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The Dell PowerEdge T620
Originally the most flexible 12th generation IO server platforms from Dell, this is a crazy good machine even today.
The Dell T620 is still a powerhouse capable of some impressive heavy lifting with a large supporting IO platform, dual socket processors, quad GPU support and ram capacity for up to 1.5 TB of DDR3. The platform has several configurations and among those is providing up to 32 x 2.5″, 12 x 3.5″ or the most common the 8 x 3.5″ and 16 x 2.5″ platform for IO in large high performance arrays.
The dual socket, Xeon E5 2600 V1/V2 CPU platform can house processors that are capable of handling heavy lifting for everything from home workstation virtualization, multiple gaming desktop environments and of course… Local Ai! The T620 is awesome because it has support for configurable “tower mode” with feet or casters and IPMI controllable fans to make it an easy on the ears addition inside the house. With some easy changes to the chassis and some rails and a few wire swaps, you have a 5U rack mount beast. Before being repurposed as a bare metal whole house workstation server.
A Realistic Whole House Multi-Workstation-Gaming Machine
We had it running 4 x Windows 10 terminals with dedicated modern GPU’s including a 3060ti and 2x 3060 12GB as USB connections throughout the house, 3 additional Windows 11 RDP hosts and 8 KVM guests all without breaking a sweat in Proxmox 6.4. Do note that the 8-bay T620 CANNOT be upgraded to add in an additional 16 2.5 drives (been there, tried that). However, the 16 bay 2.5 can have an add-on 16 2.5 cage installed to turn them into a 32 2.5 drive machine, especially potent when using 2 HBA’s, one for each backplane.
Build Configurations for Dell T620
In this guide I am going to outline the build guide for the Dell PowerEdge T620 that I am using in the extensive testing I have done and link to all the resources around the results and platform I have created.
My Dell T620 Server consists of the following parts.
1 x Dell PowerEdge T620 in 16 bay form factor w/ iDrac Enterprise:
2 x H710 flashed to HBA mode LSI 9205 P/N: NHGT2
1 x 128 GB DDR3 1600MHz
1 x Casters (Movable Tower) P/N: F640C
1 x GPU adapter for quad GPU P/N: VDY5T
4 x GPU Power Cables P/N: 3692K
2 x 1100w Platinum PSUs P/N: GDPF3
1 x Dell Front Fan Assembly P/N: 8G79K or 0VDY5
1 x 16 2.5″ Extra Backplane P/N: 018G5
1 x Additional 16 bay cage insert P/N: CXPMW
1 x Extra Backplane SAS Cable P/N: 9DHPJ
1 x Extra Backplane Signal Cable P/N: KV109
16 x Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB SSDs
General notes, tricks and tips for the T620
Fohdeesha H710/H310/H810 flashing all in one scripts and directions – Guide for flashing the H710 the easy way to the LSI HBA mode
You need to run the 1100 watt psu’s if you are running the GPU board. You also should have the Mid-plane fan assembly, which cools amazingly and responds to ipmi.
If you are using ALL DIMM slots, you will be limited to 1333 speeds regardless of the ram speed. This is according to the manual and unverified by me, but 1333 is cheaper than 1600 as well.
If you buy a 16 x 2.5″ form factor, then you CAN add in a second 16 x 2.5″ bay backplane. The backplanes support split or dual mode, so you can run 2 x raid adapters or HBA’s depending on your need. You can even run a cable from another machine to one of the backplanes and that works as well.