Most recent / best PCI-E x1 GPU you can get in 2019?

[Lapsio]

What is most recent / best GPU with PCI-E x1 connector you can get in 2019? I have Asus Sabertooth P67 motherboard with thermal armor so I can't plug x16 GPU into x1 slot thus I'm looking for actual pci-e x1 GPU. And since I'm upgrading to new PC I want to turn this machine into headless files server so I need GPU only because this motherboard doesn't boot without VGA adapter (I tried to boot it only with RS232 console attached but no luck). At the same time I won't be using display for anything other than 640x480 terminal so I don't want to waste two full length pci-e x16 (x8) slots that I want to use for 4x 10G Intel X710-DA4 network card and Dell Perc 6/i SAS controller.

 

For now I found Zotac GT710 1GB low profile PCI-E x1. Is there anything more recent? I don't want to fall into drivers issues. Installing legacy NVidia drivers on new Linux kernels may quickly become impossible.

 

I'm using Fractal Define R4 chassis which has vertical bracket so in worst case I guess I could use pci-e x1 -> pci-e x16 riser? But idk if it makes sense. It'll probably be more expensive solution than some crappy x1 GPU. The only reason why I want this GPU to be recent is so that I won't have problem with installing legacy drivers on new OS.

[Ben17]

4 minutes ago, Lapsio said:

What is most recent / best GPU with PCI-E x1 connector you can get in 2019? I have Asus Sabertooth P67 motherboard with thermal

pcie to 16x riser ?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cablecc-Gen3-0-PCI-Express-Extender-Angled/dp/B07G7ZW6S4/ref=sr_1_10?crid=2DSH4IDY5M1TJ&keywords=pcie+1x+to+16x+riser&qid=1564240369&s=gateway&sprefix=pcie+1x+to+16x+%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-10

[Electronics Wizardy]

If your in linux, the 710 works well, I have that gpu.

 

For future support, it will probably be fine, just don't install the nvidia drivers and use the open source ones and you should be fine for a decade or two.

10 minutes ago, Lapsio said:

4x 10G Intel X710-DA4 network card

Why so many 10g network cards? Just get a switch.

 

10 minutes ago, Lapsio said:

Dell Perc 6/i SAS controller.

Just saying, these are pretty slow now, so don't run ssds now, sata 3gb/s max, and 2tib max aswell.

 

11 minutes ago, Lapsio said:

I don't want to fall into drivers issues. Installing legacy NVidia drivers on new Linux kernels may quickly become impossible.

You don't need the nvidia drivers, just use the opensource ones.

[mariushm]

Don't bother man.

 

Get a low profile video card like an AMD HD 6450 for example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ati-Radeon-HD6450-512MB-DDR3-DVI-DP-Graphics-Card-PCI-E-x16-Low-Profile/303233251404

It's less than 10$.

Here's a guy with 200 pcs of GT 210 cards, selling for under 10$ : https://www.ebay.com/itm/GEFORCE-GT-210-NVIDIA-IBM-LENOVO-53Y9294-256MB-GDDR2-64bit-PCIe-Express-2-0-X16/192987675315

 

You can buy a simple pci-e x1 extension cable / riser cable for a few dollars

Here's an example:

 

x1 to x16 riser : https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-Express-Extension-Kabel-x1-zu-x16-Riser-Extender-Karte-PCIe-Flex-ZQB-PLK/352627898721

x1 to x1, x4 or x16 (the pci-e slot is cut at the end, so you can install the x16 card into x1 slot and it will work) : https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-Express-16X-8X-4X-1X-Riser-Card-Extender-Extension-Ribbon-Flexible-Cable/162759716252

 

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, mariushm said:

Don't bother man.

 

Get a low profile video card like an AMD HD 6450 for example : https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ati-Radeon-HD6450-512MB-DDR3-DVI-DP-Graphics-Card-PCI-E-x16-Low-Profile/303233251404

It's less than 10$.

Here's a guy with 200 pcs of GT 210 cards, selling for under 10$ : https://www.ebay.com/itm/GEFORCE-GT-210-NVIDIA-IBM-LENOVO-53Y9294-256MB-GDDR2-64bit-PCIe-Express-2-0-X16/192987675315

 

You can buy a simple pci-e x1 extension cable / riser cable for a few dollars

Here's an example:

 

x1 to x16 riser : https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-Express-Extension-Kabel-x1-zu-x16-Riser-Extender-Karte-PCIe-Flex-ZQB-PLK/352627898721

x1 to x1, x4 or x16 (the pci-e slot is cut at the end, so you can install the x16 card into x1 slot and it will work) : https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-Express-16X-8X-4X-1X-Riser-Card-Extender-Extension-Ribbon-Flexible-Cable/162759716252

 

 

 

ALso if you don't want a riser, you can easily cut the slot with these cards and they will fit in a x1 just fine.

[mariushm]

True, but a riser cable is good to have around and it's cheaper than buying a 2nd card, if he somehow cuts away too many contacts by accident.

 

@Lapsio out of curiosity how much are you planning to pay for those ethernet cards?

 

Depending on what you're doing, maybe it would make more sense to spend 130$ on a 4 x 10 gbit + 1gbps port switch from Microtik : https://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-CRS305-1G-4S-Gigabit-Ethernet-RouterOS/dp/B07LFKGP1L/

 

or you could get a 24 port 10gbps + 4 1gbps switch for 300$ : https://www.unixplus.com/collections/network-switches/products/quanta-lb6m-24-port-10gbe-sfp-4x-1gbe-l2-l3-switch

 

 

[Lapsio]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

True, but a riser cable is good to have around and it's cheaper than buying a 2nd card, if he somehow cuts away too many contacts by accident.

 

@Lapsio out of curiosity how much are you planning to pay for those ethernet cards?

 

Depending on what you're doing, maybe it would make more sense to spend 130$ on a 4 x 10 gbit + 1gbps port switch from Microtik : https://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-CRS305-1G-4S-Gigabit-Ethernet-RouterOS/dp/B07LFKGP1L/

 

or you could get a 24 port 10gbps + 4 1gbps switch for 300$ : https://www.unixplus.com/collections/network-switches/products/quanta-lb6m-24-port-10gbe-sfp-4x-1gbe-l2-l3-switch

 

 

I have two of those cards currently - one for server and one for workstation. I'm planning to use them in 40G bonding mode because I have 2x MikroTik CRS317 switches between and they only support 10G ports thus I didn't buy single 40G port NIC. Also lots of interfaces is necessary since MikroTik doesn't support VEPA natively so if I want to use macvtap and perform switching between VMs on CRS (not in software on hypervisor) I need to expose each VM in single VLAN on separate interface otherwise CRS won't forward packet back to the same interface. For cross-VLAN routing I use MikroTik CCR1009 (yeah I know I know, it was bought before RB4011 was announced).

 

I currently don't have Dell Perc installed in machine yet, only 3 pci-e x1 crappy 2x SATA controllers and onboard 8x SATA + 2x eSATA (I currently have only 14 HDDs, DVD and one SSD in this machine but I already bought another 6 HDDs thus I need another controller). There was no enough space in single Define R4 chassis so I actually have 2 stacked side-by-side. Half of HDDs are placed in one, half in another. Now I'm planning to put new PC in that second chassis and use old i7-2600k / Sabertooth P67 machine as storage server, connected over 40G to that new workstation. They'll be still stacked together though. Kind of like cluster...? guess?

 

If you guys say it sucks may think of some different SAS/SATA controller anyways since I got this Perc controller for free from friend but it's Dell embedded version so it doesn't have pci-e bracket and card kinda dangles loose in port when installed. I'm a bit worried whether it's safe to acutally use it that way so I may look for some IBM JBOD SATA controllers. I heard they're quite popular. I need JBOD since I'm using btrfs RAID6 (yes I like to live on the edge and yes this btrfs RAID already exploded once few years ago before this catastrophic RAID6 bug was fixed. But I have separate backup - also btrfs RAID5 :P)

 

 

[Lapsio]

6 minutes ago, campy said:

Quadro RX 6000 and a dremel tool to cut it down to x1.

 

Jokes aside, your best bet for modern + pcie x1 is a riser/adapter. There just arent any pcie x1 gpus out there made past the nvidia 700 series because even the low end desktop cards were too heavily affected performance wise by being cut down to x1 and the market for such cards really dwindled. 

Youre not going to run into driver issues, at all. With basically anything made in the last decade or so.

 

If its just for a low res text display you can use whatever, any pcie x1 card will do.

If you have a PCI slot open you can always just use a PCI video card.

Actually If I were to get riser anyways I'd probably just use Fermi Quadro 4000 since that's what I happen to have laying around after changing it to Quadro RTX 4000  But I'm not sure if I want to use such card for 640x480 VGA even if it's old junk now lmao.

 

Okay I guess I'll take 710 then. They're for like 20$ second hand here. Indeed I forgot I can just use nouveau instead of proprietary driver since I won't use it for anything demanding anyways.