converting Dell poweredge t410 into a workstation?

[mr.stormycloud]

i have recently purchased a dell t410, and was wondering if anyone would happen to be able to help me convert it into a more workstation oriented setup? i have looked around but i have been unable to find any solutions for putting a consumer os on it, and it has also refused to boot a distro of Linux. i have gotten it to run virtual machines with vsphere but i would prefer to run windows 10 naturally if possible. its running two xenon e5645 6 core processors and a dell h700 hardware raid card. any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

what do you mean refused to boot linux? This should install windows 10 just fine.

 

 

[Marshnt]

5 hours ago, mr.stormycloud said:

i have recently purchased a dell t410, and was wondering if anyone would happen to be able to help me convert it into a more workstation oriented setup? i have looked around but i have been unable to find any solutions for putting a consumer os on it, and it has also refused to boot a distro of Linux. i have gotten it to run virtual machines with vsphere but i would prefer to run windows 10 naturally if possible. its running two xenon e5645 6 core processors and a dell h700 hardware raid card. any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. 

Learn VM skills, your trying to push a round peg through a square a square hole.

[BloodKnight7]

If I may suggest you first updating the idrac with lifecycle controller firmware, then proceeding to attempt to install your linux distribution through lifecyclecontroller, a good tutorial link is this: http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln129177/how-to-install-the-operating-system-on-a-dell-poweredge-server-os-deployment-?lang=en

 

Best of lucks, hope the suggestion works for you

[dalekphalm]

On 5/8/2018 at 5:47 PM, mr.stormycloud said:

i have recently purchased a dell t410, and was wondering if anyone would happen to be able to help me convert it into a more workstation oriented setup? i have looked around but i have been unable to find any solutions for putting a consumer os on it, and it has also refused to boot a distro of Linux. i have gotten it to run virtual machines with vsphere but i would prefer to run windows 10 naturally if possible. its running two xenon e5645 6 core processors and a dell h700 hardware raid card. any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. 

I have a T410 - mine is running ESXi with various Windows and FreeNAS VM's.

 

But you should be able to install Windows 7 or Windows 10 onto it. You might have some driver issues though.

 

Linux should also boot no problem.

[AbsoluteFool]

The problems with servers and running a desktop OS is that they simply aren't made for that. Servers are optimized for minimal server OS (Atleast the enterprise once). Even if you was able to get Windows 10 installed it would lack preformance and be more of a headace compared to just building a desktop in a rack chassis.

 

And what do you mean it will run ESXI but not any other OS? Did you try a server OS?

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, AbsoluteFool said:

The problems with servers and running a desktop OS is that they simply aren't made for that. Servers are optimized for minimal server OS (Atleast the enterprise once). Even if you was able to get Windows 10 installed it would lack preformance and be more of a headace compared to just building a desktop in a rack chassis.

 

And what do you mean it will run ESXI but not any other OS? Did you try a server OS?

Certainly the specs wouldn't be balanced in a favourable way to Gaming, but depending on the CPU he has installed, it could still be a damn capable gaming machine.

 

His biggest issue would simply be ensuring all the drivers work.

 

Installing Windows 10, or Linux (or even Windows Server) should be no problem in itself - the computer definitely supports other OS's besides ESXi.

 

But as I said, drivers may be an issue for Windows 10. The OP simply needs to try it and find out. The generic pre-installed drivers may work for most components - and GPU should be fine, assuming it's a consumer GPU.

[spaghettiboi]

I did the exact same thing. Forget what everyone else is saying about using VMs and other malarky. Use Windows 10 LTSB and run it on bare metal. Use a GPU mining riser and a second PSU in order to play games if you're into that. In addition - CPUs are only about $20 so slap another one in if you have an extra spot. Drilling out rivets and removing the Raid array allows you to have a ton of room. Personally, I 3d printed some harddrive mounts and called it a day. Daisychaining PSUs might be sketchy but it allows it to work without issue. I have had no problems at all with the build. In the Bios make sure to turn off the option which is labeled onboard graphics or something similar. Update the bios while you're at it.

 

Additionally, while you're on it youu can change what the display says on the front of the case to whatever. 

 

 

OS:

Windows 10 LTSB (look on ye old bay of pirates)

Drivers:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/poweredge-t410/drivers

 

[spaghettiboi]

Oh and before I forget you can install over USB but its simply just easier to install windows onto a harddrive on another computer and install back into the server.