Adapter to mount Retail PSU in Z210 Workstation?

[Clutchc]

I've noticed that the mounting holes for HP's proprietary PSU are not the same as retail PSUs.  Nor is the PSU's size.  I wonder if anyone ever found an adapter to physically mount a retail PSU in the Z210 case?  I already have an adapter to go from the 24-pin connector to the 18-pin header.  Thank you.

[BambiBoomZ]

clutchc,

I think changing the z210 to a third party power supply is impractical: the mounting points, the specification of the rails, different M/B connector and even the position of the IEC cord outlet may be  semi-impossible.

Looking at images of the internals of the HP z210, it appears to me to be the same chassis as the z420 and the motherboard appears to be a z420 motherboard with 4X RAM slots and the other four blanked off, there is one GPU slot instead of two, and 2X PCI instead of the one in a z420.

Consider:

1. Given that the chassis of the z210 and the z420 appear to be the same,and the z210 motherboard is similar to the z420, it seems very likely that that a 600W z420 PSU will simply plug in. If so, all the wiring will be the right length and have the right connectors as well. With a single GPU possible, the 600W PSU would support most modern GPUs.  I bought an V2 z420 with an E5-1607 v2 and that had a 400W PSU which was changed to a 600W one for $34. - Just plugged it all in. > Still, research this in more detail.

2. Given the amazingly low price for used z420's, consider that it may be a better investment of time and costs to buy a z420, preferably with a Xeon E5 v2 motherboard. The case and CPU cooling is more robust, there are 8X RAM slots, and a better arrangement of PCIe slots. Z420 v2's have been sold for example with a Xeon E5-1620 v2  (4C@ 3.7 / 3.9) for as iittle as $160. A v2 z420 will have considerably more flexibility for future applications.  With  more RAM and better cooling, you can drop in an E5-2690 v2 10 core, run two GPU's, and 64GB of DDR3-1866. Of course some proportion of the cost can be recouped by selling the z210.

BambiBoomZ

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

the z210/420 boards are not the same!! look at the hp service manuals for both systems power supply pinouts and you will see they are diffrent.

BambiBoomZ, is assuming that because they look sorta the same they are, and this method causes more grief for support people and the owner of the equipment than i can describe. please don't guess take the time and research if a part is compatable or can be modded to work

you can not use a z420 ATX power adapter on the z210, it will damage the motherboard and possibly the atx supply

as proof, for those who don't want to read the HP service manuals and compare pinouts, check these links, read carefully

and you will see it states not compatable with the z210

https://www.amazon.com/Eyeboot-18-Pin-Supply-Adapter-Motherboards/dp/B01HQ2JQ3G

https://www.amazon.com/COMeap-Power-Adapter-Workstation-12-inch/dp/B074G12LT5

[Clutchc]

Thanks to both of you.  I will look into the 600W z420 PSU. 

Btw, I already have a 18 pin to 24 pin adapter for the Z-210's motherboard.  Supposed to be specific to the Z-210.  But it isn't doing me any good w/o being able to use a retail PSU.

[BambiBoomZ]

Clutchc,

My reasoning in trying the z420 600W PSU is that I have a z420 that arrived with a 400W power supply: DPS-400AB-13 B.  Original  z210 PSU's are called:  DPS-400AB-13 A and all of the specifications listed on the z210 supply are identical to the z420 400W supply as to: +12Xcpu, +12VS, +11Vsb, +12VG, +12VB.  It's quite possible that the 13 B is simply a revision number as the z420 was a V2 whereas the z210 usstarted on Core2 and E3 first version. I replaced the DPS-400AB-13B with a 600W PSU. The specs are listed in a different way, but it had the same mounting points, simply plugged it in and it works flawlessly.  It's reasonable to assume that if A=B and B=C, then A=C.

One other consideration for this project is to consider whethes a larger power supply is necessary. The z210 is LGA1155,- first version Xeon E3, the CPU's of which are 4-core and do not draw the current required by LGA2011. The Xeon E3-1240 is 80W and the i7-2600, posibbly the fastest CPU for the z210, uses 95W, whereas a Xeon E5-2690 v2 is 10-core and uses 130W.  The z210 has 4X RAM slots instead of 8  and importantly, the z210 has a single GPU slot.

Consider the peripherals you might use. The newer the GPU, the less power it takes:

https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/NVidia-GPU-Chart.htm

From the 7XX series to the current 10XX, scroll down and you can see that the recommended minimum power supply for the GTX 960, GTX 1060 or a Quadro P600- all very good performing GPU's, is 400W.

BambiBoomZ

[SDH]

Uncharted territory, but worth knowing.  Hopefully the OP will take the time to do the experiment and get us all an answer.  Contribution-to-the-cause time.

Bambi, I've built up a Z420 v2 with a brand new case/HP 400W power Z420 power supply (which has no PCIe supplemental 6-pin power cable), used Z420 v2 motherboard and spare parts.  Plus the HP OEM COA self-activation Restore discs to W7Pro64, then (still no charge) auto-update into W10Pro64.  I'm trying to see how low the cost can be.....

Those Z420 600W power supplies are excellent quality compared to the 400W version, but if they work in the OP's workstation they would be great to use.  Part numbers to look up are Assembly P/N 623193-001 or Spares P/N 632911-001... two numbers to search in eBay for the exact same thing. 

Lowest I found with free shipping:  $32.50 USD.  But, that would blow my budget for my budget Z420 v2 project.

🙂

[BambiBoomZ]

SDH,

Yes, it seemed to me that the similarity of the layout of the z210 and z420 motherboards, that the chasses ae  identical, that the output specs of the z210 and z420 400W were identical, that the connectors and cable lengths would be compatible, that I simply swapped the 400W for a 600W, and that HP is likely to produce the fewest possible number of 400W PSU's to be used in the same chassis. made it more likely to work than a third party PSU- which we know has different mounting points and main connector. Still, as I mentioned in the post, this should be researched in more detail.

I like the "new" budget z420 project. Z620_2 was assembled in the same way: new chassis/ power supply ($180) used motherboard, RAM (64GB DDR3-1866 ECC reg), liquid cooler, drives (Z Turbo M.2 + Intel 730 + HGST 7K6000 4TB), and GPU (Quadro P2000) transferred from z420_2, new CPU (E5-1680 v2). I think the net cost of the change after selling z420_2 was about $500. That low net cost has been spoiled a bit as I've ordered a GTX 1070 Ti.

What are the components going into the "new" z420? To keep costs very low, how about an E5-1607 v2 and Quadro FX 580? I heard of a drawer where those two components may be found for one astoundingly low price. And those will run on the 400W PSU. The Quadro FX 580 - I've had four of them since I think 2004, is only a 512MB card, but, amazingly, was still on the Autodesk recommended list for AutoCad 2016. The 3D is sub-minimal these days, but the 2D is completely reasonable.

Actually, the 400W PSU is more useful today than it may seem as modern GPU's- the electron hogs of the system, are so efficient now:

https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/NVidia-GPU-Chart.htm

Note that a GTX 960, GTX1060, and Quadro P600- good performers all, will run on a 400W.  Probably, the best GPU for cost/performance is a used GTX 750 Ti - and those run on a 300W. Workstations are also more forgiving than we think- the PSU ratings must be conservative and have quite a bit of overhead. I tried a Quadro K4200 4GB- rated for a 500W power supply, in a Dell Precision 390 with 375W and it had then the highest 3D mark on Passmark for a 390. If cost is importannt, and given that some fast GPU's will run on 400W, it may be worth giving the 400W supply a go just to get started. 

BambiBoomZ

[Clutchc]

Well, it looks like this was an excersize in futility afterall.  DGroves was indeed correct!

I just checked the pin-out for the 18-pin connectors on the Z210 and Z420.  They are not wired the same. Maybe not even keyed the same.   But thank you all for walking me through this.

[Cwp1851]

How did you find one specific to the z210? I've been searching for hours with no luck.