preferred stable OS for z x20 series workstation

[AnthonyK]

How can you tell which chip it is ?

Where might I find it on the motherboard ?

[MtothaJ]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

How can you tell which chip it is ?

Where might I find it on the motherboard ?

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Check the markings on the chip below:

[AnthonyK]

Okay thanks I will check that in the morning. PS is HP using a ASUS board ?? Is ASUS making the motherboards for HP ??

[MtothaJ · Accepted solution]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

Okay thanks I will check that in the morning. PS is HP using a ASUS board ?? Is ASUS making the motherboards for HP ??

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No, this is just a random photo from the internet.

Check the bios chip. If it is the same as the one in the Z420 (95% chance it will be), since I have a few spare blank bios chips, I can program a 2013 v2 boot block chip and send it to you (I am also in the EU) at chip cost + postage costs. You will have to get the old chip professionally desoldered (this is the tricky part) and the new one soldered in. Or just keep it somewhere safe and when Xeon v2 prices come down and you are ready to upgrade then do it.  

Word of warning  - even though I am fairly profficient at soldering, without proper equipement, the desoldering part is pretty difficult - best leave that to a professional.

[AnthonyK]

Hi MtothaJ ,

Sorry has been a while but I just had to come back to this thread.

Back in January (if anyone can remember) you asked me to post my Bios chip version. My HP Performance Advisor says

Vendor: Hewlett-Packard
Version: J61 v03.91
Release Date: 10/17/2016
Starting Address Segment: 0xF000
ROM Size: 16 MB
Image Size: 64 KB
System BIOS Release: 3.91

At any rate I am now considering both upgrading z620 that I purchased back in September 2017 to 32 or 64 GB of ECC registered DDR3 1333 Mhz or 1600 Mhz memory and perhaps later upgrading the CPU.

Back in 2016 "we" also spoke about the boot block issue, I cannot run V2 E5 CPU's but what is the next best bet ?

Also my wife's z600  E5620 quad core is reaching its limits as she is a power Excel user often working on 4 large complex spreadsheets at a time while having three browsers open with at least 12 tabs on each window (1 window per browser).

Her's has 24 GB of DDR3 buffered non registered memory inside (6 banks of 4 GB) and a Samsung Evo 850 250GB SSD.

I can get 275 EUR max for this machine in this config if I sell it and opt for a new z420 pref. a v2 or better machine.
Any thoughts on these "projects" ?

[MtothaJ]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

Hi MtothaJ ,

Sorry has been a while but I just had to come back to this thread.

Back in January (if anyone can remember) you asked me to post my Bios chip version. My HP Performance Advisor says

Vendor: Hewlett-Packard
Version: J61 v03.91
Release Date: 10/17/2016
Starting Address Segment: 0xF000
ROM Size: 16 MB
Image Size: 64 KB
System BIOS Release: 3.91

At any rate I am now considering both upgrading z620 that I purchased back in September 2017 to 32 or 64 GB of ECC registered DDR3 1333 Mhz or 1600 Mhz memory and perhaps later upgrading the CPU.

Back in 2016 "we" also spoke about the boot block issue, I cannot run V2 E5 CPU's but what is the next best bet ?

Also my wife's z600  E5620 quad core is reaching its limits as she is a power Excel user often working on 4 large complex spreadsheets at a time while having three browsers open with at least 12 tabs on each window (1 window per browser).

Her's has 24 GB of DDR3 buffered non registered memory inside (6 banks of 4 GB) and a Samsung Evo 850 250GB SSD.

I can get 275 EUR max for this machine in this config if I sell it and opt for a new z420 pref. a v2 or better machine.
Any thoughts on these "projects" ?

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I don't think that upgrading the Z620 is necessarily the best route to go at this point in time, especially if you want to both change the motherboard and get a E5 v2 CPU. This will end up costing you a fair bit and the technology is already rather dated with the risk of components failing due to age / intensive use steadily increasing as time goes by.

 
I would probably go for a custom X299 or Z270 / Z370 build. Granted it will initially cost you more but will last you a lot longer- with the additional benefits of a warranty, ongoing firmware updates and far easier upgradeability than prebuild proprietary systems.

[AnthonyK]

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I don't think that upgrading the Z620 is necessarily the best route to go at this point in time, especially if you want to both change the motherboard and get a E5 v2 CPU. This will end up costing you a fair bit and the technology is already rather dated with the risk of components failing due to age / intensive use steadily increasing as time goes by.

 
I would probably go for a custom X299 or Z270 / Z370 build. Granted it will initially cost you more but will last you a lot longer- with the additional benefits of a warranty, ongoing firmware updates and far easier upgradeability than prebuild proprietary systems.

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Are you actually saying that I should go for a DIY build and not buy parts to upgrade my existing system ? 

[MtothaJ]

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@AnthonyK wrote:

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I don't think that upgrading the Z620 is necessarily the best route to go at this point in time, especially if you want to both change the motherboard and get a E5 v2 CPU. This will end up costing you a fair bit and the technology is already rather dated with the risk of components failing due to age / intensive use steadily increasing as time goes by.

 
I would probably go for a custom X299 or Z270 / Z370 build. Granted it will initially cost you more but will last you a lot longer- with the additional benefits of a warranty, ongoing firmware updates and far easier upgradeability than prebuild proprietary systems.

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Are you actually saying that I should go for a DIY build and not buy parts to upgrade my existing system ? 

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Its a personal choise, but the facts are that X79 / C602 is an ageing platform - no doubt it still is very powerful but in late 2017 if you are going to spend a modest amount of money IMHO there are better alternatives out there. If it was just a question of changing the CPU then fine, go for the upgrade, but in your case you are looking at a 'new' v2 board and v2 CPU , with some 1866mhz RAM also being desirable to fully take advantage of the upgrade. All in all the costs add up, and its still a 3rd gen system vs the 8 gen that is now launching.

Also, as for upgrading the Z620 - you are going to be upgrading a used system with other used parts, most likely of unknown history / origin (from ebay etc.). Things could work out fine or you could end up with parts which fail soon thereafter or cause problems. And lets just say your PSU fails - you will be unable to get a new ATX unit, but will have to search for a dedicated HP Z620 - which will be another used part with a history and reliability unknown etc.  THe risk / hassle for me is just not worth it, especially since the payoff will not necesserily be all that great.

Just somethign to think about - have a look at what options are out there (incl. newer HP stuff like the Z440 if you do not care to build a PC yourself) and choose the best one for you.