USB 3.1 or 3.0 on a Z800

[knightyA]

Is it possible to operate a P1N75AA card in a Z800? There might be a problem with a I2C cable adapter. What I found instead is a USB 3.0 solution with a QT587AA. However, it is hard to find one on the market. I am operating two Z800 and one xw9400.
Any help would be appreciated.

[BambiBoomZ · Accepted solution]

KnightyA,

An interesting question.  The P1N75AA description:

http://www8.hp.com/emea_africa/en/products/oas/product-detail.html?oid=8742935

> includes both the casual, "Install the card in any available PCIe slot on your PC." and then quite strictly: "The HP SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 2 PCIe x1 Card is compatible with HP ProDesk 600 G2 MTW, HP ProDesk 600 G2 SFF, HP EilteDesk 800 G2 TWR and HP EliteDesk 800 G2 SFF."

As the Z800 will have more than one PCIe2 x1 capable slot, that suggests compatibility, but a z800 is not a "ProDesk 600 G2 MTW, HP ProDesk 600 G2 SFF, HP EilteDesk 800 G2 TWR and HP EliteDesk 800 G2 SFF."

My experience with HP add-on cards: 9212-4i RAID controller and Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI is that they are optimized in a particular way and use in another system may mean incompatibility or simply having to load the driver. In a z420 (Xeon E5-1660 v2), using the HP OEM Windows 7, installing the 9212-4i immediately loaded the driver for it.

My conclusion is that I'd be interested to know the answer as well!

What will the 12C connector be used for?

BambiBoomZ

HP z620_2 (2017) (R7) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / GTX 1070 Ti 8GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVME 500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound interface + 2X Mackie MR824 / 825W PSU /> Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit  > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H  (2560 X 1440)

[knightyA]

The i2C cable seems to be mainly for the 5 V supply voltage. I don't think it will fit in any way to the DASH/I-USB2, P26 or P27 connector in the Z800.

[DGroves]

i personally own z800/820/z840 systems (with win 10)  and for the z800/820 i use high end USB 3.0 cards that have onboard "PLX" chips which allow all four ports to run at the full usb 3.0 speeds at the same time.... these cards are not cheap and cost upwards of 75.00 so unless you need such speed, then a normal usb card that shares bandwidth between the ports is a better buy for most people... you can find these cards on ebay and they are usefull if you use high bandwidth usb devices (like copying large raw files between several usb drives at the same time.

the z800 also has one startech two port usb 3.1 card installed (PEXUSB312A2) that is used for misc file xfers to usb 3.1 external drives and this card also works fine under windows 10 and this system also has a dell perc H310 installed with the nessary cables/adapters to allow the z800's internal 4 drive bays to connect to the H310 and the other four ports are connected to two 128 SATA SSD's in raid 0 (nowadays i would recomend a 256GB SAS (or SATA) SSD

HP makes a card with similar specs but it has normal SATA connectors and is a 4 port card

HP 689576-001 LSI SAS9212-4i PCI-E x8 SAS/SATA 6GB/S 4 Port Raid Controller Card

[SDH]

I have one of the HP USB3.1 cards and could never figure out how to get it to work because it was built for HP computers that had a special port on the motherboard to use with the card.  In contrast, I mastered the specific USB3.0 card you reference (the HP "2x2" card) for USB3 use on the xw and Z series workstations.  It is little known that HP developed that card to add in USB3 technology to the ZX00 generation of workstations.

An excellent link, if I do say so myself, is  HERE.

Some added tips.....

1.  That particular HP card uses exactly the same Texas Instruments chip as the ZX20 workstations did on their motherboards, and thus the ZX20 drivers site from HP is a nice place to download the driver package from.  The ZX40 generation moved to an Intel USB3 motherboard chip.

2.  That card's drivers get auto-updated when you do an upgrade from W7Pro64 to W10Pro64... works fine with W10.

3.  There was an earlier try by HP with this concept, and that used a NEC/Renasus chip.... it could only drive two USB3 ports on the backplane, and did not get much support.  Don't ever get one of those.  You want the "2x2" type with the TI chip.... 2 USB3 ports on the backplane, and 2 can be added via the presence of a special standard USB3 "motherboard" connector obvious at the back end of the card.  You'll see what I use to get those two added ports available out front.

4.  Any USB3 PCIe card needs supplemental power, and it has a SATA type power feed connector built in...... so does the NEC/Renasus one.  The driver installer needs to see all the electronic parts on the card to properly install all the drivers so make sure to power it up before you proceed with driver install.  Otherwise you will get a partial install.... voice of experience.

5.  To get up to USB3 bandwidth you must be using a PCIe generation 2 or above slot.  The xw6400 only had PCIe generation 1 slots and thus that card will run in a xw6400 but only at about 1/2 speed.  The xw6600 has only 2 PCIe generation 2 slots (the two PCIe x16 "video" slots), and I've put those cards in the lower of the two PCIe x16 slots and that tested to full USB3 speeds.  My recall is that all the ZX00 PCIe slots are generation 2 slots.

When a workstation goes into certain types of sleep it may lose some driver access and not see a device when it wakes if the device was in place before the workstation went to sleep..... if that happens I just pull my fast USB thumb drive and reinsert.  I have not spent the time to dink with sleep states to avoid that.  The Akasa parts I show are of excellent build quality.

[knightyA]

Many thanks for providing some more insight to the problem.

It is nearly impossible to find a PEX USB312A2 card on the market. The only one is being delivered to the UK mainland only. I will try it with a dodocool SuperSpeed USB 3.1 PCI-Express Card Dual Reversible Type-C Ports W0X9 which is offered on eBay for about 20,- €. 

If it works it will be sufficient for my needs: i. e. need to connect a third screen via USB. My graphics card (NVIDIA Quadro 6000) support 2 screens only.

[knightyA]

Hi SDH,

thank you for addressing this problem and the hint to your post in 2016. In the meanwhile I tried to find one QT587AA. Either sold out or a source in Russia. 

My original intent was to add a third screen via USB to the Z800. I will try a dodocool SuperSpeed USB 3.1 PCI-Express Card Dual Reversible Type-C Ports W0X9 for about € 20,-

Hopefully it will work. I will communicate any progress.

[DGroves]

the  pex USB312A2 card is a older model no longer in production it seems,........ a replacement is either the

Syba SD-PEX20200 USB 3.1 10Gbps Type-C PCI-E Controller Card  (ASMedia 1142 chipset)

or the

Syba SI-PEX20208 2 Port USB 3.1 Type A 10Gbps PCI-e x4 Card  (ASMedia ASM1142 chipset)

the diffrence between the cards is the USB connector, the first one uses the std USB 3.0/3.1 style

the second card uses the newer USB 3.1 type "C" connector

[SDH]

Hey.... what could go wrong?  🙂  Russia.... just don't go to pick it up in person.    Actually I've had good experience with China, and the guy from Russia has good reviews.  Or, keep looking.  I am glad I got a stash when I did.... these things come and go, but they surely will not be made again by HP.

[SDH]

I'd trust DGroves advice... that is a good chipset.  I think he might have his models backwards, not sure.  To me I'd want the green PCB and not the white one for compatibily with what I do.  I'd want a 2x2 design with ability to get two ports out front in addition to the two rear ports, out to the face of the workstation rather than just two on the backplane.  I use the front ports and not the rear ports so much, unless I have a USB3 extension running from back to the front of my desk.  One I really like for that is the blue or black version of the USB3 extension from StarTech.com    USB 3.0 Extension Cable - USB 3.0 A Male to A Female | StarTech.com  USB3SEXT5DSK.  For me the black one is better.....

Review of both of those, green vs white PCB.... I only see a power connector and not any way to internally hook up two added front ports to make it a "2x2" setup.  For your use 2x1 might be just fine, however.