Upgrading HP Z400 Workstation

[Biomecanoid]

4289

 

[LEECH666]

Interesting thread. I've just got 3 Z400 for free but haven't checked the actual specs from them yet. I think there is a XEON W3565 in these and 6GB of RAM and no HDD and maybe some old Nvidia Quadro card. The first thing I'm gonna do is clean them though as they've collected quite a bit of dust on the inside.

[AnNo]

I wonder if you ever got beyond that 4.1 GHz with any other CPU ?

Generally speaking, this old crap is still worth it, even more as if you trade & flip parts, you'll get a very powerful system for basically Zero bucks. I got hooked onto LGA1366 last fall, as i was wondering what to buy for my CAD works and accidentally stumbled upon a Dell Precision at a backyard-sale. From there on i invested some in auctions and sold some of that stuff, basically giving me a dual-CPU (12c/24t) system with 96GB RAM and a RX580 8GB for free.

Dell Precision 7500, QC, 6GB RAM                                                        75.-
2X Fujitsu Primergy, 2X 5670 (6C/12T, 2,9-2,3 GHz), 192 GB RAM     400.-
Supermicro Serverboard, 4x QC & additional RAM                                90.-
Graphicscards, 2X RX580, 8GB                                                           185.-
SSD & HDDs (for sales)                                                                       ~60.-
Additional Powersupply                                                                          30.-
                                                                                                total:      840.-

Sales:

T7500 + 1x 5670, 48 GB RAM, RX580, SSD & HDD                           350.-
2X Server Primergy,2x QC, 32GB RAM, HDD    sold 150/each           300.-
Network controllers  (10GBit/s, came with the servers)                        180.-
4 kits of 48 GB RAM                                                                             200.-
                                                                                              total:      1030.-

The surplus is enough to pay the extra on the electric-bill for 4 years compared to the newer stuff that would be as compatible (at least for my personal workload) and cost me roughly ~ 850.- (all in €). The last platform i invested in brand-new was FM2+, roughly 500.- in good hopes, Zen was coming there.... and nothing happened. And since Haswell, nothing really happened on Intel's side either.

Now i still have a 5670 & 48 GB of RAM and wonder if it's worth a shot picking up a Z400 motherboard.

[thrasher_565]

12 hours ago, AnNo said:

I wonder if you ever got beyond that 4.1 GHz with any other CPU ?

Generally speaking, this old crap is still worth it, even more as if you trade & flip parts, you'll get a very powerful system for basically Zero bucks. I got hooked onto LGA1366 last fall, as i was wondering what to buy for my CAD works and accidentally stumbled upon a Dell Precision at a backyard-sale. From there on i invested some in auctions and sold some of that stuff, basically giving me a dual-CPU (12c/24t) system with 96GB RAM and a RX580 8GB for free.

Dell Precision 7500, QC, 6GB RAM                                                        75.-
2X Fujitsu Primergy, 2X 5670 (6C/12T, 2,9-2,3 GHz), 192 GB RAM     400.-
Supermicro Serverboard, 4x QC & additional RAM                                90.-
Graphicscards, 2X RX580, 8GB                                                           185.-
SSD & HDDs (for sales)                                                                       ~60.-
Additional Powersupply                                                                          30.-
                                                                                                total:      840.-

Sales:

T7500 + 1x 5670, 48 GB RAM, RX580, SSD & HDD                           350.-
2X Server Primergy,2x QC, 32GB RAM, HDD    sold 150/each           300.-
Network controllers  (10GBit/s, came with the servers)                        180.-
4 kits of 48 GB RAM                                                                             200.-
                                                                                              total:      1030.-

The surplus is enough to pay the extra on the electric-bill for 4 years compared to the newer stuff that would be as compatible (at least for my personal workload) and cost me roughly ~ 850.- (all in €). The last platform i invested in brand-new was FM2+, roughly 500.- in good hopes, Zen was coming there.... and nothing happened. And since Haswell, nothing really happened on Intel's side either.

Now i still have a 5670 & 48 GB of RAM and wonder if it's worth a shot picking up a Z400 motherboard.

dell t3500 or better is better then there hpz400 imo. bigger fans, don't need an 24 pin adapter, better airflow, quite and has a bigger psu. only down fall is its not atx like the hpz400 so if you want to move it not a different case it could be a pane....also has better hhd layout i guess. and better pci slot cover imo

 

one other down fall is there no oc max is 4.0gh if your lucky. last 3 i had only made it to 3.86

[AnNo]

The T7500 came with an ATX-compliant power-supply, another T5400 did not. Yet, mapping the pins to match ATX V2 is not hard. And yeah, OC on Dell-boards is not really working (hence i chucked it), that's why i went for Supermicro. Despite its unusual L-shape, it is set up very similar to the EVGA classified. It was even easy to modify the AmiBIOS and should oc pretty well if need was, but that's not required at my current setup. So the HP Z400 at the current price-point seems like a viable option, if there's options for real overclocking

[thrasher_565]

On 6/8/2020 at 11:00 PM, AnNo said:

The T7500 came with an ATX-compliant power-supply, another T5400 did not. Yet, mapping the pins to match ATX V2 is not hard. And yeah, OC on Dell-boards is not really working (hence i chucked it), that's why i went for Supermicro. Despite its unusual L-shape, it is set up very similar to the EVGA classified. It was even easy to modify the AmiBIOS and should oc pretty well if need was, but that's not required at my current setup. So the HP Z400 at the current price-point seems like a viable option, if there's options for real overclocking

can only oc with software to 4.0 maybe 4.1 if lucky. but 6core 12 threads at 4.0 and like 24+ gig a ram not to shabby. i got a few z400 and t3500 and 1 t5500. also have a rampage 2 extreme mb so ya i do like x58 too.

[yober]

I currently have a Z400 with a w3550 and 24gb of ram that I've been using for a couple years now, I also have a RX 580 8gb and a 256gb SSD in there.
Now that I wanna finally upgrade, should I upgrade the CPU? or should I just build a new PC on AM4 and keep my storage and GPU?

How expensive are x5690 processors now and are they worth it?

[kkpatel87]

2 hours ago, yober said:

I currently have a Z400 with a w3550 and 24gb of ram that I've been using for a couple years now, I also have a RX 580 8gb and a 256gb SSD in there.
Now that I wanna finally upgrade, should I upgrade the CPU? or should I just build a new PC on AM4 and keep my storage and GPU?

How expensive are x5690 processors now and are they worth it?

Upgrade to a W36XX...They can be had for 40-70USD. Its a small investment even for a short term upgrade.

[GIP5IE]

On 1/11/2020 at 4:21 PM, Biomecanoid said:

Hello,

 

I recently got a Z400 workstation for free so i thought it would make a good budget mid range gaming PC

 

I got the PC with the following specs:

 

Ram:   8gb

CPU:   W3520

GPU:   QuadroFX 3500

HD:     1TB Hitachi HUA72101

PSU:   475 watt

 

My upgrade parts:

 

Ram: 32gb £90   <-- still waiting to arrive

CPU: x5690 $50  <-- still waiting to arrive

GPU: Nvidia 1060 3gb £79

SSD: RAID0 2x Crucial_CT250MX2  ( already had them around )

FAN: Extra 80mm high airflow fan ( from a server ) at the front  ( already had it )

 

Total cost around 270$

 

The 3DMARK score is 3767 without the new CPU and RAM and with some careful overclocking the score with increase.

Also AS-SSD Benchmark shows speeds of over 500MB/s

 

Anybody knows if i will be able to use XTU to overclock since the bios does not provide such options ?

 

Any thoughts / recommendations on what to do next ?

 

 

Thank you

 

 

 

 

I just got the same system but with a 4core cpu.. was thinking of upgrading it. Where did you pick up your cpu and ram if you don't mind me asking. And was told that the system on runs a max of 24gig of ram did you have to any bios tweeking to get it to rec 32g

[Biomecanoid]

On 5/15/2020 at 2:09 PM, LEECH666 said:

Interesting thread. I've just got 3 Z400 for free but haven't checked the actual specs from them yet. I think there is a XEON W3565 in these and 6GB of RAM and no HDD and maybe some old Nvidia Quadro card. The first thing I'm gonna do is clean them though as they've collected quite a bit of dust on the inside.

Mine need some good cleaning as well especially at the front of the case.

[Biomecanoid]

On 6/8/2020 at 4:54 AM, AnNo said:

I wonder if you ever got beyond that 4.1 GHz with any other CPU ?

Generally speaking, this old crap is still worth it, even more as if you trade & flip parts, you'll get a very powerful system for basically Zero bucks. I got hooked onto LGA1366 last fall, as i was wondering what to buy for my CAD works and accidentally stumbled upon a Dell Precision at a backyard-sale. From there on i invested some in auctions and sold some of that stuff, basically giving me a dual-CPU (12c/24t) system with 96GB RAM and a RX580 8GB for free.

Dell Precision 7500, QC, 6GB RAM                                                        75.-
2X Fujitsu Primergy, 2X 5670 (6C/12T, 2,9-2,3 GHz), 192 GB RAM     400.-
Supermicro Serverboard, 4x QC & additional RAM                                90.-
Graphicscards, 2X RX580, 8GB                                                           185.-
SSD & HDDs (for sales)                                                                       ~60.-
Additional Powersupply                                                                          30.-
                                                                                                total:      840.-

Sales:

T7500 + 1x 5670, 48 GB RAM, RX580, SSD & HDD                           350.-
2X Server Primergy,2x QC, 32GB RAM, HDD    sold 150/each           300.-
Network controllers  (10GBit/s, came with the servers)                        180.-
4 kits of 48 GB RAM                                                                             200.-
                                                                                              total:      1030.-

The surplus is enough to pay the extra on the electric-bill for 4 years compared to the newer stuff that would be as compatible (at least for my personal workload) and cost me roughly ~ 850.- (all in €). The last platform i invested in brand-new was FM2+, roughly 500.- in good hopes, Zen was coming there.... and nothing happened. And since Haswell, nothing really happened on Intel's side either.

Now i still have a 5670 & 48 GB of RAM and wonder if it's worth a shot picking up a Z400 motherboard.

 

The Z400 ( as most of the ready made PCs and Server ) is peculiar and specific with what kind of RAM it likes. It has some quirks but if you find the correct ram its works great.

 

I too like old servers and workstation "recycled" as desktop PCs because you get a lot of processing power for free

[Biomecanoid]

On 6/9/2020 at 9:00 AM, AnNo said:

The T7500 came with an ATX-compliant power-supply, another T5400 did not. Yet, mapping the pins to match ATX V2 is not hard. And yeah, OC on Dell-boards is not really working (hence i chucked it), that's why i went for Supermicro. Despite its unusual L-shape, it is set up very similar to the EVGA classified. It was even easy to modify the AmiBIOS and should oc pretty well if need was, but that's not required at my current setup. So the HP Z400 at the current price-point seems like a viable option, if there's options for real overclocking

The overclock is only done via software in windows and not in the bios. In all the software i tried there is no option that would allow you to go above 4.1Ghz so that is my current limit and works fine.

[Biomecanoid]

On 6/27/2020 at 6:54 PM, yober said:

I currently have a Z400 with a w3550 and 24gb of ram that I've been using for a couple years now, I also have a RX 580 8gb and a 256gb SSD in there.
Now that I wanna finally upgrade, should I upgrade the CPU? or should I just build a new PC on AM4 and keep my storage and GPU?

How expensive are x5690 processors now and are they worth it?

My upgrade parts:

 

Ram: 32gb £90   

CPU: x5690 $50 and w3680 for $33 

GPU: Nvidia 1060 3gb £79

SSD: RAID0 2x Crucial_CT250MX2  ( already had them around )

FAN: Extra 80mm high airflow fan ( from a server ) at the front  ( already had it )

 

Total cost around 270$

 

 

x5690 is not overclockable  while the w3680 and w3690 are and can both go up to 4.1Ghz so it does not matter which one you buy

[Biomecanoid]

15 hours ago, GIP5IE said:

I just got the same system but with a 4core cpu.. was thinking of upgrading it. Where did you pick up your cpu and ram if you don't mind me asking. And was told that the system on runs a max of 24gig of ram did you have to any bios tweeking to get it to rec 32g

 

I got my CPU from Aliexpress and RAM from Ebay. I updated to the latest bios for microcode support and ram. 

 

CPU was 33usd ( used ) and ram 90usd ( new )

[Nena Trinity]

Did you see TimmyJoe`s video and copied his build? XD

 

[Biomecanoid]

35 minutes ago, Nena Trinity said:

Did you see TimmyJoe`s video and copied his build? XD

 

WOW TimmyJoe had a Z400 on his YouTube ? i totally missed that, and i do watch his videos.

 

My info for this project came primarily from greenpcgamers, official HP website and lot of youtube videos.

[Nena Trinity]

1 minute ago, Biomecanoid said:

WOW TimmyJoe had a Z400 on his YouTube ? i totally missed that, and i do watch his videos.

 

My info for this project came primarily from greenpcgamers, official HP website and lot of youtube videos.

I were gonna do that to but the local prices for the Z400 PCs wasnt as good as in Canada and US prices.

[Biomecanoid]

37 minutes ago, Nena Trinity said:

Did you see TimmyJoe`s video and copied his build? XD

 

He probably copied it from me looool because i started gathering all the parts Xmas 2019 and i posted here on January 2020 

[Biomecanoid]

Just now, Nena Trinity said:

I were gonna do that to but the local prices for the Z400 PCs wasnt as good as in Canada and US prices.

Well i got my for free, and spend some money upgrading it. I Actually got 2 Z400 and a xw8400 which i upgraded to dual Xeon X5365

[Nena Trinity]

Just now, Biomecanoid said:

Well i got my for free, and spend some money upgrading it. I Actually got 2 Z400 and a xw8400 which i upgraded to dual Xeon X5365

Awesome! :Q (have you tested Cinebench R20?)

[Biomecanoid]

4 minutes ago, Nena Trinity said:

Awesome! :Q (have you tested Cinebench R20?)

Cinebench R20 no just TimeSpy but i can try Cinebench too

[Biomecanoid]

I am currently working on my triple monitor setup again from old HP office monitors.

 

It was fun trying to find matching monitors that were in good working shape with out marks, dead pixels, lines and with good brightness

 

My major issue is that i don't want to drill into the desktop to attach my triple monitor stand, but i guess there is no other way.

[Nena Trinity]

5 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

Cinebench R20 no just TimeSpy but i can try Cinebench too

Hurray!

[Biomecanoid]

5 hours ago, Nena Trinity said:

Hurray!

Here is the Cinebench score you wanted: 1831

 

The Xeon W3680 is more or less an i7 equivalent.

 

The weird thing is that Cinebench was the only program that I found so far that did not want to run when I have the CPU @ 4.1Ghz it would just close without any error message when pressing RUN.

 

It run perfectly fine with the CPU @ 4Ghz which is not much of a problem.

[Nena Trinity]

1 minute ago, Biomecanoid said:

Here is the Cinebench score you wanted: 1831

 

The Xeon W3680 is more or less an i7 equivalent.

 

The weird thing is that Cinebench was the only program that I found so far that did not want to run when I have the CPU @ 4.1Ghz it would just close without any error message when pressing RUN.

 

It run perfectly fine with the CPU @ 4Ghz which is not much of a problem.

my FX gets about 1400-1450cb