SM951 M.2 SSD in a HP Z620

[Brian1965]

Just another quick update.

Many thanks for your cooling suggestions. I have eventually, (after yet more searching on line), decided to opt for the liquid cooling option. I agree with your thoughts in that this should provide the most efficient cooling method. Appreciate the mention of the Corsair H90 kit and decided to order one today. I also plan to use this with the following item, (which is being delivered tomorrow);

http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/water-cooling/gpu-water-blocks/gpu-full-cover/20048/alphacool-nexxxos-gp...

Looks like this;

Hopefully I can simply connect the Tesla cooler to the Corsair H90 and the problem is sorted. I plan to place the H90 fan assembly on the outside of the Z620 enclosure adjacent to the Tesla card PCIe slot and possibly power the cooler from a spare SATA/IDE power connector I have. Even if there were sufficient space inside the Z620, I don't think the cooler would have sufficient cool air, particularly if the computer has been on all day. I will fabricate a custom PCIe bracket to mount and secure the Corsair H90 fan assembly.

I did consider buying a Tesla C2075 or other 'Z620 compatible' 2nd GPU, but as soon as I realised it also entailed either a drop in performance, or a huge hole in my pocket, (compared to the M2090), I decided to drop that idea. I also considered fabricating my own fan enclosure similar to option 4  but was a little concerned about any additional fan noise considering the air flow requirements. I think option 2 may be a little risky due to the lack of space between the Tesla and the Z620 case. I will let you know how this goes.

P.S. Bought the quadro K4200 for £275 and the Tesla M2090 for £65, including the cooling kit the total cost will be about £460 which is still considerably cheaper than a K6000 or M5000.

My copy of Windows 7 arrived today so I have cloned and wiped the SM951 SSD ready to give the UEFI install a go. Plan on trying this tomorrow night. Again, I will let you know how I get on.

[BambiBoom_Z]

Brian1965,

I should have known there would be bespoke waterblocks for Teslas.

The Alphacool looks very good- a very thorough design, beautifully made, and a waterblock /backplate is the most effective cooler. 

However, there may an interface problem with the pump /radiator.  As far as I know, the Corsair H90 is a closed loop system, meaning that the tubes carrying the cooling liquid are permanently attached to the CPU/ GPU block.  The Aquatuning waterblock in the link appears to be a component in a custom open system. The Alphacool waterblock is, in effect, the substitute for the cylindrical water block on the H90 with the processor interface.  I believe you may instead need a pump , fan / radiator, reservoir, and piping that have the correct screw-on connector for the Alphacool block. 

It might be possible to cut the lines and attach the Alphacool connector,  but the firm also sells all in one GPU water coolers , which are in effect,  versions of the general H90 design:

http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/water-cooling/kits-und-systems

They have external enclosures as well, but are very  expensive:

http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/water-cooling/kits-und-systems/external-kits

Both the K4200 and M2090 are the least expensive I've ever seen- well done.

I'm taking a couple of days off the z620 as I've fallen behind in work, which is is currently the interior of the building in the earlier post, which is quite large. But, thinking of the messy z620 startup is distracting- unfinished business.

Cheers,

BambiBoom_Z

[Brian1965]

Quick progress update.

Completed the Z620 UEFI based Windows 7 Pro installation on my 256GB SM951AHCI yesterday and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was.

Simply pulled the Tesla M2090, SATA III PCIe card and the SSD/HDD caddy's from the machine leaving only the quadro K4200 and ASUS Hyper/SM951 PCIe cards installed. Inserted my Windows 7 Professional disc, (full retail version), into the DVD drive and shut down the computer. Switched on the computer pressing the F9 key for the boot menu - sure enough the system had defaulted to the DVD drive, (listed under EFI Boot Sources). Booted from the DVD and followed the normal installation procedure for a fresh install, i.e. deleted all the existing partitions from the SM951, (which had Windows 7 Professional MBR boot partitions). After about 15mins of frantic activity the PC started to reboot and setting up the windows desktop, internet connection, etc. After what appeared to be the final reboot, I removed the Windows DVD and rebooted to BIOS to confirm the WIndows Boot Manager was now present - all good so far. Unfortunately, this version of Windows did not have the SP1 update and only had IE8 as a browser. Consequently, I was unable to access some web pages, (including the HP drivers & support pages), Decided to persevere and  push on with updating Windows to the latest version with all recommended and critical updates. This is where my nightmare began.

After successfully installing about 60 or 70 Windows updates, (and several reboots later), Windows update starting hanging!!? (I even left the computer switched on all night!). I had just updated to SP1 !! Very, very frustrating, but in summary it took about 6 hours in total to eventually sort it all out. I think I must have tried virtually every patch, re-installation and hotfix available until I found a good fix on sevenforums, (my sincerest thanks to them for the info). Eventually got WIndows update running  again and resumed with the outstanding 240+ updates. As soon as IE11 was installed, I downloaded and installed the Z620 driver pack from the HP website.

So I suppose the main question is, was it really worth all the effort? Have I noticed any improvement switching from MBR to UEFI?

My latest PassMark score (without the Tesla M2090 or SATA III cards installed) . . .

Passmark System Rating= 5048/ CPU= 19677 / 2D= 567 / 3D = 10341 / Mem =2190 / Disk = 12652

Definitely a major improvement in SM951 performance and also a significant increase in overall performance. System definitely seems quicker and more responsive but I won't count my chickens just yet until I have all my software and hardware re-fitted/installed. Obviously the system is running in a fresh, lean and clutter free environment but will keep you updated how things progress. Will easily take me most of the week to re-install and re-activate everything again.

The Corsair H90 kit arrived yesterday, (and you were correct in that it is a closed loop system), but on closer inspection, the hoses can be easily removed, (and re-fitted), from the radiator and heatsink without damaging any of the parts. The pump is on the heatsink side and powered via a 3-pin motherboard connector while the fan (which is attached to the radiator) is powered via a 4-pin motherboard connector. I'm still waiting on the Tesla cooler/heatsink to arrive but I should be able to insert the Tesla cooler in the loop and replace the coolant with a higher performance PC coolant. I will plug the kit into the Z620 (before I fit the Tesla cooler) to test the noise level from the pump to see if I should install the pump internally or externally since there isn't much space in the enclosure. I will also bench test the modified cooler to make sure there are no leaks before I fit it to the Tesla card or Z620. Hopefully the cooler will arrive in the next day or so. I will take some pics before, during and after in case the information is of interest to other forum members. Fingers crossed but the outlook looks good. . .

[BambiBoomZ]

Brian1965,

Good to read of progress.  On Passmark your z620 has the 2nd highest system rating- very well done and and you're not done!

Perserverance with the BIOS has paid off.  I was lucky as all of my HP z's arrived with UEFI already.

By the way, in the last couple of posts,  I'm only seeing pale yellow triangles for the images.  EDIT: After posting the reply, the images are working again.

I notice on Passmark that the 3D rating is given as 0.0.  The 3D @ 10341 is at GTX Titan Black level- that must be with the M2090 (?).  And, if so, I'm having one myself.  I would expect a K4200 on it's own to be in the 4500-4800 range.  The first go with my z620 also returned a 0.0 3D and Passmark said it the result of the 3D graphics tests missing one test for some reason. This happend before on the Precison T5400 when the test could not reze a Direct X window.   If you go to Passmark "Bottom 100", almsot all the listings are system with a 0.0 3D while they have may very good marks for the others.  It's odd the way that is set up,  but Passmark says it's due to tthe number of headless systems running without a GPU..

Also good to read that the M2090 cooling can get sorted. It appears the new waterblock has a uses a pair of screw-in fittings for hose /pipe attachment.  Perhaps the kit has those or ou can buy one with a plain protruding tube and the Corsair tubes can be cut, slid over, and clamped- clamped twice.  Check the diameter of the Corsair tubes so the flanged tube on the fitting is appropriate. My worry is not to have a really  positive attachment as the cooling fluid is under pressure and accidents have happened,..  This might be a job for car screw-down hose clamps as used in the Morris Minor era for the heater hoses. Perhaps ask the firm that made the water block the best way and they may well have the hardware.  I'm not sure, but there must be a procedure for bleeding the air from from the fluid loop.  As the H90 is sold as a closed system that in theory never needs that (?), it may be somthing to look into. 

On the subject of mounting the pump / fan / radiator, these are getting better but typically are a bit noisy- pulses a bit like a high-volume acquarium pump, but the fans are quiet.  If it is exterior-mounted, you might make an enclosure with the unit inset - the fan unit not on the front surface and so the enclosure can sit under the desk so you have the desktop as addiitonal sound insulation.  I'm thinking of the extra fuss apropos of using your system for music editing,  but perhaps you do that with headphones.  

In my news, the z620 goes from bad to worse.  As I had updated the BIOS to 3.88 earlier and all the flashing screens appeared,  I tried to restore it to the earlier, version, and tried updating again, but it's gone bonkers- alternately can not find the system disk,  and then tries unsuccesfully in a CMD to connect to some "FXE" network. Perhaps it's a virus.  there is a BIOS recovery procedure but I may to clear CMOS and start all over - which I've never had to do in 20 years.  This is bad timing for me as I need to concentrate on the Big Building.  Disappointing as I don't like to have unresolved problems and I'll need this system for all the large renderings pending, possibly 50-60. 

So, yes, let me know what happens. The Tesla seems to have real potential.

Cheers,

BambiBoom_Z

[Brian1965]

Just another piece of information regarding the UEFI boot install;

After completing the UEFI boot install on the SM951, (and re-installing my SanDisk SSD and 2off HDD's I removed before the installation), it is now possible to switch booting from either the SM951 PCIe drive or the SanDisk 480GB SSD, (which had my OS and programs already installed). When you go into the BIOS it is possible to disable the Windows Boot Manager which forces the Z620 to boot from the SanDisk SSD OS drive. Everything is back as it was before the UEFI installation.

To boot from the SM951, you simply re-enable the Windows Boot Manager in the BIOS.

Although it's not required, I would recommend you disable the other OS drive when re-booting from the SM951 otherwise you will see 2 additional drives in Windows Explorer, (a System Reserved drive and a Local Disk drive). FYI, the SM951 is GPT and the SanDisk SSD is MBR.

If you decide not to disable the original MBR OS drive in BIOS when booting from the SM951, you can copy files from your old User folder to the new GPT OS drive easily. (Note: May not work if you re-install with a different user name due to permissions but not 100% certain).

[JSung]

I am in the process of upgrading my hdd to ssd as well but was a lillte confused by this post. Is op's Sm 950 a NVMe version or Ahci?  Because the first post you mentioned Nvme but now it became Achi.

There are other posts stating SM950 mvne wont boot on Z620. Can op please clarify? 

many thanks

[Brian1965]

Hi JSung,

The SM951 model I purchased was the 256GB AHCI version, model no. MZHPV256HDGL-00000

The reason I mentioned NVMe in my first post is because when I first installed the SM951 into my Z620, (using a cheap, generic PCIe adapter card), my BIOS or Windows would not see the card. Confused by this, I installed a Samsung NVMe driver to see if that was the problem, but it made no difference. As I discovered, replacing the cheap generic PCIe adapter card with a higher quality PCIe adapter card sorted the problem. The replacement PCIe adapter card I bought was an ASUS Hyper M.2 x4 Mini.

I found this info on the web;

"There are actually two versions of the drive. The initial release uses the familiar AHCI protocol, while a newer variant adheres to the NVM Express standard. The AHCI model is compatible with a broader range of motherboards and available from a wider selection of vendors."

The NVMe version is also suppose to be quicker but in reality there isn't much difference;

I understand it is only the newer HP Zx40 series range that supports NVMe drives.

Hope this helps.

[JSung]

Hi Brian,

THank you for the clarification.   I know there are some people on the forum had successfully installed NVMe ssd's such as Samsung 950 pro and Intel 750, so I will use those insted.

Cheers!

James 

[BambiBoomZ]

JSung,

AHCI: I'm using a Samsung SM951 in a z420 and z620,  These are both 256GB AHCI versions, the z420, mounted on a Lycom DT-120 M.2 to PCIe adapter card and the z620 being an HP z620 Z Turbo Drive which has an SM951 as the drive .

The SM951 AHCI works very well in both systems, the Passmark Disk rating being 11559 for the z420 and 12915 in the z620.  The Z Turbo Drive specification shows a bit better performance than the SM951 used with a third-party adapter card probably as  the Z Turbo is on a proprietary card developed for HP systems.  Earlier on, M.2 was mentioned as running very hot and the Z Turbo has a substantial heatsink on thermal pads that cover the memory chips.

NVMe: Among the Passmark Performance Test baselines, there are two listings for a z620 system (2X E5-2620 / GTX 970) shown as using a Samsung 950 Pro NVME 256GB drive. I think it's the same system with 16GB RAM (Passmark Disk = 10085) and then with 64GB (= 12650). If more RAM only makes a substantial improvment in Disk speed, that's an interesting result.

As for the z420, there is an E5-1650 v2 system with a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe 256GB , scoring 15187.

The z820 uses a different BIOS, but there is one system -also listed twice- shown as having a Samsung SM951 NVMe  512GB with the Disk = 10383 and 12141.

I'm not sure of the reason that there are a couple of successful uses of NVMe M.2, and more 950 Pro than SM91 on zX20 systems, but it may be that the firmware in the newer 950 M.2 or system BIOS and chipset drivers are working towards a greater compatibility with older systems.  If it's possible that the zX20 systems' can have BIOS / firmware developed that allows the use of NVMe drives that would of course expand the selection of drives. 

M.2 makes impressive numbers, but in my use has made little operational difference as compared to the Intel 730 480GB that was the main drive in the z420 (Passmark = 4764). The startup and file loading iand saving is apparently limited by the CPU (E5-1660 v2 in the z420 and 2X E5-2690 in the z620) so most functions seems very similar.   When making transfers, the limitation might be the other drive being able to keep up in read and write speeds. As I use conventional mech'l drives for backup, the M.2 advatage is completely lost. However,  I imagine that in very heavy disk-intensive uses, the difference would be more apparent.

Cheers,

BambiBoomZ

[srilanka-87]

hi

i did same exact thing , i cant see the drive as bootable . please help

how did u set up bios ??