You may have come across a so called GPU enablement kit for the R740 and R740xd servers.  In this post I’ll touch on what exactly is in the kit and whether or not you need one. Also make note of the part numbers in the title (where applicable)

What is in the kit?

GPU Air Shroud (DP/N 0RFFDP)

The first piece of hardware in the kit that diverges from what you’d call a traditional setup is the air shroud. Dell makes what they call a GPU air shroud designed specifically for larger GPUs. The purpose of this specialty shroud is to direct more air to the GPU. In theory, it channels more air to the GPU compared to the stock shroud.

Low profile 1U heatsinks (DP/N 0C6R9H)

What should be in the kit but often excluded are 1U low profile heatsinks. If you order the GPU kit and have 2U heatsinks installed you’re going to immediately notice something – the shroud doesn’t fit. The original air shroud/baffle has cut outs which fit around the 2U high performance heatsinks. The GPU shroud does not. If you plan on ordering the GPU kit make sure it has the 1U heatsinks or order them separately.

All 3 risers

If you’ve ordered an R740 or R740xd there’s a good chance you may have gotten a stripped down server equipped with riser 1 with no x16 slots, a low profile x8 riser, and a rear filler to fill up the space where riser 2 and 3 would normally occupy. The GPU kit enables your server with three x16 slots for up to 3 dual width GPUs. All 3 risers are crucial especially if you will be installing 3 GPUs in the server.

Please keep the following in mind – if you use a x16 variant of riser 1 you effectively use the ability to use a Dell Mini Mono RAID controller. This is because all x16 risers will take up the slot required by the mini controller. You must instead use a PCIe raid controller.

 

High performance fans (DP/N 04VXP3)

There are 2 types of fans for most Dell PowerEdge servers. Standard performance and high performance. High performance fans are recommended for configurations involving GPUs, rear flex bays, NVME drives, and processors with a higher than average TDP. In this case it’s a good idea to use high performance fans with your GPU. The server will run a lot more quietly with these installed.

GPU power cable

Lastly the kit should have the appropriate GPU power cable to go from the GPU to the motherboard.

Is the kit necessary?

I think the kit started out as a good idea but there are a few downsides. The first major downside is being forced to use 1U low profile heatsinks due to the design of the GPU air shroud. High TDP processors will require the 2U heatsinks to remain cool. What are you to do if you have hot processors and also a GPU? I think having to trade the 2U heatsinks for an air shroud that is arguably only slightly more air efficient for GPUs is not a good tradeoff. It makes more sense if your processors are of a lower TDP which may be the case for you. Anything below 165 Watts and you’re probably okay to use the 1U low profile heatsinks with the GPU air shroud.

The second downside is no one-size-fits-all solution. What if the included power cable doesn’t work with your gpu? What if you only need riser 3 and not the others? What if your server already has 1U low profile heatsinks?

I see these bundles and wonder who is buying them. It’s probably best to track down the part numbers you need and order what  you want on an individual basis, versus the kit.

Overall I think the kit is a suggestion of parts rather than hard and fast rules for what it actually takes to “enable” your server for GPU support. I’ve built plenty of servers with GPUs and haven’t always used the GPU air shroud – and quite frankly haven’t had a single problem.