we are using GTX-295 in an industrial applicaiton where we would like to use 3U rack mounted computers.
However, the power connector on GTX 295 (and 280, and 260) is such on the side of the card making it impossible to fit the card into 3U case. GTS 250 you can get with a power connector on the back, it fits, but I would like to use a beefier card. Has anybody found a solution for this?
And please nVidia, make your reference boards such that they have power from the back also!
I am not quite the Guru in this area as servers isnt quite my thing. But I am building a server Folding farm at this time. I was having issues trying to find a way to mount all of the GTX 295’s and I took a page from Atlas folder and am using this it may or may not be a viable solution for you. I have no clue its just a recommendation. But I ordered the U4V w/ PD-815SC-PBSH
And I see thats not what you have, but there it is.
The problem is that the GTX-295 is about 3U in height, and it has the power connector on the side, so when plugged into the motherboard it does not fit into 3U chassis, as the total height is higher than 3U.
I was hoping to find somekind of modification to GTX-295 that would allow power to be feed from the back of the card or
Some manufacturer making such modifications
Or some way of putting the GTX-295 inside the computer case sideways (as there should be enouhg room anyway for that.)
There are 16 lane PCI express risers available for putting double width cards sideways in 1U boxes (I think both Tyan and SuperMicro are offering barebones with either 1 or 2 Telsa C1060 in a 1U case), but they won’t help you I guess. Google FASTRA 2 - they put 8 x double width cards in a tower using some custom flexible 16 lane extenders, but once again, I don’t think that sort of thing will help for a 3U enclosure. You will probably have to go to 4U instead.
I have seen a moddified 295 setup before where they removed the cover and wired the GPU up directly with no PCIE plug and had the wires coming out of the rear but I wouldnt recommend that kind of mod as it could be distructive to the hardware and it would void any warranties.
But to be honest the maufacturers could utilize a power setup such as that fairly easy. But they dont need nvidias permision to do so just like they expand upon the reference design to put out OC versions of nvidias reference GPUs. So to the best of my knowledge theycould do so easily.
I just do not understand why someone is not making these already.
I could imagine one would want to plug GTX-295 into 3U chassis.
Another solution could be to find a PCI-e adapter which would allow me to turn the card sideways.
We do not worry about warranty, as our system costs anyway more than 100 000€. 450€ GPU can go unwarranted if we just could fit it in.
This will allow you to turn it sideways but mounting could still be an issue. Take a peak and see what you think. I believe this is what the other poster was reffering to as well.
We checked the SuperMicro offering for 1U chassis. The problem is that we can not fit redundant power supply in it. Also 2U chassis has the same problem with GTX-295, power connectors come to the way.
Thanks for the linkt to FASTRA 2. I left a comment to their blog and asked about the extender cables.
99.9% of users are ptting these graphics cads in normal desktop cases, and the gtx 295 is already massive - making the PCI power cables go in the end will simply make the card even longer and mean less people can fit the card in their computer.
most people using nvidia cards in systems as expensive as yours use tesla cards or quadro cards, and these are avaliable in servers.
if you know anyone with decent soldering skills, they could remove the pci power plugs on the board and solder the pci power cables direct to the card, but as mentioned it voids your warranty and you would have to be VERY sure it was soldered correctly, if it was wring it could cause a fire.