fastest bootable hard drive for hp z420 workstation

[LuckyLucks]

I recently purchased a hp z420 workstation for $50 at work. It is a V2 board and I'm upgrading the processor to a 2687 w v2. I have a 1070ti coming in and I plan on turning it into a gaming pc and workstation for myself. I have an 860 Evo SSD in it and I want to upgrade it with an m.2 adapter to an m.2 SSD. I know that I can boot off of the Samsung 950 pro. Is there any other m.2 SSD that I can boot to and from? I know about the hp z turbo drives on eBay. What is the fastest pcex16 m.2 or SSD that I can use? 

[DGroves]

you are on a pointless quest,.......................simply select the SATA SSD that meets your requirements and be done with it

while there are some enterprise/datacenter ssd's that can boot off a z420 they are quite expensive compared to a sata ssd and not that much faster as most consumer usage patterns do not really leverage the possible speed capability of a datacenter ssd

[BambiBoomZ · Accepted solution]

LuckyLucks,

The "fastest"- highest read /writes rate boot drive for a z420 v2 that doesn't require special remedial NVMe configuration will the Samsung 950 PRO M.2 NVMe.

• Internal Data Rate
  2500 MBps
• Internal Data Rate (Write)
  1500 MBps
• Maximum 4KB Random Write
  110000
• Maximum 4KB Random Read
  300000 IOPS

There is also the Samsung SM951 M.2 AHCI 256GB and 512GB, which worked very well in the office z620.

CrystalDiskMark results of the SM951 256GB version in an HP ZTurbo drive:

And, more recently, an SM951 M.2 512GB on a Lycom DT-120 PCIe to M.2 adapter (HP z620/ Xeon E5-1650 v2_6C@ 4.4GHz) :

Larger capacity drives typically will have better results and of course, longer total endurance. The Samsung 950 PRO will performer somewhat better than this, but consider the purchase in actual benefit for this speed, which will be in the realm of applications that run a lot of rapid disk swaps. The prices for the 950PRO have dropped to a more reasonable level- from ~$200 to $100) lately (June 2021) fortunately.

The Xeon E5-2687W v2 is a very smart choice, but for gaming, consider  an E5-1660 v2 6-core or E5-1680 v2 8-core that can be overclocked- there are examples running at 4.6GHz on all cores.  Either of those will need a high level of liquid cooling to achieve. The two HP zX20 systems here are overclocked, using the special HP z420 liquid cooler:

HP z620_2 (2017) (R9) > Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 4.4GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) /GTX 1070 Ti 8GB / Samsung SM951 M.2 512GB AHCI + Samsung 970 EVO M.2 NVMe 500GB + HP/HGST Enterprise 6TB / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 sound interface + 2X Mackie MR824 / 825W PSU / Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit (HP OEM) > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 6148 / CPU rating = 15952 / 2D = 787 / 3D= 13077 / Mem = 3045 / Disk = 15506 / Single Thread Mark = 2425 [5.20.21]

HP z420_3: (2015) (R7) Xeon E5-1650 v2 (6C@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB (HP/Samsung 8X 8GB DDR3-1866 ECC registered) / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/ Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Samsung 860 EVO 500GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / ASUS Essence STX + Logitech z2300 2.1 / 600W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (HP OEM ) > Samsung 40" 4K
[Passmark System Rating: = 5947 / CPU = 15268 / 2D = 773 / 3D = 11025 / Mem = 2931 Disk = 15530 /Single Thread Mark = 2383 [5.3.21]

These systems also have used the E5-1680 v2 8-core, although they were not, over a long period, absolutely, 100% reliable above 4.1GHz:

HP z620_2 (2017) (Rev 3) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid Cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB / HP/LSI 9212-41 RAID Controller + Intel 730 480GB + 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB / ASUS Essence STX PCIe sound card / 825W PSU /> Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) / Logitech z2300 2.1 Sound
[ Passmark Rating = 6322 / CPU rating = 17178 / 2D = 852 / 3D= 9012 / Mem = 3032 / Disk = 14227 / Single Thread Mark = 2339 [7.3.17]

HP z420_3 (2014) (Rev 5) > Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-core@ 4.3GHz) / z420 Liquid cooling / 64GB DDR3-1866 ECC Reg / Quadro P2000 5GB / HP Z Turbo Drive 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB + HGST 7K6000 4TB / 600W PSU /> Windows 7 Prof.’l 64-bit > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) / Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB interface
[ Passmark Rating = 6227 / CPU rating = 17006 / 2D = 826 / 3D= 8877 / Mem = 3025 / Disk = 14577 / Single Thread Mark = 2373 [5.28.18]

_3D CAD / rendering / photo editing / graphic design

The good news is the E5-1680 v2 prices are very reasonable these days- about -$50 of an E5-2687w v2, which is not overclockable.

The GTX 1070 Ti is an excellent GPU (MSI Aero blower-style) in the z620, as can be seen in the Passmark 3D results.  A blower style cooler will help reduce the heat in the case.

BambiBoomZ