need to supply external power to 4 PCIe Cards in DL580 G5 Server

[Paul Letourneau]

I want to install 4 PCIe x8 cards into the DL580 G5 server that require addition +12V power via the external PCIe power connector on the card. I'm looking for an internal cabling solution that will supply the additional power to the 4 cards. I'm trying to avoid a custom solution that requires an external power supply outside the server. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[rick jones]

Being more from the Integrity side of the house I cannot claim to be an expert on the DL580G5 hardware, but somehow I doubt there is much "extra" 12v power inside the box.

What sort of cards are these which require the extra power?

[Paul Letourneau]

They are Annapolis Micro Systems WILDSTAR5 for PCI-Express FPGA processing cards. Depending on the application, these cards could draw on the order of 100 Watts each. I have attached a data sheet describing the card. I'm beginning to think that an external rack-mount power supply might be the only plausible solution to supply the additional power needed. Thanks....

[rick jones]

100Watts each... (BTW is that with or without add-on I/O cards?) While I'm still no more an expert on the DL580 G5 than I was before, I'm even more confident there isn't O(300) watts spare 12V capacity (I'm assuming 25 watts per slot already). Love to be shown wrong of course... but an external power supply sounds like a prudent investment.

And that level of power draw makes me start to wonder about levels of airflow/cooling in the chassis... does the supplier have any comment about putting _four_ of them into something like the DL580G5?