Optional CPU upgrades for Z420

[DGroves]

the windows installer lacks native driver support for the c602 chip's "SCU" SATA ports therefore you need to use the "F6" method during the OS install to load the correct Intel RSTe driver   this driver is on the HP site read included docs on usage

[BambiBoomZ]

Amil56,

Well done organizing to this point.  Previously used drives seem always to cause more fuss; through constant modification they acquire layers of artifacts and are oriented towards protection of whatever is on them.

It's a very good policy to have a known working plug-in boot/programs drive ready in case of problems. Here, the C: updated OS and programs for each system is cloned to a  mech'l drive before the system is ever used and stored away as pristine against future viruses or failure.

If there is not a RAID configuration prompt- "Press "R" or possibly "I "to continue" at start up there is probably not a conflict.

Perhaps a less disruptive way than installing each drive in the system for identification is to install each one in turn  using a toolless external USB enclosure (consider the Orico 3.5"). 

If some drives have information to retain and there is a spare drive, consider taking the spare, running a wipe or deleting all partitions to unallocated space, setting up new GPT partitions, copying the W7 to the prepared spare drive, running file and  registry cleaner (e.g. CCleaner), defragging,  and storage. When they're identified, consider writing the content and size on blue painters tape and the drives placed in clear clamshells.

 BambiBoomZ

[amil56]

Thanks for the support BambiBoomZ,

I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news:

I've managed to install the E5 4657L and to change the RAM to 64GB 1866Mhz.

I also have windows 10 installed on SSD and the machine runs smoothly for 2 days now.

I encounter a problem while trying to add 2TB M.2 disk.

I don't plan too boot from this disk but the problem is that this M.2 is not recognized by BIOS nor windows.

Any settings I should change in the BIOS?

(I read somewhere to change RAID+AHCI to AHCI only).

Anything special I need to pay attention in the adapter itself or the slot it goes in?

Can I have 1 SSD, 3 HDDs and the M.2 work simultaneous? 

I'm pretty lost and while trying 2 different M.2 (the second was samsung 500GB 970 evo) I got "pcie slot 5 fatal error" message.

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you so much,

amil562

[DGroves]

Leave the bios setting at Raid+AHCI, the raid extensions will only be called if you setup a array. if you do ahci only and then try to enable raid, windows may crash/fail to boot

you can only boot from a SATA HD/SSD not nvme, nvme ssd's can be used as a non booting data drive

your statement:  "Can I have 1 SSD, 3 HDDs and the M.2 work simultaneous"  is incorrect as M.2 devices are also SSD's

 so you want at least 2 ssd's (one of which is m.2 form factor) and 3 mech HD's?

yes it should be possible as your cpu is a 40 pci-e lane processor

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/75290/intel-xeon-processor-e5-4657l-v2-30m-cach...

in the bios, in the mass storage section(s) the topmost device listed is the first device checked for boot,  so make sure the SSD device you want to boot from is the topmost one (it may say windows boot manager instead of the ssd name) and the second one (non booting ssd) is below the booting one, once this is worked out add the 3 mech SATA drives to the motherboard's onboard sata ports if not using a DVD you will have 2 sata 6GBps and several SATA 3GBps ports for drives

if booting from a pci-e ssd the topmost x4 slot is the one you want for booting

[BambiBoomZ]

Amil56,

Consider:

1. Check that the M.2 Drive is running on a  PCIe 3.0 slot with at least x4 lanes. I the office z620 with two M.2 drives, the second one, an NVMe data-only drive is run in the second GPU x16 slot. That is also where any M.2 adapter with more than one drive should run also.

2. Update BIOS- carefully- to the latest, if that has not been done.

3. Check the M.2 drive that is not recognized for an active partition. If it is M.2 NVMe, an active partition may not be recognized. Make certain it is also a GPT partition and not MBR

4. I'm not certain as to the proper RAID and AHCI settings. It may be possible to try the alternative and if the system didn't boot to Windows or recognize the drive, it could be reverted in BIOS on the next startup.

5.  Yes, I think this kind of system can run quite a few drives- especially if it includes SAS drives.

I'm very pleased that there is progress on this kind of complicated project.

BambiBoomZ

[amil56]

Thank you so much DGroves and BambiBoomZ,

I haven't manage to see the m.2 in my z420. At the beginning I thought it's the adapter (it's a small cheap one) but then I tried it on 2 other PCs which have on board pcie m.2 slot and it wasn't recognized as well. I think I got a defective unit, I'll go today to return it.

Regarding the Bios - already updated prior the CPU upgrade.

For some weird reason the machine came with 4 1 tb hdd, the one with OS was raided. It make the PC to be super slow. I took one copy I can boot win7 out and put it aside.

I think it aould be better to delete the raided 2nd volume. Would you agree? Am I doing it after pressing ctrl+s at startup? I saw an option of canceling raid. I won't be needing it..

Thanks again. Will try today with a new adapter and a new nvme drive and report. 

[DGroves]

a clean OS install is always preferred over the sort of upgrade you are thinking of doing

also windows 10 is recommended over win 7 as win 10 natively supports most of the z420 hardware and nvme out of the box

[amil56]

Thanks DGroves, 

No additional upgrade is planned, I now have a clean windows 10 running on my ssd. This runs perfectly.

The only issues left are non recognizable m.2 (defective) and some raid definitions. 

[DGroves]

ssd raid  (unless it's raid 1) is not recommended as a single mid range ssd can exceed the z420's SATA bandwidth limit

[amil56]

Today I'll go and buy a new PCIe NVME adapter and replace the defective m.2 I got.

Is there a problem with 2 TB m.2 disk? ( I chose this one: https://www.amazon.com/XPG-S50-Lite-Internal-AGAMMIXS50L-2T-C/dp/B08HW4WR7C/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?dchild=1... 

What is the most preferred PCI slot to install for that adapter?

Anything special I should look for while buying the adapter?

I'm not planning any raid nor to boot from this m.2, I just need a fast storage drive.

Thanks