Do I have an Angelica or Angelica2 motherboard?

[izzy19]

I've found conflicting information about Angelica or Angelica2 and I want to know which one I have.

According to the Angelica specs page: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03117539 

• Angelica only supports 16GB (4x4GB) RAM max

According to the Angelica2 specs page: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03353629 

• Angelica2 supports 32GB (4x8GB) RAM max
• SSID is 2AC8

According to this thread: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/difference-between-motherboard... 

• Angelica is M3970AM, while Angelica2 is M3970CM & M3970BM
• Angelica allows 4x4GB (16GB total) RAM, while Angelica2 allows 4x8GB (32GB total) RAM
• all three are physically indistinguishable
• CM models most likely came preloaded with Win 10, while AM & BM came loaded with Win 7

According to this thread: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktops-Archive-Read-Only/Confusion-about-Hp-motherboard-Angelica-and... 

• Angelica has only basic BIOS, Angelica2 has full UEFI

My system has the following:

• has Angelica v1.2 M3970AM physically printed on the board
• currently have 4x8GB (32GB total) RAM installed, all 32GB usable (tested and working)
• came with Windows 7
• HWiNFO64, CPU-Z, and dmidecore (Linux) all report it has UEFI
• HWiNFO64 reports motherboard is "Gigabyte 2AC8"

My product's page says Angelica, but if that's so how can I be using 32GB of RAM? Which board is it?

[TheOldMan]

Considering all the research that has been done, what does the BIOS that is installed say.  The BIOS listed for the HP Pavilion HPE h8-1100z CTO Desktop PC   is M3970AM-HP Motherboard BIOS version 7.16 Rev. A

From what I have seen on other HP models is that a BIOS version of 7.XX is not usually a UEFI BIOS.  A 8.XX version or higher is.

[izzy19]

My BIOS setup includes UEFI Boot Sources, and the startup menu has a "run a UEFI application" option. If my motherboard isn't UEFI compliant how can those options exist?

[TheOldMan]

As I said earlier., if the BIOS version is posted, it would be much easier to tell if it is UEFI .  It does seem to indicate it could be.

Please post what BIOS version is installed.

[old_geekster]

@izzy19, the computer came with Win 7.  As @TheOldMan said, it would have come with a v. 8 BIOS and with Win 8 if it was UEFI.  If there was an updated BIOS for Win 8, it would be in the Software and Drivers section.  However, this information is not available because of the age of the computer.

[izzy19 · Accepted solution]

I've figured it out. I discovered that motherboards have an MPN or "Motherboard Part Number" that uniquely identifies them, including different types of the same model. This is NOT the same as the model number. HP has a website where you can enter these MPN numbers and you can see exactly what board you have. I opened my PC case and found the MPN on a white sticker on the board.

My MPN is 652951-001, which is Angelica: https://partsurfer.hpe.com/Search.aspx?SearchText=652951-001 

The update software for my current BIOS version explicitly states it is for M3970AM, so that must be the model number of Angelica.

An M3970BM Angelica2 board on ebay had the MPN 685006-001: https://partsurfer.hpe.com/Search.aspx?SearchText=685006-001

An M3970CM Angelica2 board on ebay had the MPN 696080-001: https://partsurfer.hpe.com/Search.aspx?SearchText=696080-001 (This website explicitly mentions "8 series BIOS" for this board.)

So I would say to anyone wondering which board you have, open your case and look for a little white sticker with numbers like this on it and search for them in the partsurfer website, and you should get your exact board.