Upgrade HP Z400 workstation to Xeon W3690 \ VOGONS

Upgrade HP Z400 workstation to Xeon W3690

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First post, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2023-02-12, 16:04

wbahnassi Offline

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Joined: 2020-06-03, 00:45

Hi guys, I have an HP Z400 workstation with a Xeon W3520 installed. I want to juice it out a bit more, so I found that the Xeon W3690 seems to be the most powerful LGA1366 processor. But I'm not sure the mobo could take it. I mean the socket is correct, but what about power/heat/BIOS? Especially that according to the HP z400 official specs, it was not one of the options:
https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c01709672

I don't know if they didn't list it because it wasn't out at the time or because the machine can't handle it. Any insights on whether I should take the chance or even better alternatives? I don't mind buying it anyways as long as it doesn't burn my mobo during testing 😀 As I like this machine a lot thanks to its ability to run a fully native DOS setup with sound card and floppy drives, while it is still able to push Windows 11!

Cheers!

Turbo XT 12MHz, 8-bit VGA, Dual 360K drives
Intel 386 DX-33, Speedstar 24X, SB 1.5, 1x CD
Intel 486 DX2-66, CL5428 VLB, SBPro 2, 2x CD
Intel Pentium 90, Matrox Millenium 2, SB16, 4x CD
HP Z400, Xeon 3.46GHz, YMF-744, Voodoo3, RTX2080Ti

Reply 1 of 5, by pentiumspeed

Posted on 2023-02-12, 18:08

pentiumspeed Offline

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No problem handling this processor.

Just in case, do you have same type of heatsink like this? This is 3 heat pipes type and is for this 130W processor.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/266030286219?hash=ite … ABk9SR-yc_ezIYQ

There is another heatsink but this is 2 heatpipes and will not handle more than 80W of heat at peak.

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 2 of 5, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2023-02-12, 19:37

wbahnassi Offline

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pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-02-12, 18:08:

No problem handling this processor.

Just in case, do you have same type of heatsink like this? This is 3 heat pipes type and is for this 130W processor.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/266030286219?hash=ite … ABk9SR-yc_ezIYQ

I have the same heatsink as the eBay listing. Same part number. So this one should be sufficient, right?

The attachment 20230212_143046.jpg is no longer available

Reply 3 of 5, by pentiumspeed

Posted on 2023-02-12, 19:45

pentiumspeed Offline

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Perfect.

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 4 of 5, by wbahnassi

Posted on 2023-02-22, 18:26

wbahnassi Offline

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Joined: 2020-06-03, 00:45

Got the new processor installed. Man, that's quite a perf boost! Really happy with how Windows 11 now performs. Video editing is about 1.5x faster too on a single thread. I must test perf on DOS to see how slow this guy goes.. the previous processor was slowing down to a 386 DX 33Mhz machine... Gotta see how well this guy does.

Cheers!

Reply 5 of 5, by Errius

Posted on 2023-02-22, 20:34

Errius Offline

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One thing to watch out for with these old systems is the CPU's power saving features that cause it to throttle down when 'inactive'.

If you're doing a lot of Windows Explorer type activity (saving/renaming/listing/moving/etc files) the CPU speed will go up/down chaotically and will give you an unpleasant experience.

Go into BIOS and disable EIST, C1E and C-states. Your machine will be much snappier. (But will also consume more power.)

Is this too much voodoo?

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