SDH wrote:
As for the Z420/Z620/Z820 series...... expecting HP to unsolder, reprogram, and resolder in chips on the older v1 motherboards to perhaps be stable to HP standards is a reach. I have posted here about how easy it is to buy a v2 motherboard off eBay and swap out the old v1 motherboard. That is an afternoon project. I've done it.
HP could have shut down our posting here about all the secrets of how to upgrade processors in various HP workstations years ago, and they have not. We even can receive help from talented and knowledgeable HP engineers here. So, gripe all you wish, but I've felt for years now that HP actually encourages creative recycling of their excellent workstations through this forum. There are a lot of college students and high school students who have gained access to used HP workstations and then upgraded to faster used processors and gotten good used memory via eBay or other sources. This is the one practical source on the internet for such targeted guidance.
As for the Zx20 series there would be no need to do any soldering on HP's part - all I would ask for is that they just make good use of the functionality that is already built into the mother board (E14 boot block flashing jumper) instead of locking it out.
With regard to the Zx40 line - from what I understand this boot block scenario may also be applicable, but would need to be verified. The machine was initially released with E5 v3 processors, support for v4 looks to have been added at a later date (see: https://www.processor.com/article/23095/hp-upgrades-z440-and-z64-workstations). Would be intereting to compare the boot block dates from machines running E5 v3 and E5 v4 CPU's. Ofcourse it is possible that bios updating takes place in a different manner on those machines and it is no longer an issue.