HP z420 processor Question

[Lolless]

hi every1 i have an HP z420 with an e5-2667 v2 proc and was wondering if i could put an e5-2697 v2 in it?

[Brian1965]

The E5-2697 v2 CPU is not listed in the HP Z420 Quickspecs, but then again, the E5-2667 v2 CPU you're currently using is not listed either. I can confirm that both these CPU's are listed in the HP Z620 quickspecs, and the Z420 and Z620 share the same BIOS. Since the BIOS contains a whitelist of compatible CPU's in the BIOS microcode, I see no reason why the E5-2697 v2 would not run just fine. I'm afraid this is a bit of a grey area, unless some other forum member has an E5-2697 v2 CPU installed in their HP Z420 machine, or at least tested the configuration, it might require a leap of faith. If it doesn't work you could always re-list the CPU on ebay.

I assume the applications you are running require more CPU cores? Your current CPU (E5-2667 v2) is an excellent CPU in terms of all round performance. It is the fastest E5 v2 CPU (that can be run in dual CPU configuration) in terms of single threaded performance and also has an all core clock speed of up to 3.6GHz. Before spending any money - I would first confirm that your software or applications can take advantage of the additional cores - very few applications can utilize more than 3 or 4 cores. However, if you're running multiple VM's, or CPU video rendering then more cores will definitely help.