Server into gaming rig.

[Sarbaaz]

I recently bought a slightly used dell poweredge r710 e02s001 from a company selling old equipment. I looked into buying a graphics card and installing. From my research and my budget i decided to go with ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 6GB. And to use its own dedicated 500w power source. As for as I can tell it isn't worth trying to upgrade the cpu. So my question would be is this even worth the investment? I would like to use it as a gaming rig and for video editing with after effects and premier provider if it works out. Any feed back on if this is possible or what I could do better within my budget would be awesome! Thanks!

 

[Toothless]

If this is the double Xeon one, then go for it. I'd say get a new PSU that meets all requirements and a 1060 would be perfect in there.

 

[Kanan]

It's possible but the low clock of the cpus will limit the gpu and games. Question is if you can overclock the cpu with that Mainboard - if yes then it's great but needs some work and better cooler probably.

 

[Kursah]

Honestly, use it as a home server for things like file server, Plex, TeamSpeak, games (Mincraft, CoD, etc. etc.). You can probably game on it...but you'd be better off with a dedicated system for gaming and a dedicated server for doing server stuff. Not sure if you're interested in a home lab, but that would be a good foundation to start with.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

It's possible but the low clock of the cpus will limit the gpu and games. Question is if you can overclock the cpu with that Mainboard - if yes then it's great but needs some work and better cooler probably.

exactly what he said ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Sarbaaz]

If this is the double Xeon one, then go for it. I'd say get a new PSU that meets all requirements and a 1060 would be perfect in there.

It is the double 5500 series, from what I'm reading in replies, is i should look into over clocking with added cooling

 

[dorsetknob]

what you can do depends on which xeon 5500 series chips its equipped with
you probably don't have a good board suitable for overclocking.!
Dells were not known for the ability to overclock

 

[biffzinker]

I did have fun at school overclocking a Dell with a Pentium 4 (Celeron) using Clockgen the first day they handed it to me. Had it running at 3.6 GHz using FSB overclocking.

The Dell was mine to use through college/trade school at the time, at one time the instructor had everyone disassemble down to individual components.

 

[slozomby]

the dell R710 comes with a 4 or 6 core xeon. not the fastest chips around. you might be able to put a 12 core in there ( they are pretty cheap on ebay). 4 gig ram sticks ( ecc registered) for it are dirt cheap so loading it up with ram isn't an issue.

the big problems you'll run across when trying to make a useable workstation out of it are lack of pcie power cables and power supply availability.. and its designed as a forced air system. meaning it wants the room cool and the fans are going to be loud because they run near max rpm all the time.
if you do get to power a GPU in there. there's not going to be a lot of space between card and the mainboard/lid depending on which side of the riser you use. so the card will run hot as well.

not trying to pee on your cheerios just giving you a realistic breakdown of issue's you'll come across.

 

[Sarbaaz]

the dell R710 comes with a 4 or 6 core xeon. not the fastest chips around. you might be able to put a 12 core in there ( they are pretty cheap on ebay). 4 gig ram sticks ( ecc registered) for it are dirt cheap so loading it up with ram isn't an issue.

the big problems you'll run across when trying to make a useable workstation out of it are lack of pcie power cables and power supply availability.. and its designed as a forced air system. meaning it wants the room cool and the fans are going to be loud because they run near max rpm all the time.
if you do get to power a GPU in there. there's not going to be a lot of space between card and the mainboard/lid depending on which side of the riser you use. so the card will run hot as well.

not trying to pee on your cheerios just giving you a realistic breakdown of issue's you'll come across.

Since I'm running it in my basement the noise shouldn't be an issue and I was going to use a ribbon cable to the gpu so I could externally use it in a separate chassis with its own psu and cooling system. It will look like a hack job but I really am not concerned as long as it works

 

[alucasa]

What's the exact CPU model? If it's 6 core with decent ghz, you could sell'em on ebay for pretty money.

From my own experience and I have my own 14U rack with two 2U rackmounts, cooling 2U silently is always a challenge.

 

[GhostRyder]

I recently bought a slightly used dell poweredge r710 e02s001 from a company selling old equipment. I looked into buying a graphics card and installing. From my research and my budget i decided to go with ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 6GB. And to use its own dedicated 500w power source. As for as I can tell it isn't worth trying to upgrade the cpu. So my question would be is this even worth the investment? I would like to use it as a gaming rig and for video editing with after effects and premier provider if it works out. Any feed back on if this is possible or what I could do better within my budget would be awesome! Thanks!

I did a very similar thing with my R710 by putting a 0 power connector GTX 950 Asus. Its worth it if you have a good high clocked Xeon in it.

 

[peche]

its easier if you told us exactly what you try to do with the Xeon, if im not wrong thats a blade server.... big one, with noisy coolers and weird factror PSU that cant be replace it with another different that the original, [it has like a chip or contacts on PSU to know if its plugged, if the chip or contacts arent working server wont power on] also, the big space on a blade server isnt great for extra hardware like gaming hardware, its better to give a format to that server and leave it working as home server for all kind of files and crap, or crunch...


Regards,

 

[Sarbaaz]

What's the exact CPU model? If it's 6 core with decent ghz, you could sell'em on ebay for pretty money.

From my own experience and I have my own 14U rack with two 2U rackmounts, cooling 2U silently is always a challenge.

It's a 5570 2.93ghz. I'm not sure how much I can upgrade it from less that $100 though

 

[GhostRyder]

It's a 5570 2.93ghz. I'm not sure how much I can upgrade it from less that $100 though

It will be fine for 1080p gaming, just temper your expectations of Ultra on every game you throw at it.

 

[Sarbaaz]

its easier if you told us exactly what you try to do with the Xeon, if im not wrong thats a blade server.... big one, with noisy coolers and weird factror PSU that cant be replace it with another different that the original, [it has like a chip or contacts on PSU to know if its plugged, if the chip or contacts arent working server wont power on] also, the big space on a blade server isnt great for extra hardware like gaming hardware, its better to give a format to that server and leave it working as home server for all kind of files and crap, or crunch...


Regards,

I wasn't planning on doing anything with the CPU's. There really isn't an upgrade that I saw worth the money. My only question was is it possible to plug in a gpu and have the hardware and software work. My plan was to get a dedicated psu for the gpu and use a ribbon cable to connect it, and leave the gpu and it's psu external. Im leaving the hardware itself in my basement and running the USB extenders to my screen upstairs for the keyboard and mouse. It sounds sloppy but honestly it's for my wife. She has been bugging me for a gaming computer for awhile now and I haven't had the money so I'm trying to make due with what I have.

 

[alucasa]

It's a 5570 2.93ghz. I'm not sure how much I can upgrade it from less that $100 though

It's a decent quad core. That's about it. You could easily get 6c/12t cpu in there but, for gaming, I don't see the point.

For 2U, the best GPU to get in there is 750ti if the rear PCI basket is vertical. If it's horizontal, you are going to need a PCI-E ribbon in which case you could use higher end GPU.

I am pretty sure Dell uses redundant PSU. You can get higher capacity but they aren't cheap. Depending on how the PSU socket is designed, you could simply also get 2U PSU.

All in all, everything is going to cost pretty penny, so it's unlikely worth the money. It's fun though. It''s nothing like building an ATX case.

 

[TheMikeT]

I have a T710 power edge with 2 5650’s I want to turn into a gaming PC. How ??