Upgrading an HP Z420 Workstation (v2 motherboard)

[NonSequitur777]

Esteemed Community,

Decided to attempt pushing the limits on an HP Z420 Workstation (v2 motherboard) beyond the HP Reservation.

Ordered a Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-Cores, 12-Threads, 3.70 GHz up to 4.00 GHz, 130-watt TDP), arguably the most powerful gaming processor compatible with this system based on base and turbo frequency speed (for gaming purposes you mostly don't need more than 6-Cores anyway), and -what this upgrade is actually all about, also an Intel Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition (6-Cores, 12-Threads, 3.50 GHz up to 4.00 GHz, 150-watt TDP).

Lastly, I bought an affordable barebone HP Z420 Workstation when my offer (bid) was accepted via a trusted eBay Seller I had purchased from before:

In short: done my research and I believe that I can mod the HP Z420 Workstation BIOS to make the Intel Core Sandy Bridge-E architecture with Socket LGA2011 work on the HP Z420 Workstation.  If I happen to succeed, looking at over 6,100+ HP System Z420 Workstation Users, I'll be the first User to show that, yes, this can be done:

Hey Ho! Let's Go!

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Community,

My first successful foray into BIOS manipulation was about a month ago with a Dell OptiPlex 790, where I succeeded in making a 500GB Crucial CT500 P3 M.2 NVMe SSD its primary (boot) drive: 

Link: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/69926327.

For those that can appreciate this: that was pretty cool, because this legacy (2nd gen Intel Core) desktop didn't have this feature before.

Why a Dell?  Trust me, this was an exception.  I was given this PC in poor condition, but I have since restored it in excellent working order and for good measure installed the rather unique Dell AMD Radeon RX 6500 graphics card plus adding the aforementioned M.2 NVMe SSD boot drive upgrade.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Community,

Based on HP Z420 Workstation User data as found here: https://www.userbenchmark.com/System/HP-Z420-Workstation/3128, I determined that the best/most consistent performing RAM happens to be the 16GB Samsung M393B2G70DB0-CMA [DDR3 PC3-14900, 1866 MHz, ECC, RDIMM, (2Rx4), 240-pin].

This Server RAM is also inexpensive: I purchased four 16GB RAM modules for just $5 each (not including shipping & tax):

Now, the "HP Z420 Memory Configurations and Optimization" guide does not mention 16GB RAM sticks: https://h20331.www2.hp.com/hpsub/downloads/z420_memory_configurations.pdf -however, based on actual User data, we know that these RAM modules are compatible, and also show the highest RAM performance on top of it, such as this HP Z420 Workstation User shows: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/47073843:

The correct HP Z420 Workstation RAM installation is as follows:

Thus, 4x16GB using all four black RAM slots aka DIMM#1, #3, #4, #2.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Papy_Mougeot]

Hi @NonSequitur777,

The Xeon E5-1660 V2 uses only DDR3 with ECC up to 1866 MHz, whereas Core i7-3970X Extreme Edition does not support ECC with a maximum speed of 1600 MHz. Let us know if you've had to change the RAM. Good luck. 

A bientôt ! 

[NonSequitur777]

@Papy_Mougeot,

Thank you for your encouragement!

Yes, I understand why you would think that an i7-3970X would not support ECC RDIMM server RAM, but here is the thing: an Intel Core i7-6900K which I installed in my HP Z440 Workstation upgrade project did accept ECC RDIMM RAM: 4x16GB Samsung M393A2K43BB1-CTD [DDR4 PC4-21300, 2666 MHz, ECC, RDIMM (2Rx8), 288-pin]: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Upgrading-an-HP-Z440-Workstatio....

Hence my confidence that ECC RDIMM RAM will also work in an HP Z420 Workstation with an Intel Core processor.

If the Intel Core i7-3970X accepts ECC RDIMM RAM, it will accept the faster 1866 MHz RAM but will simply downclock ('bridge') the RAM to run at 1600 MHz.

No guarantees, of course: we'll see!

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Since these processors are currently offered very affordably via the PRC, decided to purchase a Xeon E5-1680 v2 (8-Cores, 16-Threads, 3.00 GHz up to 3.90 GHz, 130-watt TDP) as well:

Reason being that, on paper at least, the Xeon E5-1680 v2 eeks out the Xeon E5-1660 v2 by about 2% in gaming performance. And these high-performance processors keep their value anyway.  Clearly, I am preparing for "Plan B" in case my Intel Core transplant doesn't work out!

Fun Factoids:

When the Intel Core i7-3970X was first made available in November 2012, its MSRP was set at $990

When the Xeon E5-1660 v2 was first made available in September 2013, its MSRP was set at $1,083

When the Xeon E5-1680 v2 was first made available in September 2013, its MSRP was set at $1,723

It is amazing that you can purchase these high-end processors today for the equivalent of just a couple of percentage points of their original MSRP!

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Community,

Also ordered an ATX power supply adapter specifically designed for the HP Z420 Workstation in order to have the option to upgrade my power supply if I happen to need a larger capacity (ATX) power supply:

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Esteemed Forum,

Decided to purchase a legacy Intel SSDPEDMD800G4 DC P3700 Series 800GB NVMe PCIe Solid State Drive:

The INTEL P3700 NVMe PCIe M.2 delivers up to 2,800 MB/s sequential read and up to 2,000 MB/s sequential write.

This NVMe M.2 drive happens to be compatible with an HP Z420 Workstation. As a matter of fact, from what I was able to ascertain, this particular storage option is the fastest (primary/boot) drive option for use in an HP Z420 Workstation: faster than either the (legacy) Samsung 950 Pro -which requires the HP Z Turbo Drive G2 M.2 adapter card (p/n: 742006-003) -which would be an additional expense, or the (legacy) HP-branded Samsung SM951 MZHPV256HDGL M.2 AHCI SSD (p/n: 793100-001), which also requires the aforementioned modified Turbo Drive M.2 adapter in order to function as a boot drive.

This Intel drive will work on an HP Z420 Workstation once you access BIOS and switch the "Mass Storage Option ROMS" under the Advanced tab, from "Legacy" to "EFI".

This drive has an EFI (UEFI) ROM that can bootstrap itself and allows the HP Z420 Workstation to boot from it, mimicking native NVMe drive boot support for this legacy system.

Last but not least, the Userbenchmark performance results for this drive appear to be promising: Average Bench: 229% (89th of 1087): https://ssd.userbenchmark.com/SpeedTest/11473/NVMe-INTEL-SSDPEDMD80.

That's it: installing Windows and you end up with a system bootable using an M.2 NVMe SSD!

This is a used product, and I got it for a very good price: if you were to purchase one new -say, via Amazon, it would set you back north of $1,140:

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Community,

The following orders are in:

1.) Intel Core i7-3970X

2.) 800GB Intel P3700 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD

3.) 4x16GB Samsung DDR3 PC3-14900R, 1866 MHz, ECC, 2Rx4, RDIMM Server RAM

4.) HP Z420 v2 Motherboard CTO Barebone Computer w/ Heatsink No CPU No Mem No HDD

5.) 24-pin to 18-pin ATX PSU Power Adapter Cable (04/26/2025)

The interior/exterior of the HP Z420 Workstation appears to be in very good condition: I used compressed ("canned") air to expel a few lingering dust bunnies, but otherwise all of the electronic bits looked fine.

The Seller advertised this PC as an "HP Z420 v2 Motherboard", and indeed I verified that the motherboard has part number 708615-601.

I removed the (RAM) Memory Cooling Fan Assembly (p/n: 663069-001 / 647293-001) and the System Cooling Fan Shroud Assembly (p/n: 663070-001), since I don't think I need these parts anyway. May change my mind on the MCFA.

Inspected the 600-watt HP OEM power supply with p/n: 623193-001. This particular 600-watt power supply only came with one 6-pin PCIe power supply cable, whereas anecdotally some 600-watt PSUs are apparently equipped with two 6-pin PCIe power cables.  Since each 6-pin PCIe power cable can provide 18A x 12V = 216-watt, one can confidentially use 6-pin PCIe to 8-pin PCIe power supply adapters if needed, which I did -see below.

All the small and big drive caddies were present, even a SATA data cable which I used to install a 1TB Samsung 870 EVO SATA SSD to eventually become a secondary storage drive -you can see it behind the 600-watt power supply, as well as a 2TB Seagate BarraCuda HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB Cache, and the 800GB Intel P3700 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD to be designated to become the primary (boot) drive, and lastly a GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 Turbo OC 8GB GDDR5X graphics card powered by a single 8-pin PCIe power cable as a starter card:

Hey, ho, I decided to install the i7-3970X with the 4x16GB Server RAM, because, well, why not: resulting in getting 5 beeps/5 flashing red lights. Under the legacy beep code system, 5 beeps, red flashing LED signifies a memory/RAM problem of some sort.  So, exchanged the Server ECC RDIMM RAM with 4x8GB of Crucial CT102464BD160B DDR3 PC3-12800, 1600 MHz, Non-EEC, UDIMM, 240-pin desktop RAM, and at least the beeps/angry red LED lights disappeared, and no other beeps -most notably no 3 long beeps followed by 6 short beeps which would indicate an unsupported CPU installed in the system, but still no video signal -as expected to be honest: part of the BIOS manipulation to make the i7-3970X work in this Xeon system has to take place with a Xeon processor installed first.

And there, L&G, you have it: will have to wait for the Xeon E5-1660 v2 and the Xeon E5-1680 v2 processors -whichever comes first, to arrive from across the Pacific -possibly a race against time.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

There could be (not unexpected) delays with the shipment/delivery of the two Xeon processors I had ordered from the PRC via eBay. Being a bit grumpy at the moment and, yes, somewhat patience-challenged, I want to get a HP Z420 Workstation compatible Xeon processor within a couple of days, not weeks.

Decided to purchase a Xeon E5-2667 v2 (8-Cores, 16-Threads, 3.30 MHz up to 4.00 GHz, 130-watt TDP). When it was released in September 2013, its MSRP was $2,057.

I paid just $14.47 (including tax, free shipping), dirt cheap:

Interestingly, @Papy_Mougeot, the Xeon E5-2667 v2 compares very well with the Xeon E5-1680 v2, just 2% less in overall performance rating:

Link: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/2120vs2342vs2154/Intel-Xeon-E5-1660-v2-vs-Intel-Xeon-E5-1680-v2....

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777