HP Z800 Gaming Computer Blog

Jbigticket23 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti it was the 4gb version there seems to be many types of this model never knew that gpu was specific for board even though it has pci 2 and card was pci 3 should work I'm clueless as to why I'm getting this error code 

Eric djNOS 

Sorry was gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and other variant requires power connector while this one doesn't 

Eric djNOS 

Oded Hi Steve GIGABYTE GTX1050 TI should have 6 pin power connector on top.

Did you get the card used? if yes looks like someone scammed you if it's on eBay and it's not over 30 days yet complain to eBay you can get your money back.

Oded Did you try this card on another PC and did it worked?

It could be that the second hand card is faulty.

Can you try a different card on the HP to see if it's happened as well? 

Oded Oded Ok looked it up on this youyube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKkDfZDN2PU I think the problem is that this card don't have power connectors sorry require PCI Express Gen3 x16 slot for power and HPZ800 have PCI Express Gen2 x16 slot maybe it doesn't get enough power.

The video say also that older PC will need a powerful power supply to give efficient power and HP Z800 have lots of this.

Steve https://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/performance-advisor.html

Steve Not a problem. Hope it helps!

Jbigticket23  I've got two X5675 3.07GHz 6 core CPUs. CNET Quickspecs show them with 1333MHz RAM. I'll double check what the existing four 8GB modules are running at.  Is there a way to get your 12x32GB modules running faster than 800MHz..? Cheers. 

Alexander Bischel Hello before you spent money on a GTX1080ti view this YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT9Uj0sgLR4&t=816svideo

Oded Thanks for the video, the used 1080 Ti I wanted to buy is gone already and I was looking into a RTX 2060 8Gb instead...better choice? I wanted to use my Z800 for som triple screen sim racing @ 3x 1080p

Alexander Bischel  

Sounds nice have fun.

I have both Z800 and Z600V2

Both have GTX 1060.

The Z800 have a 10603G and the Z600  with 10606GB work mint.

I Bought t the Z600 in 2015 for $795aud it came with 2 x Xeon X5660 and 24GB RAM Quadro4000 and 2 x 160GB Intel ssd .

I bought the Z800 in 2019 for $500au it came with 2 x X5675 48GB RAM and a Quadro 6000 and 256G Intel SSD.

Before I got the Z800 I upgraded the Z600 to Xeon X5676 and 48GB RAM I’m using 2T Seagate Firecuda.

When I was looking to upgrade I did looked at the X5690 and almost got it until I came across a forum say that Z600 can run up to X5675 the Z800 can go all the way to X5690.

The X5675 sell on EBay for about $45aud each and the X5690 sell for about $150aud and more each the performance deference is not a great deal it’s up to you but I think spent $45 is enough.

Oded I ended up ordering a RTX 2080 since GPU will be more important for my racing sims. My z800 had 2 6 core CPUs which I am switching for two 4 core X5687 since the individual higher clock rate seems to do more for the sims than the additinal cores. Apparently the standard Z800 CPU heatsinks are good up to 95W TDP. Tried to find the high performance ones or even the dual liquid cooling from HP but had no luck. I orderd two of these now: https://www.bequiet.com/de/cpucooler/pure-rock/795 but I guess I will have to modify the memory cooling fans unit.

Alexander Bischel , how did you go using the Z800 for sim racing? I just picked up a Z800 to use for iRacing. It currently has 2x Xeon X5650 CPU's and 12GB ram. I think I'll get an RX580 8GB gpu for it. To get decent in-game performance I believe I should change to a single X5690 (I have the rev2 motherboard) and bring it up to at least 16GB ram. From my research it doesn't seem like theres any point going to dual X5690 as iRacing doesn't really make use of the extra hyperthreading capability. That and my PS is the 850W one. I'm new to this process of picking/finding parts to put into a PC (let alone a prebuilt workstation that was built before USB3!)

Does all this seem reasonable?

Thanks,

Julian 

Julian Kenny Hi I the X5690 is still sale for quite a bit but I recommend youto get couple of the X5675 will cost you about same price as one X5690 with no much deference in max frequency and 6more cores. For the GPU I will go with RTX 2060

Oded Thanks for the feedback. Just looking at ebay and comparing prices again for the Xeons, it seems a pair of X5687's might be my best option, I get the even higher clock speed and (from my understanding, could be wrong, I'm still learning about all this) all the extra cores and threads don't matter to iRacing, single core speed is the biggest thing.

As for the GPU, I'm only going to use a single 1080p screen for iRacing or perhaps upgrade to VR so I think the RX580 8GB should be OK still, particularly given the price difference.

My main concern is topping out the 850W power supply, I'm not sure how much the CPU's etc draw. I have gone with just a 500GB SSD to try and save some power for the rest of the system.

Thanks again,

Julian

 Oded Here's an update, I did get the X5687's and also upgraded RAM to 32GB of 1333Mhz (found out the original 12GB was 8500R, thats out now!) Just installed a Radeon RX580 8GB GPU. I do get a warning now when i boot that I have high performance CPU's but not high performance coolers, gives a beep and requires me to hit F1 to continue to boot. Hasn't yet caused any actual issues and I don't think it will just using it for iRacing. I am still using the original 850W power supply.

iRacing results after these upgrades are fantastic! I've turned up all the graphics settings and still getting around 160fps to my 1080p 40" Sony Bravia TV. Total spend on the system was under $500. Now to sell the ram and X5650 CPU's on ebay.

Thanks GreenPCGamers for having this blog and opening my eyes to old workstations and their potential!

Oded The full story is I already had the Z800 workstation from when I was a freelancer and it was basically not being used since then. I got more and more into simracing the last years and by now the consoles simply aren't enough. So I started looking into the possibility of making it a "gaming PC". I got the two X5687 for 80€, the RTX 2080 for little over 500€ new and got myself another used 27" Samung monitor for 100€ matching the ones I still had from work. I'm from Germany btw. and I have to use the Tor browser to get on greenpcgamers.com (that's what we get with the GDPR). So for a around 700€ I now have a pretty solid triple screen racing setup.

Alexander Bischel 

Sounds you all setup and ready looking up on system recommendations for sim racing racing its look like you got more than enough.

I not really into sim racing I play most of time Fortnite.

I’m probably the worst Fortnite player out there but I love this game it have all elements game needs and it’s free. 

I also play Fallout 4, Borderlands, Bioshok, PUBG and other like this.

I love to take Tech deal advice and get RTX 2060 but it’s so expansive here I decided to wait few years and get Z840 and by than I will be able to pickup RTX 2060 on gum tree for cheaper like I got the GTX1060 6G.

The system works quite well and I love the industrial look of it.

Have fun.

Kind regards 

Oded

Just sending in an update. I did everything that I posted here and this thing works like a dream. I added a USB3.0 card and have 10TB of storage in this beast. I am getting such fast speeds with most day to day tasks. This machine even handles VR like a champ. I got it to do VRChat, an unoptimized nightmare and it handles well enough to compete with Modern Ryzen 5 and 7 machines. If there is anything that I would change is the original PCI slot into another PCIe, because I would have more expandability. This is a nice budget build. I have since dusted the case out, but this old machine has a new life until the market for PC parts somewhat normalizes. I am so glad to have stumbled across this blog by chance because this machine which I was thinking to be ewaste soon has just been given an extension on life and I did not need to spend a fortune on parts.

The EVGA card i got was defective but got a better one. Came to $700 including GPU cost for this machine to be upgraded. 

Rick 

I'd always buy the best gpu you can afford. It does take a number of years for a high end gpu to be justified in replacement. Even if your cpu bottlenecks your gpu it probably won't bottleneck your next rig. That said I know nothing about fitment or power cabling in a hp z800. Also a gpu is 3 or 4 times it's worth right now sooo ya lol.

Kohana Coyote Rick In some unoptimized VR environments, I have seen 100% usage on VRAM for my 2070, while CPU was 40%, so it does really well.

Kohana Coyote How about on a normal basis.     In gaming does your gpu normally max out prior to the cpus?

Rick I have found that the GPU works hard and I do not notice a lot of lag in most of the gaming environments I have been in. Many modern titles are well optimized enough. I see the GPU usage climb to 100% before the CPU, but be warned, It depends on the game development takes full advantage of threads. For example, VRChat, poorly optimized, can only take advantage of like 4 cores, so even though CPU is not at 100%, it still may lag because of the limitation of the game code. It is a reason why Threadripper is not a great gaming CPU. but most AAA modern titles take full advantage of up to 16 cores or something like that. If I play Overwatch at 1080p, full ultra settings, I get about 150-200 frames during match, but in practice world, i get 300 capped. YMMV, of course

Brian Boyd clean the ram contacts and the motherboard ram lanes with a air can, use the red stick to target it! clean the fans as well ,even a layer of dust can cause issues! Disconnect everything from hard drives to GPU, clean with the air can and wipe down all components!

Delete programs and files you don't want!

Also if it's not a dust issue you may need a registry cleaner like ,Glary Utilities,  Cc cleaner or Avg/pc tune up, which is a beast, I use glary and AVG in tandem!

djsegwon kithebeats Hey thanks so much for the reply. I'm on my way to get the air can right now and im gonna clean the crap out of this thing completely. Hopefully it works. I'd hate to have to buy a motherboard from ebay but at around $90 i guess its my easiest way out. Also, wouldn't  this just be a hardware issue? How would cleaning my registry and using a program help with a booting up dimm slot error? P.s. its a fresh install of windows 10 spectre superlite. 

Brian Boyd again update manually!!!!! Especially since it's a fresh install, remember Microsoft controls sum of needed drivers and other firmware protocols needed for your other components like MOBO/Ram/SSD to all outboard gear, external HD, keyboard, mouse to wifi/Bluetooth adapters to work!!! Windows 10 doing this makes the computer more stable!!!! Imo! I'm a audio engineer, so constantly have to read & tinker do to trial-and-error!

It might not be a dust thing, but still clean it,lol

Also check for the right firmware update from hp, download the hp assistant!!!!!! They have their own definition updates specifically for the Z, remember its server not a regular consumer PC!

When doing anything on your pc ,specifically installing updates, it cause those cache files to compile and clog the system! A registry cleaner will repair broken registry protocol!!! Put files where they need to be, an so much More! Glary is the Swiss army knife of software!!!! You'll see, buy it as it's worth the price + the annual cost of maintaining your PC!

Get the avg ,ultimate if you can afford it and skip the Glary, or again get Glary and PC tune up, I've been using this method of maintaining for years and trust the software, I've been meaning to do a real tutorial on this, as I run into your issue online from other bloggers all the time!!! Think of the Z like a car at least once a month you give it a wash and check all the Fluids to air tire pressure!!! The Z needs to be treated the same, after all she's a big baby and needs attention like our GFs,lol otherwise they act up and you don't want big baby acting up lol

https://youtu.be/TnwNcKKhlGs

Remember happy wife happy life!

Brian Boyd 

Avg!

https://youtu.be/gSDswlT2zlk

Brian Boyd one thing you should definitely do is re paste your cpu,s with sum thermal paste since you're doing maintenance! When cleaning the fan take the grills off and get that dust outta there

,clean up those pcie lanes with he air can as well!

Pull out the PSU,and Air can it too, hit those contacts with air!!!!!!!!

Update Update Update!

Brian Boyd costco,  has the best deal on air cans, if they're out go to another bulk store like bjs, Sam's club!!!

djsegwon kithebeats Ya im gonna do a full system hardware cleaning first since thats what i think it would be. Being that I would still get this boot prompt whether or not i had windows installed or not. I am running the latest bios update. And i got some arctic5 thermal paste around here somewhere from another recent processor upgrade. This paste is only a month old but im still gonna break it all down. Im actually taking it completely apart, even detaching the mobo from case. But i gotta go to work now. Thanks for the help ill let you know if i get it going smooth.

Brian Boyd you're welcome bro! A few other things thats come to mind ,go back and read @JB write up on the Z800 ,it can take way more ram than what you have !

Also if you're rocking the X5690 ,I'd max that ram out! 

(And even though, jb specifies that 12800 ram will just down clock to 10600, im thinking of getting 12800 ,because I got a feeling it'll still boost in some way cause windows 10 is so smooth and back to those updates Hp is still serving the 1st generation Zs ! I'm sure there's a protocol that can take advantage of 12800, im gonna holla at hp on that!)

Here's an example why!

Again I'm a audio engineer and I just started using Cubase again from Reason!

Cubase with Vst, can hog cpu + ram!

So I run a Firewire 400 DSP Audio Interface,

Hpz600 c2!

Windows 10 pro

2/X5675 3.06gcan!

96gb of ram!(Dell ram ,I'll speak more on this in a bit!)

Hp sata ssd(non dram)!

Ok, so since we know software is more powerful than hardware, I've been having issues adding instruments to FX to more than 10 channels with playback and all plugins running without freezing any tracks to just to save Cpu! 

So I opened the task manager to see if anything is taking up cpu other than I may keep the internet on!

(An yeah the Z seems to work better with internet/wifi on,but that's not good when recording and making music even with plugin developers going full digital where you must login to use the software) 

So sure enough, the cpu,s are doing their thing and the ram is barely hitting over 10% ! So all in all I know JB did his homework cause the computer is really eating the processing of the playback, so what's the issue? The audio interface, firewire is old tech that never took off, so it's time to upgrade to new hardware! 

Brian Boyd so look into other ram brands other than Samsung, I've never seen a Samsung desktop server, ever! The reason I choose the Dell ram was the genuine hp ram was just to expensive, but I'm gonna look back into it again!

Gorilla Warfare that's why you use the red straw!!! Concentrate the air, but a lil frost ain't gonna hurt nothing, remember these components run hot, they need a cool off,lol