Acquired Z400 & xw8400 - which 1 to upgrade + issues

[Biomecanoid]

I could swap the 750 watt PSU from my old Core2Quad system. It is overkill for that computer but this is not for now. We will see i need to do that when the time comes when i get a new GPU for the Z400

[SDH]

For all practical purposes you cannot swap power supplies back and forth with HP workstations.  The boards and power supplies are not like consumer grade cheapies.... they are high grade custom engineered items.  The best I'd recommend is to do your research and find out if there was a higher power HP power supply designed by HP for your particular workstation.  Then go buy that.

HP usually has two levels of power supply for each workstaton. Get out your google.

[Biomecanoid]

I would hate to change the PSU on the z400 since its engineered to match the PC. I think its better to choose a GPU that will match the constrains of the power supply. If the computer behaves erratically with a high power GPU i already have an ATX 750 PSU to swap.

It doesn't seem like much if you have the adapter needed. Here is a couple of videos on it ( actually your don't need the adapter you can splice cables together in a certain manner to make any ATX PSU compatible 😞

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyDvM-CEEA8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X5I3I8Wzf0&t=28s

[DGroves]

as i recall, the z600 power supply is also wired the same as the z400 you can check the service manuals of both systems to confirm this

the z400 optional 600W power supply was discontinued as of June 30 2012 but may still be available on ebay

[Biomecanoid]

Thank you for the info on the PSU but that is another problem to tackle if needed.

For now just need to make sure my shopping list for both systems (z400 and xw8400) is OK so i can order.

Do i have a go for the shopping list ? After ordering the parts i will concentrate on what GPU to get

[DGroves]

you are planning to put your fastest card in a system (xw8400) whose hardware will limit its performance to around less than half of it's actual speed,.. due to a pci-e 1.0 bus and older cpu's and slower ram, slower SATA interface  instead of spending 15.00 for a psu adapter and a 650 watt supply which costs around 30.00 used or 70.00 new and using it it the z400 and as i pointed out you really don't need the larger capacity supply for the 770 video card

a system is no faster than it's slowest component and i don't think you actually realise just how slow the xw8400 is compared to a z400 and since you state that you want to possibly game on one of these systems your current path is in my opinion a very poor one

i've got the smaller xw6400 motherboard in a 3rd party case sitting in a corner (and i've owned the 8400) and it's been unused as a system because of its age/performance in comparisons to  newer systems it's last usage was as a file server but it's performance is no longer able to cope with more than 3 users at a time under a modern OS/software applications

i think "SDH" has also worked with the xw line of workstations along with the 400/600/620 systems and i suspect he will agree with me that the xw8400 is suboptimal compared to the z400 as a gaming system or as a general purpose system

whichever way you go i wish you luck and hope you are happy with the results

[Biomecanoid]

NO i just installed the fastest GPU ( the 770 ) that i already had on hand in the xw8400 to make it "complete".

An updated xw800 seems to be in balance with an Nvidia 770 in my eyes so i can skip updating that part of the system.

The 770 is a bit too old for the z400 ( way out of balance) and I will be buying a new better one, something like the 1060 ( which should be more friendly on the power draw, since it needs only 1 power connector)

All i am trying to do is allocate my "resources" as best as i can and buy only what is necessary 

So to sum up:

z400:        x5690-16gb-Raid0 SSD-Nvidia 1060?

xw8400:   Dual x5365-32gb -Raid0 SSD-Nvidia 770

Is the shopping list in my previous posts correct or do i need to change/amend something ?

[DGroves]

tell you what, do a video benchmark at 1080p with the 770 installed then install the 460 and rerun the same benchmark and note the scores between the two, i think you will be surprised

then do the same with the 8800

[Biomecanoid]

Sounds like a fun thing to do which video benchmark do you recommend ?

I would think that the best card would be the 770 then the 460, 640 and 8800gt

[Biomecanoid]

Here is my old Core2Quad setup that i could borrow the 750 PSU and install it on the Z400: