Hi,   For technical point of view, the components for a server to complete POST would be the ones listed below: •System board•I/O board•Risers•Processor with heat sink•Power supply (power distribution board is required for redundant PSU)•CPU1 (minimum for troubleshooting)•At least two DIMMs in sockets A1, A2 (lock-step pair) to POST •Control panel with cable   There are to riser that needed for the server to complete POST, else the server will not complete it's POST, it will not proceed further.   Moving further, after complete POST, it would be OS components, which is RAID controller, Backplane and hard drives.    You probably need to refer to the user guide for installation of components.
I am helping a friend assemble a PowerEdge R810 from parts from eBay, and we are trying to determine what the minimum needed parts are to have a working server. The parts we have currently are: -The main board -I/O Board -Power distribution board -2x 750 Watt Compatible Power Supply -4x CPUs -8x 2Gb RAM -Hard Drive + SATA Cable -4x Fans -4x Heat Sinks   Is there anything that we are missing that is absolutely critical? Some sources I've looked at said that you needed a riser to attach a graphics card, but that didn't seem right to me. Both of us are new to this, so pardon our naivety. Thanks, Bryn
PowerEdge R810 Assembly Help