Z600 with a W3690

[Danoxman]

Hi, been googling alot about support for 130W cpus for a Z600. Got mixed results.

But my question is, does W3690 work in a Z600 v2 (with latest bios) with the 130W cooler?

I did see a online shop sell a z600 with that config, but not much more then that.

Not interested in the X series, unless i have to settle with a x5675.

[BambiBoomZ]

Danoxman,

A search on Passmark baselines shows that of 1,174 HP z600's tested, none use a Xeon W36XX series CPU.

BambiBoomZ

[SDH]

You want to find a very late Z600 QuickSpecs and look at the fastest processor supported by HP for that workstation.  EDIT:  My recall is that for the Z800 it was the X5690, one or two of them, and they needed to have the 130W rated heatsink/fan.  The fact you found a seller who has the Z600 running with the W3690 is encouraging but not proof yet.  Many if not most of the Z400 had a single 130W rated heatsink/fan in them, but that is bigger and will not reliably fit as-is in the smaller Z600 case.... I tried without modifying that Z400 one in a Z600. 

You'll never get two to run together in a Z600.  The X5690 is a dual QPI link processor but its sibling the W3690 has only one QPI link.  If you wanted to try just one W3690 you might try an experiment.  With a Vice Grips could you pinch flat the upwards progecting copper heat tubes that rise above the top surface of the Z400 130W Performace heatsink and fold them down flat to give you just enough room?  I never tried that but it just might work.  The handle mechanism on the side panel of the Z600 projects inwards but that is not present on the Z400 so you get more room inside the case in the Z400.  The official HP Performance heatsink/fan for the Z600 are very hard to find but that one for the Z400 is worth a try, is common, and is inexpensive.

We're still using a few Z600 v2 with 2xX5675 70W processors and with a nice fast SSD for both boot/programs and a second as a documents drive that is still a very servicable workstation.  Building new today I like the Z420 Z620 v2 workstations better, however, because with that you get SATA III instead of SATA II, and some PCIe Gen 3 max speed slots instead of Gen 2 (plus more).

[Danoxman]

Is it confirmed that the x5690 work with the 130w cooler on Z600v2? I have found the cooler, sure its expensive, but its cheaper than getting another computer though.

But i think i will take the x3675, less hassle and way smaller total cost.

I will add an raid card with sata3, saw a post here with what i could use.

[SDH · Accepted solution]

To OP:

I believe you meant to type X5675, not X3675 in your latest post.  Note that those X5675 processors work fine in the Z600 v2 workstations, and you can run either 1 or 2 of them.  We run two because they are so inexpensive now, and they only need the 70W common inexpensive Z600 heatsink/fan.

I can confirm that the X5690 will NOT work on the Z600.  It will work in the Z400, as an undocumented but confirmed compatible processor for that workstation.  Before we started using the Z420 v2 workstations I loaded all our Z400 v2 workstations with the X5690 processor.  Works great in that box.

So, don't buy a X5690 for your Z600 v2 and do buy two X5675 processors instead.  Use the regular cheap heatsink/fan because that is all you need.

[Danoxman]

Ah yes, i meant the x5675!

Thanks for the clarification, I've decided that i will take 2x x5675 for a decent Folding at home machine and light gaming.

[SDH]

Dan.... happy to help.  Wanted to give you a bit more info:

In all of my experience with the Z400 v2 and Z600 v2 I've found that the official HP processors in the late QuickSpecs for these two boxes work fine.  As I noted the X5690 was never officially certified for the Z400 v2 but it has worked every time.  I used to think it was the best for that Z400 workstation.  I did try it in multiple Z600 v2 workstations as a single processor but never succeeded.

I've recently learned that the W3690 that is officially certified for the Z400 v2 actually likely is the better choice for that box.  This is because it has an unlocked multiplier whereas the X5690 does not.  Thus, it can be overclocked with the Intel XTU utility that Bambi and Brian use so successfully as described in their posts.  There is another utility for doing this type of overclocking, ThrottleStop, which is well respected also.  Here is a YouTube video on that, and I'll experiment with it a bit on the Z420 v2 and Z620 v2 boxes.  HERE  is a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MewSdpzQVjU

He assumes you know to click "Turn On" at the bottom for testing.  This utility is being supported by the author quite well, and is W10 compatible, and has no cost.

I still think your current plan is best, but if you happen to have one of those processors around you might like to try it in your Z600 v2 as a single processor, overclock it, and report back.

The X5675 PassMark average CPU score is 6386 if one and 11797 if two.  W3690 is 7185 without overclocking, and X5790 is 6800 if only one is being used.  The dual QPI links in the X5690 that let you run two in the Z800 cost you some speed, as you can see.  

A bit related..... for those who want to load in a more modern video card with need for an 8-pin PCIe supplemental power adapter the use of adapters using 15-pin SATA power feed in is discouraged in favor of the good old 4-pin Molex power feeds, with a good adapter as shown below.  There are a lot of cheap substandard ones out there... here is an A+ version which I have clarified for what is going on.  You'd want to use 4-pin Molex feeds from two different power cable sets coming out of the HP power supply if possible: