HP Z800 Configuring from scratch

[SDH]

I'd keep it as simple as possible at this stage.....

I'd update the bios to the latest version, and you can do that from within BIOS by having the .bin file on a USB drive.  You can read up in here on how to update BIOS from within BIOS.  Use the search bar.

I'd do the build without the Kingston Predator M.2 at this stage, but keep slot 1 open to receive it after you stabilize your build.....build it onto a similar sized SSD.  When you have things tuned up on the SSD in the drawer 0 (which is attached via its rear blind mate cable to SATA port 0) you can later capture the image with the Acronis software that came with the Predator, and clone it over to the Predator.  Disconnect all other drives when you reach that stage.

I'd leave the HP PCIe USB3 card out too..... you don't need that yet.  I'd stick with the motherboard's sound chipset for now too.

I don't think you really need the eSATA/internal SATA card either.... why not just use HP's built in BIOS option to convert the last SATA port over to eSATA, and use one of the eSATA backplane adapters I posted about a couple days ago?

Slow and steady will win the race here.

When HP stops supporting a workstation then they generally stop updating the drivers.  Your basic hardware may already be fully supported in W10Pro64  with more modern drivers without any need to go to the HP drivers archive for the Z800.

If you're not going to use SAS (which I don't think you should) I'd disable that fully via BIOS system security.... that makes the hardware invisible to the OS and the motherboard.

Video card.... that is a 2-slot card so the card plugs in to the top PCIe x16 video card slot (slot 2) and covers up slot 3 also without plugging in to it.  The top slot is for the "primary" card, and the port nearest the motherboard generally is the primary port (where the BIOS boot screen shows up).

You going to start with W7Pro64 or W10Pro64?

[SDH]

HERE'S HP's statement on use of non-HP SATA III drives on SATA II-only workstations:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-xw6600-workstation/3432821/document/c02711513

This is why for my critical builds I choose to only use HP HDDs or HP SSDs if I'm adding a SATA III drive to a SATA II workstation.  The ZX00 workstations such as your Z800 all are SATA II-only workstations, and a whole added list is in the advistory.

Having said that I have gotten away with using non-HP SATA III SSDs in my Z600 builds.  Once you get to the Z620 generation there are SATA III and SATA II ports inside, and HP does not have a similar advisory for that generation.

A SATA III SSD or a HDD running through a PCIe slot SATA III interface card in one of these SATA II workstations would have its own on-card interface chipset and its own drivers, so this II versus III would not be an issue in that situation.

So, the intent here is not to say that your non-HP SATA III SSDs cannot work in your Z800.... it is just an advanced issue to know about.  The HP drives have their firmware fix built in. 

[Ritindra]

Scott, I understood your SATA explanation!!! That's bad news. Regarding the eSata, I saw your esata adapter picture to late, I could get one though.

Right now I see the 3.5 drive bays 0 -3 conneted in the SAS ports, disabling all sas ports in the bios creates a problem, any solution?

Regarding the OS, my plan was to install the w7pro, stabilize the system and when al is set I would like to upgrade to w10.

What do you suggest Installing W10 would be better?

[SDH]

It is not bad news if you get your SSDs to work fine.  That advisory was from back in time, and other non-HP drive manufacturers may have built in the fix also by now.

1.  It is my understanding that the Z800 backplane is so expansive that HP has one spot there that is not aligned with a usable PCI/PCIe motherboard slot.  So, you don't waste a PCI/PCIe slot using one of the eSATA adapters I posted about.  You'll be able to see if the BizLink one will fit from the far rear last SATA port over to that free backplane spot.  You have a lot of work to do, and lot of time to spend.  Order one or a couple of those so they're on their way.

2.  Here is some more info on the "BlindMate" connector concept:   A single 3.5" form factor drive meshes into that connector in the back of each drive drawer.... only one drive.  To use a 2.5" form factor SSD in the drive drawer, however, you need an adapter that shifts the SATA power/data paired plugs to the left properly so that matches a 3.5" form factor drive, and only then that will mesh properly with the BlindMate connector back in the rear of the drive bay.  The 3.5" form factor adapter fits into the "drawer" that slides into the bay.  Two drives won't go into one drawer.  My very favorite such adapter is made by Foxconn for HP and is only about $8.00 USD including shipping, and can be found on eBay by searching for "hp 654540-001":

3.  From the single BlindMate connector in the back of each drive drawer bay comes a single cable.  Where that cable gets plugged into on the motherboard is optional.... you can shift them around:

https://support.hp.com/za-en/product/hp-z600-workstation/3718663/document/c02328795

Here is an example of this:  "When installing a SAS hard disk drive in the Z800, move the drive data cable from the system board SATA connector to a system board SAS connector."  The converse is true.... if the prior owner was using SAS drives they had the BlindMate cable's plug end inserted into the motherboard's SAS ports.  Since you're now using SATA drives just move the plug ends from the SAS ports properly over to the SATA ports.   The metal sides of the drawer receiver slots  usually have a numeric value such as 0, 1, 2.... stamped into the metal.  The BlindMate cable plug ends have labels.

4.  With the advent of SSDs we don't use SAS, and we don't use RAID either.  The speed and very long MTBF of SSDs (and the ease of performing image captures of my SSD installs via eSATA) led to these decisions as did our interest in keeping things simple.

5.  Hopefully you have a HP OEM COA sticker for W7Pro64 on that Z800.  You can use that for one workstation to create a build that is not using the HP OEM image build that HP would have shipped with the original workstation.  You probably don't have the HP Restore optical disks or Restore partition.  Not sure if MS has fixed their W7 updating system, which has been a royal PITA.  I have posted here about the solution to that.  You need a MS system builder W7Pro64 installer with SP1 on it to use that COA sticker's code.  Once that is activated then W10Pro64 can be upgraded onto the box.  Or you can start with W10Pro64.  

[Ritindra]

HP Z800 update:

Installed:

2x Xeon 5690

96GB Samsung RAM

HP Original watercooling

HP Original DVD RW SATA

Pioneer BDR209EBK SATA

Akasa SSD/USB 3 Bracket 

PCI Slot 1 - Kingston HyperX 240GB PCI-e

PCI Slot 2 - MSI GTX 1070 8GB Gaming X

PCI Slot 4 - Suprmicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 with forward sas>sata breakout cable

PCI Slot 5 - HP USB3.0 controller

960GB Samsung SM863 SATA 3 in Bay 0

2x 500GB Samsung EVO 850 SSD SATA 3 in Bay 1

3TB HGST HDD 7.200RPM SATA 3 in Bay 2

3TB HGST HDD 7.200RPM SATA 3 in Bay 3

OS: Windows 10 Pro

Bios upgraded to recent version

Set and save bios in default

Set in bios all PCI Slots as opt-rom

Set in bios SAS and floppy as disabled

Installed HyperX

Installed GPU

Installed HP USB 3.0

Installed Pioneer BDR 

Set in bios GPU slot as GPU

Installed Windows 10 on HyperX (Hyper X was reckonized out of the box - NICE !!!!), all drivers out of the box.....excellent

Installed driver for HP USB 3.0 as Scott advised !!!!

Update W10

Installed NVIDIA driver instead MSI

Installed the rest of the SSD/HDD, the Samsung EVO SSD's installed in IcyDock EZConvert Pro MB982SPR-2S R1 and set connector on 2 as BIG size disk, otherwise not reckonized in bay tray !!! Connect all the SSD/HDD through onboard SATA ports 2 - 5, port 0 = HP DVD RW, port 1 = Pioneer BDR

Formatted all SSD/HDD

Installed SuperMicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

Set in bios opt-rom disable for Supermicro slot, otherwise bios postscreen stucks for not finding Supermicro bios

Connected all SSD/HDD to Supermicro, all working at SATA 3 speed !!!!

Issue: GPU is too widht (dumb of me), cannot use the airflow covers......still the temps are very good without them!!!

Some benchmarks below, not knowing if it tells anything, because I'm not a bencher. For the rest the system feels fast and reliable. I'm very happy.....

Much much thanx to all of you for helping me !!!!

FrontInside

SSD/HDD/USB3 Page 1SSD/HDD/USB3 Page 2SSD/HDD/USB3 Page 3

[SDH]

Very nicely done..... congrats on your new rig and the quality of your craftsmanship!

[DGroves]

the z800 came with two power supplies, the stock 750 watt and the optional 1110 watt one

the main diffrence being that the 1110 watt supply has two  6 pin graphics connectors

(the 750 watt supply has only one 6 pin GPU connector)

most GTX 1070 cards have one 8 pin power connector, but this can vary, so you will most likely need a 6 to 8 pun GPU power adapter if the card maker does not include one (my evga 1080 came with one)

the 1110 supply is fine, for using the 1070 card, ithink the wattage on them is around 100-130 watts

do a google enterprise search for "HP enterprise drivers z800" this archive will contain all drivers in one package

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/HP_Driverpack_Matrix_x64.html

or go here for individual drivers

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-z800-workstation/3718645/drivers

note that the z800 uses the intel x58 chipset, with the intel Enterprise "RST" drivers which are diffrent than the

consumer RST drivers.

you can download the rst driver, look for the F6 or floppy driver and copy these drivers to a usb key.

star the windows install, and when prompted for additional drivers during the initial setup press F6 and point it to the usb key. failure to do this will result in a "no bootable drive found"

you can also do this with the z800's onboard LSI SCSI/SATA controller

personally i recomend grabbing the HP enterprise driver pack, extracting it on a working system in a folder

then install "NLite" which is a free driver/service pack slipstreaming application that will intergrate/slipstream all the

required HP drivers into the win 7 setup disk/usb key which is what i have done

http://www.nliteos.com/

one last thing, the z800 has Intel remote management features. i would strongly recomend you turn this off in the bios

(along with the LSI controller Boot Rom, drives connected will still be found by windows) and boot off the SCU ports or the 2 SATA ports

i have a z800 setup much like your configuration, but no water cooling, other than that it looks very much like what you

plan on installing

[Ritindra]

one last thing, the z800 has Intel remote management features. i would strongly recomend you turn this off in the bios

(along with the LSI controller Boot Rom, drives connected will still be found by windows) and boot off the SCU ports or the 2 SATA ports

Where in the bios can I find them and how to disable?

- Intel remote

- LSI boot rom

- SCU ports

[DGroves]

the intel remote mgmt options are also known as intel "AMT"  and if it's enabled you will show a unknown device in

device manager on com3

all of your questions can be ansered by reading the HP service manual do not try to update the AMT bios or network bios's unless you take the time to read and understand how it's done there are several gotcha's that will bite you

if you blindly atempt to do this!!

you do not want to disable the "SCU" ports this is the name intel gave to the onboard enterprise chipset's SATA ports

you DO WANT TO LOAD THESE DRIVERS, as the native c6xx chipset has only 2 native "BLUE" SATA ports that do not require drivers under win 7 and lower

same for the LSI drivers, install them to activate the ports.  however you can disable the onboard SCSI boot rom to speed up booting if you do not need to boot from the LSI controller/ports. once booted windows will still find/use thes ports if the driver is loaded the LSI BIOS only needs to be enabled if you actually boot from the LSI Ports

same for the onboard network cards, disable the network boot rom in the bios

again. all of the above is covered in the HP service manual for the z800

[DGroves]

This might also help

The HP Z 8xx series (800/820/840) have 3 separate mass storage controllers

2 Blue SATA 3 ports (uses normal windows driver built into the OS)
4 GREY "SCU" SATA ports (uses scu driver found in intel enterprise RST driver package for the "Cxx" series chipset)
7 WHITE SAS/SATA ports from onboard LSI controller chip (may need driver in pre win 10 OS)

the Z800 is based on the X58 chipset NO NVME SUPPORT IN BIOS
the z820 is based on the x79 chipset PARTIAL NVME SUPPORT - NO BOOT - DATA ONLY (bios 3.58 and higher)
the z840 is based on the x99 chipset (do not have this model so chipset may be wrong) FULL NVME SUPPORT

all Z 6xx/8xx systems can boot from a SATA 3 SSD (blue port) and the Z 8xx with the LSI chip can boot from SAS or SATA SSD's (white port)

most people using a standard windows 7/8/10 disk will be able to install the OS on the 2 blue SATA ports, and the 7 white LSI
without loading the Intel enterprise RST driver via "F6" during the OS Install

Please note the Intel RST enterprise drivers are different than the normal RST drivers in that they only support the Intel "C" series chipsets which are found in the HP Z 8xx series workstations 
most of the above also applies to the HP Z6xx line of workstations

if setting up a system for the first time and you are using a stock disk without integrating the latest enterprise RST and LSI Drivers please place the boot drive and CD/DVD on the BLUE ports

if you integrate the RST/LSI drivers place the CD/DVD on a plue port and the boot drive on the grey SCU or white LSI ports

if not booting from the LSI ports, turn off this controller to speed booting, windows will still see and drives connected to it once the OS boots

creating a RAID array on the LSI OR the SCU ports will require that the controller "Initialize" the drives (IE- make the selected drives into a raid array) this step will destroy any data existing on the drives.

it will not touch your boot "C:" unless you selected this drive during the select drives to be raided step WHICH WOULD BE BAD IN THIS CASE!!

In other words for raid 5 you would need 4 drives in the system

1. your boot drive for booting the OS (do not select this drive)
2. at least 3 drives for the raid 5 selected in the create/select drives to be raided

if you want to boot from a raid array, have the drivers for the SCU/LSI chips on USB key/CD for loading during setup via "F6" or slipstreamed into the disk and create a array first, then proceed with the OS setup