Nelson asked me some questions that I thought would be best answered in the forum for others to have as reference to in the future:
Hello SDH, I was looking at upgrading my HP Z400 Gen 1 (with 6 Dimm slots) to the highest level possible. I noticed the following thread:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Z400-Aftermarket-Up... ...where you mentioned that as far as CPU's go, either the W3690 or the X5690 would be the highest end CPU's. I understand that the X5690 is meant for dual socket systems, but the following comparison of both CPU's:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-X5690-vs-Intel-Xeon-W3690 ...seems to indicate that the X5690 not only can overclock higher than the W3690, but also isn't limited to 24 GB of RAM. If you feel that the X5690 is really the highest end module CPU, as far as RAM goes, what's the highest capacity I can fit into the Z400?
Also (and I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this), but can I assume that booting off of a M.2 is not supported on a Z400 (if I was to use an M.2 to PCIe adapter)?
Also, as far as SSD's go, would I need an adapter to ensure that my SSD's are actually running at SATA III / 6 Gbps?
I'm sorry for all the questions, but I'm basically looking at building the fastest (both in CPU and SSD) Z400 with the most amount of RAM (as I bought the Z400 used a year and a half ago, and it has become my main audio production system).
Also, if I was to put in a nice GPU, like a single Nvidia 1080 or a Titan X (doubtful I'd go with the Titan X, unless I bought it used), would I be limited by the motherboards PCIe lanes (in other words, would it even make sense to go up that high in GPU performance). And, would I need a new power supply?
Answers:
All your questions point towards you perhaps being wise to buy a Z440 or a Z420. If you go for a Z420 make sure to get the Version 2 type. Now, on to the Z400:
1. You can't overclock on HP workstations because those options are not built into BIOS. There may be some hacks but I'd not recommend that. You are right that the X5690 can run on dual CPU motherboards because it has 2 QPI links but the W3690 only has 1 QPI link. The X5690 does not seem to care that it could run in a Z600 when it is in a Z400, and that is partly why I bought the X5690, thinking that I could get a second later and run two in one of my Z600s to do speed testing. They are not cheap, however, partly because the darn Apple crowd has a use for these exact same processors too. Competition......
2. The 24GB limit listed by Intel for the W3690 contrasts with the much higher limit listed for the X5690, but remember that there is a memory controller involved too, on the motherboard. HP has put limits in their specifications that may be set by component availability, certain cost constraints, and power draw constraints that existed when they did the qualification runs way back, and these constraints may not fully apply now. However, HP is not doing added qualification runs for these older workstations, nor would I expect them to. That is our job now..... I have posted on a German company that sells memory kits for the Z400 Version 2 (6 memory slots instead of 4) for 48GB total, so it sure seems that it can be done. Dan_WGBU is a HP engineer and as such he cannot just post that it can be done here given that the official stance is that 24GB is the upper limit. Dan can give some hints to help our experimenting, however. Hopefully others on the forum here will let us know, too. Knowing the exact type of 8GB sticks is key, as is the source, if it can be done.
3a. Booting off a M.2 SSD from a PCIe adapter.... there have been recent posts in this forum exactly on that issue for the Z400, and there are specific ones that can do it. I just have not yet pulled the trigger here, waiting on some added info from the guy who has that running perfectly at his home on his Z400. Go find that info..... I'm interested but the 2.5" form factor SSD for booting is working mighty fine here. My needs likely are quite different than yours, however.
3b. SSD adapter..... You need to get up into the ZX20 workstations to get native SATA generation III port(s) and the Z400 SATA ports are all SATA generation II. You can get a SATA generation III card to plug in to your fastest PCIe slot available. You'd want PCIe generation III for that, but if I recall correctly your PCIe slots are all generation II. For the xw6400 they all are gen I, and for the xw6600 only the two video slots were gen II. There have been some forum posts on this issue for you to search.
4. nVidia 1080 draws 180W max TDP and nVidia states that the recommended system power be 500W so you're getting up there in power usage, but the SSD is a lower power draw. The latest QuickSpecs for the Z400 listed the nVidia Quadro 5000 as an approved card, and that draws 152W max, for perspective. Lot will depend on your memory sticks..... they will be sucking wattage from that available too so you need to take that into account.
5. Those higher wattage power supplies for the Z400 are hard to find, but findable. As with all the other items above, the wise saying again comes into play...... "Nothing that money can't fix." I'm guessing you are wanting more than you actually need (and aren't we all?).
p.s. Add in a front case cooling fan as described in my "ghetto mod" posts here, or get the official HP front case fan holder. There is a motherboard fan header for that at the front bottom corner. You'll want some added air flow. You may not need to do that if your new video card is the "blower" type rather than an internal air circulator type.