Cooler Xeon 5500-HP Z600

[SDH]

1.  For two of those processors you only need two of the 463990-001.  That is the official HP "Mainstream" heatsink/fan for Z600 (and Z800) workstations that can properly cool 95W max TDP or lower processors.  If you already have two of those heatsinks/fans you are set.... unless you choose to go for hotter processors than 95W max TDP.  Reportedly the Z600 version 2 can run two X5690 processors, 130W max TDP, but those are quite expensive and need to run under two of the Performance heatsinks/fans.  In that case you could get by with one official Z600 Performance heatsink/fan, and also use one Z400 Performance heatsink/fan (detailed in the link in #2 below).  You could also have your second heatsink be an official Z600 Performance one too.  That combination would cost quite a lot.

2.  As I explained  HERE, the "Performance" heatsinks/fans are meant for processors that run hotter than 95W max TDP (usually 130W max TDP, for these workstations).  A Z400 Performance one is part number 463981-001, and will fit on only 1 of the 2 sockets for the Z600, with a little modification of the angle of the rear bottom thin metal airflow deflector.

3.  If your Z600 is a "version 2" with the later boot block date you can do very much better in your choice of processors, as explained in the link in #2 above.  You can read up in this forum on what the Boot Block Date is for a version 1 versus a version 2... that date is easy for you to find from your BIOS.

4.  I'd like to encourage you to aim higher than the two processors you mention, if you have a version 2 Z600.  There are much better options for you in that case, and the cost of the better used processors from the late Z600 QuickSpecs is so low off eBay that it would be a shame to put in the effort and not get the full potential out of that excellent workstation.  I looked at the cost of 2 X5690 and 2 Performance heatsinks/fans and chose to stick with the fastest 95W processors HP ever officially certified for the Z600.  Have not had buyer's remorse at all by doing that.

Good luck on your project!  That workstation can really be souped up very nicely.

[AndreaBeiT]

THX a lot for your advice ... What about liquid cooling ? Unfortunatelly i have the first z600 model and i can use tdp 95 processor

[SDH]

463981 = 538042-001 = the "Performance" fan for a Z400.  There seem to be at least three versions of this but they are for the Z400.  There is the uncommon shorter one, the common taller one (both of which have a metal air flow deflector) and a taller more recent one with black plastic plate on top and a bottom black plastic air flow deflector.

The problem is that all have the same part numbers and the taller ones will not allow the side lid of the Z600 to close fully without significant modifications to the Z600's side latching handle mechanism.

I gave up on that..... with this warning:

EDIT:  THE Z400 PERFORMANCE HEATSINK HAS HEAT TUBE TIPS THAT PROJECT UPWARDS ENOUGH TO KEEP THE SIDE LID OF A Z600 FROM FULLY CLOSING IN MANY CASES.  IT DOES NOT SEEM WORTH THE TROUBLE TO FIND A WORKAROUND TO THIS ISSUE.  RATHER, SEARCH OUT THE OFFICIAL Z600/Z800 PERFORMANCE HEATSINK/FAN WHICH DO NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM.

[MOST_MUSIC]

I have an HP Z600.I have Newer C2 version of mother board allowing faster CPUs and up to 48G of RAM. I've been following ZX00 posts to learn how Max out my system for dense audio projects and slight video editing. I bought a pair of Xeon X5690s. I also bought the reccomended performance heatsink and it fits like a glove in the Z600 but I still get an error in bios saying not enough power for CPU. What am I doing wrong???? Should a good setting be changed? Or must I buy a Z800 to get these working? Thanks!

Or.....is that processor NOT actually compatible with Z600?

[jackburton]

Regarding the high performance heat sink from the z400:

Will it fit on the z800 with no issues? Going by what I have read here the only issue is the height of the cooler. The z800 has a slightly deeper case design of being 8 inches wide compared to the z600 which is 6.5 inches.

Does this mean the z400 should go on and allow the side panel to close with no issues?

There is also the cooling shroud which fits over the two CPUs in the z800 to contend with.  However, I am not sure it is completely neccessary.

[SDH]

The Z400 never had to contend with running two processors or the heat that would come from two fast hot quadcores or hexacores inside.  So, a high percentage of the single processors in the Z400 are hot running, and a high percentage of the Z400s out there thus used the "Performance" larger heatsin/fan unit posted about here in the forum.  Those are easy to find used on eBay, cheap.  Search eBay for 463981-001.  Cheapest price on eBay right now is about $35.00 USD.

Its fan will have the 5-pin white fan plug socket with the pin 1 to pin 5 ground jumper present, as on other Performance fans.  Search this forum for that part number and added pictures.

The extra side to side width of the Z800 shoud serve you well, and the Z400 Performance heatsink/fan I tried in my Z600 fit perfectly over the second socket in until I tried to latch the lid down.  I only needed a little bit of extra space, and only found one that fit.  So, egg on my face, but your point is good.

Those Z400 Performance heatsink/fan units are cheap because so many were sold.  All the sockets on the Z400/Z600/Z800 are the same type and have screw-down spacing that is interchangable if the other stuff around the socket (including air flow black plastic guides) will allow it.

I'd buy one, and check it out, and get back to us on this.  If it worked for one or both sockets on the Z800 that would be a big breakthrough because those official Performance ones for the Z600/Z800 are so rare and expensive.  The heatsin/fan Performance units for the Z600 and the Z800 are exactly the same, but different than what is used in the Z400 needing a Performance unit.

Added  thoughts:

My version 2 Z400 is still running the X5690 fine, and there have been contradictory posts about whether the version 2 Z600s can also run those.  There still is the "microcode" issue about a HP white list of allowed processors built into HP's BIOS, and that if a processor is not on the list then it won't work even though it "should work".  I have no idea why the X5690 processor works on my Z400 and not on other's Z600s.  I have two version 2 Z600s here to dink with but have not had spare time to swap in/out my known-good X5690 processor from my Z400.

Was the hot-running X5690 white-listed for the version 2 Z400 in its microcode, but black-listed for the version 2 Z600 which could never safely cool two of those?

The  version 2 Z400 running a X5690 under the 463981-001 heatsink/fan has been rock solid now for years on end.

Finally, in the HP literature the ZX00 generation of workstations are stated to have their memory controller integrated into the processor itself.  Could some of the things I can do with memory on my version 2 Z600s also be done on my version 2 Z400 if I was running one of the fastest quad or hexacores that work in the Z600 in my version 2 Z400?  Would one of those processors work in the Z400?  I'm thinking a X5675 hexacroe or a X5672 quadcore in the version 2 Z400 as an experiment....