Dell Poweredge SC420 PCI Express 16x Video Card MOD

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Dell included a 16X PCI-E slot with the Dell SC420. Oddly only enough pins for an 8X card are present, and they placed 2 dividers preventing the use of a 16X card even though it's a 16X slot. Knocking out those two dividers and running a 16x card at 8x is the plan. With the minimal effects of 8X vs. 16X, this modification was a go!

I read in many places before I began on the best method to go about doing this modification. When it really comes down to it, this mod really just requires your patience.

My Dell SC420 specifications before modification:
P4 2.8ghz
256 DDR2
80 Gigabyte Western Digital w/8megs of cache

I used the following tools to perform this mod:
•  Xacto Knife
•  Xacto Knife Blade Set
•  Propane Blow Torch
•  TINY Needle Nose Pliers
•  Flat Head Screw Driver

I have taken many pictures of my progress as I worked. Reading through all the forums, it became clear the best method was to heat up a Xacto knife to the point where you can just slice through the dividers like butter. The problem is that you can get the dividers cut out pretty well, but the width and depth of the cuts are very difficult with the knifes. So I would heat up a flat head screwdriver at the end to make the perfect depth and width.

Now we begin with some pictures of the dividers I needed to cut. Notice how close the pins are to the first divider, this is where almost all modifications failures take place, the bending or destroying of the pins.







People did many things to try to block the pins before they performed the surgery. Many people used paper; some used broken chopped pci cards. One person on the forums used broken bits of PC-100 RAM chips lying around, as did I in the pictures below. This really was the best method, it just seemed to be very clean and non obtrusive to the workspace I needed to cut the dividers.

Here is the knife I used to do all the cutting work; you can see the other pieces I used as well during the cutting. My Xacto knife came with 5 pieces, and I used them all. The blades dull over a few cuts because I get the knife so intensely hot. Its important to have extra blades.

This is a standard propane blowtorch I had purchased at home depot for twelve dollars. You don't need anything fancy, but you do need a large amount of heat to get the blades glowing red hot.



Taking pictures of this was difficult, but you should have the idea. Since this project took some time, I would turn the torch very high and get that blade VERY RED and then turn down the torch and focus on cutting. The blades need to be super hot, it is definitely key. (I still do not understand how anyone did this with only a box cutter... =/.... )

Start cutting the divider furthest from the pins. It is good practice and easy to get the feel of.





I got fairly deep so I decided to move to the next divider. With the RAM chip in place, I started cutting. Do all of your sloppy work on the non pin side. With the chip in place, it really is not that difficult. BE PATIENT!



I then got both dividers pretty well cut out. When doing this mod, you really notice how hard it is to even out the width of the PCI-E slot, as well as the depth. Using my method, it is not a problem if it doesn't feel right yet. The knives are there to cut out the majority of the plastic, not to make everything even and perfect.



This part is essential. The Xacto knife cuts out a lot of the plastic, but the dividers need to be even in width and depth. Using the screwdriver, this becomes VERY easy. Any flathead screwdriver will work, as long as it's the right size as the width of the PCI-E slot.

The trick is to heat the screwdriver with the propane torch, and stick it straight into where the divider used to be. The screwdriver melts and pushes the plastic and allows a 16X video card to fit perfectly.





After a few dips with the hot screwdriver, the slot is PERFECT. With zero bent pins, the cutting portion of the mod is a success.



For my dell SC420 I purchased an ATI Radeon X800 XL. Reading through the forums and everyone's experience, it is obvious that ATI is the most compatible with the Dell SC420. Most people use an ATI X700 (with great success!), but I wanted just a little bit more muscle.



The ATI card slides and fits into the PCI-E slot perfectly. Thank you dell!



I snapped the motherboard back into the case, and everything aligns perfectly.

I plugged in my monitor and hit the power button. (This is where you hold your breath!) Monitor light goes green, and appearing from the darkness is 8X PCI-E Video from my Dell SC420!!!

I have been using my setup for a few days now. I have the following upgrades:
1 Gigabyte Corsair DDR2 Memory (2 DIMMS)
ATI X800 XL Video Card

I did a basic 3dmark 2001 test and this was my final outcome:

I have played many games so far. Battlefield 1942, Counter-Strike and even some Nascar Racing Season 2003. I will be playing Doom3, Unreal 2004 and HL2 as soon as I have the time. I have been turning all of my settings to highest possible, and there is not one glitch or problem. I can honestly say this is the best gaming machine I have had yet!

I have not had one crash, nor have I had any sort of problems installing windows XP. The broadcom gigabit card does require you to install drivers after the XP SP2 install. If you don't have the cd's, your out of luck. Or you can just download the drivers right here: win_xp_2k3_32-7.86.zip

I purchased two 512 sticks of DDR2 as suggested by www.hot-deals.org. The RAM has been performing GREAT! I purchased my memory for this system here: Corsair 512MB DDR2-533

The entire mod took me one hour and twenty minutes. That time includes taking out and putting in the motherboard.

I spent a total of $733.14. The majority of the cost was obviously the RAM and Video Card. This cost can be cut down by purchasing another stick from dell, and buying a cheaper refurbished ATI card from newegg.com.

Now go mod your Dell SC420. And remember what Dell says, " The PowerEdge SC420 is ideal for your first server & network. Note: For server use only; CANNOT BE USED AS A DESKTOP. Dell does not support the use of a graphics card on the SC420."