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Technical rules for PCIe slots

PCIe adapters must be installed in a specific order in your server.

PCIe adapter installation rules and order

Installation priorityComponentPCIe slot priorities
1GPU adapter2
2PCIe adapter for M.2 boot adapter4
310GBASE-T 2-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter1, 4
4RAID adapters / 8i HBA adapter2, 4, 3
58e HBA adapter2, 4, 3, 1
6Ethernet adapters1, 3, 4, 2
Note
  • Performance may degrade when a x16 PCIe adapter is installed in a x8 PCIe slot.

  • Broadcom 57414 10/25GbE SFP28 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter and Broadcom 57416 10GBASE-T 2-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter can only be installed in slot 1 or slot 4.

  • ThinkSystem Intel X710-T4L 10GBASE-T 4-Port PCIe Ethernet Adapter can only be installed in PCIe slots 3, 4 and 2.

  • Rules for GPU adapter:
    • GPU adapters can only be installed in PCIe slot 2. When GPU adapter is installed in PCIe slot 2, make sure to keep PCIe slot 3 empty.

    • The following GPU adapters can only be supported with Intel Xeon® E-2400 series and Pentium ® processors.
      • ThinkSystem NVIDIA Quadro RTX A1000 next PCIe Active GPU
      • ThinkSystem NVIDIA RTX A400 4Gb PCIe Active GPU