Howdy!!
As mentioned previously I have another batch of the Z640s available. This time they have 32Gb Ram
HP Z640 Tower
Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 3.50Ghz 6C/12T
32Gb DDR4 ECC Ram
240Gb SSD
Quadro M6000 12Gb
Win 10 Pro
All units also have the HP 4 Bay 2.5" STORAGE DRIVE CAGE installed too
Looks like there’s less than 10 32GB left in stock for anyone still considering.
shows "More than 10 avaliable / 79 sold " for me. .
how big is the PSU?
Been waiting for this one! Weird, I did set an alert, but glad I checked. I bought one :
For anyone wondering. Pros:
Downsides:
- Everything is proprietary, forget about case transplants, using custom PSU and all of that
- Weak single threaded performance, do no buy if you need high IPC!
- No M.2, but can use a PCIe M.2 adapter, though you will lose a PCIe slot
- Doesn't work with desktop DDR4 and Registered ECC DDR4 is not cheap
Thanks for the extensive write up! Will these ECC Registered 32GB RAMs work on normal consumer grade DDR4 boards? Thinking of keeping these for my future build..
Nope they do not I'm afraid. Only retail boards that work are something like Huananzhi X79/X99 boards from AliExpress.
Gotcha, that sucks but understandable.
Might work with ryzen.
To quote this line: "Supports 18 and 22 core CPUs (not cheap)"
Here is an 18 Core CPU for $145AUD +/- $10
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003645020411.html
I think this is cheap enough to justify the purchase. What do you think?
Well how about that :D
If you make a video on a system with those CPU's in it you might make the prices of the 2696v3 CPU's go through the roof HAHA
@harryozz: I already have the 2699V3 but lusting after one the 22 Core V4 CPUs. Half the fun is upgrading these machines 🤣
@PhilsComputerLab: Exactly right haha.
I think if you give it another 3 months the 2696v4 CPU's will become more affordable.
They cost $300 at the moment, i was thinking of buying some at $200.
@PhilsComputerLab: You sound like you're in the know, any reason a lower TDP CPU like the E5-2650L v3 couldn't be slapped in to this?
Seem dirt cheap on aliexpress too
@PhilsComputerLab: Legend, thanks for the quick reply. That's made me pull the trigger to have a play around with a home box finally. Will swap the GPU out, slap that CPU in, and have a lower TDP box/fileserver/docker… thing
….Spoke to soon, out of stock -_-
@tellhimhesdreaming: 16GB is still available.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-Z640-Tower-Xeon-E5-1650-v3-3-…
ECC RAM is cheap if you know where to look. I have plenty of 16GB spares, if you are willing to swap me the GPU?
@tellhimhesdreaming: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/2588vs2389/Intel-Xeon-E…
Don't think it's worth purchasing and swapping the cpu as the yearly costs are negligible.
You would have to sell the original cpu to offset the other as well.
Also seems like the single thread rating is worse even though there's double the amount of cores.
E5-2697V3 has better clocks when loaded, but "only" 14 cores…
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002323852080.html
but but My roblox needs 18 cores to run
I take it that the GPU is the only part that is not proprietary?
Wonder what it retailed for 8 years ago…
I'm guessing about 6-7k
Thanks! Got 2. :)
Has anyone with one of these been successful in adding a PCIe NVME as a boot drive? I've seen mention of a HP specific card (HP Z Turbo Quad Pro) that will do it, but it's rare and expensive.
It should, the chipset supports it.
Yes that works, tried it on a Z440. When buying a PCIe NVME adapter, buy one that has 4 lines, not 16. That way you can use the shorter x8 slot and have more flexibility. Note that the 3 long slots (2x 16x and 1x 8x) are the good ones going directly to the CPU. The short ones (1x and 4x) go through the chipset and share bandwith with onboard LAN, USB, SATA…
Yes however you do need to use the HP specific card. The BIOS can't boot from nvme so you need a PCIe card which has a boot ROM. The cheap generic cards don't so they won't be bootable.
Yup the cheap adapters work :) This is on the Z440 with a Silicon Power 1TB NVME SSD. I believe we can expect this to also work on the Z640. I did flash the latest BIOS and the HDD activity LED won't work if you use NVME SSD.
16Gb ram version is still available.
Small sporadic quantities of the 32Gb will still be added as we are still checking stock in.
Have these small sporadic quantities all been sold now?
another 28 units are able to come online, this will be the last batch.
That's the 16GB version. I want to know if the small sporadic quantities of the 32GB version are sold out.
More than 10 back in stock.
I bought one just now.
Looks as though this CPU won't support Windows 11, is that correct?
Not officially supported, that is correct
Is it safe to force update it? If I understand correctly there are ways to subvert the TPM 2.0 requirements, is it really a large safety risk to do so?
It's not a safety risk, the only risk is that you're doing something Microsoft doesn't support and they won't help you if there are any issues.
@seanneko: Gotcha - I'm assuming this chip features TPM 1.2 at least? I'm wondering if it will auto update once I force update - planning to give this to someone less tech savvy and wondering if it will be capable of auto updating in the long term. I understand for the price that 3 years of Windows 10 is definitely still good value, just wondering for the long term if I do invest in any other older refurbished tech :)
The workarounds for compatibility are officially provided registry keys - it's not like you have to edit and replace files.
Because Microsoft are actively facilitating the workarounds in this way, updates etc are unlikely to be an issue.
No, not officially, so you’ll have to use the bypass patches.
Bought a i7 9700/1660ti Dell off the marketplace this morning. otherwise this should work for me.
Boo had to work today and missed the deal.
They’ve restocked, says 12+ available as of 1.45pm AEST
Restocked.
Bought 1 now
Dammit. Bought another. thats 3 now ffs.
I just want the GPUs really, and the 2.5" caddies. Will probably have to put the husks back up on eBay because I think my existing fleet of Lenovo P510's are the better platform for me.
Can these gpu's be moved around to other PC's easily?
What are people intending to use it for? WFH PC or as a server?
I use workstations for WFH, and for gaming.
I like to have 3 identical ones, so that I have a spare ready to go, and if really needed I can also commandeer the the games machine for work.
I have been WFH for the past 15 years, and my office is on the other side of the world, so its critical that I have no downtime.
New York, London and Sydney, three time zones no downtime
Do you use this for dev work?
We have some film restoration software that requires the quadro cards, so we will be dropping a 22 core CPU in there and it will be a good little workhorse for that application.
Dang, missed the 2nd batch too.
Its on eBay for $405
16gb still available
Couldn't help myself. Bought a 2696 v3 CPU for an upgrade. I need more cores.
Anyone know where to get cheap ram?
I got my 2nd one today. And promptly put the GPU from my other one in it for some SLI goodness.
The beast draws 580W in SLI running furmark 1080. circa 180fps.
Single GPU was around 100fps.
wait, you meant that you can run 2 GPUs on this PC?
And 2 CPUs too.
Of course it can. This was a $6k+ workstation back when new, and back when SLI was still alive.
Hi mate, what else do you buy to put 2 CPUs? Thanks
@zozuc: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Z640-2nd-CPU-Processor-Riser-Boa…
They are still quite expensive though. Not really worth it for most people since you can get 22 core CPUs and 32GB sticks. I must admit it would be a better machine if it had 8 RAM slots instead of 4. But HP gonna HP.
@stumo: You are right, it is expensive. What 22 core CPU you recommend? I think 32GB RAM and 22 core should be great for this machine!
@zozuc: Any E5-16xx or E5-26xx V4 CPU 145W or under from:
https://www.cpu-world.com/Related_CPUs/Socket%202011-3_Broad…
or the same in V3 from :
https://www.cpu-world.com/Related_CPUs/Socket%202011-3_Haswe…
The V3s are way cheaper ATM, but they top out at 18 cores. The V4 are still very expensive you gotta pay if you wanna play with those 4 extra cores.
On the one I use for my main work PC I will commission it with E5-2697V3 (14 core at 2.6-3.6GHz) and 128GB of RAM.
@stumo: Yes, v4 is quite expensive. You are legend mate. It seems E5-2697V3 and E5-2699 v3 have nearly similar performance. Am I right? I will buy E5-2696 v3 or E5-2699 v3 to put in this. Thank mate for your knowledge.
@zozuc: If you really really need 18 cores:
E5-2696 v3 is not good for general varied workloads. Its for all cores fully loaded, like 24/7 video encoding workloads. It doesn't turbo boost at all.
E5-2699 v3 is still relatively expensive.
This is why I went with the E5-2697V3. It loses 4 cores to those, but it gains all 14 cores at 2.6GHz, and has turbo of 3.6GHz. So for normal varied usage its basically a 2699, and for 24/7 100% load it loses 4 cores but gains 0.3GHz on the remaining 14 cores.
@stumo: No, I do not really need 18 cores. Just want to get best performance of it. I totally get your point. I will go with E5-2697V3, which is 50% cheaper than E5-2699V3. Thanks again mate.
@zozuc: I thought 2696 v3 has boost?
Clockspeed:
2.3 GHz
Turbo Speed:
3.8 GHz
What am I missing?
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/xeon-e5-2696-v3.c2903
Some websites say 3.6
@Korban Dallas: I am not expert on this. I just ask @stumo for recommendation. What CPU do you want to replace?
@Korban Dallas: What do you mean to delete microcode? I thought just replace CPU and it should work.
@Korban Dallas: But 3.6 would make it the same as 2699v3?
All over google im seeing 3.8GHz on your link (which makes it faster than 2699v3) and others saying 3.6GHz (which makes it same as 2699v3).
It can't be the same or faster than 2699v3
@stumo: It seems that 2696v3 is faster than 2699v3. I just checked this link. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-Xeon-E5-2696-v3-v…
@zozuc: Thats weird. There is no oficial data from Intel about the 2696. I think those websites are just making stuff up.
I guess just order one and see if it works and at what speeds.
PS I don't think you can do the v3 turbo unlock on these mobos.
@zozuc: I usually just use that cpu-world website for my xeon CPU spec needs. And since 2696v3 was listed with no turbo speed I just assumed it was the same as the low voltage versions that don't have turbo boost. Seems I was wrong and the 2696 might be the one to get.
So I might try to get hold of one of these mystery 2696's and see if its any good. Prices have increased a lot.
I just looked at my ebay history and I only paid USD$73 shipped for my 2697v3 back in June. My how times have changed.
@stumo: It is cheap, right? I guess you bought from aliexpress not ebay. I did not receive my HP yet thus want to make sure to get the right one with good price. Thanks again for some good knowledge you provided. I did some Dell workstations T5600, T5610, T7600, T7610 dual CPUs but just limit to E5-2690V2 and DDR3. Thus V3, V4, DDR4 is quite new for me.
@zozuc: Yeah I went through all this earlier in the year when I upgraded my fleet of Lenovo C20x into P510s. So same thing, going from dual X5690s and DDR3 to newer V3 and V4 xeons and DDR4. Fortunately back then DDR4 RDIMMS were a quarter of the price they are now. I'm so glad I stocked up.
@stumo: 2696 v3 is the pick in terms of price and mods. Have a look at some bios mod forums and regarding boost.
@stumo Thanks for your confirmation. Do you know if we can enable SLI on linux for these two cards?
Hold up. Are the SSDs in these new? The power on count is 6 and the hours on is 2!
Yes, should all be new SSDs
Wow! I was honestly expecting to just throw the SSD in the bin thinkng they’d be ancient and abused.
I’m very impressed with the quality mate. Thank you!
Maybe those $20 SSDs from Amazon 😂
@Calmago stock up lol
No worries. If you haven't done so already would love postive feedback :-D
Can you put nVME SSD on this? Easy enough?
No. You would need a pcie card adapter. Pretty crappy since its competitor from Lenovo (P510) does have a riser card for NVME (and SATA M.2)
I bought the ugreen one from Amazon for $20 delivered (there are cheaper ones but I like this brand as all the cables/adaptors I bought from them have been very good). Attached is a Firecuda 510 500GB which got 3500 MB/sec read and 2600 MB/sec write on the 1GB test. Big step up from the SSD.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08TBW12B8
Can this machine boot from the ssd on that card?
![[Refurb] HP Z640 TWR Xeon E5-1650 V3 3.50 32GB 240GB SSD Quadro M6000 Win 10 $375.2 ($365.82 eBay Plus) Del'd @BNEACTTRADER eBay](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/94/735094.jpg?h=0b09e59f)
No, you need a Server for iLO and an extra LAN port.
Often better to use a PiKVM though
https://pikvm.org