New Server build

[MaestroColby]

Howdy all,

I am building a new server for data workloads and am having trouble with it.

 

I have a SuperMicro X10DRD-L motherboard and it only has one PCIe slot, and it's gen 3 x8.

 

I'm not quite sure what to do about this, but I want to be able to have a graphics card on this board as well as a 10 GbE fiber card.

 

Any suggestions?

 

"The Maestro"

[corndog2000]

It would be a little convoluted. But, you could look into using a PCIe switch. Although that would hurt performance for both the GPU and the NIC.

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, MaestroColby said:

am building a new server for data workloads and am having trouble with it.

What type of data workloads?

 

4 minutes ago, MaestroColby said:

I have a SuperMicro X10DRD-L motherboard and it only has one PCIe slot, and it's gen 3 x8.

 

Do you have the CPUs for this board too? Id probably get a new board here, this board is really not made for your usecase.

 

Whats your budget for the build? 

[MaestroColby]

Just now, corndog2000 said:

It would be a little convoluted. But, you could look into using a PCIe switch. Although that would hurt performance for both the GPU and the NIC.

like the pcie to usb to the gpu riser thing?

[MaestroColby]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What type of data workloads?

 

Do you have the CPUs for this board too? Id probably get a new board here, this board is really not made for your usecase.

 

Whats your budget for the build? 

I have two xeon e5-2660 v3's. 

It's more for home server operations.

and my budget is about 500 dollars

[corndog2000]

2 minutes ago, MaestroColby said:

like the pcie to usb to the gpu riser thing?

A PCIe switch takes one PCIe port and breaks it out into two or more slower PCIe slots. Like what Linus uses in this video:

 

[MaestroColby]

Just now, corndog2000 said:

A PCIe switch takes one PCIe port and breaks it out into two or more slower PCIe slots. Like what Linus uses in this video:

 

oh, but those ones are super expensive.

Aren't they?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, MaestroColby said:

I have two xeon e5-2660 v3's. 

It's more for home server operations.

and my budget is about 500 dollars

Do you have a gpu already? Whats your plan to use the GPU for?

 

Id either get a different board, and sell your current one, drop the gpu, or spend a lot of work and money on a pcie switch

 

 

[corndog2000]

1 minute ago, MaestroColby said:

oh, but those ones are super expensive.

Aren't they?

 

Yes, they are costly and result is worse performance for the PCIe devices.

[MaestroColby]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you have a gpu already? Whats your plan to use the GPU for?

 

Id either get a different board, and sell your current one, drop the gpu, or spend a lot of work and money on a pcie switch

 

 

I don't have a gpu yet, but it's just a simple gt 730.

 

Would that be the best option?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, MaestroColby said:

I don't have a gpu yet, but it's just a simple gt 730.

 

Would that be the best option?

 

Gotta ask, what are you using the gt730, its a pretty slow gpu for data processing.

 

The board has a igpu on it, so you don't need to add a gpu to get video out.

[MaestroColby]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Gotta ask, what are you using the gt730, its a pretty slow gpu for data processing.

 

The board has a igpu on it, so you don't need to add a gpu to get video out.

Oh, I did not realize that.

 

So what should I do then, keep using the motherboard and get some pcie to usb things or sell it?

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, MaestroColby said:

Oh, I did not realize that.

 

So what should I do then, keep using the motherboard and get some pcie to usb things or sell it?

What usb devices are you connected? Id probably just go with USB hubs here, but normally most servers Ive seen don't have any usb devices attached.

 

Id put a 10gbe card in the slot.

[MaestroColby]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What usb devices are you connected? Id probably just go with USB hubs here, but normally most servers Ive seen don't have any usb devices attached.

 

Id put a 10gbe card in the slot.

Ok, I get the 10GbE card only then.

[MaestroColby]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What usb devices are you connected? Id probably just go with USB hubs here, but normally most servers Ive seen don't have any usb devices attached.

 

Id put a 10gbe card in the slot.

I also have another question.

 

Would I be able to install windows 10 on this machine?

[LIGISTX]

19 minutes ago, MaestroColby said:

I also have another question.

 

Would I be able to install windows 10 on this machine?

Sure. But what is your use case here? As asked before, what would you want a gt730 for? What do you want this server to do? 

[Electronics Wizardy]

29 minutes ago, MaestroColby said:

I also have another question.

 

Would I be able to install windows 10 on this machine?

YOu will need windows 10 pro to use both cpus but yes. But on this system id typiclly go with windows server or a hypervisor like proxmox