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Hacking an HP Z800 motherboard into a standard PC case

Started by Andy Brown, November 01, 2014, 04:53:46 am

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Marco Silva

Andy, does your revision 3 board gives you turbo frequency under full load like mine?

My cpu is 2.66 GHz and 3 GHz turbo but under full load i'm always near the 3 GHz mark.



Andy Brown

Quote from: Marco Silva on January 18, 2015, 01:05:06 pm
Andy, does your revision 3 board gives you turbo frequency under full load like mine? My cpu is 2.66 GHz and 3 GHz turbo but under full load i'm always near the 3 GHz mark.

Funny you should mention that because I did a rendering session yesterday and noticed that I was getting 3.46GHz throughout. Turbo Boost gives you 133 or 266 extra depending on load. I sometimes see 3.6 and almost all other times get 3.46GHz. This is because of the great performance of the aftermarket fans. Even under full load the core temps don't get up to where the clock has to come back down to the stock level. I run Intel's free cute "turbo boost monitor" on my desktop to keep an eye on it.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

Andy Brown

I blew a DIMM!

I did a reboot this morning and the POST check reported a "failing" DIMM, and told me which one it was (nice, that). It was one of the second set of 24Gb that I'd fitted after installing the second CPU. This was from a cheap batch that I got on ebay so either they were dodgy to begin with or the additional heat generated since fully populating all the slots up to 48Gb was too much.

I'm back down to "only" 24Gb because I was running at that level for months without any problems and I'm going to devise a bracket to rig together a pair of 140mm fans to cool the memory before attempting to fully populate all the slots again.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

JonMS

I just did a build with one of these! Picked up the Z800 with 1100w PSU and 5660 for $400 USD. 2x Xeon X5680's for 400USD. 12GB of RAM I already had and 2x AMD R9 280X GPUs for gaming!

Andy Brown

Hi Jon and welcome to the forum. It's quite densely packed inside the official case isn't it? I see you've replaced the official CPU heatsink/fans with some nice looking replacements as well.

You certainly get your parts for great prices in the US. My total cost exc. storage/graphics is about GBP 800 (2x X5680, board, case, PSU, 48Gb RAM). It's the VAT (20%) and import duties that hurt us over here.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

JonMS

Quote from: Andy Brown on January 25, 2015, 02:12:18 am
Hi Jon and welcome to the forum. It's quite densely packed inside the official case isn't it? I see you've replaced the official CPU heatsink/fans with some nice looking replacements as well.

You certainly get your parts for great prices in the US. My total cost exc. storage/graphics is about GBP 800 (2x X5680, board, case, PSU, 48Gb RAM). It's the VAT (20%) and import duties that hurt us over here.

Not actually, there is room for 2 more expansion slots to be filled (which I'll be adding USB 3.0) and I just cleaned up the wiring some. I replaced the heatsinks with noctua units and had to but different screws so they would thread into the HP back-plates. works great though and still super quiet. Also the two drive bay power supplies I have keep the system running under heavy 3D load so it does not shut off like you were experiencing. These are just glorified 7970s.

Menno

This is how the motherboard fits in a Nanoxia DS5 case. First I made holes of 3 mm, then widened them to 4 mm. I used M3 nuts and bolts so there was a little space left for fitting the motherboard exactly. I used two M4 bolts as spacers between mobo and backplate.

It's not yet running, I have an issue with the main power cable. As soon as I connect it to the PSU it doesn't want to start anymore (that's the test fan option on the PSU). Currently I am kind of lost in the forest of wires (no colour coding), so there might be something wrong... I ordered these from China, but with a delivery time of up to 45 days further building is on hold...




Andy Brown

That looks excellent, it does fit very well in that case. Smart move with the nuts and bolts that allow you to nudge the board a few mm to get it perfectly positioned - I mentioned in the article that I should have done that with mine.

Is there any room for fans in the roof of the case? I notice that you have fully populated memory slots and that's going to generate some heat that'll need removing from that area.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

Menno

I was planning to buy an M3 tap, but they had only an expensive set, then I remembered you wrote about the nuts and bolts... Much cheaper also.

For the memory cooling I have a spare 14 cm fan and want to put it next to the upper 3 drive slots, the 4th will be where the dvd goes. I know it fits, but not sure how to attach. Maybe some spare wires >:( The upper door can stay closed when idle and open when stressed. I have to say even then memory usage is quite low (about 5 GB of 24 installed under Linux), so I hope heating won't be much of a problem.

There might be some room for installing a cooler in the roof, I will check wence I'll put it together again. Though, I have a similar case,  Fractal Design R4, where the noise went up horribly when coolers are installed in the roof. For me that's a no go, since the whole point of this is to replace my noisy Z800 case.

digitaltrousers

Quote from: Andy Brown on January 24, 2015, 10:01:56 am
I blew a DIMM!

Hi Andy. Out of curiosity, was the faulty DIMM a genuine HP one, like those of your first batch? Did it have a heatsink like those original ones?

Marco Silva

February 02, 2015, 01:42:10 pm #40 Last Edit: February 02, 2015, 01:43:56 pm by Marco Silva
It's been a while since I've placed my order for the connectors on the taobao agent....after some miscommunications the connectors finally arrived at the agent. Now I've paid the shipping and hopefully they wont be caught by the customs. I can tell you that this connectors as they sitt are already very expensive  :o





There are 2 type of connectors and I've ordered one of each! One uses the 24 pin + 2 molex connectors and the other uses the 24 pin connector plus the cpu 8 pin connector...i believe this ones makes for a cleaner build and most high end psu will have 2X 8 pin cpu connector. 

Andy Brown

Quote from: digitaltrousers on February 02, 2015, 01:25:38 am
Hi Andy. Out of curiosity, was the faulty DIMM a genuine HP one, like those of your first batch? Did it have a heatsink like those original ones?


I've attached a photo of the faulty one. I think these are commonly installed into HP and Dell servers.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

Andy Brown

Quote from: Marco Silva on February 02, 2015, 01:42:10 pm
It's been a while since I've placed my order for the connectors on the taobao agent....after some miscommunications the connectors finally arrived at the agent. Now I've paid the shipping and hopefully they wont be caught by the customs. I can tell you that this connectors as they sitt are already very expensive  :o


Well, time passes and now these connectors have shown up on Ali Express. If you search for "z800 power cable" then there they are.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!

Marco Silva

Now it's too late for me, but it's good news for anyone else interested in a set :)

Looking forward to terminate this build, it has been a long journey and it's not finished yet.

Andy Brown

Quote from: Marco Silva on February 02, 2015, 02:18:02 pm
Now it's too late for me, but it's good news for anyone else interested in a set :)

Looking forward to terminate this build, it has been a long journey and it's not finished yet.

I've ordered one; it can't hurt to have a spare. Besides I'm working on upgrading my 002 board to a full 003 BIOS and I'll need a cable to check out the results. Whether it works, or if I create an expensive brick with an HP label on it, I'll be sure to post the results and a how-to on my site.
It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!