Z800 workstation upgrade

[Snowey9]

I use Topaz Gigapixel AI software with a Radeon RX570 graphics card and  a mk. 1 motherboard

The latest version of gigapixel requires a CPU that supports AVX2 - which my Xeon X5560 does not

Would a mk.3 motherboard support a CPU of this type or am I out of luck ?

thanks

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

AVX2 (also known as Haswell New Instructions) expands most integer commands to 256 bits and introduces new instructions. They were first supported by Intel with the  4th gen Haswell processor, which shipped in 2013.

processors with AVX support were mainly launched in 2011

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/central-libraries/us/en/documents/cryptography-processing-with...

the first model z8xx workstation to fully support this was the z840 which supports the E5-2600 v3/4 CPU's

the z820 was sec gen Ivy Bridge and has AVX2 256 and partial AVX2 512 support

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058341/processors/intel-xeon-processors....

the same applies to the z640/z440/z240

Note the z240 normally uses a i76xx series which also has Avx2 support

https://www.compeve.com/Documents/HP%20Z840/hp_Z840_quickspecs_compeve.pdf

[Snowey9]

Thanks

I guess this rules an update out of the question, unless I can fit a Z840 motherboard into my Z800 chassis and buy the other bits at a sensible price, I think not - oh well !!!!

thanks again for clarifying things.

[SDH]

You are right... the Z820 motherboard is not cross compatible with the Z800 case.

However, don't give up too soon. If you go to eBay and search for Z820 and filter for "price and shipping lowest first" you may find what you need. DGroves has a lot of experience with both the Z800 and the Z820 and knows what parts are interchangeable between them. The ZX20 processors have come down a lot too. Also, your memory may even be cross compatible... see below. We've posted in here on how to tell the difference between a v1 vs v2 Z820 and if the seller is willing to give you a single number off the bar code label on the motherboard you can tell from that. Also, one can tell from presence of an old slow v2 processor(s) present from the factory that you would upgrade from anyway. This would be a project, of course.

There is the issue of version 1 vs version 2 motherboards in both the Z800 and the Z820. you can read up in here about that. The v2 ZX20 workstations can run a faster better v2 processor family which can run at a higher clock speed and run faster memory. There is retired ECC/buffered server memory that works perfectly in these workstations too which I've been able to get off eBay for about 11.00/stick, 8GB sticks, which run the fastest the v2 ZX20 workstations can ever run and which also was able to run in my souped up v2 Z600 (downshifted automatically in speed to the fastest a Z600 v2 could ever run too)..

[Snowey9]

Thanks

If I end up buying something new I mite as well go for a Z840. Looking at a picture the case seems to be the same as the Z800, but I am probably missing something 😞

I built the Z800 from individual bits off ebay and bought some spares, but that was 10 years ago and things have got a lot more complicated since then.

[DGroves]

can you mod a z840 board into a z800? well yes you can but as the saying goes you can also make a toaster fly if you spend the time/money ...................however at some point just buying the z840 makes more sense

also the z840 and z800 front plastic and metal chassis are rather different if you look closely you will begin to see the differences also the power supplies are different and same for the chassis wiring 

bare bones z840 systems are now around 600/800 dollars if you are prepared to wait for one the more common prices are around 800/1200 for bootable systems

ram is not compatible between the systems the earlier z800/z820 use DDR3 the z840 uses DDR4

if you can swing a z640 system go for it, the z840's are  no faster, they just support more ram/internal drives and are dual cpu from the get go, the z640 systems are dual cpu capable but require a optional cpu daughtercard

[Snowey9]

Thanks

Oh dear! sounds too expensive at present so will live with my Z800 for the time being, especially as I have a spare motherboard, PSU and some memory. It was all very cheap at the time 🙂

Another thing I have come across on one site, but not anywhere else, is that modern graphics cards will not work with older systems, cant remember what the guy said but there is some difference ?

Thanks for your help