I want to upgrade my video card on hp z200 workstation

[Gustavwolf]

I want to upgrade my video card from a 512 mb firepro v3800 to something in the gtx range (most likely the 1060). Now im not sure this is entirely possible due to that the gtx may not be compatible with my motherboard pci slot. I hope somebody here could confirm that or show me some alternatives because im still a rookie in this. 

[SDH]

You need to be more specific.  Most importantly, how thick is your workstation, side to side... the smallest of the 3 dimenstions?

There are versions of the Z200 that will accept both full height and half height cards, and others that only have room to accept half height cards.

That can really change your options if the card you want comes only in full height form.

A video card can be engineered to be compatible with a PCIe x16 generation III PCIe slot ("PCIe3 x16"), but they generally are fully backwards compatible to PCIe x16 generation II or even generation I slots.  From what I have seen you have one PCIe2 x16 slot, and it will be specified in your technical manual, depending on what form of the Z200 you have.

What you got?

[Gustavwolf]

Hi, thanks for your reply!

I just measured my pc 17,2 cm wide, 41 cm tall and 45 cm long.

I used the hp identifying tool to make sure what type my pc was and it came out HP z200 Workstation. 

Model: KK669ET

I hope this is helpful. 

[MtothaJ]

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@Gustavwolf wrote:

Hi, thanks for your reply!

I just measured my pc 17,2 cm wide, 41 cm tall and 45 cm long.

I used the hp identifying tool to make sure what type my pc was and it came out HP z200 Workstation. 

Model: KK669ET

I hope this is helpful. 

---

You have a standard sized tower case and not the SFF type, so you will have no problem installing a standard sized video card.

The PCIe 2.0 is not a problem also, all 3.0 cards are backaward compatible.

One thing which you may want to check is your power supply - i.e. do you have the 6pin or 8pin PCIe power connector? If you don't, there are of course molex adapters and the liek available, but this brings us to the aspect of PSU power (as far as I recall only in the 300W or so range).

So to avoid any problems, my advice would be to perhaps get a 1050Ti (e.g. the EVGA FTW version) - this is powered only via the PCIe slot, is not very long and would be a nice plug and play fit in the Z200.

[SDH]

Here is some added information:

1.  Your power supply is 320 watta..... nVidia recommends at least 400W for the GeForce GTX 1060 card you mention (which draws 120W max TDP and takes up 2 slots).  That is the bad news.... but the good news is that video cards are truly the area where performance has gone way up and power draw has gone quite a bit down at the same time over the last 5 years.  So, your performance/watt will be greatly improved if you buy a very recently released one that better matches your workstation. 

My advice is to look at the latest nVidia cards that don't require an auxiliary power cord attached, or ones that do but are not so much above the power draw of the highest draw card HP has in its latest QuickSpec for your Z220.  Having said that, the single PCIe Gen2 x16 video slot you have (second from the top slot) should provide about 75 watts up to the card and an auxiliary PCIe "6-pin" power cable can provide about 75W more.  So, if you are not using much power elsewhere you might just get away with using a GTX 1060.  I'd personally not do that, and you will still have such an improvement by taking 1 step down in power draw that it will be great anyway.  You have other things that will be the limiting factors for your workstation (such as processor).  You don't want to try to stuff 20 pounds of potatoes in a 10 pound bag.

2.  Your Z220 is a "convertible minitower" (CMT) form factor type.  As such it can accept both half and full height cards, assuming they have the full height metal backplane attached.  Many HP workstations have a PCIe auxiliary 6-pin power plug available but coiled up at the rear of the power supply and zip tied there.  Look for that and use it if you need rather than leaving it coiled up.  It is a better way to go than using a power adapter to aggregate 2 molex or 2 SATA power plugs into 1 "6-pin" plug.

3.  Search out Z220 CMT QuickSpecs, and the latest I found was version 22,  HERE.

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04123224.pdf    That will give you up to date info on the wattage of cards HP approved:

FY944AA - ATI FirePro V3700 256MB PCIe Graphics Card  TDP = 32W

FY946AA - NVIDIA Quadro FX1800 768MB PCIe Graphics Card  TDP = 59W

FY947AA - ATI FirePro V5700 512MB PCIe Graphics Card  TDP = 56W

NVIDIA Quadro K4000 3GB  80W max TDP.... this is getting you into the range where a 6-pin plug needs to be added.

That K4000 has a plug in site for a 6-pin PCIe supplemental power cable, so it clearly is OK to at least go up to that level of power, and HP is conservative on these things so you have wiggle room.  I'd go nVidia GTX and EVGA as vendor personally.  The exact card I'm not sure on, but one that has just been released recently, brand new.  If there is an EVGA  "superclocked" version for the one you choose I'd pay that extra charge.  Most people cannot tell the difference between one of these running on a PCIe generation II slot versus a gen III slot.  You only have 1 gen II slots, and the rest are gen 1, all quite fast.

4.  Your Z200 is a SATA generation 2 rather than SATA3 workstation.  Most users cannot perceive the speed difference between a SATA2 and a SATA3 drive running in a SATA3 workstation so don't worry about that issue.  However, there have been some compatibility issues with using non-HP SATA3 HDDs and non-HP SATA3 SSD drives in HP SATA2 workstations.

I'd strongly advise that you run that Z220 off a SSD if you are not already doing that.  The one I'd advise is an Intel 320 Series 300GB bought used off eBay.  I've gotten a lot of these and almost all have had 100% of their life left when measured by the Intel ToolBox software, which is free, and allows easy update of the SSD firmware if needed, and also provides automatic fine tuning of the OS for the SSD as one of its options.  When I get these I use a bootable CD burned from a free ISO download  of a program called DBAN.  This performes a low level reformat, which even zeros out the boot sectors.  Then I boot into W7 and use the built-in Windows Disk Management utility to convert its raw state to a MBR partition, and then I do a NTFS long type format.  Then I load in the OS from scratch, or I use Acronis to clone over an image from the source hard drive to SSD (which works fine assuming the HDD had been properly loaded initially).  For example, it will have been properly done if it is the HDD that came with your Z200 from HP.  

Hopefully you have your original HDD with its HP "Recover" partition unused on it, and can capture the HP W7Pro64 Restore Media from that (very valuable, and worth getting if you can).  Capturing that as a dedicated USB is best.... use 8GB quality thumb drive.  That installer then lets you boot from USB and it installs the HP OEM COA serial number automatically, which will be pre-activated.

There are lots of posts in here on how to convert a 2.5" form factor SSD into a 3.5" form factor drive so it can fit in your workstation easily.  Slider screws will generally be available as spares inside the case for you to use.

[Gustavwolf]

Thanks alot!

you just made my day.

I think im going to play safe and go for the gtx 1050 ti, as it doesnt need a extra 6 pin.