Remote server/ Video wall?

[Kranitz]

Hey all, I've been looking to further expand my video wall, and considering how much current I'm drawing in the the room it's located in, I'd like to put the machines in some other room, most likely the attached garage 25-30ft away. I've been looking at getting some used Dell Poweredge R210 II's and R710's, and installing Visiontek Radeon 7750 2GB GDDR5 6M video cards in them, and running lonngggg displayport cables with hubs at the end into the video wall room. I have some concerns thou, as I do believe any video cards you use in these two models can only draw 25 watts max, as well as being able to drive multiple 1080p and even 1440p displays with fullscreen video and streams on them. I'd also like to run a few VM's on them if possible too, nothing too intense.

Does anyone have any experience with something similar, ideas, or suggestions?

[Vezzeract]

3 hours ago, Kranitz said:

Hey all, I've been looking to further expand my video wall, and considering how much current I'm drawing in the the room it's located in, I'd like to put the machines in some other room, most likely the attached garage 25-30ft away. I've been looking at getting some used Dell Poweredge R210 II's and R710's, and installing Visiontek Radeon 7750 2GB GDDR5 6M video cards in them, and running lonngggg displayport cables with hubs at the end into the video wall room. I have some concerns thou, as I do believe any video cards you use in these two models can only draw 25 watts max, as well as being able to drive multiple 1080p and even 1440p displays with fullscreen video and streams on them. I'd also like to run a few VM's on them if possible too, nothing too intense.

Does anyone have any experience with something similar, ideas, or suggestions?

 

Never heard of a video wall but if you are talking about a networking wall Luke recently made a video on the YT channel regarding that. I have a cabinet area with my 2 web servers and 3 home use servers that are good. I use 4 30 inch televisions with a quick 4 computer usb hub so 1 mouse and keyboard can control a certain computer / comp at a time. I only need 2 for screens but each one has about 3 VMs running. If you could summarize what you need I could try to help you out, I am networking geek.

[Kranitz]

I'm looking to expand my current setup by adding another 6-12 monitors in my room, connected to machines in my garage. I am just looking for the cheapest, most compact way to do this in a rackmount setup.

[tt2468]

The r210 ii only has one pcie slot, and from experience with the r220, the depth is also not great. I think you can get away with more from a couple t210 or t220's. Rackmount just doesnt support stuff like video cards.

[dalekphalm]

@Kranitz, what are you trying to accomplish with the video wall? Just remote monitoring? Because, you won't be able to directly control said servers anyway without SSH/RDP/etc remote connecting into them, unless you run some long ass cables for Mouse/Keyboard - and at that distance you may run into issues with USB cables.

 

Linus accomplished this via Thunderbolt Out, to a Thunderbolt hub that had USB ports for his KB/M. But none of those servers are going to have Thunderbolt, so if you want to use that option, it'll be a TB Add-in card for each server, assuming they even have the additional expansion slot room for both a video card and a TB card.

 

If you're simply monitoring the servers visually, then yeah, that'll work, assuming you check all the specs of the servers to make sure they can fit each GPU you choose.

[F4S4K4N]

5 hours ago, Kranitz said:

Hey all, I've been looking to further expand my video wall, and considering how much current I'm drawing in the the room it's located in, I'd like to put the machines in some other room, most likely the attached garage 25-30ft away. I've been looking at getting some used Dell Poweredge R210 II's and R710's, and installing Visiontek Radeon 7750 2GB GDDR5 6M video cards in them, and running lonngggg displayport cables with hubs at the end into the video wall room. I have some concerns thou, as I do believe any video cards you use in these two models can only draw 25 watts max, as well as being able to drive multiple 1080p and even 1440p displays with fullscreen video and streams on them. I'd also like to run a few VM's on them if possible too, nothing too intense.

Does anyone have any experience with something similar, ideas, or suggestions?

 

Gendo, i don't think the Magi are going to be able to perform the way you need them too with a measly R710. You're going to need an HP Superdome at least.

 

Now that we have that out of my system... 

 

Video cards a really hard to judge in Dell servers. You're correct about the wattage limit. Dell does this to prevent the PowerEdge line from competing with the precision rack line of workstations. That being said, the precision rack line is almost identical to the PowerEdge line. Maybe it would be worth looking at those too?

 

I've hacked around this limit before by soldering power lines from the GPU directly to the rail output of the PSU, but that was just and experiment (and a really dirty thing to do)

[Kranitz]

7 hours ago, Kyle Manning said:

The r210 ii only has one pcie slot, and from experience with the r220, the depth is also not great. I think you can get away with more from a couple t210 or t220's. Rackmount just doesnt support stuff like video cards.

I currently have a lack rack setup, so I don't have all that much depth LOL

5 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

@Kranitz, what are you trying to accomplish with the video wall? Just remote monitoring? Because, you won't be able to directly control said servers anyway without SSH/RDP/etc remote connecting into them, unless you run some long ass cables for Mouse/Keyboard - and at that distance you may run into issues with USB cables.

 

Linus accomplished this via Thunderbolt Out, to a Thunderbolt hub that had USB ports for his KB/M. But none of those servers are going to have Thunderbolt, so if you want to use that option, it'll be a TB Add-in card for each server, assuming they even have the additional expansion slot room for both a video card and a TB card.

 

If you're simply monitoring the servers visually, then yeah, that'll work, assuming you check all the specs of the servers to make sure they can fit each GPU you choose.

I can already remote into all my machines, that's not a concern. Most will just be displaying VM's and/or fullscreen video 24/7.

3 hours ago, F4S4K4N said:

 

Gendo, i don't think the Magi are going to be able to perform the way you need them too with a measly R710. You're going to need an HP Superdome at least.

 

Now that we have that out of my system... 

 

Video cards a really hard to judge in Dell servers. You're correct about the wattage limit. Dell does this to prevent the PowerEdge line from competing with the precision rack line of workstations. That being said, the precision rack line is almost identical to the PowerEdge line. Maybe it would be worth looking at those too?

 

I've hacked around this limit before by soldering power lines from the GPU directly to the rail output of the PSU, but that was just and experiment (and a really dirty thing to do)

Do you know if HP are any better GPU compatible wise? It's sadly looking like I'm going to have to build these machines myself, and I doubt I can cram as much into a 1U or 2U case as the OEM's can 

[brwainer]

10 hours ago, Kranitz said:

I currently have a lack rack setup, so I don't have all that much depth LOL

I can already remote into all my machines, that's not a concern. Most will just be displaying VM's and/or fullscreen video 24/7.

Do you know if HP are any better GPU compatible wise? It's sadly looking like I'm going to have to build these machines myself, and I doubt I can cram as much into a 1U or 2U case as the OEM's can 

Look at Supermicro's barebones units (the SuperServers section of their site). They have some short depth servers that fit an astounding amount of stuff.

[Kranitz]

5 hours ago, brwainer said:

Look at Supermicro's barebones units (the SuperServers section of their site). They have some short depth servers that fit an astounding amount of stuff.

Oh my, quite the selection! Thank you!