HP z800 Graphic Card Support

[Shaikhziaurrehm]

Hi, I am having HP Z800 with Xeon X5670 2.93 ghz, I am using Quadro p1000 since long time now i want to upgrade new graphic card, I wanted to order my new card from amazon but need to check first if that would work with my PC.

graphic card new one = Asus RTX 3050 8 GB now i need to know will that work with my pc. 

I have one more issue i have bought NVME ssd drive pcie gen 3  x 4 and now i m not able to boot it for windows kindly help me. 

[NonSequitur777]

@Shaikhziaurrehm,

According to your workstation's specs: HP Z800 Workstation Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support, you either have an 850 watt power supply, or an 1110 watt power supply.

If your HP Z800 is endowed with the 1110 watt power supply, you'll have no difficulties whatsoever to upgrade all the way to an RTX 3090 as seen here: HP Z800 Workstation Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

Anyway, regardless, the advantage of an RTX 3050 8 GB is that it has a max power draw of just 130 watts, meaning even a 550 watt power supply would be more than sufficient to power this graphics card.

[EDIT:] According to the aforementioned Z800 specs, HP mentioned the Quadro FX 5800 4 GB as one of the GPU options. This card draws power from 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin power connectors, whereas the RTX 3050 8 GB draws power only from a single 1x 8-pin power connector.  I wanted to mention that because I also looked into whether or not your desktop had a PCIe 1 x 8-pin power connector, which HP's specs suggests you do.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

@Shaikhziaurrehm,

And whilst on the topic of upgrading, the more powerful Xeon X5690 -compatible with your Z800, can be bought at low prices ($34.95) as seen here: Intel Xeon X5690 SLBVX CPU 3.46 GHz HEXA(6)Core Processor Socket LGA 1366 | eBay.

When you do buy a processor via eBay, make sure it is a working CPU, not "for parts only", and whether or not the Seller allows for returns.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

The Z800 board comes in three different revisions, indicated by the AS# number printed on the white sticker located directly below the big black chipset heatsink. The revisions are indicated by 001, 002 or 003

the x56xx cpu's requires a rev 003 board

also, per HP you need the upgraded 1115 watt pwr supply for the 5690 cpu's

all board revisions/pwr supply's will work with the video card you mentioned

the z800 bios does not support booting from NVME drives, or any drive over 3TB

there does exist a software boot loader (Duet/Refind) that adds the required NVME boot code via a bootable USB key

you boot from the key it then load the necessary code and then proceeds to boot windows

PM me if you want to try the NVME boot loader on your z800

[NonSequitur777]

Since @Shaikhziaurrehm already stated that his Z800 is fitted with a Xeon X5670, it logically follows that he has a rev 003 board.

If it is the case that @Shaikhziaurrehm is running his Z800 in single-processor mode aka with one (1) Xeon processor, then fitting a Xeon X5690 with an 850 watt power supply will work just fine.  Especially since the RTX 3050 8 GB graphics card only has a max power draw of just 130 watts.

I would take this "as per HP" line of reasoning with a generous grain of salt.  Yes, I admit -I use it too, but with the understanding that HP's documentation is sometimes, well, incomplete.  Anyway, what got me involved in this HP User Forum in the first place is that I came across an assertion made by an HP "Expert" that because HP didn't specifically list a Q9550S as being compatible with an HP Compaq dc7900 Ultra-Slim Desktop, it would not work.

Well, looking through various specs, I thought it would.  And as a matter of fact, it did just dandy.

Link: Solved: HP Compaq dc7900 Ultra-slim Desktop PC CPU Compatibility - HP Support Community - 8087687.  And there are more examples where that came from, such as fitting a Xeon E3-1290 V2 in an HP Compaq Pro 6300 SFF, etc.

But I digress, my bad.

Back on topic, as the first responder, I already affirmed that an Asus RTX 3050 8 GB is supported no matter what power supply @Shaikhziaurrehm has.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DGroves]

please understand that others will also read this thread, and may not know that a rev 003 board is required for 56xx Xeons which is why i thought it prudent to mention this i also am not in the habit of recommending people ignore the makers safe specs in regards to power supplies

HP specs the upgraded power supply because of the 5690 cpu'(s), it has nothing whatsoever to do with the 130 watt video card , so I'm curious as to why you brought this up?

next HP workstations are tested with specific pieces of hardware/software and then HP guaranties the combination will work as specified, as such there are quite a few things that will work because they were not tested or did not exist when the system was  in production and using non qualified parts in a  system use in a work environment is a sure way to get a lawsuit if something goes wrong and the opposing side discovers non approved parts in a system

last i spent many years servicing HP "Z" systems for a living, and have owned personally the z800/820/840 so i have quite a bit of personal experience using these systems in a non professional environment one of which is while the type of power supply used usually does not matter, there are cases where the z series multirail pwr supply vs a single rail supply does matter and CPU current and GPU current are two such things that do matter

[Shaikhziaurrehm]

Thank you for your prompt reply I have 1110 wt power supply and using 2 xeons in my mother of x5670 2.93 ghz with 96 gm ram, It works perfectly fine and i have no issue at all with the speed. currently i am using Quadro P1000 with 4gb but wanted to upgrade cuz i am Videographer and have loads of editing work.. 

Fortunately I will order from amazon my new RTX 3050 8 GB.. 

for NVME I will pm you.

[Shaikhziaurrehm]

related to power connectors i have found one picture on this website, i have same connectors in my mother but i have seen some youtube videos where they connected from 4 pin to 6 pins which i will buy in local market.

https://www.bargainhardware.co.uk/hp-z800-xeon-56-workstation-configure-to-order

[Shaikhziaurrehm]

HI @dgroves I am new to this forum, I have tried to find pm option to send you msg but coudlnt find.,. can you msg please for NVME

[Shaikhziaurrehm]

I have followed every step using 2.0 usb but while booting from sub the graphical boot manager is not showing at all only some text shows in down and it does not go further.

if you have a earlier system that does not support booting from a nvme device, you can still add this feature via a software based loader on most of these earlier systems using the DUET/REFIND program(s)

note that for the z800 you must use the version 2015 of DUET/REFIND due to it;s triple channel memory controller

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1NtXFq__OYDX4uM-x3lzHDFFhjNO79m7p

for the z820 you only need to use REFIND as it's bios is already UEFI

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1ogEdBzKrLRkz0SRwLphpFemRLWmgayA-

Booting the NVME drive from non-UEFI legacy board - DUET with optional REFIND - with USBSetup:
z200/z400/z600/z800 (note: z800 must use the 2015 release of DUET/REFIND) not sure on other models
====================================================================================================

• 1) Connect a USB flash drive and start the USBSetup application

• 2) Select the USB flash drive letter from the drop-down combo box

    Warning.
    The following step will completely remove all information and partitions on the selected USB flash drive

• 3) Remove all information and partitions from the drive by clicking on: CLEAN

• 4) Format the selected drive by clicking on: FORMAT

• 5) Make the selected drive bootable by clicking on: BOOT

• 6) Copy the required DUET files by clicking on: DUET

• 7) Copy the optional graphical boot manager REFIND by clicking on: REFIND

• 

 Connect the USB on the target system and set Boot from USB as the first option in your system BIOS Boot order

Booting the NVME drive from UEFI capable board - REFIND mass-storage without DUET - with USBSetup:
z220/z420/z620/z820 (UEFI BIOS)
====================================================================================================

• 1) Connect a USB flash drive and start the USBSetup application

• 2) Select the USB flash drive letter from the drop-down combo box

    Warning.
    The following step will completely remove all information and partitions on the selected USB flash drive

• 3) Remove all information and partitions from the drive by clicking on: CLEAN

• 4) format the selected drive by clicking on: FORMAT

• 5) Copy the graphical boot manager REFIND by clicking on: REFIND

• 6) Connect the USB on the target system and set Boot from USB as the first option in your system BIOS Boot order

A quick note on nvme speeds, the Zx00 systems only have a pci-e 2.0 bus
which will limit the max speeds of the ssd to around one half the speeds you
would get on a pci-e 3.0 bus system like the Zx20 based workstations
so if you run a ssd speed check on a z600/800
don't freak out at the lower speeds, as this is normal

=======================================================================================

Ok, now that you have made the nvme boot loader USB key, it's time to install windows 10 

note that the installer must be UEFI , legacy windows does not support nvme the win 10 image from MS defaults to UEFI

※ How to do a CLEAN install of WINDOWS 10
using DUET/REFIND
==============================================

First create a DUET/REFIND USB key by following the
directions the tool displays (any 256k to 16gb usb key is recomended)

• Download the windows 10 media creation tool from microsoft and create
the WIN-10 x64 ESD-USB installer key using the MS media creation tool.
(8gb to 16 gb usb key required) make sure the installer is for UEFI,
as a legacy win 10 install will not support the DUET/REFIND NVME Driver Install

if you know which usb port number the DUET key is placed in, install
both the DUET and the win 10 install usb key, and select the DUET
usb key as the boot device, it should load duet, and then start the win 10,
installer off the win 10 usb key if the SSD/HD is empty or.................

• Boot the PC with the DUET USB connected (usb 2.0 is recomended for DUET key)
and wait for it to reach the graphical boot manager.

• Connect the WINDOWS 10 ESD-USB installer key and refresh
the visual representation list by hitting the ESC KEY
to make the "Boot Fallbcak boot loader from ESD-USB" option appear.

• Launch the EFI WINDOWS 10 installer from the WINDOWS 10 ESD-USB
by selecting the "Boot Fallbcak boot loader from ESD-USB".

• Select CUSTOM: Install Windows only (advanced) and on the next screen
delete all the existing partitions until the NVME drive shows
as "Drive 0 Unallocated Space" then select NEXT, YES, NEXT.

• Once the Windows Setup screen ends copying and installing Windows,
remove the WINDOWS 10 ESD-USB before it self-reboots.
if you dont, it will start the OS install again (see below)
On some legacy boards this step is required.

Note: you can simply wait till the system reboots back to the "windows setup screen" and then remove the win-10 install key and then reboot (;eave the DUET/REFIND key attached!!) it will now load the nvme loader and then see the nvme drive and proceed with the rest of the windows 10 install, this way you don't have to babysit the setup process