HP Z800 - correct type of HDD or Hybrid Drive??

[Don_]

Hi there - thanks for reading my question.

The short version is - how can I select and install two SATA 6Gb/s or SAS 6Gb/s1Tb HDD's or SSHD's and circumvent the 3Gb/s drive ports to get the full benefit of new 6Gb/s  drives?

I have an HP Z800 - wonderful machine.

I want to add two 1Tb drives to it.  It has three empty hard drive bays, and one empty optical drive bay.

As per the machine spec:

"6 channels of Serial ATA (SATA) and 8 channels of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 3.0 Gb/s natively
supported internally;"

That is, 3.0 Gb/s only - but in both SATA 3.0 Gb/s (SATA II) and SAS 3.0 Gb/s.  Of course, everything sold today is SATA III (6 Gb/s) or SAS 6Gb/s.  

I installed a 500Gb  SSD a while ago, SATA III, and solved the problem by also installing a PCIe SATA III adapter card.  Now the SSD is my system disk, and the stock HDD is for data.  Anyway, the adapter card has 4 SATA ports, only one of which is used by the SSD.  Works a charm.

Now I need more data storage space, and my application needs at least some data retrieval speed.  I'd love to install two more 1Tb SSD's for the high speeds and low power consumption, but too expensive to justify.    A standard, gaming-quality 7200 rpm HDD would probably do, but I'm tempted by the promises of Hybrids.

BUT there are issues - here I'm thinking out loud and welcome comment on my thought process.

1. SATA Compatibility - In theory SATA III is backwards compatible, so I should be able to plug a new SATA III HDD or SSHD into a hard drive slot and have it work.  But I saw this HP support thread: (I searched first!   )

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Z800-and-SATA3-6-Gb-s-Hard-Driv...

"Third party 6Gb/sSATA hard disk drives are not supported on HP Workstations featuring only 1.5Gb/s (SATA Gen1) and 3Gb/s (SATA Gen2) SATA ports.
HP has worked with the hard disk drive vendors so that all 6Gbps SATA hard drives provided by HP will work on 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s ports.\"

Seriously?  Today ONLY HP brand HDDs will work in a z800?  The entire field of modern HDDs is out for me?  I question this because I also found:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Would-the-following-hard-drive-...

which recommends the Western Digital Black 1Tb SATA III HDD for the Z800.

So which is it?

Now, to be fair - I have found a list of guaranteed compatible HP drives:

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04168403.pdf

which lists

1TB SATA 7200 rpm 6Gb/s 3.5" HDD  - Part # LQ037AA, and

1TB SATA 7200 rpm 8GB 3.5" SSHD (hybrid) - Part # M7S54AA

and I found them online.  Not outrageously priced, but not the best deals in town either.  But, if the incompatibility is true, then at least HP have provided a solution.

2. SATA II slowness - Even if I do find a compatible SATA III drive, it's speed is going to be held back by the on-board SATA II controller.

The HD bays have connectors at the back that are wired to the on-board SATA II controller.  To use the SATA III adapter I installed for the SSD, I have to find a way to run a new cable back there.  I solved this problem for the SSD by cheating - I just laid the SSD in an empty optical drive bay, took power from the optical drive power cable, and ran a data cable from the adapter card to the SSD.  But I don't know how I'd deal with it for HDD's.   The reason I cheated on the SSD is that I looked into connecting the adapter card to the HD bay connector and gave up.

Any deas how to do this would be really appreciated.

Otherwise, I suppose this would be an argument in favor of splurging on more SSD's.  Just do the same as the first one.  But, ouch, the cost.

3. SAS Option - I see on the mobo all those SAS ports sitting there empty.  And I've read that SAS drives have many advantages.  But not sure how I would connect a drive to them from the drive bays.  And, besides, they're just 3Gb/s as well.  An SAS 6Gb/s adapter card?  But again, how to connect to it from the drive bays?

Well, anyone who's made it down to here, thank you for yor persitence.  Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Z800POWER]

Hey! Now it is mid 2018. and I just happyly got merried with z800 and I am looking for similar answers, so I stumbled on this HP forum  thread, it might help you if you haven found your answer. Cheers!

Discussion is from 2015. but still relevant to your question:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/Z800-Upgrade-for-2...