~$200ish used parts build (HP Z400/Xeon)

CoalitionGaming · March 15, 2018

Hey everyone! So i set out to build something to gift to my cousin for his birthday and tried to do my best with keeping performance somewhat high, but costs low. Had a spare Xeon w3550 i took out from the original Z400 build i did a long time ago (which got swapped with an x5687), so found me a deal on ebay for a complete Z400 system with a crappier CPU but 8gb ram, 250gb HDD, PSU, case, board, cooler, etc. Turns out you cant use the Z400 stock cooler without the backplate that you cant use if you transplant the system into another case, and the Deepcool Gammax 300 for $13 stepped in. However, if anyone builds in a Z400 as-is, then its a moot point. Threw in some other spare parts i had (128gb boot SSD, 500gb storage drive, LED strip, transplant case, a few extra ram sticks, 24pin/4pin extensions) but the basis of this build was the complete Z400 system for $100, a Xeon W3550 (like $7 on ebay), and a GTX 960 4gb ($100 local, used) and thats right about $200 and good to game! Furthermore, this socket/system can support six core CPUs like the w3680 (i7-980x) and w3690 (i7-990x) which are still very strong processors, but the caveat i found out is that using an unlocked processor even on a locked system like this, programs like intel XTU and Throttlestop can lightly OC those CPUs still! Ive read of some other folks hitting 4.0-4.2ghz with those, with the software overclocking those utilities provide. 6-cores at 4+ghz is nothing to scoff at, even if it was 1st gen era. Moving the Z400 board into a non-stock case though introduces some issues, the main ones being a sense pin on the yellow USB header needs to have a jumper placed on it (easy), the 5th pin on the CPU fan header needs to be grounded (also pretty easy, i just cut a spare front panel wire from a different case down to a single pin, stripped one end, placed it on the 5th pin, routed it out the back, and screwed the exposed ground wire into the chassis), and the rear fan header needs a PWM fan on it (easy, just install a PWM fan on the rear of the case and plug it in there). BIOS will throw a 1394 header error, but just go into BIOS and mark the 1394 header as 'hidden' and voila, boots without issue and not needing "to press F1 to boot" and you'd be hard pressed to find a difference in performance or function at this point.

Also, the fastest stock CPU for this is the x5687 Xeon. 4c/8t, 3.6ghz base with 3.9ghz turbo. Cant OC like described above, but has plenty of grunt at stock speeds and there was no i7 counterpart to this one. This Xeon is faster than any i7 on the x58 platform stock. Pretty interesting!

Check it out and lemme know what y'all think!