HP Z240 Tower Upgradability Questions

[98Martin]

Hello

I'm looking to upgrade my current aging system (HP Envy 700) which is running an i7 4770 and a GTX 1050ti that I upgraded from the original GTX 660 a few years ago. It has been a great system that has served me well since I bought it new as a teen when I first got into PC gaming.

My intention is to upgrade a Z240 system to have a cheap, inconspicuous, but capable gaming pc that I could possibly push to 1440p resolutions. I'm inclined to purchase a barebones machine without a processor, GPU, RAM or storage as I'd like to upgrade all those components anyway. So far I'd like to install these parts:

• Intel core i7 6700k/7700k (not sure between the 7th or 6th generation if there will be much of a difference)
• GTX 1080 or similar
• 32GB DDR4 RAM
• 256GB M.2 for booting Windows
• 1TB SSD

Any advice others could give I'd greatly appreciate as aside from the GPU upgrade on my current machine I have tinkered much with PCs. Also another note, I'm not totally sure if I could run the 1080 on the stock PSU so perhaps that may need upgraded also, otherwise what would be the best card I could use if sticking with stock unit.

Thanks in advance!

[98Martin]

I've done some more research and found that for a 6700k/7700k I will need the larger heatsink that HP supplied with the P/N 810284-001. I'm still torn between the two processors but the 6700k does seem more bang for the buck as there is around £50 difference between the two.

As for the GPU either the GTX 1080 or 1070 will require a 8-pin PCI-E connector which I plan to get by using the HP adapter for 6-pin to 8-pin connectors with the P/N 721859-001. To keep a low GPU TDP for the 400W PSU I looked at HP OEM cards as they have less power draw due to lower clock speeds and the HP GTX 1080 is I believe 180W and the 1070, 150W. I would like to hear others opinions on if these cards would work, however, in my opinion although I would rather the GTX 1080 for the increase in FPS during gaming the TDP of 180W combined with processors TDP of 91W is 271W which only leaves 129W. I'm not an expert on these things so perhaps someone can confirm my math.

[DGroves]

you appear to not really need much help as all of your posted information is spot on

if you only run one drive and two dimm modules and only a OEM 1070 non "TI" video card then the upgraded 400 watt supply will not work as HP specs the nvidia m4000 which is a 105 watt card as ok with a fully optioned system that has dual drives 4 ram modules and all pci-e slots filled and the 1070 is a 150 watt card (1080 non TI is 180 watts)

you can however use a standard ATX power supply and a 3rd party power adapter

https://www.amazon.com/GinTai-24-Pin-Adapter-Replacement-EliteDesk/dp/B08GP7X3XD

the z240 tower, can also use the The Xeon E3-12xx v5/v6 processors

and when the xeon is used it also supports ecc ram

last, the z240 has one PCI (not pci-e) slot, you can buy a pci to PCI-E adapter card (approx $25) that allows a single pci-e channel on the adapters x16 slot i used the adapter card to install a Intel AX210 WiFi/BT card

[98Martin]

Many thanks for the reply DGroves, as I suspected and you confirmed the GTX 1070 would be pushing it on the 400W PSU, I wouldn't say impossible but probably not recommended.

I've been spending a lot of time researching and comparing components this last week so that I end up with a PC that will last me many years like my old one has. With that and after reading many of NonSequitur777 posts on his upgrade journeys I've now stumbled across a Elitedesk 800 G4 Workstation Edition Tower that could see me more future proofed for only a little more investment. As I understand official Windows 11 support is only on Intel processors as old as the 8th generation and the G4 is fitted with a i7 8700, it is therefore unlikely to become obsolete anytime soon, also benefiting from 6 cores.

Apologies for derailing my own thread but as it goes with research the more you do the more confused you become. I also watched a very compelling video of a G4 tower being unboxed with a RTX 2080 being fitted from the factory... I've since done some more digging and found that when fitted with the OEM 500W PSU (P/N 932461-850)  there is as far as I can see two extra 6-pin connectors which with the HP 6-pin to 8-pin adapter could power an RTX 2080 or 2070 super.

Perhaps this will be the route I take as the G4 Tower refurbished on eBay with an i7 8700, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD comes in at just over £250. Upgrading that with an RTX (2080/2070S) card should see it under £500, I think a pretty good deal.