Hi folks, 

 

I am looking for advise regarding which passive PCIe x1 card to buy.

Atm it looks to me that a passive card like the Nvidia GT 710 seems to be the choice nowadays. Are there any other passive / low power x1 cards know to work well with UnRaid and with a power consumption < 20W, ideally 10W or less. I do not play any games and not not need to pass through a GPU to my VMs.

 

Any advise also on older x1 cards is welcome too.

...another option could be to upgrade the CPU to a model with IGP, if Motherboard supports it/has an output port or use a motherboard with IPMI.

In terms of power draw in idle and boost, this should be the best option.

But what is the purpose of having a graphics card in your unraid server for using the local UI only, anyway?

Why dedicated GPU?

I am thinking to use a dedicated GPU Because the IGPU is taking up 8 PCIe lanes in my config. For my 2nd cache pool I am using a 4x M.2 Adapter atm in the x16 slot, where I can use 2 NVMEs (8 lanes) only, due to the IGPU. I'd like to upgrade this Cache pool from Raid1 (2x1TB SSDs) to Raid 10 (4x 1TB SSDs).

 

My current CPU is a 3400G (4 Core / IGPU, limited to 30W TDP through Bios settings). I'd like to move to an 8-12 core CPU with max. 65W TDP, ideally 35W like the 4750GE - however all the bigger 8-12 core CPUs with low TDP seem to be unavailble.

 

Bottomline, Ideally I'll be able to get a Ryzen 9 3900 (12-core / 65W) - Would be my preferred solution or stick with an IGPU-CPU like the 4750G(E). A fallback would be the 3700x, limited to 35W.

 

I want more cores, and keep a low TDP

 

Makes sense? 

...in general yes, this explains some facts, but do you need a GPU at all, like for transcoding if not for a dedicated VM?

The problem with the limited no. of lanes in your x16 slot is a limitation of chipset or motherboard? Sorry, I am not that familiar with AMD based hardware.

If a powerful GPU is not needed but you want any, then going the IPMI route (approx 5-6W) is the most energy efficient.

I doubt that an external GPU, even when in idle, will go below that.

 

My Mobo has a full x16 slot, however when using an IGPU based CPU I get 8 lanes less in the x16 slot. The IPMI thing sounds interesting since I do not need a GPU at all. My VMs use a virtual one and the system itself is sitting in a closet.

You could as well then skip a GPU at all (when the MB boots without one).

 

...IPMI offers a lot of comfort, especially if you do not want to hook a Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse to your rig, when it sits in a small closet.

But for AMD (AM4) socket, I am only aware of  ASROCK motherboards, that offer this, like: https://geizhals.eu/?cat=mbam4&xf=494_IPMI

 

Edit: of course, this in itself is not a commercially feasible option. Saving, like 12W at 30cents/kWh for 24x7 is "only" worth 30 bucks per year.

Edited December 3, 20205 yr by Ford Prefect

I'll try the headless boot once I get my hands on a 3900. Using a MSI B450M M-ATX atm, so IPMI is not option.

...see: https://dc.sheridon.de/which-am4-mainboards-boot-headless-without-gpu ...not a recent review/list but a place to start