Z210 - CPU max temperature & cooling concerns

[wny2016]

My Z210 has 16GB RAM, a V5900 video card, 2x15K SAS drives+controller, a 10K SATA-3 drive, and a small SSD.

RealTemp reports on a typical day, the four cores run from 28°C to about 58°C, depending on the load.

Specs on this CPU show a max temp of 69.1° C.

I'd like to widen that gap between the highest temp and the max, if there's a way. Might be a bit of overkill. I don't see any additional fan options for the CMT case (small tower.) Is there anything I could do to cool down the computer a bit more?

TIA for your help!

[Skylarking]

The Z210 comes in a Small Form Factor (SFF) and a Convertable Mini Tower (CMT) chassis as below (but not to scale):

So a CMT (small tower) does not exist as such and i'll assume you have a CMT workstation  

Now from the "HP Z210 CMT Workstation Maintenance and Services Guide", the Z210 mobo is shown as below:

where the following is relevant:

- item 1. is for a Rear chassis fan (my system has a rear fan) and it's removal/install is described on page 98,

- item 6. is for CPU fan (my system has a CPU fan) and it's removal/install is described on page 82,

- item 17. is for the front chassis (my system does not have a front fan) but no further info is found within the doc!!

Similar information to the above is also shown within the inside cover of your workstation

Obviously the CMT is a roomy case and if you find the cooling insufficient or of concern, as a first step i would de-fluff the inside of the case and apply new (quality) thermal paste to the CPU heatsink. If it's under warranty, HP may help you with new thermal paste although they would likley say it's still operating within spec.

If the thermal paste does not help, you could consider installing a front chassis fan but i'm not sure if HP officially provide such a kit for the Z210. Others may know of and share the relevant HP part number for such kit but if not the after maket must surely provide some PWM front fan worthy of your Z210.

Again if this does not help, you could consider installing an after market CPU heatsink/fan assembly (assuming HP uses a standard CPU heatsink mounting postition on the mobo)...

Note that all fan headers on the Z210 CMT are 4 pin type so any PWM fan should be OK to use but as i haven't had any heat related issues i haven't looked into it any futher than the above

Now if you have a SFF, then installing a better aftermarket CPU heatsink/fan assembly may not be as simple as on the CMT chassis, though new thermal paste and de-fluff may help...

[wny2016]

Thanks - yes, it's a CMT case. I actually was able to find the relevant part, I think. It appears to be:

645327-001 HP CHASSIS FAN ASSEMBLY SFF PC FOR 8200 / 6200 / Z210

but I will have to investigate a bit further to make sure it is not an SFF-specific part. It's odd that the HP documentation that deals with installation of the kit doesn't actually mention the part number anywhere.

This fan assembly is currently available on eBay for about $25. If it turns out to be the right part, I'll just install it and I think it will give me a bit more cooling - which is what I am after.

[SDH · Accepted solution]

Phil and Skylarking,

I did some convoluted searching and here's what I discovered.  I think the one you found, Phil, is for a rear chassis fan.  Below is info on the front chassis card guide/fan holder for your workstation, and the other workstations listed.  I've seen a pattern from HP related to the front fan kits over time.... a very reasonably priced kit that includes several different workstation's black plastic fan holder/card guides and a single fan that fits inside any of the included plastic parts.  I guess you're supposed to throw the others away.  The key thing is to buy the kit from HP before they run out, because the individual parts become hard to find, and expensive, later.

The picture from the kit for your workstation shows 3 different holder/guides, and one fan.  The black plastic holder/guide you'd use is the one at the top center.  Note that the one at the top right is only a fan holder..... no guide slits are present on that one.  Not sure what workstation that is for, but the largest one likely is for the Z600/Z800:

Below is a picture of a chassis exhaust fan from that workstation, and with that color I'd bet it is a fan plug with two orientation bars that HP has used on other workstations for their chassis fans.   They've had that same brown-orange color, holes for 4 pins, the usual PWM wiring order, but only the thin orientation lips along each outside edge of the plug.  This contrasts with what HP has used as fan plug ends for memory and chipset cooling fans, which have 3 orientation bars.  If you look at the motherboard fan headers it is easy to see the difference between the two types.  The 3 ridge common type PWM plug (usually white) motherboard header will have a plastic tab sticking up that only runs the width of 3 of the 4 pins.  The 2 ridge HP chassis fan PWM plug (usually brown-orange) motherboard header will have a corresponding tab that runs the full width of all 4 pins.  On my xw6600s the 92x92x25mm memory cooling fan and the two paired rear chassis cooling fans are the same exact PMW fans except for their part numbers and use of the two different types/colors of fan plug ends.  The chipset fan plug end also is the white 3 ridge type.

The newer workstations such as the Z620 are moving away from these conventions, to some degree.

The front chassis cooling fan header on the xw6600 is for the 2 ridge type of 4-wire fan plug, and I've personally seen that also for the xw6400, xw8400, xw8600, Z600, and the Z620 workstation's front fan headers.  On the Z620 I was helping with yesterday the front fan's 2 ridge type of plug was white (instead of the usual brown-orange color HP uses for their chassis cooling fan plugs).

Regardless, the correct fan will be in the kit, and will get you the HP PWM case cooling scheme that they have engineered in.  I bet this will be the fan in the kit, maybe without the plastic grill, and those are nice and quiet:

If you try to buy that by itself you'll pay a lot..... but check out the price for the whole kit from HP, below.  The HP "Option" part number for the kit is A2Z46AA:

Compatibility is always an issue, and by expanding that link from the HP page you can see the official info from HP.  Your CMT Z210 is included.  The same fan and the bigger fan holder/card guide in the kit would be used for the bigger workstations.  Having worked on that Z620 recently I think its kit is different, by the way, and it is not in the compatibility list.  Its front cooling fan looked like a 120mm one.  Here's the list for your kit :

I also found the PDF that shows how to do the install, and you can find that with a goggle search "Z210 front fan and fan holder installation".  It is attached, below.

I posted here recently about the "Ghetto Mod" way to cheaply add in a 92mm front cooling fan to take advantage of the front fan header on xw6400/xw6600 motherboards, and from the PDF it sure looks like that method would work here too.  However, at $15.00 for the whole kit from HP I'd go the "Official Mod" way instead.

Scott

[wny2016]

Thanks so much for your help! Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of nuts? I found those install instructions a while ago, but why HP leaves out the #$@@%! part number of the fan kit, I'll never understand.

I just dropped an email to a friend of mine who works for a local HP reseller, maybe they've got a kit in stock. Otherwise, I'll just buy one from HP - you're right, that's an atypically inexpensive part. And you're right again, at that price, why bother to monkey around.

I like the Z210 CMT a lot, as it packs a lot of power into a small case at a reasonable price point. With the V5900 graphics card running, it runs a bit warmer than it did with the stock Nvidia card, but not really a big deal. I tend to install whatever extra fans are available in all of my machines, as a matter of routine.

[wny2016]

Just a note - I successfully installed the HP A2Z46AA fan kit in my Z210 - a tight fit, but no real problems. I had to remove the video card and unplug a bunch of cables.

FWIW, what I received from HP in the box is NOT what is shown in their own photos for the product! The product photos show 3 different plastic fan cages and one fan. In the box was one fan and one fan cage - fortunately, the correct fan cage for the Z210.

 See the attached photo for the close quarters fit in the Z210.

Thanks again!

[Skylarking]

Phil, you first mentioned that real temps from your four cores are from 28°C to about 58°C, depending on the load. Now that you have installed the front fan, how have the core temps changed?

I was considering this front fan mod but have had no luck finding this part on the HP parts page for our region (auz) - i see the part with 'not available' (or similar) and a comment to go to local resellers (which i haven't called)....  HP doesn't want to make it easy for me to buy from them i guess...

[wny2016]

Strange - that HP won't send an available part anywhere in the world. Well, since their own phone tech rep had told me that the part "isn't compatible" with the Z210...it's not too surprising!

I haven't been running this machine much since I installed the fan yesterday, so I'll have to see what the temps look like after I run it a while. The PCM fan runs at very slow speed when the machine is not significantly under load - you can't even feel the air output through the case bezel. I'll post my results after I've done some heavy Photoshop work, which tends to be heavy on the CPU and graphics card resources.