What cpus am I restricted to with the hpz600 workstation?

[anti1]

Hi, I have a HP Z600 that I purchased refurbished. It currently has 2 x Xeon X5560 2.8 cpus.

I am hitting the cpu load limit with this setup ( I run intensive 3d modelling software), and i want to upgrade.

Am I limited with the motherboard on these workstations? 

What processors would you recommend? ( I am looking for a fairly intensive boost, and have a few hundred dollars to spend).

Thanks!

[old_geekster]

Anti1, welcome to the forum.

According to this document the most powerful processor is the Intel Xeon processor1,2 E5570, 2.93 GHz, 8 MB cache, 1333 MHz memory, Quad-Core.

Please click the Thumbs up + button if I have helped you and click Accept as Solution if your problem is solved.

[SDH]

Just finished a full Z600 upgrade build to the two fastest processors, plus more.  Here is current information:

1.  Critical to know if you have an original motherboard or a "Revision 1" motherboard which allowed using the better faster processors.  Read up in this forum on the Z600 boot block date, and if you have the later one then you are in good shape.  Data from the 2009 brochure provided refers to the old original motherboard and less capable processors.... you need to look in more recent data sources if you have a revision 1 motherboard for accurate information.

2.  Ergo, search for the HP QuickSpecs such as from 2013:  http://www.usedcomp.de/pdf/HP-Z600-Workstation-QuickSpecs.pdf    There you will find the more recent listing of the HP approved processors for this workstation (assuming you have Revision 1).   I think the latest I found was version 51 of the QuickSpecs.   I ended up getting 2 of the X5675 hexacore Xeons, which run at 1333 FSB and this results in your memory running at 1333MHz also assuming it is rated for up to 1333.  Otherwise, unless you use a 1333 processor your memory will only run at 1066.  The 12 cores total cost me 190.00 USD off eBay.  There is only one sSpec code for that processor so if you search for SLBYL there you'll see the price ranges.  Better than buying new at 1440.00 each (6 cores).  Yes, $2880.00 USD total, if you wish, versus 190.00.

3.  I prefer HP memory because it is binned to be better than stock.  It is best per HP to run identical sticks, and I chose 6 x 4GB for this project.  I'd be fine with 6 x 2GB sticks usually.  You'd probably want the 24GB total, and supposedly you can run 6 x 8GB also.  I happened to end up with the HP Samsung version of these sticks, but there are Hynix, etc.  Cost was about 100.00 total, again from eBay, with careful shopping.

4.  I added in a HP Texas Instruments USB3 card, as posted in this forum about a week ago.  In that post is added info on my favorite eSATA backplane adapter.

5.  I'm running a 300GB Intel 320 series SSD... this is a SATA generation II workstation, and HP has recommended sticking with SATA Gen II drives for such workstations unless the drive is a SATA gen III from HP, with their special firmware applied.  Another eBay buy.

6.  There is a new 3.60 BIOS from April 2016.... be sure to load that before anything else.  Best to update BIOS from within BIOS, which is posted about in this forum also.

End product is a Z600 that is running with same scores as the fastest Z620 (revision 1 Z620) that I have access to.  I have limited out this Z600, and the Z620 has more headroom, but am very happy with the end product.

[old_geekster]

Thank you for the great update.  This will be very helpful to me and others who are helping on the Forums.  Yours is a good primer for those who don't have your expertise.

[SDH]

Happy to help.... I figured that I should share back given how much great knowledge I have learned from you, and gained from this forum.  

I continue to be amazed at how well an optimized xw6600 stands up to the Z600 and even the Z620 original motherboard workstations.  I essentially follow the methods detailed above, and use two of the fastest quad core Xeons HP certified for the xw6600 (E5450, and specifically the SLBBM sSpec code version), and throw in one of those Intel 320 series SSDs, the USB3 card, and eSATA for fast external backup, and it just is a great combination.

For a student on a tight budget that is still the way to go, in my mind.

I have added the link below for others to see how I add in the eSATA and HP "2x2" 4 port USB3 card here.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Add-HP-USB-3-0-card...

Here is the Z600 with the USB3 card above the video card and the eSATA adapter in place, and the link above has some added good pictures:

[Dan_WGBU · Accepted solution]

anti1, earlier versions of the Z600 support the Intel 55xx CPUs only, later versions support both the 55xx and 56xx CPUs.  The easiest way to determine this is to boot the system, go into the F10 BIOS setup, and look at the Boot Block date. 

If the boot block date is 01/03/2009, the system supports 55xx CPUs only.

If the boot block date is 01/07/2010, the system supports both 55xx and 56xx CPUs. 

   - This is the boot block date, not the date of the BIOS release.  

   - There is no way to update the boot block.  (There are several threads in this forum about this)

If you system has the later boot block date, updating to a 6 core 56xx CPU will give better performance.  I think the highest frequency 6C CPU is 3.47GHz, although there is a 3.6GHz 4 core CPU.  Does your application support multiple cores?  

To get an idea of any performance increase, look at the Passmark CPU benchmark site for High End processors, here.  

Based on these benchmarks (I know, they are benchmarks not real application numbers), you might get ~70% performance increase by using an X5690 6 core 3.47GHz CPU.  Is that enough for your application? 

[anti1]

Thanks all! Very helpful.

[Ro808]

Had to pass the opportunity of buying a Z620 with dual e5-2620, 48gb Ram, 480gb SSD for 280 euro. Still getting over it 😉
But! as stated by SDH , a maxxed out xw6600 is still a decent performer. Unless you're using multithreaded software, a xw6600 with e5450 won't give away much to either Z600 or Z620 with low GHz processors in single thread tasks.