Got a used HP Z620 now first task is SSD

[BambiBoomZ]

Calaudude,

Actually,  my recommendation is for the HP Z Turbo Drive.

I didn't try the Z Turbo on the z420,  but the Z did make a better Passmark Disk number on the z620 than the bare drive did on the z420.  Also, the standard SM951 is reported to be somewhat hot-running, so the Z Drive heatsink is welcome, and the bare drive price plus adapter cost about $30 more.

The purchase though was as a "new other"- a never used drive taken from a z230 and the useful feature was that it includes the HP recovery partition.  The moment the system started, the window appeared:  "Starting your computer for the first time."   It had Windows pre-installed and since the z620 has OEM Windows 7 Prol'l, the installed version was up and running in the first 30 seconds, automatically activated and all the HP Performance and Diagnistic tools work. It was very nice too that the drive was setup as GPT instead of MBR- a safer format  and more versatile  partitioning configuration.  It strangly appears in Control Panel /System as a z230,  but other than a couple of error messages, "Windows ME wireless update unsucceccful" - what ever that is- it's performaned perfectly. 

So, that was a pleasant shortcut and the Z Turbo  cost $150 as compared to $157 for the Base SM951 + the adapter- $27 including shipping. 

Since I bought the SM951, the supply dropped and the price increased: currently at Amazon - they're $185 so that would cost about $205 now. 

If you use an M.2, remember to update the BIOS and chipset driver.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

[Calaudude]

Here in Germany Z Turbo Drive G2 is out of question

its basically a SM951 with pci adapter and heatsink at a 100% premium price compared to a better PM961 + Asus adapter

but i still have my old 256gb SATA ssd from my old computer which I will maybe use until the retail version of the SM961 in 512GB comes out which should be soon

[Calaudude]

So today I rig got delivered 

I am very impressed about HP quality

I got my wife as a bonus the 32" screen from HP too also very nice design

here is my Bios info

https://goo.gl/photos/hSQc3xXnF6fRegVy8

[SDH]

Well, Congrats!  You in fact have the Version 2 motherboard, and all of the processors that have been listed for the Z620 over the years should work fine for you (both the ones for the Version 1 and the Version 2).

Processor upgrades probably right now are the lowest priority..... fun for the future.  Even your old boot SSD will be a huge improvement over the HDD it came with.

I'm very happy you have this version of the motherboard..... you don't have to worry about that any more.

[Calaudude]

so I removed the HDD and put in the SSD into the slot of HDD0 so my machine is zero HDD drives anymore

my ssd runs better on as on my old pc because here its SATA III and old one is still SATA II

when I put in my old gf970 I ran into problems as my gf970 wants a 6 pin and 8 pin and on the z620 there only very short 2x6pin

I know now that these 6pin give 200w each but I must buy a 6pin to 8pin adapter because my gf600 gave me the boot message "power down and connect pci power" at bios level

I think its time to update bios 

[Calaudude]

flashed bios to 3.9 all in all no problem

when I enable AHCI win10 dont boot anymore but this is no clean win10 installation I just put my ssd from old to new rig and let win10 reconfigure devices etc

[Calaudude]

machine is up and running

I ordered an adapter from 6pin to 8pin pcie to connect my gf970

everything else is working now