Quick progress update.
Completed the Z620 UEFI based Windows 7 Pro installation on my 256GB SM951AHCI yesterday and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was.
Simply pulled the Tesla M2090, SATA III PCIe card and the SSD/HDD caddy's from the machine leaving only the quadro K4200 and ASUS Hyper/SM951 PCIe cards installed. Inserted my Windows 7 Professional disc, (full retail version), into the DVD drive and shut down the computer. Switched on the computer pressing the F9 key for the boot menu - sure enough the system had defaulted to the DVD drive, (listed under EFI Boot Sources). Booted from the DVD and followed the normal installation procedure for a fresh install, i.e. deleted all the existing partitions from the SM951, (which had Windows 7 Professional MBR boot partitions). After about 15mins of frantic activity the PC started to reboot and setting up the windows desktop, internet connection, etc. After what appeared to be the final reboot, I removed the Windows DVD and rebooted to BIOS to confirm the WIndows Boot Manager was now present - all good so far. Unfortunately, this version of Windows did not have the SP1 update and only had IE8 as a browser. Consequently, I was unable to access some web pages, (including the HP drivers & support pages), Decided to persevere and push on with updating Windows to the latest version with all recommended and critical updates. This is where my nightmare began.
After successfully installing about 60 or 70 Windows updates, (and several reboots later), Windows update starting hanging!!? (I even left the computer switched on all night!). I had just updated to SP1 !! Very, very frustrating, but in summary it took about 6 hours in total to eventually sort it all out. I think I must have tried virtually every patch, re-installation and hotfix available until I found a good fix on sevenforums, (my sincerest thanks to them for the info). Eventually got WIndows update running again and resumed with the outstanding 240+ updates. As soon as IE11 was installed, I downloaded and installed the Z620 driver pack from the HP website.
So I suppose the main question is, was it really worth all the effort? Have I noticed any improvement switching from MBR to UEFI?
My latest PassMark score (without the Tesla M2090 or SATA III cards installed) . . .
Passmark System Rating= 5048/ CPU= 19677 / 2D= 567 / 3D = 10341 / Mem =2190 / Disk = 12652
Definitely a major improvement in SM951 performance and also a significant increase in overall performance. System definitely seems quicker and more responsive but I won't count my chickens just yet until I have all my software and hardware re-fitted/installed. Obviously the system is running in a fresh, lean and clutter free environment but will keep you updated how things progress. Will easily take me most of the week to re-install and re-activate everything again.
The Corsair H90 kit arrived yesterday, (and you were correct in that it is a closed loop system), but on closer inspection, the hoses can be easily removed, (and re-fitted), from the radiator and heatsink without damaging any of the parts. The pump is on the heatsink side and powered via a 3-pin motherboard connector while the fan (which is attached to the radiator) is powered via a 4-pin motherboard connector. I'm still waiting on the Tesla cooler/heatsink to arrive but I should be able to insert the Tesla cooler in the loop and replace the coolant with a higher performance PC coolant. I will plug the kit into the Z620 (before I fit the Tesla cooler) to test the noise level from the pump to see if I should install the pump internally or externally since there isn't much space in the enclosure. I will also bench test the modified cooler to make sure there are no leaks before I fit it to the Tesla card or Z620. Hopefully the cooler will arrive in the next day or so. I will take some pics before, during and after in case the information is of interest to other forum members. Fingers crossed but the outlook looks good. . .