HP 420 Upgrade

[Sabila]

I have a HP Z420 Intel Xeon E5-2660 processor and I would like to upgrade it. Is that possible? Which other Intel xeon processors is it compatible with?

[BambiBoomZ]

Sabila,

To upgrade the z420 processor, first, determine the version of the motherboard.  The simple way to tell is to check the Boot Block Date on the BIOS setup page. The first version motherboard which can use Xeon E5-16XX and 26XX CPU's will have a date of 2011 and the second version with a 2013 date can use the E5-16XX v2 and E5-26XX v2 processors.  In general, the E5-16XX v2 version will have faster clock speeds and the E5-26XX v2's will have more cores/threads for the same designation, e.g., the E5-2680 is 8-cores while the E5- 2680 v2 is a 10-core.

Secondly, is the upgrade to improve clock speeds, or to increase the number of cores /threads- or both?  For example. 3D CAD needs higher clock speeds, while CPU rendering and  compilation  can use more cores. 

If the subject system is a first version and clock speed is the priority, consider a Xeon E5-1660 (6-core @ 3.3 /3.9GHz. This has a Passmark average CPU score of 8312 and a single=core performance score of 1,784.

If the subject system is a second version version and clock speed is the priority, consider a Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 /4.0GHz. This has a Passmark average CPU score of 10,458 and a single-core performance score of 2,146. This office had a z420 with an overclocked E5-1660 v2:

HP z420_2 (2015) (Rev 5) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 4.2GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro P2000 (4GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> Creative SB X-Fi Titanium + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5920 > CPU= 15129 / 2D= 855 / 3D= 8945 / Mem= 2906 / Disk= 8576]  Single-Thread Mark = 2322 [4.20.17]

If both clock speed and core count is desirable, the E5-1680 v2 8-core @ 3.0 / 3.9GHz is desirable as the E5-1650 V2, E5-1660 v2, and 1680 v2 may be overclocked using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. However, the all core clock speed of the E5-1660 v2 is 3.8GHz and the E5-1680 v2 is fixed at 3.4GHz so there is a good argument to say that the E5-1660 v2 is preferable. If core count is the key, consider an E5-2690 v2 10-core @ 3.0 / 3.6 GHz is a good one.  the single thread score of 1774 is not terrible. The office had a z420 with an overclocked E5-1680 v2:

HP z420_3 (2014) (Rev 5) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / 600W PSU /> Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB interface
[ Passmark Rating = 6227 / CPU rating = 17006 / 2D = 826 / 3D= 8877 / Mem = 3025 / Disk = 14577 / Single Thread Mark = 2373 [5.28.18]

The E5- v2, given that a few models CPU's may be easily overclocked, it may worth changing the motherboard to use them.

BambiBoomZ

HP z620_2 (2017) (R7) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8C@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / Quadro P2000 5GB _ GTX 1070 Ti 8GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB + HP/HGST Enterprise 6TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound interface + 2X Mackie MR824 / 825W PSU / Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit (HP OEM) > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)

[ Passmark Rating = 6280 / CPU rating = 17178 / 2D = 819 / 3D= 12629 / Mem = 3002 / Disk = 13751 / Single Thread Mark = 2368 [10.23.18]

HP z420_3: (2015) (R11) Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/ Samsung 860 EVO 500GB + HGST 4TB / ASUS Essence STX + Logitech z2300 2.1 / 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) > Samsung 40" 4K

[Passmark System Rating: = 5644 / CPU = 15293 / 2D = 847 / 3D = 10953 / Mem = 2997 Disk = 4858 /Single Thread Mark = 2384 [6.27.19]