How do Dell R310s deal with unknown PCIe cards installed?

[Chris Beasley]

Hi,

Following on from my earlier posts about the HP DL180G6, I'm looking at replacing my aging modified PE2950 gen 3 with a server that is more power efficient, while still retaining 2 PCIe slots.

My use case is not particularly normal in that it is for a home setup and that the server will be baremetal install to act as my AD and TVServer for the house. As such, I need to be able to add two DVB-S2 cards to the chassis to receive the satellite feed.

I know that with certain other manufacturers, installing unknown PCIe cards cause their fans to go nuts as they assume the cards are overheating. How do Dell servers deal with this, in particular the R310? The R310 appears to meet all my needs and I think would be perfect.

Also, until I removed the Perc 6/I from my R410 it was quite noisy, how does the Dell R310 fare for fan noise? The system, along with everything else will be in a rack mount away from the living areas in the basement. I think I could cope with anything up to around 60dba but above that, it would be too noisy... I appreciate that 1u rack systems are not designed around being quiet but some genuine feedback here would be great.

Any help you can provide, or direction is appreciated.

Many thanks,

Chris

 

[vanfawx]

I can't speak to the R310's, but we have a bunch of R420's and R620's in production. When their fans ramp up to 99% they run around 22,000RPM (which is like a chorus of dental drills), but when running under normal operation in a DC they run at about 9% which is about 2600 to 3000ish RPM, which is quite quiet. So quiet I can barely hear the fans when I put my ear to the front of the server.

Can anyone confirm if the fan setup is the same between the 11G servers and 12G servers is the same? If so, I think you'd be good to go.

 

[manxam]

I have several Dell 11G servers: 410, 510, 610, and 710. All are running 'unusual' pci-e cards such as SCSI controller boards, 4gb Fibre, Mellanox cards, etc and none of them ramp up fan speed due to 'unsupported' cards.

The Dells are not like the HP with a 'sea of sensors' and really don't care what you put in them.

Enjoy your peace and quiet!

-M
P.S. I could have sworn I was a previous member and had posted before. Oh well, love this place

 

[Chris Beasley]

Thank you to you both! From what Dell have told me as well, the 11Gs do not have spin up for unsupported cards, unlike the later servers apparently!

 

[Terry Kennedy]

My use case is not particularly normal in that it is for a home setup and that the server will be baremetal install to act as my AD and TVServer for the house. As such, I need to be able to add two DVB-S2 cards to the chassis to receive the satellite feed.

IIRC, the PCIe slots on the R310 are x4 maximum. Not sure if that will be an issue or not.

I really like the R710's - more slots, easier to work on, real hot-swap bays (8 x 2.5" or 6 x 3.5", depending on chassis - on the R310's I've seen there are drive trays but no hot-swap backplane). Plus, you get the good front panel (LCD display) by default on the R710, while on the R310 the default is the basic 4-LED display.

The only thing that makes the fans go nuts in the R710 is the X5698 processor (the R710 is one of only a few chassis qualified for that part, and Intel insisted on maximum airflow).

 

[Chris Beasley]

Hi Terry,

Thanks. The Sat cards are x1 in them self for the dual tuners, and x4 for the quad. As I am unable to virtualise these cards correctly in vSphere or Xenserver, baremetal is really the only way to go for me for consistant, jitter free satellite TV.

I'd love the R710 but here in NZ, they're selling second hand at $995 NZD, where as I can find (& Delivered from Europe) a R310 for around $400NZD.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[vanfawx]

[QUOTE="The only thing that makes the fans go nuts in the R710 is the X5698 processor (the R710 is one of only a few chassis qualified for that part, and Intel insisted on maximum airflow).[/QUOTE]

Damn. I didn't know Intel made a 4.4GHz part in the 5600 series. Mind if I ask the application those R710's serve?

 

[Terry Kennedy]

I'd love the R710 but here in NZ, they're selling second hand at $995 NZD, where as I can find (& Delivered from Europe) a R310 for around $400NZD.

Ow! I found my R710's in a dumpster with over a year left on their warranties!

Be very sure to confirm the exact configuration (ideally with detailed photos) before ordering, particularly if you have to deal with international shipping and import fees. There are a lot of configuration options which are not changeable without replacing the chassis (single fixed vs. dual hot-swap power supplies, backplane or backplane-less drive bays, "dumb" or LCD front panel, etc.). Even something as simple as needing to order rack rails (which also come in 3 styles) can get very expensive.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

Damn. I didn't know Intel made a 4.4GHz part in the 5600 series. Mind if I ask the application those R710's serve?

Take a look at this Dell white paper. Basically, it is designed for high-frequency trading. In addition to the fans running flat-out, there are special solid-copper heat sinks (base and fins) - the stock R710 heat sinks are generic metal with a copper slug over the heat spreader.

New, a R710 with dual X5698's cost about $35,000 more than one with dual X5680's. I swapped the CPUs in mine to X5680's because I couldn't stand the fan noise and I ended up with 12 * 3.33GHz cores instead of 4 * 4.40GHz ones.

I should have sold the CPUs and heat sinks when I did that (a couple years ago) - recently most of the ones on eBay have been Q5C1 engineering samples and not real SLC32 X5698s and that has lowered the price a lot.

 

[Chris Beasley]

Ow! I found my R710's in a dumpster with over a year left on their warranties!

Be very sure to confirm the exact configuration (ideally with detailed photos) before ordering, particularly if you have to deal with international shipping and import fees. There are a lot of configuration options which are not changeable without replacing the chassis (single fixed vs. dual hot-swap power supplies, backplane or backplane-less drive bays, "dumb" or LCD front panel, etc.). Even something as simple as needing to order rack rails (which also come in 3 styles) can get very expensive.

Wow! That's a pretty impressive dumpster dump! We have companies who sell the ancient Dell PE2950(III) with not a lot of accessories for nearly $400NZD, they would have made a mint with that collection. Being in the Arse end of the universe has its issues when it comes to tech and shipping, hell even Australia is still about 1000 miles away (coast to coast).

Thanks for the advice, the auction closes soon so will ask question in the meantime.

 

[vanfawx]

Take a look at this Dell white paper. Basically, it is designed for high-frequency trading. In addition to the fans running flat-out, there are special solid-copper heat sinks (base and fins) - the stock R710 heat sinks are generic metal with a copper slug over the heat spreader.

New, a R710 with dual X5698's cost about $35,000 more than one with dual X5680's. I swapped the CPUs in mine to X5680's because I couldn't stand the fan noise and I ended up with 12 * 3.33GHz cores instead of 4 * 4.40GHz ones.

I should have sold the CPUs and heat sinks when I did that (a couple years ago) - recently most of the ones on eBay have been Q5C1 engineering samples and not real SLC32 X5698s and that has lowered the price a lot.

That's pretty nuts. I love hearing about some of Intel's lesser known parts. I have a L5639 in my home server. Thanks for the info!

 

[Diavuno]

my dl 180 g6's are loaded with the l5639's too

 

[Chris Beasley]

Does the R310 have the storage slot, similar to the R410? I've seen the two pcie slots on the risers, but there appears to be another slot below the left hand riser, placed on the psu side... Is this a storage slot? Dells PDFs don't seem to say anything on this as far as I have read.

 

[vanfawx]

If the R410's are anything like the R420's, they don't have a storage "slot" so much as a mezzanine card on the motherboard.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

Does the R310 have the storage slot, similar to the R410? I've seen the two pcie slots on the risers, but there appears to be another slot below the left hand riser, placed on the psu side... Is this a storage slot? Dells PDFs don't seem to say anything on this as far as I have read.

Bearing in mind that there are a variety of incompatible variants of R310, so any specific system may or may not have a particular component...

Take a look at page 166 of this manual. There is a dedicated x4 slot between the riser and the power supply (connector on the power supply side). It is an oddball slot and accepts the PERC S300 modular or the SAS 6/iR modular. The "modular" cards are different from the "integrated" cards which are just bracket-less versions of the regular cards. Other modular cards of a similar generation (like PERC H700) might work, but the Dell BIOS is very picky and will complain about "unrecognized card in slot" if the card isn't one of the ones that it knows about. No matter what card you have in that slot, you'll need the corresponding cable(s). I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the only Dell cables available for that slot are for the hot-swap SAS backplane versions of the chassis.

The motherboard connectors on the other side of the risers (away from the power supply) are for iDRAC 6 Express (toward the front of the chassis) and iDRAC6 Enterprise (near the back panel). Express is a prerequisite for Enterprise - an Enterprise card installed without an Express will complain and not enable itself.