# Building a computer with XEON x3440



## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Hello TSF,

Well I bought a server from Dell a year ago, and I'm not using it anymore. So, I would like to change it to a budget-or-better type PC mainly for gaming, video rendering, animations, video production. I'm not going to play a game at the highest settings though, just as long as I can play WoW at medium settings.

Hence, I'm stuck with this $2,344 USD poweredge server. Is there anyway to reuse the motherboard, processor, heatsink, HDD (1TB), to change it to a decent pc? My current server does not have an audio  
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System Information
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Time of this report: 5/19/2012, 12:00:39
Machine name: KELVIN-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120330-1504)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: PowerEdge T110
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 1.3.4
Processor: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.5GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3062MB RAM
Page File: 1418MB used, 4704MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 32bit Unicode

Thank you for any advice given.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

No answers?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Hello, I've did some research, my Dell Poweredge server comes with 4 PCIe slots, x1,x4 and Two x8 slot, (one with x16 connector)

So I saw some online dude, buying a GT 430.
Quoted from him


> That appears to be the GeForce 210 or, if I understand you correctly, the Geforce GT 430 if either of those cards will fit and as long as the mobo is compliant with PCI-E 2.0. Do you know if they are, because I'm not sure...


So is it possible to do so? and what does the x16 connector means? can I slot a graphics card that is x16 to a x8 slot, since the dell specs said, one is a x16 connector.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The slot is long enough to fit a X16 card but it's only wired as a x8 slot, for a low end card 8 pcie lane are plenty a lot of dual slot sli/xfire motherboards are set up with one x16/x16 and one x16/x8 slot so that's not an issue.

Will a card fit in the case?(if memory serves that's full width case) Dell boards usually have proprietary front panel connectors and sometimes non standard shapes to use in a standard ATX case


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Theres a huge heat sink mounted on the XEON core processor. There are certainly slots and a holder to allow a card to fit in, but I'm not too sure, here's a pic taken from my iPod touch


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I can tell much from the image, it is a full width case so no problem there.
#8 in the image is a full length PCie x16 slot wired as x8.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Hey Wrench, thanks for replying,

I got a feedback from other forums, and this is what he said


> Maybe a graphic card can be added on a PCI-Express slot (Not on a single PCI bus, because the bus is lower than AGP...) A PCI sound card can be found (For example, with the CMEDIA CS-OEM-51 chipset).
> For a modest budget, the graphic card "Nvidia GTX 550 (Or 550) Ti" is a great one, on a PCI Express slot. But on many model, an external power supply is needed, be careful ;-)


What do he mean by not on a single PCI bus, because the bus is lower than AGP?

And for the external power supply, I don't think I need it, cause, the poweredge is powered by 305watt. Am I right?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

oh and i think i can forgo that nvidia, its too pricey


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

There are PCI slots(you do not have any) PCIe slots(like you have) and AGP slots(again you do not have) the type of slot determines what card will both physically fit in them and how they are connected electrically.

PCI or Peripheral Component Interconnect slots are older being replaced by PCIe but you still today do see PCI.









PCIe or Peripheral Component Interconnect Express was introduced in 2004 available as x1, x4, x8 and x16 each starting with x1 have the same electrical configuration for the first 18 connections, as the x number goes up the card gets longer and adds what is called lanes or data connections from the card to the CPU a x1 card has 1 lane transmit and 1 receive, a x4 card 4 lanes transmit and 4 lanes receive, and so forth up to x16.
That said a x1 card will fit and work in any PCIe slot only using the first 18 connections. A x16 card is longer and has to have a full size x16 slot.
The x16 slot has 82 electrical connections on your motherboard having a x16 slot wired to x8 specs it means of the possible 82 connections only 49 are connected. 
Think of it as a highway with 16 lanes of travel in each direction.
Lower power cards will not use all 16 lanes, think of it as traffic at 3 AM, higher power cards will use all 16 lanes when gaming(rush hour) now on the road what happens at rush hour when 16 lanes drops to 8 lanes?
Thus the recommendation for lower power cards. 










AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port slot was replaced by PCIe x16 7 to 8 years ago









As for the Power supply question, the GTX550ti will need to have auxiliary power it has whats called a PCIe power socket on the back edge of the card that a 6 pin power harness from the Power supply plugs into(3 +12v and 3 grounds) you will need at least a 550w PSU with a PCIe connector to run the card(adapters are never a good idea).

Personally I think the 550ti may be a bit too much for the x8 connection.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Hello wrench, 

Thank you so much for the input! So the issue here is I can still get a x16 graphic card but it'll just limit it to46 lanes, so, which graphics card do you recommend? I would certainly need a graphics card which is suitable for this one. A normal type graphic card that can support games at medium or so is sufficient enough.

Thank you!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

It's actually 8 lanes as opposed to 16 lanes

The cards you posted earlier will do the GT430/440 max the 550ti with the 550ti you'll need the PCIe 6 pin power connectors from the power supply that that I believe you do not have in that unit(going from memory)


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Ok then, I'll be purchasing to that. 
I'm tryin to get myself a decent build since I've never use one of those super computers before. Is there any websites that sell LEDs or lcds at a very decent and affordable price? It does not need to be ultra epic, just a decent one. Will get two if the budget allows and hook it up to dual screen, speaking about dual screens, do I need 2 of those graphics card in order to be displaying dual screen?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

From the 430 up all the cards will support dual monitors. 

Not sure what part of the world you are shopping in, if in the states Newegg.com, Microcenter.com or Amazon.com are usually my stops.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Hello,
Thanks for your info again Wrench!

I was also thinking, that, if I placed in the Graphics card I bought, will it over-run the processor? although the heatsink is huge? + I see a fan at the graphics card. So, will my case actually works with it's ventilation?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

It's a tower case correct? 
If so it'll fit.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

*EVGA GeForce GTX 460 FPB, 1024MB GDDR5, PCI-E 2.0, Dual DVI, miniHDMI, SLI Ready Graphics Card (01G-P3-1361-KR)*



This one looks like an ideal choice too, will my dell go with it too?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

That one will definitely be held back by only having 8 lanes to send/receive data with. The 460 is also about an inch longer front to back then the 550/430 cards


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

HELLO!!!
I bought a graphics card GT430 2GB DDR3 ram, but when I plug it in, my t110 server starts blinking with a red light!!!!! and its still blinking with a red light after I took it off!!!!!!!!!
And the graphics card didnt show me any image on the monitor!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Try clearing the CMOS(NVram) by unplugging the power, moving the jumper cap from pins 1&2 to pins 2&3 wait 10 seconds, move the jumper cap back to 1&2 replug and see it it boots.

I'm assuming the light that's blinking is on the front of the case?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Hello!
Ok, Is the CMOS a round battery looking Lithium Ion thing? + Where is the jumper cap of 1and2? +When I plug the VGA cable to my gt 430, nothing comes out

and yes it is infront of the case


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Sorry I meant to attach this to the last post.

The battery provides the standby power for the bios, the jumper cap is the correct way to clear that board.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Resettled the pin from 1,2 to 2,3 and switched back, lights still blinking, but the pc boots up perfectly


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Perfectly as in you have an image on the screen?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

I might be over powering the psu, dell limits psu to 25 right?
Before translating the pins, images can e displayed on the screen. Just the lights are blinking . So how dO I get the graphics card to work?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Which lights are blinking?
>> Documentation


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

System health indicator with an amber light


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

I'm dead aren't i

Ok from what i observed, when it boots, the "2" light stays on, but if I chck it now, it's not, but the problem could likely be the expansion card (Graphics card) am I right?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I'm still unclear if you have a image on the screen, can you enter the bios setup(F2 on boot)?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Let me see., Im actually using this PC to type. It's just an amber light blinking, it boots up normally heres a pic


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Should buy this piece of ****... now my machine maybe in a faulty condition....


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Ok Im running a diagnostic test on this OpenManage just sucks, it wont let me login, so I'll be using Dell Online Diagnostic, hope everything runs well! But to let you know, In Hardware devices, it states that adapters are working properly.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

If none of the diagnostic lights in the front are lit it usually related to the raid array, providing it is using a raid array?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Its on Raid 1, but it seems that there's a SMART test that it detects some of the hardware is failure? Or a false alarm, I don't know. So how do, what I know now is the graphics card shows that it is working but, how do I use it?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

*** IS GOING ON... It turned to blue right now.. god...

Ok for the graphics card, what do I need to do to get it working?


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## darfvayda (Apr 9, 2012)

try putting a piece of electrical tape over the light.... kidding!

but in all seriousness, I doubt you are overloading the PSU, I have a GT430 running in a Dell Optiplex GX745 with 275w PSU for over 6 months no problem. Mines and dual core and yours is quad, but I think your 30w extra makes up for that.

It's probably just some bios setting you need to adjust, like frame buffer size. See if you can find that in bios and disable it. it's for your igpu.
Your GT430 isn't putting out any image? I thought you said it was?


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

darfvayda said:


> try putting a piece of electrical tape over the light.... kidding!
> 
> but in all seriousness, I doubt you are overloading the PSU, I have a GT430 running in a Dell Optiplex GX745 with 275w PSU for over 6 months no problem. Mines and dual core and yours is quad, but I think your 30w extra makes up for that.
> 
> ...



Its putting out image via standard on board VGA


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## darfvayda (Apr 9, 2012)

that should not be happening with a card plugged in to the PCI-E slot. It should disable the onboard automatically AFAIK. You may need to manually set your display to PCI-E in bios. Look for a setting that says something like Init Display


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Haha, thanks!
Yes, a guy on Dell Poweredge T110 forum said, you need to do this thing, but I have no idea how.... but we'll see, let me reboot.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

Rebooted, its not working! How the hell do I switch to the new graphics card!


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## darfvayda (Apr 9, 2012)

Did you find the Init Display option in BIOS?

Should be under integrated peripherals


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

You need to have the card hooked to the monitor on boot.
Shut down, reboot entering the bios(F2) scroll down to "Embedded Video Controller" if the video card is recognized it will allow you to set it to disabled(default is Enabled) save and exit, shut down without restarting, hook up the monitor to the new card, boot using the new card.


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## KelvinTay (Dec 15, 2011)

HEYHEY! It's all done now, and yes wrench's method worked! I would like to thank you all for the help and guides you gave me, or I wouldn't have succeeded today! Thumbs up to Wrench prior to him, he had patience with such a noob like me :whistling:

Same goes todarvayda, for the effort to help me!
:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Good to hear it's working 

Dell is different animal from the rest and tend to things a bit differently at times, hence the reason you have to disable the controller manually, if for any reason you should have to re-enable like the add in card fails a Bios(NV_Ram) reset is all that's needed.


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