HP Z240 2To HDD

[dcabale]

Hello,
here is my current HDD installed on my HP Z240 workstation : 500GB SATA 500GB 7.2K SATA 3Gb/s 3.5" HP Z420 Workstation Hard Drive.
I would like to upgrade it to at least a 2To HDD.
-> What is the product /reference I should buy?
Thanks for your help.

[NonSequitur777]

@dcabale,

Welcome to our peer-to-peer HP Community Forum!

An HP Z240 Workstation offers quite a few storage drives options for you: four SATA connectors for any capacity SATA HDDs and/or SSDs (see red square), one M.2 NVMe Gen3 SSD (see blue square), and one PCIe x16 (wired as an x4) slot which can be used to plug in a PCIe to M.2 NVMe SSD adapter to install another M.2 NVMe SSD (see purple square) :

Link: HP Z240 Workstation Maintenance and Service Guide.

Hope this was helpful.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[SDH]

Here's added info:

Kudos go to NonSequitur777 for his help. I'll suggest the least cost for the best performance first and go from there. DGroves has worked on a project getting both the SFF and TWR versions of the Z240 fine-tuned and optimized recently and has more hands-on experience with these than I do.

1. Probably the best will be to get a NVMe M.2 SSD "stick" and insert it in your on-motherboard M.2 slot, and with no other drive in place anywhere on the system I'd do a clean install. You'll have to install your other programs onto any clean install but that is the best way to do this. I'd make sure you have the latest BIOS first, before starting, and I'd also recommend setting BIOS to "Factory Defaults". You can fine tune those later if you know what you're doing. Then proceed with a clean install. Add a documents drive later... see below. You can get a HP-created installer straight from HP using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool for workstations. You end up with an older W10Pro64 install that then can be updated to the most recent version using Windows Update. This assumes your Z240 came licensed for use of a Windows 10 install. NS777 in his post has shown you where that M.2 slot is.

2. Second would be to use a Z Turbo Drive G2 in the lower PCIe slot NS777 has shown you. All the other recommendations for #1 above hold true. You still could use the PCIe slot shown by NS777 with a ZTD G2 and use a large M.2 SSD in that PCIe card, such as a 2TB one, as your "documents drive". Having a boot/applications NVMe M.2 SSD drive from #1 above plus a fast second NVMe M.2 SSD drive is a very fast user experience.

3. Third, you could simply swap out your current 3.5" form factor SATA HDD (you state it is a SATA II version, not even a SATA III) for a 2.5" form factor SATA III modern SSD. Those are moderately slower than your NVMe M.2 SSD options, but still are a quantum leap above the HDD you currently are using. How do you do that, go from 3.5 to 2.5 form factor? There is a very nice HP adapter that we here use a lot. Search eBay for 654540-001 or 654540-002, choose price and shipping lowest first, and generally I choose to buy from respected US seller. I've bought from China too, which is where they are made by Foxconn for HP, and never have had a bad experience but it takes a couple of weeks longer to arrive. You'd just screw your new SATA III SSD into that adapter, and it becomes exactly the same equivalent shape as your current HDD and uses the same SATA data cable and power cable so it fits perfectly where your current HDD is.

The jump in functional speed is very impressive going from a SATA II HDD to a SATA III SSD and the jump from your old SATA II HDD to a NVME M.2 SSD will blow your socks off. Your workstation has been capable of this all along.

I'd recommend a recent Samsung SATAIII SSD or Samsung NVMe M.2 SSD because they are excellent and work well with the free "Samsung Magician" drive utility for keeping your firmware up to date, and that also allows doing a little fine tuning of those drives. Finally, if this all seems too daunting you may want to farm the project out to a skilled computer shop. That is still an excellent HP workstation with room for significant improvement, as NS777, DGroves, and many others have proven.

[NonSequitur777]

@SDH,

Very good feedback and supporting information -kudos in return to you!

Btw, both an HP Z240 SFF (Solved: Upgrading HP Z240 Desktop Workstation SFF - HP Support Community - 8427878) and an HP Z240 TWR (Solved: Upgrading an HP Z240 Tower Workstation - HP Support Community - 8620343) were advanced upgrade projects of mine, and things I implemented likely should only be attempted by savvy PC hobbyists and the not-faint-in heart.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[dcabale]

1. Thanks for all your details.
2. Is that article -> Samsung 970 EVO Plus MZ-V7S500BW | Disque SSD Interne NVMe M.2, 500 Go, Jusqu'à 3 500Mo/s en lecture... 

compatible with the PCIe3 x 4 slot you are referring here -> HP Z240 Workstation Maintenance and Service Guide

Thanks in advance.

[DGroves]

also, the z240 has a HP supplied NVME heatsink that is sometimes missing for various reasons if you need/want one the HP part number is 826414-001

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285534224697?hash=item427b2a8139:g:Gk0AAOSwwDBlO~8a

heatsink w/mounting screw and a 256GB SSD

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185166778294?hash=item2b1ccccfb6:g:-AAAAOSwBblhkvUb

you will also need the weird HP non standard SSD mounting screw

(which is same as the HP Turbo "Z"/G2 PCI-e cards mounting screw)

personally i just use 25x32  foam tape strips under the ssd as a spacer as the HP heatsink will securely hold the SSD in place

https://www.ebay.com/itm/163076710553?hash=item25f8212099:g:syMAAOSw0Yxe~OVX

[NonSequitur777]

@dcabale,

Yes, the Samsung 970 EVO Plus would be a great option.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[SDH]

DGroves, I've seen that heatsink before and wondered if the same one will work on both the Z240 SFF and the Tower version too. Good tip on the 3M double sided sticky tape.

By the way I've found that the HP black plastic/milled brass hold-down screw device used in the Z Turbo Drive G1 and G2 (and with your Z240 workstations) has a metric M1.6 x 0.35 mm thread. There also is a very similar HP version that has blue plastic instead of black and those use a more common M2.0 thread instead. Those are used in the HP Z Turbo Drive Dual Pro and some HP mini business class PCs, but the black one is used in the Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro plus many other places. They're not interchangeable. Go figure...

M2.0 threaded HP hold down

M1.6 HP Hold Down

[dcabale]

@dgroves,

1. Thanks for your tip.

2. Even if not what you recommended, would this heatsink -> M.2 2280 SSD Dissipateur thermique YACSEJAO M.2 NVMe Refroidisseur avec coussinet thermique en silic... fit the Samsung 980 Pro 970 EVO + HP Z240 ?

Thanks again?

[SDH]

I defer to DGroves on that heatsink question but do note the surface area from the one you linked to would be smaller than the HP-engineered one he gave you a link to.

You mention a 980 PRO just now and earlier mentioned a 970 EVO Plus... both would be compatible for use in your Z240, either plugged into the existing M.2 port built into your motherboard or if you used a ZTD G2 PCIe card plugged into the slot NS777 showed you. Both use the same PCIe3 and x4 electrical lanes technology. Just so you know there are generations of PCIe technology and the HP workstations of the Z240 era use PCIe Gen3 technology. There is also a Gen4 and a coming Gen5 technology, but the 980 PRO M.2 stick (which has Gen4 capability) is backwards compatible and works great with the Gen3 technology you and I have. My 980 PRO is in a souped up Z440 and is very fast. The NVMe M.2 drives run so fast that I personally believe they all deserve a heatsink of some sort atop them. Some heatsinks won't fit due to adjacent motherboard parts, however.

Bienvenue mon ami