Acquired Z400 & xw8400 - which 1 to upgrade + issues

[DGroves]

isn't it actually one quarter the speed for a usb 3.0 card installed in a pci-e 1.0 slot (250mbs max) vs approx 500mbs of a pci-e 2.0 slot = half speed of a pci-e 3.0 slot which is around 1000mbs

Summary of PCI Express Interface Parameters:

• Base Clock Speed: PCIe 3.0 = 8.0GHz, PCIe 2.0 = 5.0GHz, PCIe 1.1 = 2.5GHz
• Data Rate: PCIe 3.0 = 1000MB/s, PCIe 2.0 = 500MB/s, PCIe 1.1 = 250MB/s
• Total Bandwidth: (x16 link): PCIe 3.0 = 32GB/s, PCIe 2.0 = 16GB/s, PCIe 1.1 = 8GB/s
• Data Transfer Rate: PCIe 3.0 = 8.0GT/s, PCIe 2.0= 5.0GT/s, PCIe 1.1 = 2.5GT/s

PCIe 3.0 features a number of interface architecture improvements, but communicates at the same interface speeds used in PCIe 2.0. PCIe 3.0 achieves twice the communication speeds of PCIe 2.0 through various architecture and protocol management improvements.

[SDH]

Yes.... I read different things.  It was pretty convincing to get USB going twice as fast via the faster PCIe slot; even more so to go 4 times as fast.  Supposedly the HP engineers developed that 2x2 TI based PCIe card to bring USB3 to the ZX00 family of workstations while they were building up the ZX20 family.  Honestly I'd rather have USB3 on a workstation than SATA III if I had to choose...  Now we have both.

To the OP.... you can live without USB3 but it may be nice to add later if you use USB a fair amount.  I do to transfer big conference files around often.  You'd need a fast USB3 thumb drive too.

[Biomecanoid]

I don't need use 3 at the moment. I am trying to make a Gaming PC out of these workstations. The goal here is to verify my shopping list and find a GPU that won't break the bank 

[DGroves]

the nvidia 970 or the newer 2060 super are both good cards at 1080 resolutions same for the AMD 570/580 cards

[Biomecanoid]

Well as far as GPUs are concerned this is what i have at the moment (that are worth mentioning):

Nvidia Geforce

2x8800GT ( i don't think sli is worth it )

460

640

770

Nvidia Quadro:

2xFX3500

[DGroves]

the 770 is the fastest by far followed by the 460

for the xw8400, install the 8800GT

neither system is SLI compatible with consumer nvidia cards, only some models of quadro are sli compatible see the hp "quickspecs" for the compatible models

[Biomecanoid]

But the xw8400 has a PSU with almost double the watts than the z400 and the wire loom has 2 power connectors for GPU the z400 has only one.

So i guess the xw8400 can power easily more powerful cards, where the z400 is limited by the PSU

[DGroves]

newer cards are more powerful, and consume less watts than earlier cards

and no the xw8400 will never beat the z400 in GPU performance due to it's PCI-E 1.0 bus which limits the gpu performance

read up on the 460 (160 watts)

https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=1BB4461B-D8CB-4FEB-98C2-F3097FEC130E

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-460.c265

and then the 770 (230 watts) 

https://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-770/specifications

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/geforce-gtx-770.c1856

note that both cards spec s are based on a pci-e 2.0 bus, if placed in a pci-e 1.0 bus the performance is about half of what the 2.0 specs are

and the new nvidia GTX 2060 card only draws 165 watts but is around 2.5 times faster than the 770

https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-2060-vs-Nvidia-GTX-770/4034vs2174

[Biomecanoid]

Well i could not install the 770 GPU on the z400 because the GPU needed 2 power plugs to work otherwise it would not post.

I could have used adapters but it seemed more proper to install it in the xw8400  since the support was already there and not an after thought.

Anyways i guess i will keep the 770 in the xw8400 and get a new card for the z400.

Benchmarks would be really interesting to see which system is better.

[DGroves]

your choice, you want to place the fastest card you have in a system that will provide the poorest performance...go for it

the z400 if it is not fully kitted out with drives/cards/ram modules can easily run a 2060, and should be able to run a 770 using a quality power adapter but your right that that's right against the MAX limit for a power draw

a 5690 cpu - 130 watts

z400 MB - 40 watts

4 sticks ram -  around 3 watts of power per every 8GB

1 ssd - 5 watts

1 3.5 HD 25 watts (7200 rpm)

so, approx 205 watts for the above

add in 225 watts for the 770 =430 watts 

and you have a 45 watt reserve from the z400's 475 watt supply

and you can also replace the z400 supply with a std ATX supply using a  15.00 adapter

https://www.moddiy.com/products/ATX-to-HP-Z400-24-Pin-Non-Standard-ATX-Pinout-Main-Power-Adapter-Cab...