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HP Recommended
HP Z820
Linux

Hi! I've installed Samsung 950 PRO on HP Z820 and it works great - I can boot from the drive, and it's fast and so on and so on. But time passes, and I become to realize that it would be more difficult to purchase new Samsung 950, or the drive will be (and already is) overpriced on eBay. So, why I'm writing this - when I was looking into the issue of HP Z820 and NVMe compatibility back in the days here, many folks shared this link
https://www.win-raid.com/t871f50-Guide-How-to-get-full-NVMe-support-for-all-Systems-with-an-AMI-UEFI...


so, what I would like to know if anybody tried to do this with HP Z820?
any luck?

Thanks in advance!

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

As far as I am aware, (and has been posted on the forum a couple of times), the HP workstations use a checksum BIOS preventing any modification of the code. If the boot code fails the checksum, the workstation will not boot.

 

I use a Samsung SM951 M.2. drive as my W7Pro boot drive, (Windows UEFI mode install), on my HP Z620. I actually have the AHCI version of the drive, not the SM951 NVMe version. I just bought another SM951 AHCI drive on ebay at the weekend as I want to try out W10Pro on my Z620. As with most of the earlier generation M.2 drives, availability is only going to get worse.

 

I also recently purchased a Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe to test out as a possible boot drive but I'm not having much luck. Windows 7 doesn't see the NVMe drive unless you apply the W7 NVMe hotfix, and the drive doesn't appear in the BIOS. I was not able to install W7 on the drive. I also tried with W10Pro, and although I was able to install the OS on the drive, the HP BIOS was unable to see a bootable disk when I restarted the computer. I have been testing this M.2. NVMe drive with 3 different PCIe adapter cards; ASUS HYPER X4 mini, Lycom DT120 and a HP Z Turbo G2. There is a recent post on the forum regarding 'compatible' NVMe bootable drives in the HP Zx20 workstations, and several models are listed, including the Sabrent Rocket 1TB drive. I will be sending the member a pm to see if he may able to assist me getting the Sabrent drive working as a boot drive.

 

HP Z620 - Liquid Cooled E5-1680v2 @4.7GHz / 64GB Hynix PC3-14900R 1866MHz / GTX1080Ti FE 11GB / Quadro P2000 5GB / Samsung 256GB PCIe M.2 256GB AHCI / Passmark 9.0 Rating = 7147 / CPU 17461 / 2D 1019 / 3D 14464 / Mem 3153 / Disk 15451 / Single Threaded 2551

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7 REPLIES 7
HP Recommended

As far as I am aware, (and has been posted on the forum a couple of times), the HP workstations use a checksum BIOS preventing any modification of the code. If the boot code fails the checksum, the workstation will not boot.

 

I use a Samsung SM951 M.2. drive as my W7Pro boot drive, (Windows UEFI mode install), on my HP Z620. I actually have the AHCI version of the drive, not the SM951 NVMe version. I just bought another SM951 AHCI drive on ebay at the weekend as I want to try out W10Pro on my Z620. As with most of the earlier generation M.2 drives, availability is only going to get worse.

 

I also recently purchased a Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe to test out as a possible boot drive but I'm not having much luck. Windows 7 doesn't see the NVMe drive unless you apply the W7 NVMe hotfix, and the drive doesn't appear in the BIOS. I was not able to install W7 on the drive. I also tried with W10Pro, and although I was able to install the OS on the drive, the HP BIOS was unable to see a bootable disk when I restarted the computer. I have been testing this M.2. NVMe drive with 3 different PCIe adapter cards; ASUS HYPER X4 mini, Lycom DT120 and a HP Z Turbo G2. There is a recent post on the forum regarding 'compatible' NVMe bootable drives in the HP Zx20 workstations, and several models are listed, including the Sabrent Rocket 1TB drive. I will be sending the member a pm to see if he may able to assist me getting the Sabrent drive working as a boot drive.

 

HP Z620 - Liquid Cooled E5-1680v2 @4.7GHz / 64GB Hynix PC3-14900R 1866MHz / GTX1080Ti FE 11GB / Quadro P2000 5GB / Samsung 256GB PCIe M.2 256GB AHCI / Passmark 9.0 Rating = 7147 / CPU 17461 / 2D 1019 / 3D 14464 / Mem 3153 / Disk 15451 / Single Threaded 2551
HP Recommended

Thanks for the reply!

Can you please link to that list of bootable drives? thanks

HP Recommended

Here's the link. There appears to be plenty of conflicting viewpoints on this topic along with some mutal agreement regarding Samsung NVMe drives.

As I said, I'm still trying to get my Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe drive to boot into W10Pro but with little success at the moment.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/The-truth-about-z6... 

HP Z620 - Liquid Cooled E5-1680v2 @4.7GHz / 64GB Hynix PC3-14900R 1866MHz / GTX1080Ti FE 11GB / Quadro P2000 5GB / Samsung 256GB PCIe M.2 256GB AHCI / Passmark 9.0 Rating = 7147 / CPU 17461 / 2D 1019 / 3D 14464 / Mem 3153 / Disk 15451 / Single Threaded 2551
HP Recommended

Hi!

Is there any luck with the  Sabrent Rocket?

HP Recommended

the z820 is a UEFI enabled bios, and as such some SSD's will boot from it

 

the samsung sm950 pro, the samsung sm951 (AHCI model NOT the NVME model) these two models are the fastest overall on the z820 and are pci-e x4 based (uses 4 pci-e lanes)

 

kingston predator (a x2 drive not x4)

 

the seagate nytro warpdrive pci-e ssd line (sandforce controller) requires 200LFM airflow recommend custom fan to cool

 

but it's a cheap drive if you buy the OEM sun f40/f80 models and force flash to retail seagate firmware

note: doing the flash requires a linux based system............. a vender on ebay is selling the 400GB preflashed for 65.00

 

the OCZ RevoDrive x3 models

 

apple SSUAX/SSUBX based ssd controllers (UBX is preferred as it's a x4 model) you also need the apple m.2 style pci-e carrier board

 

the micron p9200/9300 nvme pci-e drives also have the necessary boot code in their firmware and should work, one user has posted a screenshot using the p9300 on a z820

 

software nvme boot loaders:

any nvme ssd using the DUET/REFIND boot loader or CLOVER boot loader

 

search this forum, i've made several posts on this subject

HP Recommended

DGroves, I know this is an old thread, but can you tell me where/which  I can find the 400gb nitro warp drive that a z820 can boot from? Looking for the cheapest bootable option for these old workhorses (is the warp drive the one to get?) . I see a $64.95 lsi 400gb nytro warp drive on eBay, but not sure if this is the one you talked about that can be a z820 bootable drive. I have several of these z820s that I would love for them to have a modestly sized speedy operating system drive, without spending hundreds of dollars on each. Tell me what to buy and if there additional stuff I need to do,  I would greatly appreciate your help. Thx in advance. 

HP Recommended

the cheapest option for the z820 (and z800) is to use the software loader DUET/REFIND and any midrange nvme PCI-E m.2 based ssd "PM" me for details

 

the warpdrive card you mention for 64.00 on ebay is a Oracle f40, that has been forced flashed to the retail seagate nytro firmware,.... you want the seagate firmware as it raids the four 100GB ssd's on the card as a single BOOTABLE raid zero drive the stock oricle firmware is for 4 non raided 100GB drives and most revisions of the oracle firmware are not bootable (i think the last oracle rev firmware is bootable)

 

if you do use this card note that it's not as fast as a software bootloader nvme setup, but the warpdrive specs are actual numbers that the drive can deliver on a sustained basis

 

cooling the warpdrive is also extremely important!!! the card needs 200 Linear feet per sec airflow, so you will have to install the optional front cooling fan and set the def bios fan speed to the 3rd or 4th setting as the default speed and place the card in a pci-e x8 slot with nothing next to it on both sides (or place a 60mm fan directly  in front of the card)

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