HP Z620 m2 to PCIe x16 possible upgrade ?

[Savov]

Hello Everyone

Is it possible to upgrade my Workstation Z620 with m2 SSD and some x16 adapter, im reading here some problems with booting and recognition the m2 from the machine, my BIOS is 2011, is it to old to recognize these (upgrade)

and what i need to do to release this upgrade, or which will be compatible (adapter) and (m2)
Thanks

[DGroves]

since you don't specify (IE_Links) which posts on M.2 ssd issues we can't comment on this

all i can state is that the z620 will not boot a nvme ssd (can use as data drive) the only known exception was the samsung 950 pro that included the nessary boot code in the ssd's firmware

the z620 will boot from a M.2 SATA ssd

the z620 will boot from a M.2 PCIe AHCI based ssd

the z620 will boot from "some" early PCI-E ssd's that have the required boot code in the ssd's firmware such as the RevoDrive x3/seagate nytro warpdrive and a few others

some people have claimed newer Datacenter ssd's like the micron p92/9300/intel p3600 ssd's will also boot but i cannot personally verify this

[BambiBoomZ]

Savov,

z620

A tabulation of 998, z620 Passmark Performance Test baselines using M.2 NVMe boot drives results:

Samsung 950 PRO: 11

Samsung SM961 NVMe: 4

Samsung SM951 NVMe: 3   (The Samsung SM951 NVMe is also the drive used in HP Z Turbo Drive G2)

Samsung 970 EVO: 2

Intel 750 NVMe: 2

Samsung PM961  NVMe: 1

Samsung PM951 NVMe: 1

_________________________

TOTAL z620  NVMe Boot Drives  = 24 (2.4%)

z420

The z420, which has a motherboard nearly identical to the z620 and uses the same BIOS , a tabulation of 1,556, z420 Passmark Performance Test baselines using M.2 NVMe boot drives results:

Samsung 950 PRO: 16

Samsung SM951 NVMe: 7

"NMVE Samsung 950" : 5 (Probably = 950 PRO)

Samsung SM961 NVMe: 4

Samsung 970 EVO: 2

Samsung 970 PRO: 2

Samsung 960 PRO: 2

Samsung 960 EVO: 1

_________________________

TOTAL z420  NVMe Boot Drives  = 29  (1.8%)

z820

A tabulation of 705, z820 Passmark Performance Test baselines using M.2 NVMe boot drives results:

Samsung SM961 NVMe: 9

Samsung 950 PRO: 5

Samsung SM951 NVMe: 6   (The Samsung SM951 NVMe is also the drive used in HP Z Turbo Drive G2)

"NMVE Samsung 960" : 4

Samsung PM951 NVMe: 2

"NVMe Sabrent" : 1

_________________________

TOTAL z820  NVMe Boot Drives  = 27 (3.8%)

TOTAL M.2, NVMe drives in HP zX20-series systems in Passmark baselines = 29 + 24+ 27 = 80

The two NVMe boot drives that are the easiest to install- and the most numerous in z620 and z420 is the Samsung 950 Pro, having an integrated boot driver module.

I wish there were an exact step-by-step sequence for the installation of NVMe M.2 boot drives on z420 and z620: best BIOS version, detailed BIOS settings, and the installation of the NVMe drivers whether automatic in Windows 10 or how to be added in Windows 7.   Given the 75, NVMe boot drives in z420's and z620's, it's indisputably possible using 8 or so common drives, and there are success stories using  particular models of Sabrent and certain enterprise M.2 NVMe from Micron and Intel. 

  > Mr. Raven, if you have any patience with us remaining?

It is certainly possible to configure a PCIe M.2 on the z620 second GPU x16 slot.  The office z620_2,  uses a Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 500GB in the 2nd GPU slot (Lycom DT-120 adapter) as the active projects data drive. This is due to the HP Z Turbo Drive 256GB M.2 AHCI in the other appropriate M.2 slot, and the double height graphics card is covering the other. However, a quad adapter is another matter as the slot has to be able to address and route I/O to multiple locations on what is essentially a single device: bifurcated, or perhaps "quadfurcated".  I hope others will comment on this aspect.

Let us know how you progress.

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/ HP/LSI 9212-4i > 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]

HP ZBook 17 G2: (2015 ) i7-4940MX Extreme (4C@3.1/ 4.0GHz) / 32GB / Quadro K3100M 4GB / Kingston 480GB SATA SSD > 17.3" LCD 1920 X1080 panel > HP docking station> video externally to HP 2711x 27" LCD + Dell 17" (2007) / Logitech 533 _2.1 speaker system

[Passmark System Rating: = 3980 / CPU = 10140 / 2D = 618 / 3D = 2779 / Mem = 2559 Disk = 4662 / Single Thread Mark = 2387 [1.3.20]

[Savov]

BambiBoomZ

Hello, i saw that, you have Z620 with m2 on PCIe, my Z620 is with 

PNY GeForce GTX 780 Ti, on the first x16 PCIE

what i  need like a information to know what to buy ?

may be the same m2 and ssd like yours ?

or if... m2 will be HP brand like a 

Solid State Drive (SSD) HP EX920, 256GB, M.2 2280, PCIe 3.0 x4 ( may be ?)

[Savov]

@BambiBoomZ

Sorry but, are you from Bulgaria ?

[BambiBoomZ]

Savov,

The two M.2 drives used in the office z620_2 are: HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI and Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB.  The HP Z Turbo Drive is used for the OS- HP OEM W7 PRO and the Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe (on Lycom DT-120 PCIe adapter is the current projects drive- data only . In the current configuration, using an M.2 NVMe drive on z620_2 would be very unlikely- probably impossible.  The HP Z Turbo Drive works for the OS in z620_2 as it is AHCI.*** 

***_"The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) specification describes the register-level interface for a host controller for Serial ATA. The specification describes a system memory structure for computer hardware vendors to exchange data between host system memory and attached storage devices."_

HP OEM W7 PRO - excellent, perfectly reliable software , but it is Windows 10 that has the NVMe drivers.  All the zX20 systems using NVMe boot drives are using Windows 10.  It was not listed in the previous post, but there are 27, Z820 using NVme boot drives, the most common models are: Samsung PM951 NVme = 9, Samsung SM951 NVMe = 6,  and our old friend- the easy to install Samsung 950 PRO NVMe = 5.

If someone were to post exact instructions on installation of an NVMe boot drive to a zX20 system and that proved successful, my choice would be to use Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe or better Samsung 970 PRO.  If it were necessary to configure the BIOS, address the firmware, and load drivers to use NVMe, without exact instructions, my choice would be to buy the easy to install Samsung 950 PRO 512GB NVMe. 

Anyway, while the HP ZTurbo Drive AHCI provides very high benchmarks, the difference in day-to-day performance is not very noticeable from the z420_3's Samsung 860 EVO SATA. Starting z620_2 is perhaps an 8-14 second faster than z420_3 and the 4K renderings on the identically setup systems- the z420_3 boot drive is an exact clone of z620_2*** -may vary by only 3-4 minutes- it's impossible to know as each one is a bit different.  The bottleneck in the z620 and z420 is not the drives- it's the limited CPU speed- 4.3GHz on both systems, and the 1866MHz RAM in an era when so many CPU's are running 12 and 16 cores at 5GHz and beyond. plus, using DDR4 RAM up to 3600-4000MHz. 

*** That's the beauty of using a z420 and z620 together, both use the same HP- supplied OEM Windows and the same BIOS, plus the software I use allows use on two systems if they're not in use at the same time: 3D modeling  and test renderings on the z620, then set up a queue on z420_3 and it can sit and work on it's own all night if necessary. 

Let us know what the choices are.

BambiBoomZ

PS: The nearest I've been to Bulgaria was on a visit to Budapest. Budapest to Sofia I think is about 700-800km. That's an intriguing part of the World.

[Savov]

BambiBoomZ

Thank you for the greatfull answer

May be, if a m2 will be made from HP wiil be competible ?

okay, my processor is INTEL XEON E5 2670 v1, is that slow ?

[BambiBoomZ]

Savov,

If the very fast M.2 performance is important, look for an HP Z Turbo Drive AHCI or a Samsung SM951 M.2 AHCI which is the drive inside the Z Turbo Drive and put that drive on a Lycom DT-120 adapter card.  Either of these will plug into the z620 and work as a boot drive with no problems, no special work.  The Samsung 950 PO will work fairly easily also, but the two AHCI should just plug in and work. 

The E5-2760 (8-core @ 2.6 / 3.3GHz) first version is not the fastest processor but a good one.  If you want the fastest processor for single core use and the system has only one CPU, look for an E5-1660 6-core @ 3.3 / 3.9GHz.  If you need 8-cores, and are or will in the future use two processors, look for the E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz).

This office had an  HP z620 with two E5-2690's:

HP z620_1 (Original) Xeon E5-1620 (4-core @ 3.6 /3.8GHz) / 8GB (1X 8GB DDR3-1333) / AMD Firepro V5900 (2GB) / Seagate Barracuda 750GB + Samsung 500GB + WD 500GB
[ Passmark System Rating= 2408 / CPU= 8361 / 2D= 846 / 3D = 1613 / Mem =1584 / Disk = 574 ] 7.13.16

That one became this one:

HP z620_1 (2012)(Rev 5) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 64GB (4X 8GB +4X 8GB DDR3-1600) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) / Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB / 800W > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16 Single Thread Mark = 1903

BambiBoomZ

[Savov]

I have and a adaptor for second processor E5 2670 and second processor E5-2670, but don't use it... Am feeling, it's working worst, when am use both processors together...

AM FORGOT TO SAY... I Wana boot a WINDOWS 10 PRO from this... (M2 to PCIe) that's i need...