DL380G7 and 150W graphics card support

[Biccy-boy]

According to the quickspecs and release notes for this server it supports 150W graphics cards via the additional x16 riser (494323-B21) which is the same as that used on older servers (DL385G5p for example). Knowing this I know that it has no additonal power cable to power the card (only 75W comes via the PCIe backplane, the rest has to come from a seperate cable) so I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a cbale that must be purchaseed or if the loom has the 75W graphics card plug included...has anyone fitted a 150W graphics card to this server yet?

[Ali · Accepted solution]

Hi Biccy,

you are right!

Many accelerator cards use 100 to 300 watts of power, which is significantly greater than the 75 watts of power that is supported through the PCIe x16 connector. Fortunately, the PCIe specification defines a method for supplying additional power to cards using auxiliary power connectors on the system motherboard that connect to the accelerator cards using special cables.
Depending on their physical configuration, these cables are capable of supplying an additional 75 watts to 225 watts of power to a PCIe card. HP Product Engineering has specifically added these power connectors to ProLiant systems to support these accelerator cards.

494323-B21 : option kit Includes the power cable required to provide addition power to this card via auxiliary power connectors on the system board

reference  :  https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=c01847918
Hope this helps,
thanks
Aftab

[Michael A. McKenney]

Most servers don't host highend video cards. Servers usually have on-board or lowend PCI video for the monitor.

Why do you need a highend video adapter. If this is a CAD or Photoshop box, I would consider building a highend standalone workstation for your application. I never use a file server for a graphical server. They are not designed for this task. My CAD/Photoshop workstation at home is a Supermicro server board, pair of E5430 Xeons (quad core 2.66), PC Power and Cooling 1000W customed wired power supply on a 20A circuit and 4850 graphics card.

[Biccy-boy]

Thanks for the prompt replies.

Aftab - I see this is for the DL380G6 - are you sure the cable supplied would fit the DL380G7? You know what HP are like for changing things!!

Michael - this application is for a broadcast-quality video server where the GPU is used for 3D-rendering of effects. I use a professional SDI video card to connect into the broadcast infrastructure. All of the frame rendering and audio manipulation (we support Dolby etc) is done on CPU !!!

[Ali]

Hi Biccy,

As long as the part no 494323-B21 listed understand supported riser kit option in dl380 G7 quickspecs, there shouldn't be any problem

HP DL38X (1) x16 PCI-E riser kit 494323-B21

https://internal.support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docLocale=en_US&docId=c04199811
its a same riser kit used in both the servers.

I had similar issue on previous generation of dl380 server and had hard time getting the cable. later on I realised that the cable comes along with the kit which I threw away assuming an empty box.

Thanks again.
Aftab

Please don't forget to assign points if you think informatio provided is helpful as per FAQs

[Michael A. McKenney]

You might be better off getting a graphical server/workstation that supports PCIe standard graphics adapter. HP servers might not have the PCIe slot power for highend graphics adapters.

I build CAD and Photoshop workstations for production environments. They are usually highend workstations not HP file servers. I don't think a riser would support a highend graphics adapter at 150W. I am not sure if the HP power supplies would give you 30A @ 12V for a power supply. Higher end adapters need 26A-30A @ 12V.

[Biccy-boy]

Hi Michael, I agree with your comments but I needed to get down to a 1U and have resilient hardware. The HP workstations are single PSU and rack at 4-5U...

Its a bit of a minefield as I am using ISS server hardware as workstations effectively. I've looked at SuperMicro but their 'full length' slots tend to be smaller than true PCI full length and so our cards dont fit. also didnt like the build quality on some of the servers I tried.

I did start of the product running on xw9400 with rack mounts...

[Michael A. McKenney]

You can find dual power supply CAD workstations on the market with service contracts.

If the riser supports the 150W standard, it should work as long as the power supply can supply 26A @ 12V standard. The video cards use a standard molex for the additional power. The issue might be getting the connector from the power supply. Most highend video cards require 300W+, 30A @ 12V for the power supply. You will want to verify that you have a 12V rail on tha 750W power supply that can handle 26A-30A. Does your server have the additional molex available. If you need an extension, make sure you get a 16 gauge cable. Don't go with 18 gauge or smaller extension. You would not want to use any other slots on that riser. 150W is for all three slots.

I would be hestitant to use a HP file server for this solution. You can easily damage a video adapter with power problems or cause BSOD or other issues.

[Biccy-boy]

Yes - I share your concerns !

I also use the DL370G6 with NVIDIA Quadro FX5800 cards and this has two cables going to it. Luckily this model serve comes with 750W PSUs and cables to go from the main loom to the card.

The DL380G7 has 750W PSUs as option but I was going to try my luck with 450W first - do you think this is pushing it as I will have 8-off SAS drives, two X5650 CPU and 12GB RAM....

[Michael A. McKenney]

450W power supply will not do it. 750W is the smallest I would use on a FX5800. Its 200W for FX5800.