Hp z640 NVMe PCIe 4.0 Crucial card on PCIe 3.0 expansion card work as boot drive

[lse123]

On my HP z440, or HP z640

Can i use as bootable drive NVMe PCIe 4.0 Crucial SSD card on PCIe 3.0 expansion NVMe card and work as boot drive ...?

Or only particular NVMe SSDs working, if that's what are they?

[lse123]

I saw a YouTube video, for difficulty use NVMe for booting /system drive, but for the older model hp z620, THIS DOESN'T EXIST FOR THE NEWER MODEL HP Z640, Correct?

The video was for hp z820, and is here:

https://youtu.be/PrZEYkNl9aI 

[SDH]

For both the Z440 and the Z640 (I don't have access to a Z840) here is the info for you:

1. Update to the latest BIOS version.

2. Set BIOS to factory defaults... that is an option. Save on exit.

3. Remove all drives except the single M.2 NVMe stick it will be running on.

4. Use only a Z Turbo Drive G2 PCIe card, which are inexpensive on eBay now. That has the HP heatsink included.

5. Place that in PCIe slot 4... which is a PCIe generation 3 slot with x8 electrical lanes. The card is PCIe3 x4. Note that the ZX40 does not have a PCIe generation 4 slot.

6. The M.2 stick you refer to is a PCIe4 SSD... it is fully backwards compatible with PCIe3. It will work fine with your workstation and that card.

7. Do a clean install of Windows 10, downloaded directly from Microsoft. If your ZX40 has already had W10 running on it you don't need to have a license to enter during the install.

8. Fine tune your BIOS settings and OS from there. You can now add more drives as needed.

8. Use Windows update to upgrade W10 to the latest.

[lse123]

I have already purchased the items 

But if Not compatible i will use in another PC or Laptop 

These purchased below are they compatible with hp z640... or have to try them to find out?

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JJTVGZM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B25NXWC7?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

### 

[lse123]

I want the result be dual boot Windows system

Now is SSD SATA Windows 11 Pro for Workstations, bypass

If add success, 

Additionally dual boot with: 

NVMe M.2 PCIe 3.0/4.0 Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

[SDH]

I would not use that PCIe card. I'd suggest instead the HP-engineered card I told you about. It has very high-quality on-board electronics and a large quality heatsink (the fast NVMe M.2 sticks can run quite hot). That is why HP added it to the ZTD G2. Try to find a recycled one on eBay that has the upper and lower HP-provided thermal pads, and also tell the seller you only will buy if the card includes the special HP black/brass M.2 stick hold down screw. It has extra small threads and you want that included for sure.

M.2 stick looks good... PCIe4 is backwards compatible with PCIe3. I've never used one of those but many use non-HP M.2 sticks in the HP ZTD cards.

I don't do dual boot so you're on your own for that.

[lse123]

I think i will try with the current hardware i have and if doesn't work then buy from eBay,... the Z Turbo Drive G2 PCIe card, and follow your instructions...

[DGroves]

also the HP "Z" Turbo Drive card's AHCI / NVME "G2" models use the exact same pci-E card

what changes is the actual SSD used on the card with the non G2 models using AHCI based ssd's and the G2 models using NVME ssd's

the Samsung sm951 AHCI ssd is model number:  mzHPxxxxxxxx (there is also the slower AHCI xp941 ssd)

and the NVME model number is:  mzVPxxxxxxxxx

the HP "Z" Turbo card is compatible with the z820/620/420 models and the z840/640/440 as is it's plug and play

to use the "z" turbo card in other computer models you need to remove a surface mount transistor (Q1) which is near the three rows of 3 pin jumpers pre modded cards have been seen on ebay

note also that when using the intel 3500/3600/3700 line of pci-e SSD cards as a boot device you will no longer be able to see the screen output of any LEGACY cards bios output such as a Raid card

this means that you need to first configure any raid arrays on the legacy card using it's bios before installing the Intel ssd card and configuring the workstation's bios to "EFI" mode you can then monitor the card using OS based tools

 one last bit of info, the Intel P3605 card is a OEM model made by intel for Cisco and it uses their firmware not intels however this card has increased "write" endurance almost as good as the P3700 series but getting this firmware can be a pain as cisco requires a user account to access it, but if you search the internet it can be found for downloading

[lse123]

Finally, I decided to use the NVMe drive Not as a 2nd boot drive of a dual boot PC, but stay as single boot system. The reason is I already have two dual boot PCs W10/W11 all,… and is difficult to maintain them with all these updates…

I will use this in my HP z640, but as a storage for VMs, only, or other files require fast work with…

The current Crucial NVMe should be ok for this purpose, correct?

[lse123]

About,

my HP Z640 — Intel XEON v4 processor 

I decided to bring it to a PC shop near me to update the BIOS/UEFI the technical support staff.

Due to privacy reasons I want to remove all HDD D:/ and SSD C:/ from it.

A

is it feasible to update the BIOS/UEFI without C:/ drive?

B

Please provide me instructions for this update ? URLs