Re: [Avid-L2] OT: Mac server slot config question

If I remember correctly the Expansion SLot Utility was only for the 1. Gen MacPros (2006) - after that the PCI-lanes were fixed to the slots.

I understand your concern about the headless solution and the wish to have an actual screen on it but honestly, I doubt there are any instances where a screen would help you out if "something goes wrong". However, it would help if you still could SSH via Terminal to it to safely shut it down.

Else you are stuck with the limitations of fixed PCI-lanes - in that case I'd place a low-entry card in a 4x-slot and boot this config. Swapping GPUs between different generations is not always successful so make sure your swap works before you stick in the other cards and get the server running fully loaded. This will leave you with 1x 4x and 2x 16x - and as mentioned in this thread slower cards in faster lane-slots do not take or make any harm.



On May 20, 2012, at 11:11 PM, Jay Mahavier wrote:

> Both the cards are x8. So putting one of them in a x4 slot inhibits the performance of the card.
>
> And I did consider dumping the graphics card all together and just remote in, which is how I usually manage the system anyway. The only problem is if something goes wrong and I actually need to screen from the system it self then I'm kind of screwed. And with an x4 slot open I'm just wondering it there is a graphics cards I could put in it and have everything be fine.
>
> And when I try and run the Expansion Slot Utility I get the feed back that "Expansion Slot Utility is not intended to run on this system." I don't know if it's because it's a 2008 MacPro or that it's running Lion Server or what, but no dice on that.
>
> Thanks,
> Jay
>
> On May 20, 2012, at 11:03 AM, Greg Huson wrote:
>
> > I may be late to the thread, but check the speed of your I/o cards- they probably don't take advantage of the higher speed slots anyway.
> >
> > A 4-gig atto only needs a 4x slot, but an 8gig can use 8x. Are you using the 8 gig? (I think they're called en?). The atto sas controllers seem to want 8x, though.
> >
> > Certainly don't need an 8800 for the video card... But I'm not sure what the 'smaller' card would be.
> > __________________________
> > Greg Huson
> > Chief
> > Secret Headquarters, inc
> > Greg (at) SecretHQ.Com
> > www.SecretHQ.com
> > www.DigitalServiceStation.com
> >
> > Sent from my iPad
> >
> > On May 20, 2012, at 4:10 AM, Jo Hermann <lists@filter-media.net> wrote:
> >
> >> You can dump the Graphics Card completely and run a headless server. Just control it with Screen Sharing - but enable this first in System Preferences and get comfortable with it before removing the card.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On May 19, 2012, at 9:15 PM, Jay Mahavier wrote:
> >>
> >>> In the MacPro workstation I have running as a server there are 4 PCIe slots. 2 x16, and 2 x4 slots. The graphics card is sitting in one of the x16 slots. Ideally I would want my I/O cards in the fastest slots, my Fiber card and SAS card. Since it's a server, and I mostly remote in to tend to it, do I really need to have a card like a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT? And do I really need to have a graphics card using one of my x16 slots? Can I get some lowly graphics card and put it in one of the x4 slots? I mean the workstations always show up with the cards in Slot 1, and I never questioned moving it before. Would I be ok doing that? And does anyone have a suggestion for a card I could use in a x4 slot?
> >>>
> >>> Thank you,
> >>> Jay
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------
> >>
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> >> Yahoo! Groups Links
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > Search the official Complete Avid-L archives at: http://archives.bengrosser.com/avid/
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
>
>



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