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PCIe riser and adapter installation rules and order (server model with three PCIe risers)

Use the information in this topic to understand installation rules and order for PCIe risers and PCIe adapters in the sever with three PCIe risers.

Note
  • PCIe Gen4 risers contain PCIe Gen4 slots only.
  • PCIe Gen5 risers contain PCIe Gen4 and Gen5 slots.
  • Performance may degrade when a x16 PCIe card is installed in a x8 lane PCIe slot.
  • Legacy option ROM boot is only supported on the PCIe adapters installed in the following PCIe slots:
    • With PCIe Gen4 risers installed: PCIe slot 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 11
    • With PCIe Gen5 risers installed: PCIe slot 1, 2, 5, 8, and 11
  • The available PCIe slots will depend on the riser and number of processors installed.
    • With PCIe Gen4 risers installed:
      • With two processors installed: PCIe slot 3, 5, 8, 9, and 11
      • With three processors installed: PCIe slot 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11
      • With four processors installed: PCIe slot 3 to 11
    • With PCIe Gen5 risers installed:
      • With two processors installed: PCIe slot 5, 8, and 11
      • With three processors installed: PCIe slot 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11
      • With four processors installed: PCIe slot 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11
  • PCIe slot 3 and 4 are unavailable when one of the following PCIe risers is installed:
    • 7mm/x16 PCIe G4 Riser 1 FHHL
    • 7mm/x16 PCIe G5 Riser 1 FHHL
  • PCIe slot 3 and 9 are unavailable when the following PCIe riser is installed:
    • x16/x16 PCIe G5 Riser 1/3 FHFL
  • PCIe slot 8 is unavailable when one of the following PCIe risers is installed:
    • x16/x8/Serial PCIe G4 Riser 2/C HHHL
    • x16/x8/Serial PCIe G5 Riser 2/C HHHL
  • When a ThinkSystem 256GB TruDDR5 4800MHz (8Rx4) 3DS RDIMM v1 is installed in the system, the maximum number of the following PCIe risers is one.
    • x8/x16/x16 PCIe G4 Riser 1/3 FHFL (can only be installed in riser 1)
    • x16/x16 PCIe G5 Riser 1/3 FHFL (can only be installed in riser 1)
  • When a ThinkSystem Intel E810-DA4 10/25GbE SFP28 4-Port OCP Ethernet Adapter is installed in the system, no other OCP module can be installed.

PCIe riser installation rules and order

Installation priorityPCIe riser typeRiser location priority
17mm/x16 PCIe G4 Riser 1 FHHLRiser 1
27mm/x16 PCIe G5 Riser 1 FHHLRiser 1
3x16/x16 PCIe G5 Riser 1/3 FHFLRiser 1, riser 3
4x8/x16/x16 PCIe G4 Riser 1/3 FHFLRiser 1, riser 3
5
  • x16/x8/Serial PCIe G4 Riser 2/C HHHL
  • x16/x8/Serial PCIe G5 Riser 2/C HHHL
Riser 2
6
  • x16/x8/x8 PCIe G4 Riser 2/A/B/C HHHL
  • x16/x8/x8 PCIe G5 Riser 2/A/B/C HHHL
Riser 2

PCIe adapter installation rules and order

Installation priorityComponentPCIe slot priority
132i Gen4 RAID adapter3, 5, 9, 11
2
  1. 16i RAID adapter
  2. 16i HBA adapter
  3. 8i RAID adapter
  4. 8i HBA adapter
  • Without double-wide GPU installed: 3,8,5,9,11,7
  • With double-wide GPU installed: 8, 7, 6
3ThinkSystem Nvidia PCIe Gen4 x16 Passive Aux Kit4
4ThinkSystem NVIDIA ConnectX-7 NDR400 OSFP 1-Port PCIe Gen5 Adapter5, 11, 10, 4, 6
5Double-wide GPU10, 4
6Single-wide GPU10, 4, 3, 9
7
  1. ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR/200GbE QSFP56 1-port PCIe 4 VPI Adapter
  2. ThinkSystem Nvidia ConnectX-7 NDR200/HDR QSFP112 2-Port PCIe Gen5 x16 InfiniBand Adapter
  3. ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter
  4. ThinkSystem Broadcom 57508 100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe 4 Ethernet Adapter
  5. ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR100/100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe VPI Adapter
  6. ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 HDR100/100GbE QSFP56 1-port PCIe VPI Adapter
  7. ThinkSystem Intel E810-DA4 10/25GbE SFP28 4-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter
5, 11, 10, 4, 6
8ThinkSystem Broadcom 57504 10/25GbE SFP28 4-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter5, 11, 10, 4
9
  1. 10/25GbE SFP28 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter
  2. 10GBase-T Ethernet Adapter
  3. RJ45 Ethernet Adapter
  4. PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter
  5. FC HBA adapter
5, 11, 8, 7, 10, 4, 6, 9, 3
10External RAID/HBA adapter5, 11, 8, 7, 10, 4
11Management NIC adapter1
12OCP module1, 2