hp Z820 upgrade options or start again?

[monkeyslayer]

Hi, I've been using a HP z820 for the past five years and its either in need a major refresh or I need to buy a new system. I've decided a 840 is out of my price range. A specced up a custom build with an intel i9 18 core, GTX 11gb, M2 SSD,  64gb DDR4 etc is coming in at roughly 5k euros. My current 820 setup is 2x 2643 e5 xeons (4core) 32gbs ram, Nvidia K4000, Crucial SSD. Its really starting to struggle and I'm going to upgrade my 3d software to a more GPU based renderer hence the need for a larger graphics card. My question is would it be worth it to put a considerable amoutn of money into upgrading my 820? I want a faster GPU (Gefore gtx 11gb ti hopeflly), more ram (3200 DDR3 or 4?) and hopefully an m2 ssd (samsung 970 evo) setup... would my system be able to hanlde this? I'd maybe even upgrade the CPUS if the price was right. I'm thinking itd cost me roughly 2k to overhaul my current system. Any thoughts? Its a v2 820

[DGroves]

the z820 can still hold it's own for most users it's somewhat comparable to the x79 chipset

the z840 is close to the x99 chipset in features, both use the enterprise c600 series chipset with the only major diffrence being the z840 supports nvme as a boot device

so my question is if you can't afford a z80, just what do you find lacking in the current z820? system speed wise there is less than a 12% speed diffrence at most and usually around 7% or less between the two for most common tasks

the z820 cpu's and ram are much cheaper than ones for the z840. meaning you can buy a faster cpu/more ram to make up for the slightly slower effency on the z820 platform

i have a z820 system, and just built a asus x99-deluxe system, and it is over 200 dollars just for 16 GB ram and a 1630 v3 3.7Ghz cpu is around 170-230 dollars which is quite expensive

keeping your current z820 and getting a 1200 watt pwr supply and a nvidia 1080 TI would be a much better path in my opinion along with 48 gigs (or more if needed) of ram as for CPU's  check if your most used programs benefit from faster IPC (more Mhz) or more cores the best compromise is the E5-2643 v2 which is a 12 core w/hyperthreading at 3.5ghz that has turbo boost for faster speeds

[monkeyslayer]

Thanks, some solid reccomendations there. I guess I was only thinking of the 840 to future proof any costly investment but the more I look into it the more keeing the 820 going for another year or tow makes sense and maybe migrate the newer hardware to different sysytem further down the road. I'm going to double the ram ( 4 x 8gb, 4x 8gb setup) and get a nvidia 1080 11gb ti , will it slot straight in? or will I have to buy some adaptors fo rit? I have the larger PSU z820

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

The 1080TI draws 250 watts and has two 8 pin connectors, so you must use the upgraded 1200 watt supply no exceptions

(the non ti 1080 cards draw 180 watts and have  a 6 and 8 pin connector and can be run off the stock supply if one cpu)

The upgraded supply has three 6 pin GPU connectors, so for the TI, you will need 2 6pin to 8 pin adapters, i recomend checking around and only buying name brand adapters that use 18 gauge or thicker wiring

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-2-Pack-6-Pin-Adapter/dp/B01DV1Z32Y/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_23_bs_img_1?...