Z640 questions?

[monopoly_hater]

Budget (including currency): 250 EUR

Country: Belgium

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: VSCode, ,IntelliJ, PyCharm, C, C++, Flutter dev, Kapman

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

My budget got knocked down seriously, so I'm considering giving an old HP Z640 some love. HP's spec sheet at present though is absolute hot garbage, so I hope someone can give me some anwsers:

1. Can the Xeon E5-2699 v3 be installed in this? If it can, can the Broadwell v4 version be installed? Or does HP blacklist it?
2. Can I install a Phantom Spirit 120 EVO in here? It supports the LGA 2011 socket according to the official specs. I don't mind some hacking to adapt it to HP proprietary 
3. Does it use a standard ATX PSU and/or motherboard.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1. It looks like e5 v4 cpus are supported as there are a few reports of tehm being used online.

 

I'd probably get something like a e5 1680 v4 over a 2699 v3 as the higher clocks will likely help more in those programs than more low clocked cores.

 

2. Maybe, but it likely won't let the sidepanel close, and the included ram cooling will need to be removed. I'd keep the included CPU cooler as its likely fine for all these chips and you won't be overclocking.

 

3. Nope to both. The board is close, but non standard power and front panel it seems. I'd keep the PSU + Mobo + Case and expect to not swap any of those out.

[monopoly_hater]

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

1. It looks like e5 v4 cpus are supported as there are a few reports of tehm being used online.

 

I'd probably get something like a e5 1680 v4 over a 2699 v3 as the higher clocks will likely help more in those programs than more low clocked cores.

 

2. Maybe, but it likely won't let the sidepanel close, and the included ram cooling will need to be removed. I'd keep the included CPU cooler as its likely fine for all these chips and you won't be overclocking.

 

3. Nope to both. The board is close, but non standard power and front panel it seems. I'd keep the PSU + Mobo + Case and expect to not swap any of those out.

Thanks , but for 1, I'm left wondering if between 4 and 3.6 GHZ would be such a huge difference? Broadwell was only a process refresh, not a architectural change, so there would also be no IPC uplift, so with that in mind would you still recommend the 1680?

[BillBill]

7 minutes ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Thanks , but for 1, I'm left wondering if between 4 and 3.6 GHZ would be such a huge difference? Broadwell was only a process refresh, not a architectural change, so there would also be no IPC uplift, so with that in mind would you still recommend the 1680?

There are some benchmark comparisons available on several websites. For both CPU's   

[Electronics Wizardy]

11 minutes ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Thanks , but for 1, I'm left wondering if between 4 and 3.6 GHZ would be such a huge difference? Broadwell was only a process refresh, not a architectural change, so there would also be no IPC uplift, so with that in mind would you still recommend the 1680?

Thats the single core boost and CPUs don't seem to use that too often. The multicore boost is often more representative, and 2.7 on the 2699 v3 and 3.6 on the 1680 v4.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

50 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd probably get something like a e5 1680 v4 over a 2699 v3 as the higher clocks will likely help more in those programs than more low clocked cores

1660v3 would be a better option as they are overclockable ofc not through bios but throttlestop should be able to oc them abit till you hit voltage limit and at that point youd have to voltmod the board or padmod the cpu, dont think the volt limit will be that much of an issue considering cooling limits and stock volt will probs be able to bring it up to 4-4.2ghz

 

1 hour ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Can I install a Phantom Spirit 120 EVO in here? It supports the LGA 2011 socket according to the official specs. I don't mind some hacking to adapt it to HP proprietary 

depends if the mounting will fit, id just use the stock cooler anyways cause youll be limited to stock volt anyways if you did oc assuming you dont go voltmodding the board/padmodding the cpu for extra voltage

 

you can also just put a better fan on the stock cooler aswell thatd probably help abit

 

1 hour ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

Does it use a standard ATX PSU and/or motherboard.

its a prebuilt whaddaya expect but the psu should be adequate as long as you arent trying to cram a 3080 in it

 

if you find yourself needing to upgrade the board go and build an entirely new pc

 

speaking of which how much is this gonna cost you anyways? you can get used ryzen 3600(x) for ~50$ with used 5600(x) at ~80$, used b3/450 being ~50$ or under with some new options at 60-70, and 32gb ddr4 at ~50$

 

so you might wanna look at used ryzen depending on how much this thing and its upgrades are gonna cost

[monopoly_hater]

9 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

1660v3 would be a better option as they are overclockable ofc not through bios but throttlestop should be able to oc them abit till you hit voltage limit and at that point youd have to voltmod the board or padmod the cpu, dont think the volt limit will be that much of an issue considering cooling limits and stock volt will probs be able to bring it up to 4-4.2ghz

 

depends if the mounting will fit, id just use the stock cooler anyways cause youll be limited to stock volt anyways if you did oc assuming you dont go voltmodding the board/padmodding the cpu for extra voltage

 

you can also just put a better fan on the stock cooler aswell thatd probably help abit

 

its a prebuilt whaddaya expect but the psu should be adequate as long as you arent trying to cram a 3080 in it

 

if you find yourself needing to upgrade the board go and build an entirely new pc

 

speaking of which how much is this gonna cost you anyways? you can get used ryzen 3600(x) for ~50$ with used 5600(x) at ~80$, used b3/450 being ~50$ or under with some new options at 60-70, and 32gb ddr4 at ~50$

 

so you might wanna look at used ryzen depending on how much this thing and its upgrades are gonna cost

could you advice me on padmodding

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

On 6/29/2024 at 2:28 PM, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

could you advice me on padmodding

 

just look up 5930k datasheet or something and thatll give you datasheets for 2011-3 and there should be some pages highlighting the vid lands and the voltage configurations depending on which are set to 1 (vcc/powered) or 0 (vss/ground)

 

you change the state by connecting to vcc (power) or vss (ground) pads with stuff like conductive paint

 

ive never really seen this done on anything post 775 so may or may not work and i have not tried it myself yet, besides youll be limuted by cooling anyways and this does require abit of effort