Poweredge 2650 question

Hi,

I have a PowerEdge 2650 server and was wondering if there is anyway to
upgrade the video card. I see no way to disable the onboard video card in
the BIOS.

Many thanks

Tyler David wrote:
Hi,

I have a PowerEdge 2650 server and was wondering if there is anyway to
upgrade the video card. I see no way to disable the onboard video card in
the BIOS.

Many thanks

The docs are available here. I'm not sure they're helpful, but it's
worth a shot.
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/en/index.htm

In ,
Tyler David typed on Sun, 24 May 2009 15:51:46 -0400:
Hi,

I have a PowerEdge 2650 server and was wondering if there is anyway to
upgrade the video card. I see no way to disable the onboard video
card in the BIOS.

Many thanks

Well even if there are no ability to turn off the onboard video card in
the BIOS. Technically it still should work. As I would expect the
following things would happen.

1) Once the BIOS sees the other video card, it might automatically
disable the internal video card. Or at worse (or at best - depending on
how you look at it), run both at the same time which isn't really a bad
thing per se.

2) Once the OS loads up, you should have no problem disabling the one
you don't want running. And if you are running Windows, it should
remember what you told it to do. If it is running under Linux, you might
have to tell it after each reboot.

By the way, why do you want to replace the video card on a server
anyway? As it has me curious.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

BillW50 wrote:
In ,
Tyler David typed on Sun, 24 May 2009 15:51:46 -0400:
Hi,

I have a PowerEdge 2650 server and was wondering if there is anyway to
upgrade the video card. I see no way to disable the onboard video
card in the BIOS.

Many thanks

Well even if there are no ability to turn off the onboard video card in
the BIOS. Technically it still should work. As I would expect the
following things would happen.

1) Once the BIOS sees the other video card, it might automatically
disable the internal video card. Or at worse (or at best - depending on
how you look at it), run both at the same time which isn't really a bad
thing per se.

2) Once the OS loads up, you should have no problem disabling the one
you don't want running. And if you are running Windows, it should
remember what you told it to do. If it is running under Linux, you might
have to tell it after each reboot.

By the way, why do you want to replace the video card on a server
anyway? As it has me curious.


He wants to redeploy it as a workstation? That's the only reason that
comes to mind here... Ben Myers

Hank Arnold wrote:
Ben Myers wrote:
BillW50 wrote:
In ,
Tyler David typed on Sun, 24 May 2009 15:51:46 -0400:
Hi,

I have a PowerEdge 2650 server and was wondering if there is anyway to
upgrade the video card. I see no way to disable the onboard video
card in the BIOS.

Many thanks

Well even if there are no ability to turn off the onboard video card
in the BIOS. Technically it still should work. As I would expect the
following things would happen.

1) Once the BIOS sees the other video card, it might automatically
disable the internal video card. Or at worse (or at best - depending
on how you look at it), run both at the same time which isn't really
a bad thing per se.

2) Once the OS loads up, you should have no problem disabling the one
you don't want running. And if you are running Windows, it should
remember what you told it to do. If it is running under Linux, you
might have to tell it after each reboot.

By the way, why do you want to replace the video card on a server
anyway? As it has me curious.


He wants to redeploy it as a workstation? That's the only reason that
comes to mind here... Ben Myers

We're talking about a rack mounted server. Not very handy as a
workstation....


Good point. Or maybe the owner has an oddly shaped desk? More likely
the on-board 8MB ATI graphics does nto handle more modern graphics of
some sort... Ben Myers

problem is with those 8mb video cards, it is not enough to properly
render the video if that server is running say SQL server management
studio, or any other large video display.
i usually always replace the video card in servers. esp in my shop.
since there is no dedicated video slot, i put in a PCI card with 128 or
256mb ram.


Ben Myers wrote:
Hank Arnold wrote:
Ben Myers wrote:
BillW50 wrote:
In ,
Tyler David typed on Sun, 24 May 2009 15:51:46 -0400:
Hi,

I have a PowerEdge 2650 server and was wondering if there is anyway to
upgrade the video card. I see no way to disable the onboard video
card in the BIOS.

Many thanks

Well even if there are no ability to turn off the onboard video card
in the BIOS. Technically it still should work. As I would expect the
following things would happen.

1) Once the BIOS sees the other video card, it might automatically
disable the internal video card. Or at worse (or at best - depending
on how you look at it), run both at the same time which isn't really
a bad thing per se.

2) Once the OS loads up, you should have no problem disabling the
one you don't want running. And if you are running Windows, it
should remember what you told it to do. If it is running under
Linux, you might have to tell it after each reboot.

By the way, why do you want to replace the video card on a server
anyway? As it has me curious.


He wants to redeploy it as a workstation? That's the only reason
that comes to mind here... Ben Myers

We're talking about a rack mounted server. Not very handy as a
workstation....


Good point. Or maybe the owner has an oddly shaped desk? More likely
the on-board 8MB ATI graphics does nto handle more modern graphics of
some sort... Ben Myers

Hank Arnold wrote:
Hank Arnold wrote:
Interesting.. I'm running SQL2005 (and SQL 2000 earlier) on a Dell
2800 tower with no problems. I've set up and run a couple of dozen
different servers and never used anything other than the built-in
video....


My mistake... I just realized it is a 2850 (rack) server with a
PowerVault attached.



could be the graphics are kaput and he just needs some video output to
configure it or the like rather than connect a laptop to it?