0

I am trying to put an NVIDIA Tesla K20C into a Dell PowerEdge R720xd. I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the power requirements of the card.

First, here is a picture of two pages of the same manual, which seems contradictory to me. One page says only a single connector is required, while the next page says both are required. The entire manual for the card can be found here: http://www.nvidia.com/content/PDF/kepler/Tesla-K20-Active-BD-06499-001-v02.pdf

enter image description here

Here is an photo taken of the power connections on the card:

enter image description here

And here is a photo of where those connectors need to go, onto the PCI-E riser of the r720xd:

enter image description here

Neither the R720xd NOR the GPU came with the necessary cables. And given what appears to be a contradiction in the GPU manual (above), I'm not even sure at this point what we actually need. I have searched high and low online for things like 2x6 pin PCI-E to 8 pin male-to-male and so on, and for the life of me cannot find what we need.

In case anyone needs it, the owner's manual of the R720xd can be found here: ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_poweredge/poweredge-r720xd_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf The relevant page is page 68, which clearly indicates that the 8-pin female port on the riser card is for a GPU.

The bottom line question: exactly what power cables do we need to buy, and where can we find them?

Improve this question
3
  • You have to talk to your Dell sales rep. They are not a standard item.
    – Squidly
    Feb 25, 2014 at 13:52
  • Yeah. Funny how people consider asking - for a product recommendation, which is not even welcome here - more sensible than to their supplier.
    – TomTom
    Feb 25, 2014 at 14:08
  • No product recommendations. Even to people that do not consider asking their supplier a sane approach in the first place. Man, TALK TO DELL. THey sell the server, one may htink they know what additional stuff they sell for it.
    – TomTom
    Feb 25, 2014 at 14:09

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Dell Power Edge R720xd simply does not support an internal GPU.

http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/dell-poweredge-r720-r720xd-technical-guide.pdf page 10

Improve this answer
0

To answer your question about the GPU power connectors: Some GPUs only need the power provided by one connector, and will only have one. More high end GPUs will need more power and have two connectors. If two connectors are present, you need to connect both of them, or the GPU will not have enough power to run at its full capacity.

As for the cables themselves, they are easy to find. The 8-pin to 6-pin GPU power cable can be had from a variety of web sites. For the other connector, use a Molex to 6-pin adapter. Note that with these adapters, both Molex connectors need to be connected to power in order to provide sufficient power. Sorting out what to with redundant PSUs is left as an exercise for the reader; it will probably involve Y cables and prayer...

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .