PCIe SSD

[Brian_T_Z600]

Looking at Getting a HyperX Predator PCI-e SSD for my HP Z600 Work Station. From What I've read online there are a few quirks about installing said device and was thinking that someone with experience might share what they know.  And by quirks I am refering to any drivers or Bios features that need to be modified for the drive to work. Any info would be greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance!

[gabornico]

I was also thinking about getting a HyperX Predator for my HP Z400 Workstation (same series, single processor machine, same BIOS). Here's what I found out after some research:

according to the manufacturer and some reviews, the drive uses the AHCI protocol and contains an Option ROM which is needed by BIOS based systems to recognize the device.

On Windows, msahci (Microsofts generic storage driver) does the work.

Unfortunately, I could not find out if it's possible use it as system drive.

For my project, installing Windows 7 onto the drive and booting from it was a must.

The chance is 50/50, so I'm waiting to get some more info before placing an order.

In theory, the workstation BIOS should be able to load the Option ROM, to identify the card and to integrate it into the bootable devices list.

Maybe one of the tech guys here (Dan, are you around ???) can give more details about Zx00 Workstation BIOS.

If you plan to use the SSD for data, you're good to go.

Just make sure to not buy a NVMe drive because these are incompatible with legacy BIOS.

Good luck

P.S.: Article HyperX Predator SSD in a HP Z600

High performance PCIe SSD | Strike3D

[Brian_T_Z600]

As much as they are now I have another system I can throw it in if it dosent work. I want to throw it in the z600 as the main drive for obvious reasons. It will be a couple weeks before I finally buy one but when I do I'll post back with results. Hopefully someone that has done this will post back with results by then if not I volunteer as guinea pig 🙂

[gabornico]

let's hope someone finds out if it's bootable or not

[Brian_T_Z600]

Just an update to those that have shown interest in this thread. Should be getting the Predator today, so fingers crossed on that. Just for giggles I ran a cristal disk mark on the drive in the machine at the moment I believe is a seagate 1TB 7200rpm. Needless to say its appaling -----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :    75.913 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :    76.576 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     0.952 MB/s [   232.4 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :     1.080 MB/s [   263.7 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :    77.600 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :    76.553 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     0.389 MB/s [    95.0 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :     1.090 MB/s [   266.1 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [C: 5.7% (52.5/923.4 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/04/13 8:33:52
    OS : Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

As well as a cinebench r15 score which is a little more Impressive

CPU score is 715 which putts it between

I7-4770k---822cb (still retailing for around $400!)

I7-3770----662cb ($350 and up on amazon)

so I paid arounf $350 for the whole system refurbed on newegg

I bought a complete system with better performance than a single proccesor. Extremley happy with it so far.

Now For the GPU I threw in a GTX 660 Gigabyte windforce I had laying around and the GPU in this system is a little underwhelming but more than adequate for what im using the system for. The cinebench score on it was 50.04 FPS take what you will with that information. 

Hopefully I'll be posting back later today or tomorrow with a new cristal disk mark score!

[Brian_T_Z600]

Drive is in the system and running buttery smooth. The Read write sppeds are absolutley insane.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 5.1.2 x64 (C) 2007-2016 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 bytes/s [SATA/600 = 600,000,000 bytes/s]
* KB = 1000 bytes, KiB = 1024 bytes

   Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) :  1552.969 MB/s
  Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) :   600.623 MB/s
  Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   183.502 MB/s [ 44800.3 IOPS]
 Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) :   164.742 MB/s [ 40220.2 IOPS]
         Sequential Read (T= 1) :  1219.624 MB/s
        Sequential Write (T= 1) :   645.326 MB/s
   Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    27.616 MB/s [  6742.2 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) :    58.731 MB/s [ 14338.6 IOPS]

  Test : 1024 MiB [C: 25.2% (54.3/215.4 GiB)] (x5)  [Interval=5 sec]
  Date : 2016/04/13 10:13:36
    OS : Windows 7 Professional SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
 

As for the install Kingston includes a license for Acronis to clone the drive and it is amazingly easy. THE ONLY CHANGE YOU HAVE TO MAKE IN THE BIOS IS THE BOOT ORDER!!! nothing esle is needed. So this works perfectly!!!

[SDH]

Brian,

Good news... I'm thinking of tryng that in an xw6600.... what size and model did you end up buying?  And.... why did you choose what you did in terms of the size and the two basic models?

[Grolch]

Hmmnnnn, might have to go the same rout when my system gets laveled out , cheer's for the write up.

[gabornico]

thx for testing and feedback Brian.

That's good news.

[Brian_T_Z600]

SDH,
I chose the predator because
1. It's and adhc m.2 pcie card.
2. It's not nvme (newer standard likley not supported on my hardware)
3. Price/performance was calling to me. A new Samsung 850 Evo/Pro is $40 less than what I paid for the Predator but the predator has nearly three times the performance on the read side for the same storage size.
4. I think of myself as a little bit of a power user and its new tech so I love to try new stuff.

Hope that answers your question SDH