The Z4 G8 (Z4 G4?) is quite capable and they can be sourced for a much better price point. Enjoy the Z4 first then save up a heap before making the shift. Dual CPU is cooler and worth the money, hopefully lol. I have had really good service from mine thus far, satisfied with the performance.

That's a huge price difference. If it's the same PCB / identical card minus the tabs it should slot in to the upper PCIe slots - it will just not latch it self into place. With some creativity you can find cheap methods to secure it. Likely it will just remain suspended but it will be exposed to gravity - something the X8 slot should be able to handle (it's not a heavy GPU lol). I would remove the plastic shroud and use double sided tape on the back of the PCB to secure it - saves a heap as you said. I'll look into that actually and update the listing in the video description with the cheaper DIY route.

Sorry about the slow output haha, I need to blame life causing unexpected delays! But to at least give you an update: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GDqGXkFro_4.html . The Z8 G4 CPU Guide is making strides but it's not ready just yet. I'll make a post when it's close!

Thank you for your feedback. That sounds a bit odd. I presume by bluescreen you mean the Windows BSOD - which suggests you are managing to install windows but at some point during the installation the process bombs out. That sounds like a bad installer .iso or a hardware conflict. Does the bluescreen provide you with an error code at least? That should narrow down the hardware conflict. The best steps to try, if you haven't already: 1) Test out a different Windows OS .iso installer (so redownload and create a new USB installer). 2) Test out different OS types - do you get the same issue with Ubunto etc. 3) Can you switch out some of the hardware to test if there is a hardware conflict. Sometimes it can be a bad hard drive or GPU etc. that causes the issue. A quick test would be taking a known good OS drive - switching it into this Z820 and see if you still get the BSOD. Let us know how you get on, that Z820 of yours needs to be put to work on something other than BSODs, let's hope we find the fix! If we find the issue I can work it into a future video.

Hi there. Yes they do! The Optane Persistent Memory use to cost a small fortune but now it is becoming more affordable. I'll cover that in more detail in a future video on the Z8 G4's memory upgrades. I gave a general outline in my Z8 G4 guide video ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-z7Ff2zs5ByM.html ) - but I did not go into detail on DCPMM modules.

Hi there. No the Z line-up of workstations do not have the iLO functionality incorporated. There are alternatives though. HWiNFO can manage the data logging from a system and Intel's VPro can add some additional functionality. But overall these are really solid systems. In case you haven't seen it, I did a detailed guide on this system here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2bie4EGJZL0.html

Nice. I am late to the workstation field - I use to only know desktops. Sadly I recycled my first computer years ago - Intel 286. That would have made for a cool retro video now haha (I still have it's optical floppy readers and a few ISA expansion cards stashed away in storage). The HP build quality really does stand out from the other competitors. I can appreciate a system that is built to be reliable - because sometimes we just want something that will boot up when needed without issue.

@@racerrrz You should have seen the even older 9000 series from the 80s. The 680x0 based 200 and 300 series with HIL keyboards and HPIB interfaces. We used them on boats for underwater survey and they took a hell of a beating. They could do things even today's computers would struggle with.

Somehow I have no doubt of that. PCBs from that era looked really durable and they outlived their usefulness. I can't say the same for modern hardware as often (I am still sour over my Asus ROG Rampage Extreme 4 mobo frying a capacitor only a few years after ownership). HP workstations have been the exception thus far - they are built to last. I still have a PS/2 keyboard sitting around on a shelf somewhere lol, but I don't recall ever using a HPIB interface, nice. Amazing to think how far technology has come.

Nice, it sounds like you have landed on the right application for your old hardware. In all fairness it's not normal for there to be more than a simple screw for HDDs - a new hardware mounting mechanism only catches you out once. Filling a case up with rattly HDDs would be great way bring the case to life - it may well more around on it's own accord lol. I am glad you found benefit in the videos.

@@racerrrz well for me I've been ignoring this stuff because ever since I could afford it, I've been SSD or bust- especially with the advent of NVME gumsticks

@@PanderingSlats That's fair. Right now I feel like I am ignoring storage because storage prices have bumped up higher than I am willing to pay. Bring back affordable NVMes and I may get some upgrades done.lol. But that does leave a great opportunity to dedust old neglected hardware to find new applications. I combined numerous small NVMes that I had into a RAID 0 pool to give some fast, but unreliable, storage on the cheap - sunk cost and all that.

@@racerrrz I'm neurotic about storage personally; I'm up to 10 TB collectively in NVME's and about to add another 4TB stick (I'm big on archiving and A/V production). I've always been comfortable splurging on SSD's, just that I aim to spend 1 to 3 hunno USD at a time. Speaking of which, I oughta retrieve one I left at a friend's house almost a year ago 😦

It's something we can't live without and as soon as you get extra storage you can already start ordering your new storage lol. Nice. I am using a 8TB RAID 0 pool for my video editing and it was an absolute dream from a performance and productivity perspective. Naturally 8TB has wound up not being enough - and some storage on SSDs and even, cringe, HDDs, does sometimes make it's way into the editing process. But hands down the NVMe pool is the way to go - with a HDD backup to make up for the lack of redundancy of course. I have a bunch of NVMes floating around also, most of which I use in USB adapters for some quick file transfers between systems - when on the go anyhow.

Which GPUs did you plan on running? The reality is that most GPUs under every day tasks will not see much of a bottleneck (maybe 1-5%) at x8 vs x16 PCIe 3.0 connection. The newer the GPU the larger the bottleneck would likely be. The Z440's bigger limitation is the limit of PCIe 3.0 - particularly for modern GPUs (e.g. RTX 3090 or RTX 4090 etc.). For your end application I believe you will not run into any major issues. To compare the bottlenecks - check out this calculator: pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator/ . Feed in your system specs and it will give you estimates of your end bottleneck for each given configuration and end application.

@@racerrrz okay so for Nvidia card I would be using 3070 on windows, and rx 550 for Linux Host. The only reason I am using rx 550 if you are curious is because I would be using the linux system for basic everyday browsing and word processing tasks, and I also wanted something that doesn't require PCIe power since both 6pin would be used by my 3070

@@AbeelSiddiqui Nice, that makes for a versatile system. It's generally good to have dual OS - it just gives you more options from your system. Proxmox is a good way to go also if you wanted to look towards using virtual machines, each with a different OS. Your RTX 3070 is more or less a perfect match with the Z440's hardware and it should not see much, if any, bottleneck.

Their replacement is normally required, but if you are really careful with the removal process you likely could just replace the thermal paste. I found the thermal pads that they used to be really fragile and they had a tendency to tear on removal. You should be able to obtain some thermal pad on the cheap if you have access to ebay etc. I recall spending ~$3-7 USD for a decent amount of thermal pad.

You have got me on that one, I am not sure what you mean by 'gaming bots'? I have used my Z840 for both work and gaming and it suited that role really well. Decent expansion options, and, at the moment any how, relatively affordable upgrade paths.

@racerrrz I use the HPbz 840 for funning gaming bots for a game called evony return of the king. I love my machine, but the clock speed hamper me because I run 14 bots on 36 cores. I still working out if this machine is actually running turbo at 3.8 or not and seems to bottle neck on vram issue that I solved with 3060 12g gpu, but wondering If running 2 ssd 1T in raid will help?

@@troyklesick4566 Sorry about my slow reply. Nice, I have not played Evony return of the king but it's cool that you have managed to use your Z840 for funneling bots for the game. Which CPUs have you got in your system? The best way to get the most out of your system is to aim for more cores (Dual E5-2699V4), 2400MHz ECC RAM and an NVMe boot drive. That should give you the best possible performance from the Z840 - but the system performance will have a limit which may not easily be removed without upgrading to a newer system. Using a RAID 0 drive may increase performance but usually the system is only as fast as the slowest component in the configuration.

@racerrrz I am currently running 2697 v4 and 2400 ecc 1t ssd drive becouse I could not get the z840 to accept the nvme m.2 drive also now looking in to running raid 0 if I can figure out how to set up the bios and the windows 10. Any help would be appreciated....

That's strange, what issues did you run into with your NVMe? I have not had many issues with these systems and getting NVMes to work, and you are in luck, I have a heap of videos on the topic. I would recommend this video first : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xqg0uQ93KTg.html - then there are follow-up guides on each quad adapter that I tested. The Asus Hyper M.2 V2 was my best all rounder. Great price, decent speeds, solid temps - and I am daily driving that in my HP Z8 G4 at the moment.

It sounds like your experience was less than ideal. That may shift the 7XL's usefulness more towards catering for home server builds where the goal is to have a heap of storage drives. It does give me server vibes from the design elements - rather than a modern gaming tower where the focus is often form over function. Overall I found it to be a versatile case due to all the configuration varieties that it allows. The HDD tray design does create expansion limitations - but I would expect that to be the situation in many case designs. I presume the logic is that a system with 20+ storage drives would not seek to run a large GPU or water cooling. Getting all the HDD trays as an additional expense was a tad annoying - especially when the previous generation of case (XL R2) came supplied with all its storage bays. In terms of panels that cause frustration, I just leave them out lol. All the plastic covers that create a neat visual appearance I leave out. Putting those limitations aside I have not had too many grievances and I would by another one for future home server builds.

That doesn't sound good but I would tend to agree - in my opinion the fan ram speeds are too delayed, but I would like to think the cooling system can be effective. What is the condition of your CPU thermal paste? When the paste dries out due to the run-out effect it exposes patches of the IHS that are not making good contact with the cooler - leading to a high temp condition under load. I replaced my HP supplied thermal paste with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and saw a reduction of 5'C in peak temperatures (so 95'C to 90'C - which is still too high). The other option is to increase your base system fan speeds in the BIOS (with the caveat of increased noise).

@@racerrrz I also don't know what kind of thermal paste they use at the store. (I think they used Snowman) Also, I use the Perc H710P Raid Card and it's too hot. I used an external fan to blow into the Case My problem is that when the temperature is high, the system doesn't shut down or reduce the clock speed, but it freezes. I'm not sure if it's because the CPU is overloaded or because some of my components are not working properly. In your experience, what causes the freeze?

@@danthanhtrung In my experience, nine times out of 10 a freeze is caused by software issues instead of hardware issues. That should be fairly easy to test - take a new SSD or NVMe drive - install the same OS and see if you can recreate the freeze. If not - then your current OS may have picked up a driver conflict etc. (talking software issues - insert Crowdstrike Windows blue screen of death reference here - ouch - but that proves the point - usually software that's to blame). I had a similar issue with heat on my 10GbE NIC PCIe adapter. I installed a 90mm fan that was inside the case (secured with zip ties) to blow air across the PCIe lanes. That resolved the overheating PCIe card issue. You could do the same - but it's not really needed in the Z8 G4 since it has two 90mm fans in the lower bay already - so it should in theory keep the card cool. What would be really handy is some datalogging of your system's performance. The best software for that is HWiNFO. You could use that to log your system temperatures and workload to check under what conditions the system freezes (although I am not certain that the datalog will work if the system crashes - it may not store the log file). You could at least check all your hardware sensors to check for abnormal temperatures. On my Z8 G4 my CPUs are ~ 60'C at rest (90'C full load), RAM ~ 42'C at rest (50'C full load), GPU ~ 55'C at rest (65'C full load), NVMes ~ 40'C at rest (55'C full load).

@@racerrrz I tried everything you suggested before (I have experience with HP from Z800, Z820, Z840 and now Z8 G4 so I can say I am an advanced user) 1. Windows 10 Pro for Workstation newly installed 2. SSD I bought new Samsung 970 Plus 2TB to replace the previous WD SN740 nvme 256GB 3. Temperature monitoring with CSV log of HWiNFor64 for DTS temperature for CPU and GPU (All are below 85 degrees) 4. I removed all Raid Card and 2nd SSD leaving only Video Card Nvidia A4000 and Samsung 970 Evo 5. Ram swapped, I only have 4 total 16GB sticks, instead of running 4, I run 2x16 to 32GB (and swapped in combination) Result still freezing... Looking at the temperature of HWiNFor64, it is around 80 slightly (Maybe in that case HWiNFor64 does not update correctly Realtime) 6. BIOS latest update v02.94 7. Windows to power plan is Utimate Perfomance And the result is still freezing as usual when the temperature is above 90 degrees with the power plan is Utimate Perfomance (What I know is that high temperature CPU will reduce clock, or suddenly power off, but mine is freezing, all fans are still spinning and can not receive any response from the computer by external devices. I only except pressing the Power key to turn off the power and restart after 15-30 seconds) Currently I only leave it at Hight Perfomance and do not dare to leave Utimate Perfomnance, everything works well and nothing happens, I have tried for more than 2 days the time up is still at the load as I tried with Utimate Perfomance All the above factors I eliminate software, and only related to hardware. The main problem is that I cannot identify which part is faulty to exchange for the supplier, because I buy components from many different suppliers. The only thing I run is Android virtual machine LDPlayer about 4-5 virtual machines, the configuration I set 2CPU - 4GB ram If I chose windows in Balanced or Hight Performance power state, there is almost no problem. All my components are warranted for 12 months and I cannot know where the fault is to receive this warranty.

Sorry about the delay. Thank you for the detailed response. Eliminating the possibility of the OS being the cause really hammers down on one hardware component that’s causing the issue. Given that the issue can be simulated only when using Ultimate Performance mode that would it suggest that under high the Ultimate performance mode there is a hardware component that is unable to keep up with power demands. Looking at HP published information regarding what changes occur between each mode, the following settings are adjusted: CPU power limits • GPU power limits (where applicable) • System power limits • Thermal limits • Fan control settings and acoustics (doc link: h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA8-2411ENW ). Which CPUs do you have in your system? It could be that they are not compatible with the ultimate performance mode (e.g. processor voltages exceeding the ideal range - but I wouldn’t expect that to be an issue with HP). Why do you require Ultimate performance mode? Could you attain higher efficiency by retaining performance mode but upgrading your current hardware? The only way to establish which component is at fault is to test the system in Ultimate performance mode with each hardware component switched out during test runs. I would start with the CPUs, but that would not be easy to just switch out!

Thank you for sharing - I had not seen this video before but they do provide some guidance on how to fit the HDD support bracing. However, even this official video fails to give any guidance on how to install the HDD trays. How that detail could be overlooked for so many years I am uncertain but at least it's now covered.

Hi there. This was my first video and the audio was bad - apologies for that. The views on this video inspired my continuation with this channel - and I remade this origin video 1 year later - slightly better audio: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Im5xUJSIn4c.html If you would like to see what 2 years of part time RU-vid experience does to the ability to make video - give this one a go: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-z7Ff2zs5ByM.html If still not to your liking I need to retire lol.

It's a touchy topic actually. I read up on HP's fine print because I had filmed a video on how to use HP Performance Advisor. Every company is different and what they allow is usually hidden somewhere within their terms of service etc. The HP fine print lead me to conclude it may not be wise to cover their software product in a dedicated video. I am guessing from the lack of coverage online from anyone other than HP that more or less cements the idea. I added a short section in the recent video because it was the only way for me to get decent footage of the BIOS (I have had trouble recording the BIOS screens - my capture card doesn't operate until it loads a driver and video camera footage has the screen flicker). But I am glad you found that useful. It is a really helpful software package if you enjoy HP workstations. Talking helpful, I may just as well start sharing this since it may have benefit. I had a vision of creating an interactive digital flow chart with useful software organized according to their purpose. I haven't quite got it to what I had envisioned, but through using draw.io I managed to create something resembling what I had in mind: racerrrz.com/software/ You'll find a file download at the bottom of the page. When you download the .svg file - open it in Edge - let it load - then zoom out massively. It should render a large workspace with useful software that are all hyperlinked. The .svg file can be moved around so it is portable map - great to get quick access to some common software packages. Oh and yes that means I am slowly working on building a website for the channel.lol

Hi there. Unfortunately no. I was hoping that it did but it lacks a PLX chip. It does have PLP built in which is a decent add-on. The PLX capable NVMe adapters tend to cost 3-4x more than the regular NVMe adapters. For a handy list of PCIe NVMe adapters that do support PLX - check out this link: forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/multi-nvme-m-2-u-2-adapters-that-do-not-require-bifurcation.31172/

@@racerrrz Nice, thank you for the Link!

Nice, those are some solid numbers - plus they were quite similar to the speeds I got on my Z840! The Z4 G4 is a solid performer for the price point. It's great to hear the Z4 G4 has responded well to the HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro. In terms of getting the Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro to work on non-HP systems - I believe that will be technically quite challenging. HP has a tendency to introduce proprietary pinout changes and I recall reading that the NVMe adapters have a built in circuit loop that is responsible for detecting the HP card - and if the HP motherboard doesn't provide the correct signal the card never boots up. I am not aware of firmware hacks to bypass this but I have read of a transistor mod. This would be somewhat risky unless you are electrically confident. forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/hp-z-turbo-drive-quad-pro.11996/

HP Performance Advisor est très utile et il facilite le travail sur votre BIOS à partir de votre système d'exploitation. Bravo pour obtenir votre configuration de piscine PCIe NVME! Quelle sorte de vitesses obtenez-vous? (Traduit avec Google Translate)

Aren't the 5.25" bays normally just a rectangular box? I guess the 5.25" bays will be good for that hardware throwback - but I only ever had CD players/writers in them - the floppy disk readers were a bit smaller at least lol.

@@racerrrz There's rail on each side so you can slide in 5.25" device (like a CD). I uses mine for a card reader and a 4 X 2.5" SSD removable rack

@@racerrrz in fact you rotate the bezel in the front plate, and to unlock the 5.25" device you push the yellow button with a green arrow.

I do like how HP supplies drive screws with their case, but not all used cases still have them all in place!

@@racerrrz In fact I was a little wrong... The black screws are for the 5.25" bays. For the 3.5" bays, as you said, the screws in your Z400 are missing, sorry...

Indeed. The prices are wildly variable depending on where you are located. I do like using Ebay and Amazon pricing as a baseline for the purchasing decision. If the local prices are double the Ebay prices I would rather consider importing it - with taxes and customs fees generally still making it cheaper than local prices. The Z440 has actually retained it's value relatively well but the motherboards can be sourced cheaply. I have done a guide for how to case swap the Z440 motherboard which would make obtaining the system more viable - pending being able to source all the individual components to get the system running.

Thank you for your feedback. For the most part my videos have been impression locked - thumbnail impressions appear to be linked to subscriber count from my analytics interpretation. As I have gained more subs I have been allocated more impressions - which results in more views if I don't botch the thumbnail (which is logical - but sub count appears to be coded in as a view multiplier.) I believe this content will appeal to several thousands if not millions of people but then I am biased as the creator lol. The HP Z8 G4 is stepping up as the Z840's replacement and prices are gradually coming down. I have seen several reports of the Z840 being able to run Win 11 which will boost it's longevity (I may need to cover that process in a video tutorial). It's still cheaper to get a top spec Z840 (dual Xeon E5-2699 V4's are cheap relative to the Z8 G4's equivalent cores - say dual Gold 6262's.) For comparison: www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5158.2vs2753.2/%5BDual-CPU%5D-Intel-Xeon-Gold-6262-vs-%5BDual-CPU%5D-Intel-Xeon-E5-2699-v4 But what I do like about getting the Z8 G4 now is that you get to enjoy half decent performance until CPU prices reach a point that you can get the high spec CPUs for a decent price. The HP Z6 G4 is also a decent option if you don't require dual CPUs. I have made good progress with the CPU fitment tutorial / guide video. It’s a little complicated because I have 4 hours’ worth of footage for ~3 tutorials (single CPU fitment process, dual CPU fitment, and dual CPU fitment with thermal paste removal and application). I am aiming to condense it down to ~ 30-40min.

Hi there. Sorry RU-vid flagged your comment but I managed to retrieve it. The case is definitely designed to be standing upright but if you had to place it on it's side it should sustain that without too much hassle. Given the weight of everything in there it could well fall over if knocked into - especially with pets etc. There are air vents on the sides of the front fascia panel which may be obscured if laid down onto carpet. If mounted into a shelf or rack it would work quite well to lay it flat onto the rear panel.

@@racerrrz you mean my comment was to be deleted? Oh RU-vid... Thank you for the quick reply! I appreciate it. I wasn't considering carpet, but table with a large enough surface area to be laid down. Again, thanks.

They are really similar in performance overall and it really comes down to which system you can obtain for less. Generally the Dell workstations are cheaper than the HP workstations (despite being of similar specifications). I have opted for the HP Z840 due to availability and good pricing when I bought. There are some subtle differences that would place the HP Z840 above the Dell in terms of performance. The Dell T7910 has a 1300W PSU, the HP Z840 has 1450W; the Dell T7910 has 1x 1GbE port, the HP Z840 has 2x 1GbE ports, the Dell T7910 has 4x PCIe 3.0 x 16 slots, one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x4 and one PCIe slot, where the Z840 has 3x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, two PCIe 3.0 x8 slots and one PCIe 3.0 x4 and one PCIe 2.0 x1. There are other differences but overall these two systems cater for similar hardware needs. The only other benefit for the Z840 is that I have done several tutorial videos for upgrades on them - which gives you a heap of inspiration for mods. Check out my full HP Z840 overview video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2bie4EGJZL0.html Let us know which one you settle on!

@@racerrrz I like the sata ports on the z840, the Z840 has many sata ports. However, I don't like the fan system that cools the CPU and RAM, it makes noise like a jet engine. I'm looking to see if there is another way to replace the heatsink for the Z840, noctua is an alternative

@@sachsongkhoe The CPU fans only make noise on start up - there after the system does maintain a low noise level. HP places a lot of engineering into the acoustics of their workstations - hence the complex fan shroud. With the lowest fan speed setting selected the system produces a whisper like level of noise. But that does give me some ideas - I may see if I can record the noise level for the HP workstations for an upcoming video giving an overview of four generations of the Z8xx workstations. In terms of cooling upgrades, the best path to take is to fit the HP Z Coolers. I did a fitment guide and I have tested their effectivity. They offer a decent 5'C CPU temp reduction without having to increase fan speeds - this could be increased with better thermal paste solutions also.

@@racerrrz If we use HP Z Coolers instead, we will remove the RAM cooler, right?

Sorry slow reply here, I didn't get a notification about your message. The Z Coolers are a straight upgrade over the stock coolers and they will not require you to remove the RAM cooler - it was designed to work with the RAM cooling unit. So you just slot the Z Coolers in and you get a decent drop in CPU temps. I did a full guide video on the Z840's Z Coolers if you wanted to check how they fit up and how well they work: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q3YFqH5pdDA.html

That's a good question. Technically they will fit but there is a limitation that will prevent the system from detecting more than 1 NVMe in these adapters - bifurcation. The Z400, Z600, Z800, Z420, Z620 and Z820 lack bifurcation support in the BIOS. There are some technical workarounds that may work but they come at a cost. One that is worth consideration is a NVMe PCIe adapter with a PLX chip - which would allow bifurcation to be managed independent of the motherboard. I have not had the privilege of testing them out (mostly due to cost) - but that would be the only way that you could get multiple NVMes on the single PCIe slot for the older workstations.

How you managed to get a Z8 G4 for $100 I have no idea and you may not see that price again for at least a decade! So a steal - well done! Great choice with the Gold 6148s. For the price point you get a massive 40 cores and 80 threads. Add in Linux and you have a beast. What are your future plans for the system?

@@racerrrz don't know some dude was selling it, he wanted a gaming machine... I am running Win 11 Pro on it, so it sees both processors.... Currently, I edit some video and play some games and do some stats on R, which runs super fast, puts my work machine to shame. I tell no body that I do my work on it, and finish super fast, haha I also have the Z800 and that has 2 CPUs of older Xeon and still a great workstation too, running 10 Pro.

No complains there then, you obtained an absolute beast that can be upgraded to handle some fairly intensive workloads. They game well enough - I get to enjoy 4K 60FPS in most games while using the Gold 6142's. I will keep an eye on prices for the Cascade Lake Xeons - if I can get more cores with higher clock speeds and faster RAM I will be satisfied for a while yet. The Z800 is getting along in the years but with their hardware prices being so low you can get a system up with the top spec CPUs for a half decent price. They still work well as home servers too.

@@racerrrz i got the Z800 for free, some guy was giving it away on FB Marketplace, so no complaints at all (came with one cpu and added the 2nd cheap, don't even remember what it is anymore as my attention has shifted in using my Z8), and i can later turn it into maybe like a NAS server running FreeBSD. my graphics card is only a 1080 on the Z8 so later want to get better graphics card...

Sorry I didn't get notified of your reply. Nice, a free Z800 gives you room to push it to the limit without worry, no initial investment haha. I think converting a Z800 to a home server is ideal - you could load it up with different OS depending on your needs. Add in some VMs and you have everything running from one system. The GTX 1080 remains a hero card - I would use it until it fails haha.

I am glad you found it useful. Did you manage to obtain a Z240 and if so what specs have you got on your system?

​@@racerrrz Hi. Yes, following your review I have got myself a z240 (HP Z240 Tower Workstation Core i7 6700 32GB RAM 256GB SSD 1TB HDD NVIDIA WIN 10 NVIDIA QUADRO K620) for $AU250, ie. almost nothing. I'll be adding to it with an NVIDIA 3060 and a Crucial 500gb P5 M2 NVME card. I've been using a z230 for the past few years, which I like a lot (such a well-engineered box!), but it couldn't fit the new 3060 and wasn't going to play well with the NVME card, so I'm glad to see the z240 can handle these things.

For the price point that they go for it really is a good deal. The RTX 3060 should be a perfect match for modern titles in the Z240. The Z230 is a solid performer but it is a little on the old side now. I am sure the Z240 will cover all the needs you may run into, until you decide you need even more power that is (why does that always seem to happen lol). Enjoy the Z240 for the time being. The M.2 NVMe slot on the motherboard is quite handy - and it remains one of the only HP workstations with that feature (some of latest release workstations have slots on the board also - like the HP Z8 G5).

Thanks, I am glad you have found the videos helpful. For multi-purpose I would like to think the Z440 would serve you better since it has higher clock speeds available. From a pure server perspective the Z820 would work better since you'll have more cores to allocate to tasks. I would go Z440 and get it all geared up. If you run short on PCIe slots you could consider case swapping it into a larger case. I have all my PCIe slots in use on my Z440. Add in a GPU mounted to a riser cable and you have a solid multi-purpose system.

You can complete a RAID for any storage devices in your system and you are in luck because I just released a video guide on how to do this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NzncGJJV5qk.html Your RAID configuration would need to be matched with your end-purpose. I use RAID 0 stripe for transfer speed with NVMes, RAID 1 Mirror for SSDs and HDDs for critical data and RAID 5 for long term storage of critical data.

I have updated the BIOS to the latest version - and I'll check out resizable bar. I had hoped to get a video out of the BIOS update but getting screen recording from the BIOS screen is a challenge - plus pointing a camera at a screen just doesn't look good.lol.

​@@racerrrz would love to see a video on this!

@@adibsadman4094 I will give it go! I'll have to get creative to see if I can get a capture card to function pre-OS. The last time I tried I just received a blue screen output until windows loaded. But maybe I can get a camera pointing at a monitor without it flickering away.

That makes sense. The GUI seemed a tad uninformative in terms of how the RAID was being set up but it's good to know there is a way to get a true stripe. I imagine the performance would be the same or at least similar if set up correctly. For something that can be quite simple it seems odd that it becomes so difficult to get it going in Storage Spaces. I don't mind Device Management - quick and easy and it gets decent performance.

I really can't complain because it is fully out of the way when mounted right up top - which frees up the lower PCIe slots for other expansions.

Nice. That's not a faint-hearted upgrade! Which Cascade Lakes are you eyeing up? I am keeping a watchful eye on pricing for several Cascake Lake Xeons. Thus far their prices have dropped a little but I am hoping for more of a shift before I commit. I have 256GB worth of DDR4 2933MHz ECC Reg. modules ready to drop in - I just need the CPUs to support them. Fitment of DCPMM memory modules would open up doors for some extra features - like RAMDisks and two-level memory architecture. What was your end-use application for the Optane persistent memory modules?

@@racerrrz im looking a a machine with 2x4214 and a 1850w ps for 500, lowest price this week on ebay is about 100.00 for the 4214. I would be a big downgrade from the pair of 6140s I have now. The use case for me is more VMs and a large ram disk. and get rid of the vmware mitigations.

Nice. The price is decent but yes the CPUs are not the brightest given that they peak at 2400MHz memory speeds and the lack of support for Optane persistent memory is a bummer on them. I suspect the Xeons that support the Optane DCPMM memory will still cost a small fortune (~$800 USD for x2, pending model). But more cores will always be better for VMs - allowing allocation of more overhead to a VM is nice.

Thank you for the feedback. For which part of the video? Likely all of it could do with better quality, sorry about that. I managed to tweak my Logitech Brio 4k webcam green screen footage to get closer to 60fps after this video (I believe it was 30FPS with some odd stutter glitch effect introduced by either the NVIDIA Broadcast software or the USB 3.0 port - not intended). I use a GoPro Hero 10 for the action shots but it really doesn't like near focus shots and yields out of focus content often. My main camera is a Nikon D5600 which is far from ideal for video work but it's what I have for now. Better lighting has helped to improve the quality a bunch in my newer videos.

Sorry RU-vid flagged your comment - I retrieved it. The GPU sizing with the PCIe cover is really just catered towards the Quadro workstation GPUs. I don't have access to all that many GPUs but for the ones I have tired none of my gaming GPUs have cleared the PCIe chamber cover (not even my GTX 970 cleared!). Width is more or less unlimited by current GPU sizing standards - you can fit a 3.5 slot wide GPU or even larger - but you will have to forgo that lower PCIe shroud. It's good to hear your RTX 3050 is sort of clearing. On my Z800 I initially made a notch on one of the PCIe shroud fins to give enough clearance, but I have just not run that shroud on any of my systems due to clearance issues. Even my Z8 G4 right now has the PCIe panel shroud removed lol.

For the Z840 I would say the Z Coolers are well worth the cost. They retain decent CPU temperatures even on the lowest fan setting. In my testing I had a 5'C drop over the stock coolers without adjusting fan speeds etc. Plus from a design perspective they are fully optimised for acoustics with the 3D Vapor chamber. My video review for them: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q3YFqH5pdDA.html

Technically no, the Z840's PSU has a fully proprietary system which makes it near impossible to get a second PSU connected. In saying that, there is a custom wire loom that I have tested which managed to power the Z840's motherboard independent of the original PSU. That may allow you to get a custom dual PSU connected (side note, the new HP Z8 G5 has dual redundant PSUs). I have not made a video on the Z840's PSU cable - technically because I am not sure how reliable it is, and thus I would not endorse it as "reliable". But if you are curious / need something extreme: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Rsr_zxOg6K8.html

I am glad you found the video useful. I would settle on one 6-pin to 8-pin connector to power the RTX 3060. The HP workstation PSU outputs 12.2V at 18Amps on that 6-pin cable which nets ~219W max on the 6-pin. So you can quite comfortably power a single 8-pin plug (rated to 150W normally) with one 6-pin cable (rated to 75W normally but HP over-engineers their cable).

I haven't had the need just yet but it is nice to know that there are some aftermarket offerings. The Noctua NH-U14S DX-3647 should be a solid performer. I imagine clearance might be an issue but given the lack of a complicated CPU fan shroud on these systems it may well be quite feasible to upgrade. I have kept my system on the lowest fan speed setting and I suspect that will need to increase with more power hungry CPUs. What I will add is that HP normally designs a custom set of high performance coolers but on the Z8 G4 there was no such offering. That either means it was never required (assuming the stock cooler is highly efficient) or it was too much work to design two unique coolers due to the socket designs on the LGA 3647 lineup. As for which is the best way to go I am not sure but what I can say is that my Gold 6142's with stock thermal paste routinely reached 95'C which is too high. Faster fan speeds should negate that issue but at a higher BIOS setting the system's noise increases a lot.

Thank you, you did well to notice that effect. The color hue looked quite good so I decided to keep it in. Call it an old school camera trick but it worked well enough. I need to do more of it but I don't always remember to take that extra step to capture something creative when filming. I do still need to work on lighting, that's one thing that can always be improved upon.

Sorry about that. I tend to only run Ethernet cable because wifi is unstable and it tends to not be all that reliable. I also had too few PCIe slots to retain a wifi card, but it is nice to have one for Bluetooth functions. Thinking about it, I only have one video where I have handled and installed a wifi card and that was in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-f53BllHQlEg.html . In my most recent Mini PC build I actually removed the system's wifi card to make space for a 2.5GbE NIC. So I guess you have caught me there, I need to refit the ideal of fitting a wifi card!

Thank you for your feedback, much appreciated. I'll have to work on that one but naturally I can't hide forever. My vision when I started the channel was a grande face reveal but I am not sure when. In terms of the best value machine, I might give that title to the HP Z4 G4 at the moment. You can source a Z4 G4 motherboard for nearly the same cost as a Z440 motherboard (check ebay!). Running on the LGA2066 socket and being Win 11 ready makes them the logical upgrade for a daily driver. If you really want to drop down the power bill something like the HP Prodesk G6 could be a nice way to get the basics done. But you want some serious hardware I would place emphasis on the Z4 G4 for the time being.

@@racerrrz Well, face reveal... sooner the better. :) Maybe I will just have to get solar panels on my roof to power all the HP Workstations I want to get. Hahaha. :)

@@racerrrz P.S... Just an asside. I did order an HP Proliant ML310e Xeon E31220 V3, I am going to max it out on RAM, and use it as a TrueNas Scale NAS. The power supply isn't crazy, I'm not going to be running the hard drives that often, I just want it to be a cool looking vault for my critical information. I wish I could get another one for a "general daily driver" and have them both side by side, looking sweet. LOL. We gota make it look good right? :)

Well done, they say great minds think alike and by that logic I applaud your ingenuity. The tolerance under the GPU is quite limiting but certain GPUs would have more clearance than others. Great thinking with the 3D printer also - finding a way to get these adapters to mount remains a tad tricky. My cheapest logic was a longer riser cable that would allow the adapter to be routed to a new location inside the case. Had my GPU power cables fit inside the case I likely would have worked on a method to mount the riser extension above the GPU / on the GPU backplane. The extra external power also helps overcome the limitations of your T7810 system.

Thank you for your support from the start. This video marks the first of many workstation videos and it's cool to see the progress I have made with refining the tutorials. They can only keep improving! Workstation prices will vary but generally there are some really good prices to be had. I am keeping my eyes open for a well priced HP Z2 G4 or even HP Z4 G4 for some content.

Great question. I should really update the video description with some links to them (I added one that appears to be authentic - great price limited stock). Due to the large volume of counterfeit NICs on the market I did everything I could to try to validate the items before I bought. There is always going to be some risk on used purchases but there are several things you can do to reduce the risk: 1) Check for genuine photos of the item with clear "Intel" branding on the item. 2) A Yottamark or BradyID sticker is a great start but even these can be counterfeit stickers that resemble the authentic sticker. But at least ensuring photos are present with a clear sticker makes it more likely to be authentic. 3) There are a number of variants of these NICs - some of which are derived from different manufacturers. I opted for the genuine Intel items but there could be other brands that would be worth the expense. Comparing photos of the items you look to purchase to known authentic items is a good way to go. If the labels look odd it's likely a fake. Packaging is also a give away - ensuring they come packaged with original packaging and instructions makes it more likely to be authentic. 4) Pricing - if it is too cheap to be true you can be certain it is a fake. My pair of NICs set me back ~$105 USD each, with cheap alternatives costing ~ $12 USD - $40 USD (at the time). 5) Seller reputation. If the seller is an authorized distributor or at least has a lot of sales it will be more likely that the item is a genuine server pull. Mine came out of America. 6) Use Intel ProSet Adapter Configuration Utility to check if the NIC adapters detect ok. Mine detected fine but they still had a tendency to overheat on full load. I installed a dedicated fan to increase airflow over them and that resolved that issue. 7) Check for fine print on the RJ-45 Port housings - Genuine items will have print on them - a lot of the cheaper fake items have no printing on these connectors. In saying all of that I have bought one of the cheap X540-T2 NICs and that has worked. As for how long it will last I can't be sure but it was for a non-critical server build that has been going strong for ~ 4months now. Adding extra cooling on the NIC was required to prevent thermal issues. But for $12 USD off AliExpress I can't really complain - it's netted ~ 4-6 GbE.

Your issue with dual CPUs was quite strange. I have not had any issues with dual CPUs in any of my HP workstations. Maybe the socket had a bent pin or the CPU had some damage? If you aren't able to confirm that both sockets are fully functional you will likely be better off spending on a powerful single CPU. I haven't been able to confirm this but I do suspect the Intel Xeon W's with LGA 3647 socket will support single socket operation in the HP Z8 G4. My pick would be the Intel Xeon W-3245M on price point. This CPU is supported by the HP Z6 G4 and since these systems share the same BIOS I would expect the same CPUs to be listed in the BIOS CPU registry. The only snag is that I have found no HP Z8 G4 systems online with a Intel Xeon W CPU fitted - so maybe it doesn't work. The safe choice is still a solid Xeon Gold or Platinum CPU. High clock speeds should be fine for your applications - so aim for the highest clock speed CPU your budget allows.

Looking at the case design I am not 100% certain that it would fit. The right hand side and bottom of the motherboard mounting appears to be recessed which may prevent the Z440's larger than ATX motherboard from fitting correctly. I like the case's design so it would be cool to see if it works.