HP z230 WS - Is there an upgrade path on the existing MoBo for Win11?

[Bill6560]

Hello all,

I have what is essentially a maxed out HP z230 with an i7-4790 @ 3.6 GHz, 32 GB Ram, NVIDIA GTX 980 GPU, and an EVGA SuperNOVA 850W PSU. It run's great, but ...

The big question is, is there any upgrade path to the existing MoBo to achieve Win 11 compatibility, specification with the CPU and TPM? I understand that there may be a MoBo plug in module to get TPM 2.0, but that leaves the CPU. Any suggestions?

The even more painful question is, its been a long time since I replaced/upgraded a MoBo, but in the past, if you did, you had to fresh reinstall of Windows (not to mention, ALL the existing SW), as the install wouldn't have the correct MoBo hardware drivers. Is this still true, or has Windows become smart enough to recognize new hardware without necessitating a full blown reinstall of years of software installations?

​Thanks,

Bill

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Bill:

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to upgrade the PC to natively support W11.

If you are interested in installing W11 on your PC as is, you can read this discussion for how I upgraded several HP and Dell notebook and desktop PC's that did not meet the W11 hardware requirements to W11 22H2.

You have to use the version of the Rufus utility that I zipped up and attached in the discussion (v3.18).

Re: Issues upgrading to windows 11 - HP Support Community - 8517912

If the in-place upgrade fails, you should be able to clean install W11 using the bootable W11 installation flash drive you made with Rufus.

[Bill6560]

Thanks for the quick reply. I thought about using a tweaked Win 11 install to bypass it's HW requirements for some time, but it really concerns me that Microsoft could force these requirements at some point, rendering 11 without any security updates, which makes the PC vulnerable. I still have about 2 years to resolve this.

If there's no z230 MoBo HW upgrade options, then a NEW MoBo is the only answer, which leads to my original questions about a MoBo upgrade, and all that would entail on the software level.

I also have a newer HP laptop which is Win 11 compatible, but I'm reluctant to upgrade it, as I don't want different versions of Windows to maintain.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I guess anything is possible regarding running W11 on unsupported platforms.

I have been running W11 on these PC's for almost 2 years and they have all gotten the same cumulative and security updates my W11-supported PC has.

I'll take my chances that Microsoft will continue to let us run W11 on unsupported hardware indefinitely.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to help you upgrade the PC's hardware to support W11, because if you even could do that, it would probably take a considerable amount of jury rigging to make the changes.

The chassis on the W11 supported PC's are different, so won't be as simple as removing the motherboard and popping in a different one.  The wiring to the power supply to the mainboard will be different, and on and on.

I would just buy an off lease Z workstation on eBay that has full hardware support for W11.

It will probably cost you less in the end and certainly save a lot of work.

Perhaps @DGroves or @SDH can let you know if such an endeavor is feasible and cost effective.

[Bill6560]

I haven't really checked on it yet, but I assume that the z230 MoBo's general form factor (size and slot alignments) is somewhat standard with other 3rd party MoBo's. As for PSU connectivity, I found a PSU adapter cable to go from HP's proprietary MoBo power connection and PSU, to a standard ATX type EVGA PSU.

[DGroves]

you assumption that HP Workstation motherboards conform to consumer ATX mounting locations is wrong, the HP workstation line use boards/cases/power supplies that are specific to each workstation model

listen to paul, replacing the entire system with a newer win 11 compatible system is the best choice for you

since microsoft has "added" software based restrictions to win 11, i have little doubt that even if MS changed the method each security/update releases for revised hardware checks users would in short order bypass it (apple "hackentosh"  OS anyone?)