Z4 G4, 750 watt power supply - RTX 4000 Ada Generation

[DuncanIdaho]

Hello HP Community,

My Z4 G4 is setup like this:

Two Nvidia T1000 graphics cards in PCIe G3 x16 slots 1 and 3. Each T1000 draws 50 watts.

Intel Xeon W-2225 CPU, 4.1 GHz, 4 core, 105 watts.

32 GB (2x 16 GB) DDR4-2933 DIMM ECC Registered.

One SSD.

Two SATA disks.

750 watt power supply. Both 6-pin power supply connectors are occupied powering the front panel fan.

I want to replace the T1000 in slot 1 with an Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada card, that draws 130 watts.

The RTX 4000 apparently requires a separate PCIe 8-pin cable from the system power supply.

It apparently comes with the PCIe 8-pin connector pigtail, but I haven't bought it yet, so don't know how it's terminated.

Can the Z4 G4 run the RTX 4000 Ada, and if so, what is the recommended method to connect it?

Your advise is greatly appreciated. Thanks very much for your help.

[NonSequitur777]

@DuncanIdaho,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

Your HP Z4 G4 Workstation's 6-pin PCIe power cables can each provide 12V x 18A = 216-watt of power:

What I would do is the following: use a 6-pin PCIe to dual 6-pin PCIe power cable adapter like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/365072941623?_skw=6-pin+PCIe+to+dual+6-pin+PCIe+power+adapter+cable&itmmeta... or this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/285930432342?_skw=6-pin+PCIe+to+dual+6-pin+PCIe+power+adapter+cable&itmmeta..., to power your front panel fan(s) and use a 6-pin PCIe to 8-pin PCIe power cable adapter like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/355955979499?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.S..., to power your Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada card.

This should work.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DuncanIdaho]

@NonSequitur777

Thanks very much for your reply!

I've been looking for the spec tag of the HP Z4 G4 750W PSU, but can't find it anywhere.

Your attached spec tag appears to be for an aftermarket Delta Electronics 750W PSU.

Do you know if that Delta Electronics PSU is an exact replacement for HP part number L12280-001, Description: "Power supply unit - Z4 G4 - 750W 90%" ?

Your solution sounds good:

Power the RTX 4000 Ada from the first PCIe 6-pin connector, through an adapter cable (PCIe 6-pin to PCIe 8-pin).The PSU PCIe 6-pin connector supplies 12V x 18A = 216W, plenty more than the RTX 4000 Ada max of 130W.

Power the two front panel fans from the second PCIe 6-pin connector, through a splitter adapter (PCIe 6-pin to 2x PCIe 6-pin).

RTX 4000 Ada apparently comes with a Dongle adapter (PCIe 8-pin to 16-pin 12VHPWR).

Meaning that the external power connector on the RTX 4000 Ada is 16-pin 12VHPWR, not PCIe 8-pin.

So the RTX 4000 Ada external power would go through:

1. PCIe 6-pin from PSU.

2. PCIe 6-pin of adapter.

3. PCIe 8-pin of adapter.

4. PCIe 8-pin of Dongle.

5. 16-pin 12VHPWR of Dongle.

6. 16-pin 12VHPWR of RTX 4000 Ada.

That's six potential failure points.

To minimize the number of connectors, the better cabling would be: (PCIe 6-pin to 16-pin 12VHPWR), but I can't find any with a Google search.

There is another potential issue, which I didn't mention in the original post.

What if after solving the external power issue, the Z4 G4 fails to boot with the RTX 4000 Ada in motherboard PCIe Gen3 slot #1.

After all, the RTX 4000 Ada is not in the QuickSpecs Supported Components list, even though powering it does not appear to be a problem for the Z4 G4. So what if the BIOS doesn't recognize the GPU, or the GPU doesn't run due to some other incompatibility.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks again for the response.

Kind regards!

[NonSequitur777 · Accepted solution]

@DuncanIdaho,

1.) All right, the part numbers for the 750-watt power supplies compatible with your PC are:  L12280-001 / L12279-001 / 8851382-001 / 8851382-002 / 8851382-003 / 851382-013 / M76370-001 / DPS-750AB-36 (A):

2.) Not sure why the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada with just a 130-watt TDP has to be powered using a 16-pin 12VHPWR PCIe power cable, good for 600-watt???  No, I couldn't find a PCIe 6-pin (or 8-pin) PCIe to 16-pin 12VHPWR power adapter cable anywhere either.

How many watts do the cooling fans draw?  Reason I am asking is that we could possibly siphon off power from SATA/Molex power cables to power the cooling fans, then use two 6-pin PCIe to 8-pin PCIe power cable adapters to power a dual 8-pin PCIe to 16-pin 12VHPWR PCIe power cable.

Another option would be to consider a different graphics card upgrade, preferably powered by a single 8-pin or, if necessary, even by dual 8-pin PCIe power cables.

3.) I couldn't find a single HP Z4 G4 Workstation fitted with an RTX A4000 Ada (plenty of the previous version RTX A4000) here: UserBenchmark: HP Z4 G4 Workstation Compatible Components, so I couldn't verify whether an RTX 4000 Ada can/will boot.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DuncanIdaho]

@NonSequitur777,

For safety, Nvidia might have designed all of their next gen GPU's with 16-pin 12VHPWR PCIe external power connectors (or with the later mod by PCI-SIG called 12V-2x6). This connector's 684W rated power (600W max specified GPU power) and its robust mechanical design, might prevent the over-heating and fires that were caused recently by other connectors.

On the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada with only 130W Total Board Power (TBP is how Nvidia rates their GPU's), a 684W rated power connector is not needed, but Nvidia could be trying to upgrade and standardize this GPU connector for safety.

As for the single fan inside the "Z4 G4 Fan and Front Card Guide Kit", it draws 12V x 0.6A = 7.2W from a 2-pin header on the motherboard. The fan is not powered by the two PCIe 6-pin PSU 12V 18A connectors, as I thought initially.

The "Fan and Front Card Guide Kit" has two mechanical (non-electric) clip-on slots where the HP factory clipped the two unused PCIe 6-pin PSU connectors, which led me to think they were powering the fan.

So both 6-pin PSU connectors are free to power GPU's through adapter cables 🙂

The remaining issue is not knowing whether the Z4 G4 BIOS can boot the Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada.

Thanks for your reply.

Kind regards.

[NonSequitur777]

@DuncanIdaho,

Honestly, I would be very surprised if the RTX A4000 Ada would not boot for you. And since you got two 6-pin PCIe power cables available, the option of using two separate 6-pin PCIe to 8-pin PCIe power adapter cables connected to a dual 8-pin PCIe to 16-pin PCIe power adapter cable to power an RTX A4000 Ada, is back on the table in my opinion.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777