Updating HP xw8400 from XP to Win 7 64 bit

[DKentucky]

Would an HP 64 bit Windows 7 OS install disk find all of the drivers needed for my HP xw8400 workstation currently running 64 bit XP

[SDH · Accepted solution]

The answer to your question is generally yes, but don't expect things to be 100% smooth.   If you go to the HP xw6400/xw8400 drivers page you'll see the OS tops out at Vista.  However if you go to the HP xw6600/xw8600 you'll see it tops out at Windows 7 32- and 64-bit.  It turns out that a lot of the same chipsets on the later two of this family also work with the earlier two.  And, many of the HP installer SoftPaqs you'd download are more universal than just the few workstations they're stated to cover.   This is true for both sound and network drivers.

I'd do a W7Pro64 bit install, and clean up if needed with related 64-bit W7 driver SoftPaqs from the xw8600 HP drivers page.  I'd also make sure that you're loading onto a SSD.  That is a real need for the older workstations.  My favorite is a 300 or 600 GB Intel 320 series bought used off eBay for these SATA II workstations.  I also would make sure your BIOS is updated to the latest first, before you even start the process.  You can do this from inside of XP quite safely, but later I'd only do it from within BIOS.  I'd also set in BIOS to the factory defaults and save on the way out of BIOS.  There are some things that may not be properly installed if you don't do that first.  You can do some BIOS tuning later after the install.

Once you have W7Pro64 on you can upgrade to W10Pro64 still for free.  I'd load that workstation up with 8 x 4GB HP sticks... I prefer the used Samsung HP ones over the alternatives.  Elpida is good too from that era.  You want all the slots filled with identical memory for best quad channel memory performance.  You need all you can get out of that workstation.

[DKentucky]

Thanks SDH for your advice/help. Is it essential to switch to a SSD hardrive? I am not a gamer. I use the machine to digitize vinyl record and I have a NOS 1TB Seagate Barracuda . Do you think that would work OK. Thanks, SDH.

[SDH]

Happy to help.  I must say that the answer is yes.  There has been nothing in computer hardware that gives so much benefit to the user than a SSD.  The speed difference is remarkable.  We all value our time, and the SSD gives you so much for so little cost.  I recently came across a xw6600 that was still running from a hard drive.  It was horrible to use.  I cloned its W7Pro64 OS, exact duplicate including all files and applications, onto a SSD.  The difference was shocking, now that I have gotten used to SSDs.

It is fine to have a HDD as your documents drive, but to run your OS and applications that should be from a SSD.  I've mentioned before.... I don't have massive storage needs.  My documents drive now is SSD also.

[DKentucky]

Thanks Again SDH:

  I may get an SSD for my XW8400 in the future. Thanks for all the great help and advice!

Sincerely,

DKW