VOGONS


My "new" HP Z400 Workstation.

Topic actions

First post, by Anaxagoras

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Few months ago my IT coworkers told me that they had something that might interest me.
I followed them and I saw it, a HP Z400 Workstation in apparently excellent condition! And I as checked later it worked perfect!

In the past week I finish the setup with a RAM and graphics upgrade (with a little help from you). Before of this I installed two hard drives of 3 and 1 TB.

And now this computer is my main PC. At the moment the only thing that I miss is the USB 3.0 ports but I think that I can solve with a controller card.

CPU: Intel Xeon W3520
RAM: 16GB.
HD1: 3TB.
HD2: 1TB.
GPU: NVIDIA Quadro 5000

20190417_123030.jpg
Filename
20190417_123030.jpg
File size
904.79 KiB
Views
3512 views
File comment
Front
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
20191127_115016.jpg
Filename
20191127_115016.jpg
File size
1.5 MiB
Views
3512 views
File comment
Rear
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
20191127_114554.jpg
Filename
20191127_114554.jpg
File size
871.67 KiB
Views
3512 views
File comment
Inside
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

My computers

qp92nk-6.png

Reply 3 of 26, by chinny22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Nice,
The company I work that just dusted off their Z400 has a single W3520 @ 2.66 GHz and NVS295 so yours is loads better then that. (it does have 32MB ram though)
Yours is now similar spec to his primary PC a Z840 with duel E5-2667 v3 @ 3.20GHz and Quadro K5200, although that things got 512GB ram!

Both are running Win7, upgrading workstation software is never fun

Reply 4 of 26, by Intel486dx33

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Here is my 6-core 32gb HP z400 and HP z800 with 12-cores and 48gb.
both with HP liquid cooling.
I put SSD's in both and they perform pretty good.
I sold them about 2 years ago.
They where just to BIG and Loud.

I use an HP 6300 mid-tower today with i5 CPU and 16gb ram and SSD.

Attachments

  • HP Z400-800.jpeg
    Filename
    HP Z400-800.jpeg
    File size
    316.7 KiB
    Views
    3378 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 5 of 26, by Anaxagoras

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
chinny22 wrote:

Both are running Win7, upgrading workstation software is never fun

I installed Windows 10 from scratch without problems, but the frontal headphones doesn't work due the Microsoft drivers fails with it. The solution is to install Realtek drivers.

Intel486dx33 wrote:

Here is my 6-core 32gb HP z400 and HP z800 with 12-cores and 48gb.

As I read in technical specifications the maximum supported RAM is 16GB. If I had known before...
Well, now I know it. 😖

My computers

qp92nk-6.png

Reply 6 of 26, by Intel486dx33

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Anaxagoras wrote:
I installed Windows 10 from scratch without problems, but the frontal headphones doesn't work due the Microsoft drivers fails wi […]
Show full quote
chinny22 wrote:

Both are running Win7, upgrading workstation software is never fun

I installed Windows 10 from scratch without problems, but the frontal headphones doesn't work due the Microsoft drivers fails with it. The solution is to install Realtek drivers.

Intel486dx33 wrote:

Here is my 6-core 32gb HP z400 and HP z800 with 12-cores and 48gb.

As I read in technical specifications the maximum supported RAM is 16GB. If I had known before...
Well, now I know it. 😖

Oh, Sorry, I must have confused with my HP z420.

You can also use a PCI SSD adapter if you want to install a faster SSD but it does not support Nvme SSD’s.

Reply 7 of 26, by pentiumspeed

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Intel486dx33 wrote:
Here is my 6-core 32gb HP z400 and HP z800 with 12-cores and 48gb. both with HP liquid cooling. I put SSD's in both and they per […]
Show full quote

Here is my 6-core 32gb HP z400 and HP z800 with 12-cores and 48gb.
both with HP liquid cooling.
I put SSD's in both and they perform pretty good.
I sold them about 2 years ago.
They where just to BIG and Loud.

I use an HP 6300 mid-tower today with i5 CPU and 16gb ram and SSD.

Big? That's hardly a PC, that's proper PC!
Loud? The bios settings has fan speed settings is set too high, adjust it down to one or zero for quiet and does cool enough.

I have number of HP business and workstations so i know what they have.

Cheers, Jason

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 8 of 26, by Anaxagoras

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
pentiumspeed wrote:
Big? That's hardly a PC, that's proper PC! Loud? The bios settings has fan speed settings is set too high, adjust it down to o […]
Show full quote

Big? That's hardly a PC, that's proper PC!
Loud? The bios settings has fan speed settings is set too high, adjust it down to one or zero for quiet and does cool enough.

I have number of HP business and workstations so i know what they have.

Cheers, Jason

It's a little more big than normal PC tower, heavy due very good chassis but not noisy. I'm talking about from the standard or the default components in a PC.
In BIOS I configured the fan speed to minimum and controlled by OS, with this I only hear noise when I played high resource demanding games. But in that case the volume of sound of game mask it 😅

My computers

qp92nk-6.png

Reply 9 of 26, by oeuvre

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I have a Z420 and the stock fan is a bit noisy... replaced it with an Arctic F9 PWM and it runs very quiet now, even with BIOS fan speed set to the lowest setting.

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif

Reply 10 of 26, by pentiumspeed

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
oeuvre wrote:

I have a Z420 and the stock fan is a bit noisy... replaced it with an Arctic F9 PWM and it runs very quiet now, even with BIOS fan speed set to the lowest setting.

Which noisy fan in your Z420? I have Z420 v2 as well (ivy bridge support).

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 12 of 26, by pentiumspeed

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
oeuvre wrote:

The one on the back of the case. The heatsink fan is fine.

I do that all the time too, changing the too lightweight fan for another even the heatsink fan as well in my business & workstation HP and Dell.

Cheers, Jason

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 13 of 26, by eisapc

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

The Z400 is surely an upcoming high quality retro system that can actually be pursued for a very good price. Got myself a Z400, two Z600 and a Z800 after finding the Win7 restore CDs in company scrap. Super solid high quality systems, designed for every day use. The Z800 was equipped with an Nvidia 1060 and is my main gaming system. Z600 and Z800 are dual CPU and more noisy than the Z400 as a single CPU box.
eisapc

Reply 14 of 26, by pentiumspeed

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Think of the 400, z220 and z230 as "used to be expensive" yet quality toy with ECC and one x16 slot computers based on 128bit memory bus using 4 memory slots except 400 sometimes has 4 slot or 6 slot memory depending on motherboard.

To step up to real thing; one should start with 600, Zx40 series which has much more wider and faster (1866MHz) memory bus and larger memory capacity, more cores as well plus capable of doing SLI or crossfire due to two physical x16 slots. Z440 is start of DDR4 support and haswell.
Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 16 of 26, by Intel486dx33

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

These sound really good with a Sound Blaster Audigy 2zs and Klipsch Pro media speakers.
Plug and Play with MS-Windows and Linux.
Or Terratec sound cards.

Attachments

  • IMG_0542.jpg
    Filename
    IMG_0542.jpg
    File size
    861.15 KiB
    Views
    3015 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • IMG_0332.jpg
    Filename
    IMG_0332.jpg
    File size
    708.9 KiB
    Views
    3015 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • IMG_0538.jpg
    Filename
    IMG_0538.jpg
    File size
    1.54 MiB
    Views
    3015 views
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 17 of 26, by Scraphoarder

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Nice Z400 you got there. I use a Z820 as my main computer at work and a Z800 at home. The Z800 has 2x E5606 2.13 GHz quads and 96GB ram, but i have on the shelve 2x Xeon X5698 4.4 GHz dual cores and the original HP watercooling kit. Planning to upgrade it sometime, but it isnt used very much at the moment. It also came with a Quadro 6000, but put in a Geforce GTX 960.

Reply 19 of 26, by Scraphoarder

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Errius wrote:

X5698? Those are unobtanium. Where did you get yours?

eta: I see they're currently selling for $1,500 each on eBay.

I got them on from a Canadian seller on eBay 3 years ago. Paid $700 (CAD) inc shipping for the pair. Those were not ES versions that also floated around that time.