Can Z240 support to upgrade to 8th generation CPUs?

[Steinberger]

Dear HP supports,

    Now I found the HP Z240 Workstations are based on Intel C236 chipset motherboard with the same FCLGA1151 socket as Intel 8th generation CPUs.

    Here I am really eager to know whether is there any method to upgrade to Intel 8th generation CPUs and further incoming Xeon E series, such as i7-8700K or Xeon E-2XXX, as well as make it perfect running.

    Could I have a assumption to modify the microcodes of bios files in order to make  the upgrade completed?

    Thanks in advance for your help!

Greetings

Stein

[DGroves]

no, the z240 can not run the v8 cpu's  besides the microde issue the sockets are physically diffrent in their pin counts

[BambiBoomZ]

Steinberger,

DGroves is incorrect in the aspect of socket /pin count.  The i7-7700K and i7-8700K both use the identical FCLGA1151 socket. The motherboards however are not compatible, the i7-7700K are i.e. "200-series": running on Z270 and the i7-8700K boards being referred to as LGA1151 "300-series" : for example. Z370. 

This situation - only ten months old- is going to change again in as little as one week if/when the i7-9700K 8-core is released.  The i7-9700K and i7-8700K are said to run on the new Z390 motherboards, but the i7-9700K  is reported as not able to run on the Z370. 

The situation will remain in some degree of tumoil as the i7-8700K / Z370 will end up running in parallel with i7-9700K / Z390. It's possible though that i7-9700K will have more use in workstation applications as it is an 8C/16T and still a quite healthy single-core performance as some have said it will run at 5.0 or 5.1Ghz  out the box.

I, for one, would enjoy seeing an "HP Z2" tower running the i7-7820X 8-core @3.6 /4.5GHz, overclockable to 5GHz+ as that processor supports 28 PCIE lanes instead of the 16 lanes of the i7-7700K and i7-8700K.  X299 is more expensive than Z370,  but it is also quad-channel rather dual channel memory. That could be an exceptional 3D CAD system. The number of PCIe lanes of the i7-9700K is not known, but we might hope Intel has increased  it if only to counter AMD offerings.

With the changes at hand, consider waiting and watching- perhaps until the end of Summer before making a change.

BambiBoomZ

[Steinberger]

Thanks for your notice!

[Steinberger]

Thanks indeed ! But is there any way to make new LGA1151 running on Z240 ?

[BambiBoomZ]

Steinberger,

I'm not an expert, but as far as I know, the i7-8700K can't be adapted to Z270- or it may possible but require a lot expertise and time. The Z270 chipset does in itself support Coffeelake processors.  However,  the power delivery configuration of the pins was redesigned to accommodate the additional cores.  They're the same pins in the identical socket, but the signals are a mismatch to the processor pins.

There are processor modification/ adaptations possibilities in the way of a customized BIOS, jumpers, insulator pads, and etc.  Forum friend MtothaJ renently mentioned to me his successful adapation of an i5-8600K to a Z170 motherboard- a two generation leap. However, adapting a 4-core backwards may be simpler than a 6-core that triggered a new chipset and possbly more complex pin reassignments.  MtothaJ's comments would be far more expert than mine.

There were also additional changes to the memory subsystem to allow certified DDR4 speeds of 2666mhz.

May I ask: what are your principles uses for the z240 and how much performance improvement do you need? If it's a matter of core count, I would mention in this regard, that in general, the vast majority of workstation applications are single-threaded, relying on the clock speed of one or two cores. Perhaps there's a way to improve the performance of the z240 sufficiently so as to delay a major change for a year or so.

BambiBoomZ

[MtothaJ]

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@Steinberger wrote:

Dear HP supports,

    Now I found the HP Z240 Workstations are based on Intel C236 chipset motherboard with the same FCLGA1151 socket as Intel 8th generation CPUs.

    Here I am really eager to know whether is there any method to upgrade to Intel 8th generation CPUs and further incoming Xeon E series, such as i7-8700K or Xeon E-2XXX, as well as make it perfect running.

    Could I have a assumption to modify the microcodes of bios files in order to make  the upgrade completed?

    Thanks in advance for your help!

Greetings

Stein

---

Contrary to Intel’s stance, it is certainly possible to run 8 gen CPU’s on 6/7 gen chipsets.

The process is relatively straightforward with regard to the 4 core CPU’s (i3-8100 / i3-8350k) – these require the bios to be modified to include i) Coffee lake microcode ii) replaced VBIOS / GOP for the integrated GPU to work iii) Management Engine firmware version to be between 11.6-11.7 iv) patching the bios with PCIE_patcher program to ensure correct operations of PCIe lanes (depending on board)

For the 6 core CPU’s, in addition to the above, it is necessary to change the motherboard SKU in Intel Flash Image Tool to Z370 and also to physically connect 2 pads and isolate another 2 pads on the CPU. ALso be advised that from the 6 core CPU's the i7-8700k is the one which is proving somewhat problematic to get 100% operational on all boards - works fine on some, but doesn't work on others.

To back up the above statements below some benchmarks from a system I have put together recently running an 8 generation i5-8600k CPU on an Asus Maximus VIII Impact Z170 board:

https://valid.x86.fr/aa73ih
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/8832709

But coming back to your case, I think that this may be rather challenging.

Firstly, you will need to have a way to flash the modified bios, and a way to recover in the event that it does not work and you end up with a bricked system. HP does not make flashing modified bios easy, the bios chip is usually soldered so thats the first hurdle. 

Secondly, you have a C236 chipset motherboard - there is little in the way of user exeriences with this modification for this chipset so you may need to experiment and try for yourself. I would imagine it may be possible, since it is possible to run the Xeon v5 and V6 in Z170 boards by  merely tweeking the Management Engine settings in Intel FIT (HAP bit) so the opposite may also be possible.

Have a look at the below threads for more info and a guide on how to mod the bios. Also consider asking your question there - someone may have already been down that road:

https://www.win-raid.com/t3413f16-GUIDE-Coffee-Lake-CPUs-on-Skylake-and-Kaby-Lake-motherboards.html

https://www.win-raid.com/t3483f16-Fixing-PCI-Express-for-Coffee-Lake-CPUs-on-Sky-Kaby-Lake-non-Asroc...

https://www.win-raid.com/t3599f16-Anyone-is-researching-about-using-Xeon-E-v-v-Skylake-Kaby-Lake-and...