Nvidia Quadro: Do I plug in power adaptor into 6 pin or 8 pin Connector ?

[vinnyvince]

I'm trying to install my Nvidia Quadro 6000  graphics card on an HP Z820  with a 1125W PSU

The Quadro card has : 1x8pin Auxiliary Power connector, and 1x6pin Auxiliary Power connector.

My questions are

1.when connecting my power adaptor, do I plug it into the 8PIN or into the 6 PIN Auxilliary connector?

2. Where do I connect the other end of power adaptor?

3.Does the power adaptor have to be an HP one or can I use any brand.

4, If it's HP, what is the part number

I would appreciate some help on this.

vinny

[SDH]

 EDIT:  Here is a source that has excellent info related to this issue:

 http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-specifications-atx-reference,3061-12.html

The Quadro 6000 has a max TDP of 204W.  The convention for the PCIe x16 (16 electrical) video slots is 75 watts max thru that.  Each 6-pin PCIe supplemental power cable from the power supply has a convention of providing 75 watts max also.

75 x 3 = 225, so you'll be fine if you plug in the card to the correct slot, and plug two 6 pin PCIe supplemental power cables into the card.  If I recall correctly the 6 pin power cables are designed to be plugged into the first 6 pins of an 8 pin socket on some cards, but there are also 6-to-8 pin converters, shown from the attached nVidia document, and since that is what they recommend using for your card that is what you probably should do:

I think the power supply you have in that workstation only provides 6-pin power cables, so it looks like you'll be attaching two to that card with one using a proper 6 to 8 pin adapter if you follow nVidia's advice.  The HP PCIe supplemental power cables meant for this purpose have been hard for some to find because they're plugged into set of "stunt sockets" down at the black plastic fan housing at the bottom front of the inside of the case.  That was done to keep them from rattling around loose inside the case.

You can search out and download the Z820's Technical and Service Manual.  It is a PDF, and includes a number of the Zx20 workstations, including the Z820.

An added bit of information:  There are HP firmware updaters for a large number of nVidia Quadro video cards, and I have found that they work on the corresponding non-HP sourced nVidia Quadro cards such as from Dell, PNY, Lenovo also.  For your card there is a HP updater with this purpose:

FIXES: 
The following fixes was added to the NVIDIA Q6000 Video BIOS 70.00.6F.00.04:
- Fixes instability and corrupt rendering issues on Q6000s with Hynix memory.

There may be other fixes rolled into this update that your card does not yet have, from prior firmware updates.  The newest updater generally includes all the older updates.  On the back of your card you can find the BIOS revision number and compare to the one above, to see if yours is older (I have rarely found cards with newer firmware than what HP has available in its updaters).  The SoftPaq number you want is SP57694, and you can run these from within Windows.  I have never bricked a card doing this.  Search for "Z820 drivers" on Google, go to your OS version, find Firmware, and look for your card.... you can download if from there.

Also, remember to update your workstation's BIOS to the latest as your first step.  Many improvements have come out for the Z820 and Z620 workstations both in terms of BIOS and drivers.  For my Z620 work I have almost 1GB of updaters beyond what I get doing a clean install from my older HP Restore DVDs.  The same will probably be true for your Z820.  That is a very fine workstation you have there.

[vinnyvince]

Thanks Scott

I am still trying to digest the info you gave me. In the meantime, I've just dug up a power adaptor from my previous 

Quadro FX5800 card.

I've just taken pictures of the two ends of the power adaptor. See below.

Would this be the correct power adaptor?

Thanks

vinnyvince

[SDH · Accepted solution]

Edit:  Here is that link, related to this issue.  It also goes on to other topics with similar excellent info:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-specifications-atx-reference,3061-12.html

First, it is important to know that there is another "6 to 8 pin" interface which is a power supply-to-motherboard device..... you do not want that, for sure, and it's plastic connectors have different shapes.  You can see that it has 4 yellow wires (generally the power wires) and would not have the proper wiring sequence of a PCIe supplemental power 6 to 8 pin converter:

I'm sure the one you show, also, is not what you want.  That looks like an 8-pin to two 6-pin adapter.  You want a 6-pin to 8-pin adapter.  Attached is another pic of the type nVidia is telling you to get.  If you look at the hyperlink at the top of this post you'll see the wiring of 6 pin versus 8 pin wiring, and for your project you'll probably want to follow nVidia's guidance for best results.  There are power, ground, and "sense" wires to all be correctly wired for the adapter.

There are also PCIe supplemental power adapters that let you convert from multiple 4-wire "molex" power plugs to aggregate into a single PCIe 6 or 8 pin type connector.  It is best to not do this if you have a power supply with official ones built in.  Yours does, and from checking the manual it looks like your higher rated power supply has 3 of these auxiliary PCIe power cords (G1, G2, and G3 will be printed on the side of your 3 plug ends).  In contrast, the Z820's lower rated power supply has only 2 PCIe supplemental (auxiliary) power cords fed by it.

I do not know if you are required to use a proper 6 to 8 converter or could get away with plugging the 6 pin one straight into the proper positions on the 8 pin socket of your video card directly, as the hyperlink article implies.  I, personally, would get an adapter.

EDIT:  Here is a pic of both ends of what is supposed to be a PCIe 6 pin to PCIe 8 pin supplemental power adapter.  The first and third pins of a 6 pin feed officially are 12v DC (some references have each of the first 3 pins being 12vDC) and thereafter the rest are supposed to be either a "sense" or a ground  connection.  When I look at the 8-pin plug end's wiring  I don't see a ground wire or ground jumper coming to pin 8.  I would not recommend this one, unless I am incorrect regarding its wiring:

[SDH]

Edit:  Again, here's that wiring hyperlink for reference:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-specifications-atx-reference,3061-12.html

An added piece of info.....

I have seen pictures of these 6 to 8 adapters where the maker did not occupy all 8 pin holes on the card socket end of the adapter.  The standard for a true 8 pin feed is pins 1-3 12vDC, and the rest (4-8) being either ground wires or "sense" wires.  It is fine for the manufacturer to use the curved ground jumpers you see below, and I'd think the card's electronics truly wants to see a proper wire on each of the remaining pins after #3.  For this reason I'm going to recommend not trying the use of a 6 pin cable from the HP's power supply without this type of fully populated adapter.  nVidia's statement from the post above tells you to use the adapter approach, and it makes sense that a fully populated adapter from a well known company is the way to go..

Here is a close-up of what the 8 pin end should look like.... the metal in each of the 8 holes helps you know it has been wired correctly.  I honestly don't know if an adapter can work fine with less on your card, however:

This pic was taked from an Amazon.com ad for "StarTech PCI Express 6 pin to 8 pin Power Adapter Cable (PCIEX68ADAP)", and they're not expensive.  I'd order one and wait for it to arrive if I was you.... that will be painful, I know. 

By the way, I've had to edit these posts a few times because I kept coming across conflicting/wrong info as I searched.  The link I provided above is one I have found to be excellent in the past, and is my gold standard.  It has quite a few other categories in there of the same high quality, but I believe you now have the information that is correct.

[vinnyvince]

Thanks for your help Scott. I finally got my cable & have built my system