X5690 on Z600 (possible?)

[federosso]

I have a Z600
- Boot Block 01/07/10
- Bios = 786G4 v 03:19

Original has 2x E5620

I bought 2x X5690 that I would assemble.
When I assemble the system tells them:
"Requiring a processor too much power is installed - system halted"

You think I'm wrong the purchase of processors?
or is it just a problem heatsinks suitable for 95w but not at 130w?

Now I have these (4pin) :

Thank you

[SDH · Accepted solution]

I have my version 2 Z400 running with one X5690.... works great.  That is a 130W max TDP processor, and the heatsinks you show are for the lower wattage ones.  The workstation motherboard will protest if it does not see a "Performance" 130W heatsink/fan over each of those processors.

Note that you have a standard Mainstream heatsink shown there with a 4-wire cable going out to a 5-pin motherboard header....... 1 is ground, 2 is +12VDC, 3 is RPM sense to the motherboard, 4 is PWM control from the motherboard to the fan, and 5 is empty for your particular heatsink.  But, 5 is used for the Performance heatsink's fan..... it feeds ground back to the motherboard to tell it that it is a Performance fan on a Performance heatsink (and you can make it lie with a jumper wire).  That jumper is the only way the motherboard knows it has a Performance heatsink over a hot processor.

I have posted in here on the right heatsinks to use, and also that you can spoof the motherboard into thinking it has a Performance fan attached by adding a ground jumper from pin 1 to 5 (which is what the performance heatsink's fan has).  You can do that to test, but don't run it that way for long periods.  Too nice a setup to burn out.

The official Z600/Z800 Performance heatsinks are rare and expensive..... but the Performance ones for the Z400 are cheaper.  You can use one of those for that upper front processor if you get the Z400 Performance version that has a thin metal rear airflow deflector (it is the most common type) that you can bend down a bit.  It will then fit over that socket.  However, you do need a Z600/Z800 official Performance one for the other socket (the primary socket, which is closer to the rear of the workstation).  EDIT:  IT TURNS OUT THAT MANY OF THE Z400 PERFORMANCE HEATSINKS ARE TOO TALL TO FIT OVER THE SECOND PROCESSOR AND STILL LET THE SIDE LID CLOSE FULLY BECAUSE THE TALLER ONES HAVE HEAT TUBE TIPS THAT HIT THE Z600'S SIDE LID LATCHING MECHANISM.

IT ALSO TURNS OUT THAT NO RELIABLE REPORT OF THE X5690 WORKING IN THE VERSION 2 Z600 HAS EVER BEEN POSTED.  HOWEVER A GOOD NUMBER HAVE POSTED THAT THEY TRIED AND FAILED.

I have posted in here with pics of the differences between the Performance and Mainstream fans Z400 versus Z600/Z800, plus their part numbers.

One last thing.... I have not personally put in two X5690s into a Z600, but it has been posted here several times that they work in the Z600 (again, version 2).  My Z400 version 2 is proof that they work for that box.

[CartersFARM]

I have a HP Z800 which came with a single X5690 and real Performance heatsink which I pulled and put in my HP Z600 as part of an upgrade to the HP Z800.  I also get the message Too Much Power required - system halted (or some such) with everything connected properly including the 5 wire connector.  It is version 2 (with the 01/07/10 boot block date).  Any ideas?  I'm likely to just sell it (and the heatsink) on eBay and go with 2 X5650s I have laying around, but just thought I'd ask if you had any other ideas...  Thanks! Ed

[SDH]

Ed,

That is a mystery.... hopefully someone else running 1 or 2 X5690 in a Z600 version 2 with the Performance heatsink will chime in.  Why it would work on a Z400 version 2 and not on a Z600 is unclear.

One idea is to make sure you have the latest BIOS installed.

Another idea is that there is the "microcode" list (hidden part of BIOS) that HP has used to whitelist specific processors to work on specific workstations.  Maybe the X5690 is on the white list for the Z400 but not the Z600.  Only HP knows what is on the whitelist in each BIOS release, but I never have heard that they take a processor off the list.

I put in 2 X5675 hexacores in my home desk Z600 and have really liked that.... 95W max TDP each.  The next step back would be 2 95W X5672 (less cores but with faster clock speed).

The thing I'd do if I was you is take the money from your sale of those two valuable items and get two of the Z600 Mainstream heatsinks/fans (which are officially rated to handle your spare 95W processors) plus get one of the Kingston Predator PCIe interface M.2 SSDs I've posted in here about.  You need to use the specific Intel storage controller driver I discovered to work with that, and insert the PCIe interface card up in the fast PCIe slot that can do it justice (also detailed in my posts).  That really added a level of zip above regular SSD.  I'd buy straight from Kingston, the 240GB model, because they have a great discount going on now on that.

The result is not as huge as going from HDD to SSD, but clearly noticeable and worth it.  I've gotten used to it now, but friends who know fast computers really notice the difference when they test it out here.  Here is a post on that device, which has an AHCI controller built in and thus can work with non NVMe workstations,  HERE.

[CartersFARM]

I do have a pair of standard heatsinks and a pair of x5650s in my pile, so I think I will put back one of the x5650s and check the BIOS version - I didn't update it on the z600 box, and that may be the catch (I've also read about people putting the x5690 in Z600s so that may very well be the issue...).

Also, thank you for the previous post about the Predator - I saw you post when I got my first z800 and purchased one and I'm booting great off of it and it is an improvement over the SATA 2 with a SSD!  These are great machines, and if you watch closely for them on eBay you can get unbeleavable performance for very little $$!

Thank you for your help and willingness to share with the forum!

Ed

[federosso]

I finally had time to do the test.

Unfortunately NOT work.
Maybe I missed the bridge between pins 1 and 5?
Or maybe the power supply is small?

[Tom_Galenson]

I was also under the impression that a Z600 with a boot block date of 1/7/2010 and the latest Bio (3.60?) would run a couple of X5680's which would give me a 24 core "server".

However, today, I got the "draws to much power" error just like I got on the Z600 with a BBD of 11/10/09.   I was using a stock cpu cooler.  I have a replacement on order that is supposed to cool down upto a 200 watt TDP.  Guess I will see if it will work with the other X5680 I have?

As far as I can tell, the highest upgrade that you can get guarantee to work on a Z600 is probably the X5675.  This is a 95 watt TDP with 6 cores w/HT @3.06Ghz on the baseline.

I have re-installed one of my X5680's back into my Z400 (6 memory banks)  🙂 

If the "new" cpu cooler doesn't enable the X5680 to work on the Z600 I guess I will regress to the X5675.

Tom

[MOST_MUSIC]

I have an HP Z600.I have Newer C2 version of mother board allowing faster CPUs and up to 48G of RAM. I've been following ZX00 posts to learn how Max out my system for dense audio projects and slight video editing. I bought a pair of Xeon X5690s. I also bought the reccomended performance heatsink and it fits like a glove in the Z600 but I still get an error in bios saying not enough power for CPU. What am I doing wrong???? Should a good setting be changed? Or must I buy a Z800 to get these working? Thanks!

Or.....is that processor NOT actually compatible with Z600?