Adding a USB 3.0 slots/ports card to a Z400

[BrianA012]

Hello

I purchased a HP Z400 Workstation Xeon Quad-Core W3565 3.2GHz 8GB 1TB DVDRW Windows 7 Pro

as it was listed as a supported pc from Avid to record with Pro Tools

I have to run seperate external hard drives, one for my projects and audio, and one for my sample libraries (I'll have a 3rd for storage) as it's better to just have the computer hard drive for running the OS and recording DAW software

I am only using a firewire connection to connect my audio interface, Avid says for running external hard drives to use USB 2.0 for windows computers and firewrire fro Macs

So I decide to go with USB 2.0 instead of firewire for the Ex Hard Drives. Many people said, "Well if you don't use firewire, at least go with USB 3.0 instead of USB 2.0" and so I am considering going USB 3.0. I'm about to go pop open the Z400 and look under the hood

But does anyone know of hand before I do so, if the Z400 motherboard will have a slot to add a USB 3.0 card? Will this be possible or will I find that it does not have a slot of USB 3.0?

[SDH]

There wil not be a USB 3.0 port you can tap into.  Instead, there is a HP card, available as an option, that plugs into a PCIe slot and gives USB 3.0 output.  The first version was based on the on-card NEC/Renasus chip, had two USB 3.0 outputs, and was dumped by HP in favor of a newer chipset from Texas Instruments.  Do not buy the NEC/Renasus version.

The TI version is the card to get, and it has four USB 3.0 ports output potential instead of two ("2x2").  Two will be on the backplane of the card, at the rear, and look like normal USB 3.0 ports.  The other two are at the "back" of the card (facing forwards inside the workstation) as a standard "motherboard to USB 3.0" type of multipin header.  This header can be extended by a single paired cable to the front, which gives two more front conventional looking USB ports.  I have posted in here on that..... I very much like the Akasa front interface that fits perfectly into the old unused floppy drive area.  You don't need to use that option, however, and can stick with just the two on the back.  That front extender cable comes with the Akasa kit, is not provided by HP, is a standard type of wiring, and in my experience is long enough to work perfectly with the 4, 6 and the 8 series workstations, of xw and Z types.  I only use that one if I'm extending to the front of the computer.... very high quality.

You want the fast USB 3.0 card to plug into a fast PCIe slot.... for me in the xw6600 I use the PCIe x16 PCIe generation II lower video slot and use the upper video slot for my Quadro card assuming I'm only driving two monitors.

Both of those cards need to receive power from the power supply due to the 5v nature of USB, and the need for more amps to meet USB 3.0 specs.  Do not try to load drivers before giving the card power.  You need to light it up before you give it drivers, in my experience.  I'm getting away with using a feed from a small white floppy power source off the HP power supply, via an adapter.  The nice HP kit comes with a SATA power cable to the SATA power input on the top of the card.  I get these TI-based HP cards raw off eBay and cobble together my adapters instead.

The drivers for the TI card are exactly what HP provides for the on-board TI USB 3.0 chip on the current motherboards of the Z620, etc.  That is where to find the latest drivers.  Use the latest ones, for sure, as they are only a couple of months old and the old ones were buggy to a small degree.

Again, my posts are in here and maybe even some pics.  If you can't find the parts numbers and pics by searching let me know.  Here is a prior post on this.....  Here

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/USB-3-0-for-Z800/m-...

[Dan_WGBU]

Some hints to get maximum USB 3.0 external HD performance on the Z400:   
  - Plug the USB 3.0 card into a PCIe Gen2 (5Gbs) slot.  For the Z400, this means Slots 1, 2, or 4.  Using the PCIe Gen 1 (2.5Gbs) Slot3 will give about half the maximum performance.
  - The external HD enclosure, and its interface IC, makes a big difference.  Get one that has a SATA III (6Gbs) to USB 3.0 interface IC.  Many earlier enclosures used ICs having a SATA II 3 Gbs interface.  Some StarTek enclosures, also sold by HP here, here, and here, have the faster SATA III disk interface.
  - Use a HD with a SATA III 6 Gbs interface.  SSDs are usually twice as fast as mechanical drives.
  - Windows 8 supports UASP over USB 3.0.  This makes a huge difference in throughput.  With the Atto disk benchmark, I saw ~450 MBs read performance on the largest transfer sizes.  Unfortunately, Win7 does not support USB 3.0 UASP. 

These hints will match the fastest drives (6Gbs) with the fastest interface ICs, so as to use the full USB 3.0 5Gbs speed.  This can increase the external USB 3.0 drive performance from ~120 MBs to over 400MB/s.  FYI.