Poweredge SC440 bargain .. need video

TerrorFirmer

As for that X1550....why? Unless your machine only had a 1x slot, which the Sc440 is not limited to.

A 50 euro regular pci-e card would run rings around it. It's just the X1300 core, not to mention at 1x the card is crippled and ****e for anything games wise. You're paying about 100 euro of that price for the fact it's a 1x card, rare as hens teeth.

Given it's poor games performance and as such you could hardly for being it for said purpose, I'd just rather get a cheap pci card with dvi then pay such a ludicrous price for a 1x card.

_Kaiser_

Knew there was a catch, despite the positive reviews on the link...

So what way are people doing this then? Cutting a notch in the card, or the end off the X4 slot? Pictures and recommended tools appreciated

zod

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Knew there was a catch, despite the positive reviews on the link...

So what way are people doing this then? Cutting a notch in the card, or the end off the X4 slot? Pictures and recommended tools appreciated

I think my best chance is cutting the end off the slot, well extending the slot with a hack saw blade maybe

TakeTheVeil

is there any other picture documentation on how to mod the PCIE slots?

etcetc

okay i give up

how do i get a 7300 le into this

ladybird steps please:o

conzy

I havent done it yet as my friend has the X550 that im going to put in it...

but, a junior hacksaw blade would be a good approach...

or, a stanley blade clamped in a vice grip heated with a blow-torch would do the trick nicely too i'd say...

eoinoc333

TakeTheVeil wrote: »

is there any other picture documentation on how to mod the PCIE slots?

Here's plenty of pics:
http://www.tkdan.com/SC420/

They guy is cutting the x8 slot. You'll want to cut the end of the x4 slot instead on the SC440. I managed to do it the other day with a set of "hobby blades" (scalpels) from Homebase, heating the blades with a candle. Also chisled away with a small flathead screwdriver. Be careful not to bend the inner connector pins, and have patience.

If you had something like the following, I think it would make the job easier. Also a soldering iron to help melt the plastic.
http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=20001&partNumber=7106505

_Kaiser_

Right.. went at this tonight armed with a stanley knife, candle and a set of jewellers screwdrivers

first cut a groove on both sides of the end/edge notch of the x4 slot then heated the blade and screwdriver and alternating between the 2 I managed to cut down and then work the middle bit between the 2 grooves out.

This did bend the slot a little and some of the pins bent slightly but I used a pliers to tighten the slot back and inserted a 7800GT card.

Powered up.. video straight away, and it's currently at the Vista desktop while I download the latest NVidia drivers. So far so good though.

So current system Spec:

Pentium Dual Core 2160 1.8Ghz
3GB RAM (gonna go to 4GB this week though)
2x 250GB SATA HDD
Tagan 480W EasyCon PSU
NEC ND-3530A DVDRW
Waiting on the cheap €6 soundcard linked to in the other thread
3Com 108Mbps USB NIC

Not too bad really for about €300 - I took the PSU, video card, DVD burner and NIC out of the Dimension 5150 I already had

Oh.. Windows Experience Index score (before latest NVidia drivers and extra GB of RAM) = 4.8

Raekwon

Is there any decent graphics card that will fit into the x4 slot on the SC440 without the need to cut the end off the slot?

Chosen

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Subcategory=48&Description=&Type=&N=2000380048&srchInDesc=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=696%3A20108

TakeTheVeil

You couldve just said no!:D

Kaiser, i see ya put in a new PSU in your system. You think the 7800 would have ran on the 305w PSU unit?

If not, what PSUs are compatible with the SC440? Are Dell still using proprietary supplies?

_Kaiser_

TakeTheVeil wrote: »

You couldve just said no!:D

Kaiser, i see ya put in a new PSU in your system. You think the 7800 would have ran on the 305w PSU unit?

If not, what PSUs are compatible with the SC440? Are Dell still using proprietary supplies?

Well I got the replacement installed easy enough and the connections aren't anything unusual - 20 pin main connector, and a 4pin square connector. Bit of a tight squeeze in places (especially near the DVD drive) but it's all running happily now.

I had the same sort of 305w (or thereabouts) PSU in the Dimension 5150 originally but it wasn't up to the task which is why I bought the replacement PSU.- ran ok with a 7300LE though.. in fact it is again as I've put that older card and PSU back into it.

TakeTheVeil

oh.. so the PSU is just a normal ATX supply.. would this PSU work?

TakeTheVeil

Theres a new report on overclocking E2140 over at Toms Hardware which might be of great interest to a lot of people here.

They were able to overclock it to 3ghz on the stock cooler and 3.5gz with a Zalman fan.

As this was a budget build, they were monitoring power consumption and estimated annual running cost. Their system setup consisted of the CPU, motherboard, cooler, memory(2gb), graphics card(Ati HD3850), two hard drives, a DVD ROM and the power supply. Its good to note is that with both the graphics card and overclocked processor running at full load the power consumption was around 296w so with people saying Dell understate their PSUs, it seems like we're fine with the 305w

Ofcourse this all assumes youre willing to buy a new motherboard which allows over clocking. Whether you'd need to buy a new PSU too, i'm not sure myself. But it would also mean you wont need to chop away at the PCIE slot.

Chosen

a) It's not going to be easy to find an overclockable BTX motherboard.

b) If you change the motherboard, you will need different RAM, this is ECC and the board you will be buying will need non-ECC (if you buy a mainstream, overclockable board)

c) If you buy a motherboard, gfx card, memory and PSU, then why did you pay €200 for this system? To get a non-standard BTX case and 2 small SATA disks?

TakeTheVeil

well actually i was taking solace in the fact they had a very similar set up to most of us and were using a HD 3850, which when at full load remained under 305w

There was also a guy over in the other bargains alert thread who was interested in geting a new motherboard...so..relax

Chosen

TakeTheVeil wrote: »

well actually i was taking solace in the fact they had a very similar set up to most of us and were using a HD 3850, which when at full load remained under 305w

There was also a guy over in the other bargains alert thread who was interested in geting a new motherboard...so..relax

But I am relaxed. But you didn't answer my question: if you are going to replace all the above mentioned parts (PSU, mobo, gfx, ram) then why did you buy this system?
Why not pay €190 instead for a nice ATX case, an E2160 and a SATA hard drive and then buy a few pints with the change?

TerrorFirmer

TakeTheVeil wrote: »

Theres a new report on overclocking E2140 over at Toms Hardware which might be of great interest to a lot of people here.

They were able to overclock it to 3ghz on the stock cooler and 3.5gz with a Zalman fan.

As this was a budget build, they were monitoring power consumption and estimated annual running cost. Their system setup consisted of the CPU, motherboard, cooler, memory(2gb), graphics card(Ati HD3850), two hard drives, a DVD ROM and the power supply. Its good to note is that with both the graphics card and overclocked processor running at full load the power consumption was around 296w so with people saying Dell understate their PSUs, it seems like we're fine with the 305w

Ofcourse this all assumes youre willing to buy a new motherboard which allows over clocking. Whether you'd need to buy a new PSU too, i'm not sure myself. But it would also mean you wont need to chop away at the PCIE slot.

Wattage means little when it comes to video cards. You could buy a ****e 700w brand and it wouldn't run a 3850, or a top notch 300w one and it could be fine. Just because the total load was under 305w, doesn't automatically mean that the Dell will be fine. I'm quite sure the Dell has far worse rails then any gaming power supply out there, and it's very possible that it won't run anything better then a 7600/7900 series card.

papu

umm dell chips are the cheapest of the cheapest , why do you think they can sell them soo cheap? its casue their the bargain best buy bin @ intell , sure you might get a nice one but on average the chips are hopeless , friend popped a 6600 into a decent mobo and only got an extra 200mhz before it craps out , and thats with a scythe ninja ....

even if you replace everything u maybe horribly disappointed ;P

zod

just modded the slot and stuck in the 7300GT getting this on the vista experience meter



Think I'm getting x4 on the slot ..

awhir

zod wrote: »

just modded the slot and stuck in the 7300GT getting this on the vista experience meter



Think I'm getting x4 on the slot ..

nope that looks fine the 7300gt is a very weak card

zod

tried crysis just to test ( I'm not a gamer ) .. system seems to handle up to 1024x768 with anti aliasing off.

zippi

i have sc440, xeon 3040 (2×1,86) 1GBram, 160GB disk
I running the SC440 with the mod 4x slot and Gigabyte 8600GT GV-NX86T256H
I used this tool to mod
http://www.modelbox.cz/product_info.php?cPath=39_116&products_id=1154
http://www.modelbox.cz/product_info.php?cPath=39_116&products_id=1927
result?
3dmark 2001 (default after install) - cca 26500
3DMark05 v120 patch (default after install) - cca 9500
with 169.21_forceware_winxp_32bit_english_whql
diver add with nLite windows xp sp2
without overclock

Anti

zippi wrote: »

i have sc440, xeon 3040 (2×1,86) 1GBram, 160GB disk
I running the SC440 with the mod 4x slot and Gigabyte 8600GT GV-NX86T256H
I used this tool to mod
http://www.modelbox.cz/product_info.php?cPath=39_116&products_id=1154
http://www.modelbox.cz/product_info.php?cPath=39_116&products_id=1927
result?
3dmark 2001 (default after install) - cca 26500
3DMark05 v120 patch (default after install) - cca 9500
with 169.21_forceware_winxp_32bit_english_whql
diver add with nLite windows xp sp2
without overclock

Nice job, very clean

awhir

guys my brother just got one of these now hese looking for a gfx card.

he will be using it mostly for watching movies onto 1080p 40" and will be playing a small bit of games like starcraft craft 2(when it comes out) his budget is around 120e.

he will be modding the slot for 16x.

also he is also looking for a cheap sound card that can do dig optical or coaxial but the newer ati's 2*** series except the 2900 can send sound via hdmi ?

so what ya think ?

papu

awhir wrote: »

guys my brother just got one of these now hese looking for a gfx card.

he will be using it mostly for watching movies onto 1080p 40" and will be playing a small bit of games like starcraft craft 2(when it comes out) his budget is around 120e.

he will be modding the slot for 16x.

also he is also looking for a cheap sound card that can do dig optical or coaxial but the newer ati's 2*** series except the 2900 can send sound via hdmi ?

so what ya think ?

1. the slot is only 4x speed
2.2900 card can send sound http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2900/index.html

3. if you want gfx 256mb 8800gt should be grand http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=708007

awhir

papu wrote: »

1. the slot is only 4x speed
2.2900 card can send sound http://ati.amd.com/products/Radeonhd2900/index.html

3. if you want gfx 256mb 8800gt should be grand http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=708007

would it not be better to get 512 as games like starcraft eat up memory.

papu

awhir wrote: »

would it not be better to get 512 as games like starcraft eat up memory.

yeah but a 512 is more expensive :P

Chosen

awhir wrote: »

would it not be better to get 512 as games like starcraft eat up memory.

Sure, and 768 would be even better
But papu linked you to an 8800GT with a price tag (€159) that's lower than the one of a 3850

awhir

Chosen wrote: »

Sure, and 768 would be even better
But papu linked you to an 8800GT with a price tag (€159) that's lower than the one of a 3850

my bro gota 3850 512mb for 140e so he's happy.

TakeTheVeil

Did it work in the 4x slot of the SC440?

awhir

papu wrote: »

1. the slot is only 4x speed

is it not 4x before modded ??

whats the point off modding the socket if theres no change ?

Chosen

To physically fit the card

TakeTheVeil

So what cards have people got to run in the system on the stock PSU? I'm waiting for Elara.ie to open back up on 7th Jan so i can pick up my soundcard and i'll probably pick up the video card too.

So a 7300 and an 8600 have been successfully used. Anything else?

Chosen

Gainward Bliss 8500GT 512Mb w/ Passive cooling here, works like a charm.

MayoForSam

7600GS, also passive, working fine.

TakeTheVeil

I've a bit more money left after christmas than i thought and would love to go for a HD3850 or even 8800GT 256mb that someone recommended on here.. but probably pushing it with those two cards so it'll probably be a 7600 or 8500 similar to ye two.

awhir

guys im confused why are you using the small black pci slot and not the pci-e slot ?

papu

awhir wrote: »

guys im confused why are you using the small black pci slot and not the pci-e slot ?

because thats a 4x lane ,

if you use the pci-e slot it throttles is to 1x speed

conzy

Im trying to find some conductive ink to try this Pin Mod any ideas where i could get some? somewhere like halfords maybe? I think conductive ink is used to fix rear windscreen heaters and such

PogMoThoin

Your in luck m8, have a tube here. I'll lend it 2 ya as long as ya return it. This

conzy

Thanks for the offer Ill get back to you if i dont find my own, I want to get my own because im sure that I will want to mod every other cpu i can get my hands on if this works

PogMoThoin

I got my sis in NY to walk in2 her local radioshack & buy one, I could even tell her that it was in stock

conzy

yeah its only $5 in radioshack and around 25 euro here

Maybe I will borrow yours

awhir

conzymaher wrote: »

yeah its only $5 in radioshack and around 25 euro here

Maybe I will borrow yours

just get it from us shipping is dirt cheap

conzy

link please!

TakeTheVeil

Asustek 8600GTS 256mb for 39.93? Misprint?

The 512mb version is there for around 83euro too

Anti

TakeTheVeil wrote: »

Asustek 8600GTS 256mb for 39.93? Misprint?

The 512mb version is there for around 83euro too

The card is a load of crap, not worth buying unless its for a htpc only pc you dont plan on playing new games on.

TakeTheVeil

crap in comparison to a 8800GT or GTX or that actual card compared to other 8600gt?

conzy

The 8600gt in general is crap.... Not much better than a 7600gt and costs to much.... but for 40 euro its decent value