Dell Poweredge T440 and adding a video card

obviouslytom

obviouslytom

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I have a dual xeon poweredge T440 that mainly runs plex on it and file backup for the house. I want to add a video card to it and use it as a CAD workstation as well. The problem I am having is that when I add in a video card, the system fans immediately go to 100% operation and I can't get them to slow down. I have tried going thru the idrac settings but it is currently not letting me in because it claiming the wrong password, even though its the right one.

Does anyone know how I can add a video card and have it not sound like a jet is operating in my office?
 
I'm guessing you're missing some fan or temp sensor. System can't figure out if fans are spinning, goes into default mode which is fans at full blast. Are you adding a GPU, or replacing existing one? I'm guessing former.

Quick glance at Dell's documentation references needing AUX fans for cards over 75w. I'd dig deeper into that.
https://www.dell.com/support/manual...94f1b2-6679-4627-8895-1ca1f4ad745e&lang=en-us

Another thought: have you calculated whether your PSU can support the GPU you installed?
 
Last edited:
slavie said:
I'm guessing you're missing some fan or temp sensor. System can't figure out if fans are spinning, goes into default mode which is fans at full blast. Are you adding a GPU, or replacing existing one? I'm guessing former.

Quick glance at Dell's documentation references needing AUX fans for cards over 75w. I'd dig deeper into that.
https://www.dell.com/support/manual...94f1b2-6679-4627-8895-1ca1f4ad745e&lang=en-us

Another thought: have you calculated whether your PSU can support the GPU you installed?
Click to expand...
I would be adding in a video card to the system. The system has 2 main fans in it, one in front and one at the rear. The rear one is inside of a cover that goes over the CPUs since those have passive heatsinks on them instead of active ones with a fan. As for the PSU's in the system, it has 2 750w rated in it so I know it can handle it. I was trying to remote into the iDrac system using the default user and password which is what its set to and it won't let me in.
 
slavie said:
750w should be enough. So are you able to log into DRAC without GPU installed? It almost seems like the GPU is somehow incompatible with the system, but that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense - there shouldn't be any restriction.
Do you have an external fan on your system? Maybe the system wants to see one of these guys:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Kit-P...l-Upgrade-Lufter-Kabel-Halterung/362538625515
Click to expand...
When I tried it before I did have the video card in it. I will try tonight without it and see if it lets me in. I don't see why having a video card in it would prevent me from getting into Drac. As for the video card, its an AMD 5600 XT. The video card that was originally called out for it was some low end Quadro card.

I did find a website earlier with someone that added in a GTX 1050 https://vcojot.blogspot.com/2019/03/an-nvidia-gtx-1050-ti-in-that-poweredge.html and someone in the comments mentioned that there is a need for another fan and someone mentioned the gpu fan kit but for some reason it can't be installed after the fact, at least from what they said. Maybe its because the system only has the 1 120mm cooling fan and it figures it needs to ramp up to keep the PCI connections cooled?

Looking at the board layout, the rear case fan is plugged into either the internal fan port #18 here https://qrl.dell.com/Files/en-us/Ht...D-A361-43EA-93BA-3CD2001D02FD=1=en-us=Low.jpg

That would mean the GPU fan that you linked to, based on the power connector I can see, plugs into port #19, which is for the external fan. So I would guess the system sees there is another fan and thinks its all OK but I don't see where an external fan would mount on there because if its over the PCIE ports, it would block any connections.

EDIT: I found that the GPU fan mounts outside of the current 120mm fan https://www.dell.com/support/manual...04f323-9efd-483a-8b70-950c2a654b96&lang=en-us Why would you double up a fan like that? Although according to this, https://www.dell.com/support/manual...e64e47-6ecf-48c9-a5fb-11fa606cfd3b&lang=en-us that is exactly what you are supposed to do.

I wonder, could I get any fan with a 5 pin power connector and plug it in?
 
obviouslytom said:
When I tried it before I did have the video card in it. I will try tonight without it and see if it lets me in. I don't see why having a video card in it would prevent me from getting into Drac. As for the video card, its an AMD 5600 XT. The video card that was originally called out for it was some low end Quadro card.

I did find a website earlier with someone that added in a GTX 1050 https://vcojot.blogspot.com/2019/03/an-nvidia-gtx-1050-ti-in-that-poweredge.html and someone in the comments mentioned that there is a need for another fan and someone mentioned the gpu fan kit but for some reason it can't be installed after the fact, at least from what they said. Maybe its because the system only has the 1 120mm cooling fan and it figures it needs to ramp up to keep the PCI connections cooled?

Looking at the board layout, the rear case fan is plugged into either the internal fan port #18 here https://qrl.dell.com/Files/en-us/Ht...D-A361-43EA-93BA-3CD2001D02FD=1=en-us=Low.jpg

That would mean the GPU fan that you linked to, based on the power connector I can see, plugs into port #19, which is for the external fan. So I would guess the system sees there is another fan and thinks its all OK but I don't see where an external fan would mount on there because if its over the PCIE ports, it would block any connections.

EDIT: I found that the GPU fan mounts outside of the current 120mm fan https://www.dell.com/support/manual...04f323-9efd-483a-8b70-950c2a654b96&lang=en-us Why would you double up a fan like that? Although according to this, https://www.dell.com/support/manual...e64e47-6ecf-48c9-a5fb-11fa606cfd3b&lang=en-us that is exactly what you are supposed to do.

I wonder, could I get any fan with a 5 pin power connector and plug it in?
Click to expand...


I think this is why:
External cooling fan (optional) N/A Enables you to connect an optional redundant cooling fan.

If you have any old Dell 5-pin fan, that should work. The 5th pin must be the temp sensor, in addition to the 4 standard PWM pins. Though I can't quite tell from the pic - looks like the extra fan may be a 4-pin, which would be even easier (though then is it a PWM 4-pin or old school 3-pin + temp?)

It might prevent you from getting into DRAC if it goes into some fail-safe mode. Doesn't make sense to me, but who knows - these systems are built for redundancy and were designed by a bunch of smart dudes that knew better.
 
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