Z Turbo Drive backwards compatible with Z800

[kewe65]

I want to know if the Z Turbo Drive G2 is compatible with the Z800 (not the series, the actual model number).

It's hard to find the previous version of the drive and just want to know if it will work and if there is anything i should consider when installing it.

[AnthonyK]

Not sure i have the exact similar question but in my case it is a z600.

I used to have a LSI Sas 9212-4i HP adapter which I put in the other spare graphics card express lane and connect a 2,5inch SSD by Samsung in it. It is my wifes productivity workstation but I am not sure if this was the best thing to do since I had some issues with it before.

I am also looking at this Turbo Z drive option or perhaps an non HP but a similar solution all together.

[SDH]

I am now running the Kingston Predator M.2 PCIe card as my boot drive in one of my W7Pro64 Z600 workstations, and it is running great.  I also did some testing and got that up and running in one of my xw6400 and xw6600 workstations.  Have not yet tried it on a spare xw4600 but have no reason to believe it will not work in that too.  The Z800 works this way just like the Z600.

I'll post more when I get more time.  HP has two storage controller drivers listed for the ZX00 series and the more recent one (11.5.4.1001) did not work when I updated to that, so stick with the original (9.6.0.1014).  Blue screen the instant boot went beyond BIOS.  Also, my Acronis clone software would not clone over correctly until I changed image capture type to sector by sector.  I used DiskPart to clear the Predator before doing the clone.  Breakthrough came from a clean install, from scratch, so I knew then that it could work and then I worked my way back to the two tricks above.

It is very fast, and stable.  For those who pay attention to such things:  This upgrade is not like we experienced going from HDD to SSD.  The feel is more like an upgrade from a moderate to a very fast video card.  Noticable jump in speed, for sure, and well worth it.

You want to place that in a PCIe slot that is generation 2 or higher, and has at least x4 lanes.  For my particular Z600 (my main home office workstation) I have a HP "2x2" Texas Instruments chipset USB3 card up in the top PCIe slot that would work for this, so I put the Predator card down in the lower PCIe x16 slot you'd normally think of as for a second video card.  For those with xw6400 workstations there are zero PCIe Gen 2 slots so you'll run at 1/2 speed.  For the xw6600 and xw4600 the two PCIe x16 slots are Gen 2 so use the lower of those for this card.  You can look up the PCIe slot type posiitons of your ZX00 workstations in the technical and service manual.  The Predator is a PCIe Gen 2 card that can run through 4 PCIe lanes so you want to at least give it that.

The ZX00 series are SATA generation II workstations, and this is one way to break through the speed limits of that.  I'm using the Predator as my boot/applications drive, and just put in a nice enterprise grade 500 GB Samsung SSD as my "documents" drive.  That combo is very fast.

The HP Z Turbo M.2 cards are two types:  the G1 has an AHCI type of controller and the G2 has a NVMe type.  You might have a shot at getting the G1 to work on the ZX00 series workstations but I don't think anyone will ever get the G2 to work in those because of the chipset and BIOS limitations of the ZX00.

The Predator M.2 PCIe card has an AHCI type of controller, and is proven to work so I'm advising my need-for-speed friends to go for that now in their ZX00 and xw6600/xw8600 and xw4600 HP workstations.

[AnthonyK]

SDH

I can buy an M.2 SSD from Intel, Samsung, Kingston or some other hardware vendor but what I am now interested is if I get myself an M2 drive and combine it with a PCIe card like this one on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Addonics-ADM2PX4-Pcie-4-lane-Adapter/dp/B00KDM75XK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=148...

I might see a nice performance boost on my wifes z600 as its main OS drive where now she runs a Samsung 2.5inch - 850 Evo drive which then she might use as a second drive for her virtual machines which now run on a WD Red Nas 1 TB drive.

[SDH]

I looked at that too.  However, I did a lot of research and felt the Kingston engineers had something special in their design.  Remember that there is a custom built controller in these M.2 SSDs (which screw into the PCIe card).  That controller is in the little M.2 SSD itself, not on that "carrier" PCIe card.  The Predator uses a "next generation" controller that allows use of 4 total PCIe lanes rather than the 2 PCIe lanes that a number of other AHCI controllers are limited to.

I read up on some of the success of two other individuals using exactly this Kingston device on their HP ZX00 series workstations and knew I had a good shot at success.  I have read up on other AHCI controller based M.2 SSDs from other vendors such as Samsung where much machinations were needed to get those to work on ASUS motherboards.  Those were more recent motherboards than the xw and ZX00 HP motherboards, too.  Not something I wanted to deal with, especially knowing of the success of those two other individuals (one in Italy, and the other in this forum).

So, that is why I am only advising this approach at this time.  I don't mind dinking around, but not that much......

For others..... you need the little M.2 SSD plus the PCIe card to screw it in to.  There are aftermarket PCIe cards you could buy, but I stuck with getting both as a single item from Kingston.

[AnthonyK]

I did some checking on ebay and noticed that a Kingston HyperX Predator SSD M.2 + HHHL PCIe adapter is not that much cheaper than a full HP Z Turbo Drive Gen1 -M.2 drive plus HHHL PCIe adapter.

Why not go for a HP and opt for a Kingston ?

By the way what part number is actually valid for an Gen1 Z Turbo Drive SSD ?

[SDH]

Here are the latest QuickSpecs for the HP G1 Z Turbo Drive.  I wish HP would put a G1 in front of all their references to this, but they do not.  Note you can use this version, the AHCI version, on both the ZX20 and the ZX40 generation of workstations.  The G2 is officially supported only on the ZX40 generation.

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/getpdf.aspx/c04328813.pdf?ver=5

See page 3 for the latest option part number.  I'm not sure, but I think all G1s had no heatsink and all G2s do.

Best price I found for my Predator M.2 kit was straight from the source at 155.00 USD.

Why use that instead of Z turbo?  G2 cannot work on a Z600, period, as explained earlier.  G1 has never been shown to work on a Z600.  I wanted something that I had at least a hint that it would work, and the two sources I noted were top notch.  

It would be great if you would take on the project to see if you can get the HP G1 to work on a ZX00 generation workstation.  That would be a valuable breakthrough if you can pull it off.  The HP gear is always what I'd like to use over all others because I know the quality of the engineering that is behind it.

[AnthonyK]

Hi would do think of this option

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-KC1000-SKC1000H-240G/dp/B072ZPMR43 for a HP Z600 ?