HP Z620 Workstation CPU Upgrade

[Sarlin]

• Hello, I recently received an older HP Z620 Workstation. I got it for free. Everything works on it. The block date is 12/28/2011 in the bios meaning this is a version 1 board. It came with a Intel Xeon e5-2609 cpu. This is a quad core with no Hyper Threading. I was wanting to upgrade the cpu to at least a 6 core with Hyper Threading. I'm going to turn this into a virtual machine test bench. I found a few forum posts about this workstation model and you have to be careful with the block date number as the version 2 model will not work with version 1. 

• Does anyone know for certain the max that I can go up to with my current setup? Does HP make heatsinks specific for lower and higher end cpu's? Do I need to buy a heatsink for a higher end  6 or 8 core cpu since it has a higher tdp?

• I found this article showing the cpu list support. So theoretically I should be able to go into any of the 2609 to the 2690 right? 

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/c04111527.pdf?ver=5

• I'm just concerned about the version and heatsink. 

[Brian1965]

Hi Sarlin,

You are correct that only V1 CPU's will work in a 2011 boot block date motherboard. You have several options with regards to upgrading;

1)

EDIT   -   NOTE TO SELF - DON'T USE THE TAB KEY!  - DOHHH!

[Brian1965 · Accepted solution]

Hi Sarlin,

You are correct that only V1 CPU's will work in a HP Z620 - 2011 boot block date motherboard. You have a couple of upgrade options;

1.   Simply replace the current CPU with a higher core count and faster CPU. Any E5-16xx or E5-26xx as listed in the quickspecs will work. the E5-2690 is a good choice. Use the existing HP CPU heatsink.

2.   Remove the existing CPU, add a HP Z620 CPU riser, and add 2x E5-26xx CPU's. NOTE: Both CPU's must be the same and only from the E5-26xx range, (E5-16xx CPU's only work in a single CPU configuration).

If you go for option 2 then you need to balance the RAM between the motherboard and CPU riser.

The CPU heatsink is the same for all available HP Z620 CPU's (including V2 CPU's), but the motherboard CPU heatsink and CPU riser CPU heatsinks are subtly different.

Regardless of which option you go with, it may be worth while upgrading the RAM. The current E5-2609 CPU only supports 1066MHz RAM whereas the E5-2690 CPU supports 1600MHz RAM. Upgrading the RAM to the higher speed will make a noticeable improvement.

[BambiBoomZ]

Sarlin,

The highest compute rate CPU for a 1st version Xeon E5-2600 is actually the Xeon E5-2687w which is 8-core / 16 Thread @ 3.1 /3.8GHz, but the E5-2690 8-core 8-core / 16 Thread @ 2.9 /3.8GHz is an excellent processor.  These days the E5-2687can cost $50+ more than an E5-2690 and, in my view, the +200MHz base clock speed is not worth a 30% increase in cost.

I have a z620 with a pair of E5-2690's used for CPU rendering which can run all threads at 100% utilization for quite awhile and never experienced any overheating problems using the standard HP fan /heasinks, although it could very briefly touch the reommended limits. I don't think that VM's will push the system in the same way. 

A cooling option: My other z620 has an E5-1680 v2 8-core running at 4.3Ghz on all cores and for that I experimentally installed a z420 liquid cooler, that works with no modifications.  See:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Successful-Low-Cos...

That idles at 25-28C and almost never exceeds 62-64C under load (rated to 85C). The z420 liquid cooler is larger than the z620 air cooler so it precludes adding the 2nd CPU assembly and I could not add a 2nd processor,  but the E5-1680 v2 is a single CPU only.  If you are using a single CPU, consider installing the E5-2690 and watch the temperatures at maximum loads. If the E5-2690 consistenty maintains more than 72C, you might try the z420 liquid cooler.

BambiBoomZ

[Sarlin]

• Ok, you made me feel much better from your post. I was added in what I'm going to be virtualizing, and I honestly do not need more than 6 cores 12 threads. I am going to purchase a zeon e5-2640. Lower overall core clock speeds. I'll give the default cooler a try with the vm's and see how it does. Worst case scenario, I upgrade my heatsink. Either way, I found refurbed versions of the 2640 for as low as $30 US dollars. Considering, I got the machine for free with 32 gb of ram, two 300gb 15k sas drives, and the power supply still intact. I have no room to complain. 

• I'll make another post when my newer cpu gets in the mail.  I was mainly concerned with the cpu working.

• Thanks for replies everyone. 

Edit: "Brian: Surprisingly enough, the previous owner had installed 32gb of drr3-1600, but had it underclocked to 1066. "

[MtothaJ]

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@Sarlin wrote:

 Surprisingly enough, the previous owner had installed 32gb of drr3-1600, but had it underclocked to 1066. "

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Memory speed in the Zx20 is entirely CPU dependant - the E5-2640 will run that RAM at 1600mhz.

[Sarlin]

My e5-2640 cpu came in the mail, did some benchmarks for a few hours, and everything works with acceptable cpu temps on the stock cooler. I would recommend updating the bios before putting in the new cpu. I did not and was a little nervous with the update on the new cpu. Everything worked fine though.

Thanks for the assist again everyone. This little guy should last me a while.

[getcass]

Will the 2640 run at ram at 1600hmz ? I have 64gb worth of 1600mhz and it seems to clock it at 1333. Don't see anyway to change this. Intel ark seems to show 1333 as max.

[Brian1965]

Hi getcass,

According to the Intel website. (https://ark.intel.com/) The highest supported memory speed for your E5-2640 v1 is 1333MHz.

To utilize the ram at 1600MHz then you need to change CPU;

[getcass]

As I thought. Thanks Brian.