HP Z840 36C/72T Workstation Build

[Storm-Chaser]

 

-HP Z840 core (supports up to two xeon v3 or v4 processors).

-Two Xeon 18 Core E5 2696v3 processors (total will be 36C/72T)

-3.8 GHz turbo, perhaps can be turbo hacked

-145 W TDP (each)

-8 Channel DDR4 memory kit @ 2400MHz

 

 

 

 

Very excited about this build. First of all, it's the culmination of HPs research and development of the premier market workstation in it's day, and I think the case is outstanding, with brushed aluminum sides, HP really knocked out of the park. It's built like a tank, but more on that later. Looking forward to benchmarks and turbo hacking. 

 

And possibly adding a 360 radiator if stock cooling system needs a boost. It will be very easy to do this if needed.

The build consists of two Xeon E5-2696 V3 CPUs, single core turbo of 3.8

 

Yes, that's a whopping 20 DDR4 DIMM modules and two 2696 v3 CPUs

Can't wait to see how this is going to compete against a 5950X. Because I'm out for blood! 





So I can run an 8 channel memory configuration (DDR4 @ 2400MHz)





Liquid coolers are rated for 150W each.




Sick case:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Computer Hardware Enthusiast
9600KF @ 5.3GHz (24/7 OC) @ 1.400 v
4266MHz Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 @ 15-15-15-32-280 1.58 v
MSI MEG Z390 ACE motherboard
1000mm liquid cooling surface area
3 pumps, 2 reservoirs and a heatkiller IV copper waterblock

•  

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Storm-Chaser

[Fluxmaven]

Interested in how a 360 rad would slip in there. I've always liked the look of the old HP Z series workstations. 

[Storm-Chaser]

1 hour ago, Fluxmaven said:

Interested in how a 360 rad would slip in there. I've always liked the look of the old HP Z series workstations. 

I'm running a low profile GPU so I have a lot more room to work with vs running with my 5700XT.

 

The 360 rad will then fit physically inside the case and all I need to do is take the side cover off so I can exhaust the heat, when doing benchmark runs.

 

The 360mm radiator will be grafted in by splicing the tubes (see image above) and via some fancy foot work to daisy chain everything up.

 

 

[Storm-Chaser]

2 hours ago, Fluxmaven said:

Interested in how a 360 rad would slip in there. I've always liked the look of the old HP Z series workstations. 

 

Just now, Storm-Chaser said:

 

 

Just now, Storm-Chaser said:

 

 

I'm running a low profile GPU so I have a lot more room to work with vs running with my 5700XT.

 

The 360 rad will then fit physically inside the case and all I need to do is take the side cover off so I can exhaust the heat, when doing benchmark runs. I can easily splice into the pre-existing line on the back of the liquid cooler.

 

The 360mm radiator will be grafted in by splicing the tubes (see image above) and via some fancy foot work to daisy chain everything up in series. Net heat dissipation is 300 watts with the stock rads in place. With the turbo hack I will likely need to add the 360. That will be located in the PCIe section of the motherboard, which is a roomy environment as this rig is designed to run at least two GPUs.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Storm-Chaser

[Storm-Chaser]

Please forgive my potato phone

Edited April 7, 2022 by Storm-Chaser

[Bastiaan_NL]

The sexy board with 2 sockets and 16 memory slots makes up for the photo's

 

[Storm-Chaser]

On 07/04/2022 at 14:33, Bastiaan_NL said:

The sexy board with 2 sockets and 16 memory slots makes up for the photo's

 

Yeah the board is pretty bad ass. Especially when you see it out of the case:

 

[Storm-Chaser]

RAM finally showed up so now I am finally able to get the new rig up and running

 

Still have to apply the liquid metal - just wanted to make sure everything posted. Using throttlestop to tweak voltages and turbo (to the extent that I can), still working on bringing the latency down but it's on par otherwise for DDR4 2133 8 channel ram config....

 

Pictures (eventually) to follow, here are some preliminary results...

 

[ArchStanton]

GB/s values in the "Memory" row, just makes things all tingly.

[Storm-Chaser]

3 hours ago, ArchStanton said:

GB/s values in the "Memory" row, just makes things all tingly.

Just reached about +5GB/s across those rows with more tuning but unfortunately added 10 ns latency as well. but still tweaking to be done, it's getting there!

 

liquid metal coming today and trying to undervolt as well. (for more aggressive turboing)

[Avacado]

Don't have the same speed as you, but I managed to secure a 512 Thread system. Look forward to sharing it. It's all your fault. 

[Storm-Chaser]

22 minutes ago, Avacado said:

Don't have the same speed as you, but I managed to secure a 512 Thread system. Look forward to sharing it. It's all your fault. 

Sounds... thrilling! Guessing it's like 8-12 independent CPUs w/ HT in a blade type setup?

 

Looking forward to see what you've got. Just fair warning. There is no going back at this point. welcome to the machine. lol 

[Avacado]

Intel Xeon Phi 7210 Specs | TechPowerUp CPU Database

WWW.TECHPOWERUP.COM

---

Knights Landing, 64 Cores, 256 Threads, 1300 MHz, 215 W

 

[Storm-Chaser]

3 hours ago, Avacado said:

Intel Xeon Phi 7210 Specs | TechPowerUp CPU Database

WWW.TECHPOWERUP.COM

---

Knights Landing, 64 Cores, 256 Threads, 1300 MHz, 215 W

 

You have my undivided attention. 

[Storm-Chaser]

More progress on memory tuning, don't like the latency # but for now I am switching to undervolt tuning for more aggressive tuning. Taking system down for liquid metal now that I have some baseline temp runs. 

 

 

EDIT: If Price ever comes down on V4 processors, I can upgrade and then capitalize on DDR4 2400MHz memory, as the limitation for v3 processors is only 2133 (but it is 2400mhz rated)... Core 0 seems to be running a bit higher than core 1, which is odd because it is first in the air stream, and it's for the most part, pushing less wattage.

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Storm-Chaser

[Avacado]

Temps in F, sigh....

[Fallenzoul]

Hey stormchaser, one question, I also have the z840 but with a 2640v3, I'm looking to buy 2 2699v3 or 2696v3 but I don't know if the standard stock coolers are up to the task or do I need to buy the expensive hp Z cooler with the vapor chambers.

 

Are you using the normal stock coolers with those 2696v3?

[Storm-Chaser]

4 hours ago, Avacado said:

Temps in F, sigh....

 

1 hour ago, Fallenzoul said:

Hey stormchaser, one question, I also have the z840 but with a 2640v3, I'm looking to buy 2 2699v3 or 2696v3 but I don't know if the standard stock coolers are up to the task or do I need to buy the expensive hp Z cooler with the vapor chambers.

 

Are you using the normal stock coolers with those 2696v3?

I am using the liquid coolers. you don't need the z coolers. 

These liquid coolers are better than the stock air cooler and the stock z coolers.

These liquid coolers are about $80 on ebay, in good condition. 

These liquid coolers also fit the z820 as well... so you can buy from either source

 

If I were you I would go with the xeon 2696 v3 which is better than the flagship 2699v3 in that it has the same amount of cores and same base speed but it has a 3.8GHz turbo as opposed to 3.6GHz turbo on the 2696v3. It's probably also a little bit cheaper as well.

 

System back online after liquid metal upgrade. you wont believe the changes... despite having some liquid metal leak onto the memory slots I was able to clean it up and get that issue resolved. 

 

 

 

[Fallenzoul]

2 hours ago, Storm-Chaser said:

 

I am using the liquid coolers. you don't need the z coolers. 

These liquid coolers are better than the stock air cooler and the stock z coolers.

These liquid coolers are about $80 on ebay, in good condition. 

These liquid coolers also fit the z820 as well... so you can buy from either source

 

If I were you I would go with the xeon 2696 v3 which is better than the flagship 2699v3 in that it has the same amount of cores and same base speed but it has a 3.8GHz turbo as opposed to 3.6GHz turbo on the 2696v3. It's probably also a little bit cheaper as well.

 

System back online after liquid metal upgrade. you wont believe the changes... despite having some liquid metal leak onto the memory slots I was able to clean it up and get that issue resolved. 

 

 

 

 

 

mmm i just searched on Ebay and the only one i could find is this one

 

i tried using the Model/Part number  635869-001 G0J48AA

 

But no luck so far, do you happen to have a link for those AIO heatsinks? because almost 200USD its a little steep for just a cooler

 

[Storm-Chaser]

2 hours ago, Fallenzoul said:

 

 

mmm i just searched on Ebay and the only one i could find is this one

 

i tried using the Model/Part number  635869-001 G0J48AA

 

But no luck so far, do you happen to have a link for those AIO heatsinks? because almost 200USD its a little steep for just a cooler

 

Well I didn't find them quite a low as I was hoping for you, but at least, this one is 50% better than the one you posted first...

HP Liquid Cooling CPU Heatsink 635869-002 for HP Z820 Workstation 100% TESTED!

WWW.EBAY.COM

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HP Liquid Cooling CPU Heatsink 635869-002 for HP Z820 Workstation 100% TESTED!.

 

 

 

[Storm-Chaser]

4 hours ago, Fallenzoul said:

 

 

mmm i just searched on Ebay and the only one i could find is this one

 

i tried using the Model/Part number  635869-001 G0J48AA

 

But no luck so far, do you happen to have a link for those AIO heatsinks? because almost 200USD its a little steep for just a cooler

 

Okay I find the better source and plus it's even cheaper than I thought...

 

HP Z820 Liquid Cooling Heatsink Module 635869-002

WWW.EBAY.COM

---

For Sale:HP Z820 Workstation Liquid Cooling Heatsink Module 635869-002. Tested Ok, Ready for resale.

 

[Storm-Chaser]

YAY for second place at HWBOT!  Out of 4 lol. But at least I know I should be able to get some points for the team because my setup is so obscurre. 

 

[Storm-Chaser]

Some pictures from last night during the liquid metal install.

 

PC on the left is a Z820, which is also maxed out with 64GB 8 channel memory and two 2673 v2 processors. Again, please forgive my potato phone.

 

Moving on to undervolting this processor next. Im happy with memory bandwidth for now. Plus a fresh install of Windows 10 to go with the new rig.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Storm-Chaser

[Storm-Chaser]

12 hours ago, Avacado said:

Temps in F, sigh....

 

 

Okay I still need to go back and add more liquid metal to the back CPU, but it's running much better now.

 

 

[Storm-Chaser]

Just downloaded benchmate and tried my hand at a few tests, so far so good. I really like the new machine.