Unable to passthrough GPU

The GTX 550 can be problematic, but it should at least light up your monitor.  How old are the GPUs / motherboards / processors you have tested with?  I'm pretty shocked that you're having so much difficulty. If they are several years old, that could be the issue (just poor IOMMU implementation or odd GPUs).

 

Ivy Bridge LGA 1155 so not the current Haswell tech.

 

i5 3570S - pretty much new

Sapphire 7870 XT -had this for 3+ years

Motherboards i havent had long < year.

 

im thinking it might just be the motherboards and shitty IOMMU support from shitty Asus.

i may just sell everything i have and buy current with tested hardware for now i'll wait until i can get the 550GTX to test some more.

 

If i decide to buy new hardware what should i be looking at in the mid range?

I need VM and GPU Passthrough capabilites

 

What's your total budget / range?  How many SATA ports do you require?  How many GPUs / other PCI devices do you intend to install?  Can definitely give you some pointers.

 

budget $1400 if i can sell both my current setups for around $400-$500 each + some extra from my pocket.

*note im dealing with Canadian Dollars.

*Ill probably be buying from newegg.ca or canadacomputers.com

 

Not looking to buy any drives but i need at least 7 sata for the ones i already have.

I just need 1 gpu for a single VM, maybe a sound card but im not sure how much of a benefit passing a sound card to a vm is going to give me.

 

Ok, I think your budget is reasonable.  Do you want to go new CPU as well (haswell series) or do you want to try to stick with the CPU you have already?

 

If you stick with what you got, it might work just fine with another motherboard.  If you go completely new CPU/Mobo, I would push you to purchase based on a system I have tested and working (http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/UnRAID_Manual_6#Workstation_.283_of_3.29).  That system has 10 SATA ports on the mobo itself and I've tested it with several GPUs now and it works really solid.

 

if i stick with what i have, which motherboard would you recommend? also where could i even buy that motherboard in the link, just did a search and it doesn't seem to be getting sold anywhere.

 

I will put a build together for you based on currently available hardware.  That or I could resell you the one I have ;-).

would really appreciate if you could do that, also send me a PM and we can discuss price/shipping if i decide to stick with what i have.