With IAN my 3 Z620s are toast - need something newer

[oldserverguy]

I had 3 great Z620s running Win 10 Pro and each had a unique hardware and software combo.  I really like these over the consumer stuff since they are just rock solid.  I thought I'd get Z640s but apparently some (or all of them) will not run Win 11 Pro.  Is that right???

We are going to take a financial beating with the wind and flood damage so budget is limited.  Can someone who really knows HP help me - perhaps even off-line?

I could off course just buy more Z620s.  The water just got to the bottom of the drive trays so they might be OK long term.  HELP!!!

[DGroves]

To comply with Windows 11 requirements, a PC needs at least 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage; UEFI secure boot must be enabled; the graphics card must be compatible with DirectX 12 or later, with a WDDM 2.0 driver; and a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 must be included. 

Microsoft allows windows 11 to be installed (not upgraded) on older systems, however MS insists this may possibly result in data loss but is unable to state in plain language how such a thing might happen and many people have noted that the "surface" line of computers uses a gen 7 intel cpu model that MS has certified as win 11 compatible while stating all other gen 7 models are not approved.............rather strange since all current cpu models in a family use the same silicon die and intel/amd just limiting the max cpu clock and cache, and simply turning off other items on the die

 3rd party software can bypass the MS restrictions and will allow you to do a win 10 to 11 upgrade (or clean install)  on just about any hardware that can/could run windows 10

rufus is one such app,  it allows you to take a MS win 10/11 ISO and create a bootable usb key that under win 11 will no longer check for ram/cpu/TPM requirements, along with allowing non UEFI installs

https://rufus.ie/en/

so if a z640 fits your budget,  compared to a newer pricer "z" series workstation go for it, as it runs windows 11 fine without any known issues

as for the z620, allow them to dry out COMPLETELY, i recommend 7 to 10 days with the side cover off in a non humid environment if the water covered a mech drive, do not power the drive......send it to a data recovery company if necessary

i recommend only certified recovery companies like seagate or drivesavers

[SDH]

Neither the Z620 nor the Z640 workstations can officially run W11. I assume you know that there is a v1 and a v2 version of the Z620. There is no such issue with the Z640 workstations.

If you run your Z620s with only 1 processor there are also Z420 v2 workstations to consider... virtually identical. Same with the Z440.

There are workarounds for getting the latest version of W11, 22H2, loaded onto both the Z620 v2 and Z640 workstations. Same with the Z420 v2 and Z440. They only run 1 processor, but we run almost all of our Z620 and Z640 workstations with only 1 processor too... that is all we need. The only roadblock I've come up against is getting the ZX40 workstations upgraded if they have a Z Turbo Drive instead of a 2.5" SSD.

Sounds like your motherboards were partially under water... and likely salt water.

The link HERE will get you to the W11 install HowTo on this forum. This is not HP-provided nor HP-approved. But it works.  About 1/2 way in is the hybrid method that let me pull this off with W11 22H2 latest upgrades, and those installs also are automatically getting the latest patches, security updates and OS updates as of the 10/22 Microsoft Patch Tuesday. It was easier to do a W11 21H2 upgrade until the added part was discovered and included in this newer "hybrid" method.

For W10 and all W11 we have software that needs "Fast Startup" to be turned off... that is easy to do, and Fast Startup was not fast at all either. That one discovery saved us about 500k in medical monitors that could not run their control software properly with Fast Startup turned on (which for some inane reason is the default).

Personally, I'd recommend the Z440 for most bang for your buck, and the server memory that works perfectly in the Z640 also works perfectly in those... ECC buffered, 1866 MHz.