Cheap 6 GPU Server

[mortzel]

Hey, i'm searching for an used 4U server witch has room for at least 6 dual slot RX480 GPUs to run 6 VMs witch dedicated GPU with PCIe passthrough. I know the video from linus with the SYS-4027GR-TR Supermicro server, but i cann't find it on the used market.

 

Has anyone an idea which model cloud work?

[Windows7ge]

For something like this you're better off building it from the ground up for the cost.

 

Couple chassis come to mind:

Rosewill RSV-L4000C (4U)

Rosewill 8 GPU Mining Case (6U)

[Electronics Wizardy]

Do you need 6 gpus? You can get dual gpu cards and split them up per user, or have multiple users for a gpu.

 

Whats the goal here, what are you using software wise? How much total storage do you need?

 

There are many options on ebay like https://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperMicro-SYS-4028GR-TR2-Server-Up-to-10x-GPU-Incl-4x-PSU-2x-Xeon-Processors/324068410649?hash=item4b73fb8519:g:onkAAOSwgo9dyjUg

[Windows7ge]

22 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can get dual gpu cards and split them up per user

You'll probably prove me wrong but...

 

I should mention this may not work on all GPUs. AMD making their GPUs disable themselves when no display is connected the 2nd GPU goes to sleep when CFX isn't configured and a game isn't running. A VM won't pick it up because there's no output and you can't trick it because the ports on the rear of the card are only for the primary GPU.

 

Probably possible with Workstation/server series cards or going NVIDIA (but then you have to worry about error code 43 if it isn't a server series card) but it likely won't work with any AMD dual GPU desktop series cards unless you all the way back to the Radeon HD 7990. That was the cast card AMD made where the GPU doesn't go to sleep when a display isn't connected.

[Electronics Wizardy]

19 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

You'll probably prove me wrong but...

 

I should mention this may not work on all GPUs. AMD making their GPUs disable themselves when no display is connected the 2nd GPU goes to sleep when CFX isn't configured and a game isn't running. A VM won't pick it up because there's no output and you can't trick it because the ports on the rear of the card are only for the primary GPU.

 

Probably possible with Workstation/server series cards or going NVIDIA (but then you have to worry about error code 43 if it isn't a server series card) but it likely won't work with any AMD dual GPU desktop series cards unless you all the way back to the Radeon HD 7990. That was the cast card AMD made where the GPU doesn't go to sleep when a display isn't connected.

Oh yea, totally depends on the gpu, but with that many gpus and users, Id go with something like rds or horizon that made for this type of use, and not just do gpu passthrough here. Get something like the tesla cards that are made to be split between users.

[GDRRiley]

gigbytes G292-Z22 or G292-Z42 would work.

both can do 8GPs with the z22 supporting 1 epyc and the z42 supporting 2.

[mortzel]

At the moment i'm running 3 Lenovo Workstations with 2 CPUs and 2 GPUs each. The GPUs are AMD RX480 with an hdmi dongle to emulate a connected display. In the vms we are running parsecgaming for streaming cad and some gaming

 

The goal of the replacement is to safe some space in the rack and run only 1 hardware instead of 3

[GDRRiley]

a threadripper system could do 4 GPUs on a standard board.

[Jarsky]

What is your definition of "cheap"? Because cheap and 6 GPU server don't really go together...do you mean less than $5000?

[mortzel]

Cheap would be under 1000. That's the reason why i'm searching for an used server but i don not know which server model is suitable. HP DL580 G7 would be an option, but this could only work with 4-5 GPUs