Help me pick the right desktop

creayt

@creayt Massive overkill commence: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zYM9ZL
6c 12t (overclock this hard)

Though I have no expertise w/ OC-ing at all, and it's been probably 7-8 years since I assembled a rig myself, the T5810 has arrived and its performance is very disappointing, on top of that the SSDs are plain jane and generic looking SATA. So it's going back to Dell and I'm going to get savvy on self-assembly and go your suggested route.

I think I'm going to wait for the new processors in August, and spend the time up until then learning how to do all of this stuff again.

In the meanwhile, does anyone know how I can tell ahead of time what graphics cards will be compatible w/ my T110.2? It has a Thermaltake Tr/2 600W power supply, but none of the modernish cards I tried would boot. The pre-boot screen would sit and hold a solid underscore on a black screen or flash the underscore.

Thanks!

MattSpeller

@creayt said:

I'm going to get savvy on self-assembly and go your suggested route.

You won't regret it, and if you need any help I'd be happy to lend a hand. OC'ing is dead simple compared to the old days.

In the meanwhile, does anyone know how I can tell ahead of time what graphics cards will be compatible w/ my T110.2?

That's super strange, it should work a treat with any PCI-e gfx card. Perhaps a setting in the bios is doing something dumb? Are these known good cards?

Edit: Do these cards (5750?) require extra power connectors or do they pull it all from the PCIe slot?

creayt

@MattSpeller said:

You won't regret it, and if you need any help I'd be happy to lend a hand. OC'ing is dead simple compared to the old days.

I might just take you up on that, thanks.

That's super strange, it should work a treat with any PCI-e gfx card. Perhaps a setting in the bios is doing something dumb? Are these known good cards?

Edit: Do these cards (5750?) require extra power connectors or do they pull it all from the PCIe slot?

They all required the extra connector ( including the 5750 ), but I plug that in and it seems fine and the fans spin ( and of course it works on the 5750 ). The cards that failed were semi-mainstream seeming ones from BestBuy or NewEgg. I'll pull out the Quadro from the Precision and see if it boots later tonight.

@creayt said:

In the meanwhile, does anyone know how I can tell ahead of time what graphics cards will be compatible w/ my T110.2? It has a Thermaltake Tr/2 600W power supply, but none of the modernish cards I tried would boot. The pre-boot screen would sit and hold a solid underscore on a black screen or flash the underscore.

Thanks!

Might be to low of wattage for modern mid to highend cards. Also Possible there is a whitelist only for the Dell, though I would hope not. Lenovo and others have been known to whitelist only hardware.

creayt

Tried the NVidia Quadro, which doesn't have a separate power connector. Same issue, solid black underscore before any boot options or screen and it never gets past it.

If it's a wattage issue, would upgrading my power supply help? @thecreativeone91 @MattSpeller

MattSpeller

@creayt poke around in the bios to see if there's any options related to video. Also check and see if it has the most recent bios. Sounds like a compat issue

Edit: 600w PSU shouldn't have any issues running even a greedy gfx card + all the other bits.

Edit2: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

creayt

@MattSpeller said:

@creayt poke around in the bios to see if there's any options related to video. Also check and see if it has the most recent bios. Sounds like a compat issue

Edit: 600w PSU shouldn't have any issues running even a greedy gfx card + all the other bits.

Edit2: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Will do. Could it be related to the fact that I boot off of an add-in SATA 3 card? And any important change in the hardware breaks it? I'll scan the bios tonight, thanks.

creayt

This post is deleted!

creayt

Any chance that the issue is the motherboard? The T110.2 is a SMB tower server meant to be run without a graphics card in general I'd presume. The mobo doesn't even come w/ Sata III.

Specs: http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/Dell-PowerEdge-T110II-SpecSheet.pdf

4 PCIe 2.0 slots:
Two x8 slots
One x4 slot
One x1 slot

I wonder if the cards that failed all required a 3.0 slot, or a x16?

MattSpeller

@creayt shouldn't matter, at least I know my setup works with a 3.0 card in a 2.0 slot

@creayt said:

Any chance that the issue is the motherboard? The T110.2 is a SMB tower server meant to be run without a graphics card in general I'd presume. The mobo doesn't even come w/ Sata III.

Specs: http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/Dell-PowerEdge-T110II-SpecSheet.pdf

4 PCIe 2.0 slots:
Two x8 slots
One x4 slot
One x1 slot

I wonder if the cards that failed all required a 3.0 slot, or a x16?

No PCIe X16 could be the issue. Most card will run at lower speeds in 2.0 slots but, they might need the lanes of the x16 slots.

creayt

So there was a setting in the BIOS to change the integrated video from standard to distributed, which I changed to distributed. The only other card I have handy is the Quadro K220 which has no power connector and expects its fuel from the PCIe slot. The graphics slot on this board only gets you 25w though so that may be the issue w/ that one. I might try purchasing another card off of Amazon or something to try it out, though it's doing the same thing w/ the solid underscore instead of any boot sequence. Sure wish I had another card lying around.

creayt

The weird thing about this board is it's a PCIe G2 x8 slot w/ x16 connectors and a max of 25w.

creayt

I think I'll discard the unchewed bullet and stick it out until I build the new system as-is. I'm technically able to run all 3x 2560x1440 monitors w/ the 5750 running one through display port and a D3100 dock running the other 2, but the 2nd monitor through the dock is only running at 50 Hz and it's killing me. Some people say it shouldn't be perceptible ( some programmers even claim to work on a 30Hz 4k setup, wtf? ) but to me it's completely palpable w/ the cursor tracking and keyboard input appearing. I'm going to hunt down a dual-link DVI cable and see if the 5750 can't power 2 at 60Hz.

But then as soon as the new procs and mobos are out, it's upgrade time.

For the record, the 14 core Precision actually felt less responsive than this t110.2. It was very noticeable for me. So SCREW any processor w/ a baseline speed of less than 3.3.

Again, thanks everyone for your help and input on this. @MattSpeller, I'll definitely be spamming you for advice and insight as I dig into the puzzle of jaw-dropping performance on a budget.

creayt

Also if anyone has any tips on where to start in learning to system build the GF is going in on it w/ me and we'll be building our own desktops side by side, and she'd like to start w/ 101. Thanks.

MattSpeller

@creayt pcpartpicker.com --> has compatibility filter built in, makes it harder to screw up and faster to build out stuff

tomshardware.com --> best ___ for the money monthly charts are awesome, example below
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

creayt

@MattSpeller said:

@creayt pcpartpicker.com --> has compatibility filter built in, makes it harder to screw up and faster to build out stuff

tomshardware.com --> best ___ for the money monthly charts are awesome, example below
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Very nice! I didn't realize it had compatibility validation. That's hardcore. Thanks.

creayt

Eureka. Apparently you have to.. wait for it... downgrade the bios.

http://level7systems.co.uk/en/dell_poweredge_t110_ii_and_pcie_video_card/

Going to try this and then throw the Quadro back in there. Fingers crossed.

creayt

Did a bit of soldering and wired 4 of those M2s together into a Raid 0.

JK. That's an 850 Pro in rapid mode.

Reid Cooper

That's completely insane. 4.5GB/s!!