Upgrading an HP Z240 Tower Workstation

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Decided to take on yet another fun legacy HP desktop upgrade project, this time an HP Z240 Tower Workstation.

Purchased a "barebone" unit for dimes to the dollar ($47!) through eBay:

Why this particular desktop?  Well, the HP Z240 Tower is, in my opinion, one of the most affordable, versatile, and upgradeable desktops for sale at this moment in time.  It can be fitted with a wide range of powerful 6th and 7th generation Intel Core and Intel Xeon processors -all the way to an i7-7700K and the Xeon E3-1285 v6, which, coupled with sufficient RAM, an M.2 NVMe SSD as its primary boot drive, an upgraded power supply (more about that in a moment) and room to spare to pair it with a higher-end graphics card, will create a lean-mean gaming machine.

Upgrading power supply.  According to: HP Z240 Workstation Maintenance and Service Guide, the HP Z240 Tower I am going to get, is likely fitted with a proprietary 280-watt or a 400-watt (unlikely) HP power supply.  A 280-watt PSU is, of course, sufficient to power a low-end graphics card such as the GTX 1650, but that's about it.

The 400-watt power supply (HP p/n: 796346-001) can actually be purchased not too expensively via eBay, but an even better option is to use an ATX 24-pin power adapter such as this one: COMeap 24 Pin to 6 Pin ATX Power Adapter Cable for HP Z220 Z230 SFF MT TWR Series 4000 6005 8300 Pro..., in order to get rid of the stock HP power supply in favor of a higher-wattage 24-pin ATX power supply, and providing all the 6/8-pin PCIe power cable(s) you need:

Since a Tower-style desktop has more internal space than a small form factor (SFF) PC, an industry standard ATX power supply can more easily be made to fit inside the case, rather than parked outside.  Same story with a high(er)-end graphics card.

Another consideration was that I have a number of parts for this upgrade project already to go: a Xeon E3-1280 v6 or i5-7600K, a GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6, 4 x 8GB DDR4 G.SKILL Ripjaws V 2400 MHz (SPD at 2133 MHz, which is the max RAM speed this motherboard will allow anyway) RAM sticks, A Western Digital Blue SN550 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD, various ATX power supplies to choose from, the aforementioned ATX power supply adapter, additional cooling fan(s), etc.

Will update as soon as the HP Z240 Tower shows up.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

The HP Z240 Tower I ordered arrived -early delivery:

The dimensions of this desktop are impressive: a whopping 15 ½ in (H) x 6 ¾ in (W) x 17 ¼ in (L):

To my pleasant surprise, the desktop is fitted with a 400-watt PSU: HP p/n: 796346-001 which has one 6-pin PCIe power cable, and an ODD (Optical Disk Drive).

Installed a Xeon E3-1280 v6 (3.90 GHz to 4.20 GHz, 4-Cores, 8-Threads) CPU, 4 x 8GB DDR4 G.SKILL Ripjaws 2133 MHz RAM sticks, and a 500GB Western Digital SN550 M.2 NVMe SSD. 

Because this desktop came with a 400-watt power supply, for the interim installed an RX 580 4 GB GDDR5 graphics card, which requires one 6-pin PCIe power cable, which this power supply is equipped with.

Also installed two HDD Western Digital HDD's, but not yet hooked up to the motherboard:

Let's post this first.  To be continued.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

There was a two-week delay in this HP Z240 Tower upgrading thread, as two of the four RAM slots were defective, as in: DIMM1 and DIMM3 did not "see" RAM sticks:

Tried different RAM sticks, a different processor (i5-7600K), etc. etc. but to no avail.  Fortunately, the Seller paid for the return shipment, and I received a replacement unit today.

The upgrading/installations proceeded smoothly:

As mentioned, I replaced the stock HP 400-watt power supply (p/n: L03088-004) -which only had one 6-pin PCIe power cable, with an ATX EVGA 400-watt power supply using a COMEAP 24-pin to 6-pin ATX power adapter. Works A-OK: no error messages, hot spots or any other undesirable power issues.  The EVGA power supply screwed right into the case with the same Torx head screws as the original power supply.

In addition: installed a Xeon E3-1280 v6 (3.90 GHz to 4.20 GHz, 4-Cores, 8-Threads) added 4 x 8GB G.SKILL Ripjaws 2400 MHz RAM sticks, running at its SPD (default) RAM speed of 2133 MHz, which is the max RAM speed for this PC anyway*.  Added a Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 graphics card, a WD Blue SN550 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD as the primary (boot) drive, and a Samsung 980 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD as a secondary drive (for now).  Installed an EDUP AC2030M PCIe Wi-Fi (with 9260 Chip) WLAN card.  In addition, I will connect two WD HDDs when I get to it.

[EDIT:] * Actually, the max RAM speed may be 2400 MHz. To be verified.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Optimized this HP Z240 MT with the aforementioned computer components:

Link: HP Z240 Tower Workstation Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Esteemed Forum,

Upgrading update:

Was able to get a very good pricing on an ASUS Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super EVO 8GB GDDR6:

And since ASUS recommends a 650-watt power supply for this card (DUAL-RTX2080S-O8G-EVO - Tech Specs｜Graphics Cards｜ASUS Global), ordered a Thermaltake Smart 700-watt ATX power supply. Since this graphics card is technically a triple-slot GPU ("2.7 Slot"), that means that the (white) PCIe x16 (wired x4) slot will no longer be accessible. Meaning, the 1TB Samsung 980 M.2 NVMe SSD I had installed using a PCIe to M.2 NVMe SSD adapter in this slot, will have to go.

But wait.

It so happens that the spacious HP Z240 Tower even has the option to add an additional PCIe slot by using an HP PCIe expansion slot/extender card with p/n: 696971-001:

I ordered that part too in order to fit the M.2 NVMe SSD.

And I also ordered a yellow ("Enterprise Grade") 2TB Western Digital WD2004FBYZ SATA HDD (speed 7,200 RPM, cache size 128 MB, read speed 164MB/sec) to see how well it performs as claimed.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DGroves]

the optional add in card you bought is a PCI (not PCI-E) slot option it will not take a m.2 card

https://www.ebay.com/itm/403392204814

[NonSequitur777]

@DGroves,

Interesting. -So, you're saying that an M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD to PCIe adapter card like the one pictured below and currently in use in the desktop's white PCIe x16 (x4 wired) PCIe slot, won't work on the extender card?

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DGroves]

correct, the extender card adds a PCI slot not PCI-E

i know as i have the z240 tower with this extended card installed

and the HP specs also state that the optional slot extender is a PCI slot

[NonSequitur777]

@DGroves,

That is too bad -thank you for pointing this out.  Not to be deterred, ordered a 20cm PCIe x16 extension cable to be able to continue to use the PCIe x16 (4x wired) slot, though.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[erico]

Nice repurposing build!