12v and black is ground.
There are also 2 other smaller 2 pin headers. These say "THROCON1" and "THROCON2" on them, so I assume they are for GPGPU throttling.
Hopefully that helps. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
If I may ask, what did you intend to use the extra slot for?
Hello @drabadue , it is very kind of you for posting this detailed instruction with pictures. It is very informative and helpful. Thank you! I am going to give it a try. It sounds to be that the C8220X board has a total of *four* PCIe 16x slots (two of which are in Mezzanine format). This availability of extension is comparable to the high-end consumer's motherboards.
@thomasz - In this post, you can see how I had the GPGPU riser cable hooked up:
The power connector on the back of the card is a 4 pin connector. It is a molex microfit connector.
I figured out the pins by studying pictures online and assuming yellow is +12v and black is ground. There are 2 +12v pins and 2 ground pins. I made a small adapter harness from a molex power connector. The 2 pins closest to the board are +12v and the 2 furthest away are ground. See the image below. Yellow is +12v and black is ground.
View attachment 6334
There are also 2 other smaller 2 pin headers. These say "THROCON1" and "THROCON2" on them, so I assume they are for GPGPU throttling.
Hopefully that helps. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
If I may ask, what did you intend to use the extra slot for?
Hi there
the PCI-E port #3 (on the back of the mobo) has a MXM connector? the one used in the laptop pc for the GPU?
thanks
the PCI-E port #3 (on the back of the mobo) has a MXM connector? the one used in the laptop pc for the GPU?
thanks
@Limoneverde - If you are referring to the edge card slot, for the GPGPU riser cable and the rear interposer board, it is a a 3M SPD08 port. I am not sure how that compares to the MXM connector you referred to. I posted about that connector and the riser cables a few pages back:
Looks really good @thomasz. It is very compact and very clean looking!
@MumbleFysh - That is a good question. Every time I try to use the SATA ports, I have the interposer board removed. It would be a real bummer if the V1.0 board needs the interposer board for those ports to work. I need the board to be as short as possible to be able to fit it into a case.
I swap my sata connections around with the interposer board installed and report back. If that is the case, maybe we can make an extender cable or something to be able to move that interposer board. Something similar to what I have shown below. Which is a 3M SPD08 Twin Axial jumper cable. Both ends are male. We need an 'extender' cable where one would be male and one female. I could probably make one out of the GPGPU riser cables I have.
I have not tried hibernate/sleep functions. I would think they will work, however I have not tested to confirm.
Well, I can say that the BIOS update got my GTX 780 working, but I can not confirm that it works for every situatiuon. I recently bought a GTX 980Ti and installed it in the same dell PCIe GPGPU riser cable at the back of the board. When I fired everything up, I got this error before the BIOS splash screen:
When I got into windows, this is the error that was reported in device manager:
View attachment 4763
I had seen this error with the GTX 780, and the BIOS update is what solved it. Well, this time around, I didnt manage to get so lucky. I tried a number of things. First, I installed the same version of BIOS that I was already on. Simply ran the installer again. Rebooted. No change. Then I went ahead and downloaded an older version of the BIOS. Tried that. Rebooted. No change. Then I went ahead and uninstalled and reinstalled the Nvidia drivers, rebooting after each uninstall/install. This is where it gets interesting. There was no option to install the 'Nvidia HD Audio' driver. So I went forward and installed the drivers. Rebooted. No change. I decided to update the onboard ASpeed VGA drivers. Found them online and installed. Rebooted. No change.
At this point in time, I got fed up, so I removed the GTX 980Ti and reinstalled the GTX 780 on slot #4. Rebooted the computer and the PCI errors that showed up before the BIOS screen were gone. Got into windows, uninstalled the drivers, rebooted, installed the drivers, rebooted, and the GTX 780 works again.
So, just to prove that the GTX 980Ti will work on this system, I installed it in PCIe slot #1 with a riser cable. Started up the computer, no errors before the bios splash screen, made it to windows, the screens flashed a few times, and BOOM, both cards working simultaneously. I have no idea why the 980Ti doesn't work on slot #4, but it works on slot #1. I am going to try again to get that card working on slot #4, as that is where I have the GPGPU extender, and that gives me the most flexibility to mount the graphics card. Something about the way the BIOS 'allocates' resources seems to be causing issues? Maybe?
With the cards that I am using, I am not able to get them to fully seat into the PCIe slots. The ram is in the way. So I cant say for sure. But I can tell you, that the Dell C8220X GPGPU cables are quality units. They are made by 3M and are very nicely made. The wires are shielded with their 'twin axial' cables. Here is another shot I grabbed from their website:
From a performance standpoint, here is 3D Mark FireStrike ran with the GTX 780 on the Dell/3M GPGPU extended cable:
I scored 9 224 in Fire Strike
And here is the results of the 980Ti in a $20 ~7" PCIe riser cable I bought off Amazon, which seems it is no longer available. (Amazon.com: EZDIY PCI Express 16x Flexible Cable Card Extension Port Adapter High Speed Riser Card-9cm: Home Audio & Theater).
I scored 15 223 in Fire Strike
You can compare those scores to similar cards and see that they all performed near the same. Of course, you'll need to take into consideration the various over clocking speeds others may run at, and the fact that these dual CPU setups perform rather well at the physics portion of the benchmarks. So, its not a very good way of comparing, but its about the best I can do given the fact that I cant get my cards to go straight into the slot. Perhaps I can find a PCB style PCIe extender that will get my card up above the RAM. If I find one cheap, I will give it a try.
This is interesting. Something tells me I remember reading this in the manual somewhere, but paid it no attention. I wonder what the differences are between the interposer boards, and if they are interchangeable? Good find!
Just a quick update to keep the thread going. I made an interesting discovery this past week that I didn't know would work. As most of us know, these Dell boards do not have on board sound. So currently, I am running the sound out of the HDMI from my GTX980Ti to my TV, since the Nvidia card has sound output. Which works great.
I also have a Logitech G930 Wireless Headset. Which is USB. Now, not having on-board sound, I figured that there would be no way for the headset to work. But! I plugged it in, let Windows 10 install its drivers, and bam! Working headphones. Apparently, USB speakers and headphones have a built in "sound card" that will process the sound within themselves.
Going a step further, I tried Bluetooth headphones. I plugged a USB Bluetooth dongle into the computer, then searched for my Bluetooth headphones, and sure enough, that worked as well. Apparently Bluetooth headphones also have a built in way to process sound.
For some of you, this may be old news. But for me, I had no idea they would work without having on-board sound or an add-in sound card. So even though these boards don't have sound, you still have plenty of options for making it work.
I also have a Logitech G930 Wireless Headset. Which is USB. Now, not having on-board sound, I figured that there would be no way for the headset to work. But! I plugged it in, let Windows 10 install its drivers, and bam! Working headphones. Apparently, USB speakers and headphones have a built in "sound card" that will process the sound within themselves.
Going a step further, I tried Bluetooth headphones. I plugged a USB Bluetooth dongle into the computer, then searched for my Bluetooth headphones, and sure enough, that worked as well. Apparently Bluetooth headphones also have a built in way to process sound.
For some of you, this may be old news. But for me, I had no idea they would work without having on-board sound or an add-in sound card. So even though these boards don't have sound, you still have plenty of options for making it work.
@ansaabduli - I have used a few different ram setups with my board. They have all been EEC server memory. Kingston, Crucial, and another brand that I forget what brand. 1600MHz and 1333MHz. 4gb sticks and 16gb sticks. Some may work better than others, but remember that EEC memory will be a little "slower" than non-EEC memory as it has to verify that everything is correct.
Graphics card wise, I'm not sure anyone has tried the new generation of Nvidia cards, but I would think they would work. The newest card I've tried is the GTX 980Ti and it works perfectly.
@ansaabdulidrabadue Thank you!
Somebody tried to connect to this motherboard Controllers, Pci-e to USB 3.0 Or Pci-e to sata ??
I have not tried a usb3.0 or SATA card, but I imagine it would work. I don't see why not. I did try a wifi card, and it worked.
I have only installed 1600MHz and 1333MHz memory. In the manual it states that 1866MHz memory should work, if I remember right. I don't think there are settings in bios to overclock the memory. I may be wrong. I can take a look tonight and get back to you.
@ansaabduli
Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I forgot to look last night. Here is a picture I took awhile ago from when I was in the BIOS settings. Unfortunately, I do know think that I have any pictures of each individual setting. But I do not remember being able to adjust frequency in the BIOS.
Of course, the picture wont show up. I don't know why I have these issues. Anyway, here is the direct link to the picture.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/qey8i05wyn3db04/IMG_20170224_021003.jpg?dl=0
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/qey8i05wyn3db04/IMG_20170224_021003.jpg?dl=0
Hello, friends,
I have plug my GTX 1060 6GB graphic card in to PCI Slot #1, It works!
My board model is DCS7200S with BIOS 2.7.1
It ONLY works with the BIOS setting below:
Embedded Video Controller <Enabled>
and
Video Enumeration <onboard>
And it's no matter with the without OPROM and PCIe ASPM setting.
Here is some images
I have plug my GTX 1060 6GB graphic card in to PCI Slot #1, It works!
My board model is DCS7200S with BIOS 2.7.1
It ONLY works with the BIOS setting below:
Embedded Video Controller <Enabled>
and
Video Enumeration <onboard>
And it's no matter with the without OPROM and PCIe ASPM setting.
Here is some images
@crypton__
Excellent! Glad to see another board up and running! Thank you for sharing your bios setting and pictures of your build. Did you make the case yourself? Also, which riser card are you using to be able to use the GPU in that PCIe slot?
Excellent! Glad to see another board up and running! Thank you for sharing your bios setting and pictures of your build. Did you make the case yourself? Also, which riser card are you using to be able to use the GPU in that PCIe slot?
Actually I pickup this unit with the case and the riser card in my local computer shop, but I have been seen the same case and same riser card at taobao.
It's a 10GbE card: Intel® Ethernet Controller X540-AT2 Product Specifications
Do you have a mezz installed? The specs show the onboard as being only dual GigE.
Do you have a link to the case and riser card?
Thanks!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
@hmartin - after I posted that, I did some research on the X540-AT2 and realized that was a 10Gb card. I do not have a NIC other than the onboard ports. And they are for sure 1Gb. I am not sure why my device manager shows them as X540-AT2's. Maybe I installed the wrong driver? I wouldn't think so, but its possible.
I too would be interested to find that riser card. I have been buying the Dell C8220/C6220 right angle riser cards to make everything work, but it would be nice if I could stand the cards up, instead of laying them on their side.