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PCIe slots and adapters

Understanding the technical rules for PCIe adapters helps you correctly install and configure PCIe adapters in the system.

For the technical rules for PCIe adapters, see the following for details.

PCIe adapters supported for different models​

Table 1. PCIe adapters supported and their locations
Server rear viewSupported types and slot location


Riser 1 assembly1

  • 1 Slot 1: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile

  • 2 Slot 2: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile

Riser 2 assembly

  • 3 Slot 3: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile



Riser 1 assembly1

  • 1 Slot 1: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile

  • 2 Slot 2: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), full-height

Note
One rear wall bracket must be installed next to the two PCIe slots.


Riser 1 assembly1

  • 1 Slot 1: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile

  • 2 Slot 2: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile



Riser 1 assembly

  • 1 Slot 1: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile



Riser 1 assembly

  • 1 Slot 1: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile

Riser 2 assembly

  • 2 Slot 3: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile



Riser 1 assembly

  • 1 Slot 1: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile



Riser 1 assembly

  • 1 Slot 1: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile

Riser 2 assembly

  • 2 Slot 3: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), full-height

Server front viewSupported types and slot location


Riser 3 assembly2:

  • 1 Slot 43, 4: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), low-profile

Riser 4 assembly2:

  • 2 Slot 5: PCIe x16 (x8, x4, x1), full-height

Note

  1. When a Gen 5 BF Riser 1 card is installed, only slot 2 can support Gen 5 PCIe adapters.

  2. Gen 5 front PCIe risers (Riser 3 and Riser 4) can only be installed when the system is installed with 9005 series processors.

  3. When Gen 4 front PCIe risers are installed, the thermal design power of slot 4 is limited to 25W or lower.

  4. When Gen 5 front PCIe risers are installed, the thermal design power of slot 4 is limited to 75W or lower.

PCIe adapter installation rules and order​

When installing different types of PCIe adapters, refer to the following suggested installation priority:

Table 2. Recommended installation priority for different types of PCIe adapters
Installation priority
1. OCP module6. InfiniBand adapter
2. Custom form factor (CFF) internal HBA/RAID adapter7. Fiber channel adapter
3. Standard form factor (SFF) RAID adapter8. Network adapter
4. SFF internal HBA adapter9. External storage controller
5. GPU adapter10. COM port bracketnote
Note
When a COM port card is installed, it will occupy one PCIe slot (slot 3) and requires a low-profile riser bracket. See Rear riser card replacement for details about riser brackets.
When installing a specific PCIe adapter, refer to the following suggested slot installation priority:
Table 3. Recommended slot installation priority for PCIe adapters
Recommended slot installation priorityPCIe adaptersMaximum supported number
Must be installed in slot 1

SFF Internal RAID/HBA adapters

1
Slot 1 > Slot 2
M.2/7mm RAID adapters:

  • Raid 5350-8i for M.2/7MM SATA Enable

  • Raid 540-8i for M.2/7MM NVMe Enable

1
Slot 1 > Slot 2> Slot 3

  • Network adapter: ThinkSystem Broadcom 57454 10GBASE-T 4-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

3

  • External storage controller:ThinkSystem RAID 940-8e 4GB Flash PCIe Gen4 12Gb Adapter

2
Slot 5> Slot 2> Slot 3
Network adapters:

  • ThinkSystem Broadcom 57504 10/25GbE SFP28 4-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

  • ThinkSystem Intel E810-DA4 10/25GbE SFP28 4-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

2
Slot 5> Slot 4> Slot 1> Slot 3

GPU adapter: ThinkSystem NVIDIA L4 24GB PCIe Gen4 Passive GPU

4
Slot 5> Slot 4> Slot 1> Slot 2> Slot 3

  • Fiber channel adapters

  • External storage adapters

    • ThinkSystem 440-16e SAS/SATA PCIe Gen4 12Gb HBA

    • ThinkSystem 440-8e SAS/SATA PCIe Gen4 12Gb HBA

  • Network adapters:

    • ThinkSystem Broadcom 57416 10GBASE-T 2-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Broadcom 57414 10/25GbE SFP28 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Broadcom 5719 1GbE RJ45 4-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Broadcom 57508 100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe 4 Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Intel X710-T2L 10GBase-T 2-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Intel X710-T4L 10GBase-T 4-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Intel I350-T4 PCIe 1Gb 4-Port RJ45 Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Intel E810-DA2 10/25GbE SFP28 2-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Lx 10/25GbE SFP28 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • AMD X3522 10/25GbE 2-port PCIe ThinkSystem AMD X3522 10/25GbE DSFP28 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter (Low Latency)

  • InfiniBand adapters:

    • ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR/200GbE QSFP56 1-port PCIe 4 VPI Adapter

    • Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR100 IB/100GbE VPI 1-port x16 PCIe 3.0 HCA w/ Tall Bracket

    • Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR100 IB/100GbE VPI 2-port x16 PCIe 3.0 HCA w/ Tall Bracket

  • GPU adapters:

    • ThinkSystem NVIDIA A2 16GB PCIe Gen4 Passive GPU

    • ThinkSystem NVIDIA A2 16GB PCIe Gen4 Passive GPU w/o CEC

5
InfiniBand adapters:

  • ThinkSystem Nvidia ConnectX-7 NDR OSFP400 1-port PCIe Gen5 x16 InfiniBand Adapter

  • ThinkSystem NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NDR200/HDR QSFP112 2-Port PCIe Gen5 x16 InfiniBand Adapter

4
Note
  • For the low-profile + full-height configuration, the PCIe Ethernet adapters listed below cannot be installed on slot 1.

    • Lenovo ThinkSystem NetXtreme PCIe 1Gb 4-Port RJ45 Ethernet Adapter By Broadcom

    • Lenovo ThinkSystem I350-T4 PCIe 1Gb 4-Port RJ45 Ethernet Adapter By Intel

    • ThinkSystem Intel I350-T4 ML2 1Gb 4-Port RJ45 Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Broadcom 57454 10GBASE-T 4-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

  • The following PCIe adapters can only be installed into the slot with a full-height riser bracket.

    • ThinkSystem Broadcom 57504 10/25GbE SFP28 4-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

    • ThinkSystem Intel E810-DA4 10/25GbE SFP28 4-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter

Note
Rules for RAID/HBA adapters:

  • RAID 940 series adapters require a RAID flash power module.

  • The RAID 940-8i or RAID 940-16i adapter supports Tri-mode. When Tri-mode is enabled, the server supports SAS, SATA and U.3 NVMe drives at the same time. NVMe drives are connected via a PCIe x1 link to the controller. To support Tri-mode with U.3 NVMe drives, U.3 x1 mode must be enabled for the selected drive slots on the backplane through the XCC Web GUI. Otherwise, the U.3 NVMe drives cannot be detected. For more information, see U.3 NVMe drive can be detected in NVMe connection, but cannot be detected in Tri-mode.

  • When Gen 3 M.2 backplane (ThinkSystem M.2 SATA/NVMe 2-Bay Enablement Kit) is installed, RAID 5350 or RAID 540 series are not supported.

  • The HBA 4350/440 adapters do not support the Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) management feature.

  • RAID arrays are not supported for SED or FIPS HDD/SSD drives. FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 is a U.S. government standard that describes the encryption and related security requirements for sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information technology (IT) products. FIPS 140-2 defines four levels of security. SED are FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated drives.