SDH wrote:
Not at this time, but I'd not be surprised to see this trend continue.
As you know the Z400/Z600/Z800 series and the Z420/Z620/Z820 workstations both have had version 1 and version 2 motherboards. The version 2 motherboards have been a welcome addition in that hardware changes became available that opened access to new processors that were not in existance when the version 1 motherboards were engineered. There have been other HP workstations that have been able to run newly released processors with simple BIOS updates from HP, but that was not the case for the more substantial hardware changes that happened with the two series noted above.
I consider it fortunate, personally, that HP adds newer hardware cabailities like this to a product. I agree that it would be better if those upgrades were more obvious without needing to get into BIOS and checking the boot block date. Very few eBay sellers know of the v1 versus v2, and wise purchasers can use this information to their benefit. I have donated a number of HP workstations to good causes, and use this knowledge to build them the best I can for the least cost.
The thing is there were no hardware changes per se in terms of the motherboards between v1 and v2 versions. This is evident by the fact that a v1 motherboards boot up the v2 CPU's just fine with a v2 bios chip installed / programmed.
I think at the end of the day the whole issue here is that HP does not support CPU upgrades. They would rather you buy a new workstation when Intel goes from tick to tock or in the worst case scenario a new motherboard. I think they are aware that this money grabbing apporach wouldn't be viewed on too favourably hence they are intentionally fuzzy about this in the quick specs.