9 reasons why I think workstations make great servers | HP Z840 Workstation

I recently picked up a HP Z840 workstation and as I was examining this machine, I realized it makes a great server as well! You see, I spend a lot of time answering people's questions on eBay/social media/email and one of the most frequent questions I get is what hardware to use for a first home server build. Although a lot of my videos center around rack mount servers, I also realize not everyone is ready to install a server rack in their home. So, it might be easier to get started with something a bit more familiar to those who already have a desktop PC. These professional workstations bridge that gap quite well: they are in a desktop PC form factor, but are built with enterprise grade components like Xeon processors, ECC RAM, hot-swap storage bays, etc. In this video, I'm going to share with you all the reasons why I think a workstation, like this HP Z840, make a great server:
9 reasons why this HP Z840 workstation makes for a great server:
1) 4 hot-swappable, storage drive bays for both SAS and SATA drives, with possibility to expand to 7-bays.
2) Onboard LSI SAS2308 SAS controller - great for ZFS, TrueNAS, Unraid, etc.
3) Storage expandability to an external JBOD
4) Dual socket system - lots of compute options, which is great for virtualization like VMware ESXi, Proxmox VE, etc.
5) 16x DIMM slots - very high RAM capacity, which is great for hypervisors like VMware ESXi, Proxmox VE, etc.
6) Lots of PCIe lanes. 7 PCIe slots with three x16 slots to easily add GPUs - great for PLEX with GPU transcoding.
7) Supports PCIe bifurcation
8) Easily swappable power supply
9) SATA power does not have 3.3V - compatible with HDDs with "power disable" feature.
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[@dannydanquah3681]

It's expansion capabilities is what amazes me. You can go from a mere 4 cores processor to 22 cores and from 4GB of RAM to a whopping 2TB.

[@ArtofServer]

yeah, it really is just a server in a desktop case...

[@gregoryrunningelk865]

And now you should show the public how you did all of this, I myself would like to know the name of the processor that is 22 core. Ram is not a problem.

[@mikea2717]

I think the maximum is 2x e5 2686 v3, 18 cores, so 36 cores, 72 threads total with both installed.

[@randalwilliams9106]

I believe the E5-2699 v4 could be used in this machine. This is a 22 core processor with 44 threads. If it is a dual processor machine, that would make it a 44 core/88 thread machine. In my Z840 I am using two E5-2690 v4 processors which are 14 core processors. This gives me 28 cores/56 threads. I am using Proxmox as the OS and TrueNAS Core as my primary VM with several other VMs.

[@donkeyholmes4581]

@@mikea2717you think wrong.

[@MrMoxes]

I know that you cover a lot of HP stuff. I learned a lot when I picked up my T320 (which I upgraded to a T430). Learned my lesson with Dell but a great starting point for first timers. Still rocking solid!

[@ArtofServer]

I actually seem to cover a lot more Dell stuff than anything else, which was due to demand/requests. I personally like building my servers with Supermicro components. I like the HP Z workstations for desktop use, but they can be used as servers too and I saw a lot of people wanting a desktop form factor for their server so I made this and related videos.

[@johnwalker8952]

I've had one as my daily driver for 4 years now and only minor quibble is fan noise. Love the mechanical quality, built like a tank!

[@ArtofServer]

Yeah, love my Z840 still!

[@richardguo1892]

Great video! Workstations and tower servers are very underrated for sure. I started off with a used Lenovo P310 workstation as my first server, it was a great server for my apartment, it was affordable, quite, efficient for its age and somewhat expendable. Over time I added another 2 drives in the 5.25” bays, totaling 4 HDDs and 1 SSD. Now I have migrated to a Dell T330 tower server, which has been great. All I’ve done so far was modding the PSU board to add a 8 pin power for the transcoding GPU.

[@ArtofServer]

Exactly! and having Xeon CPUs and ECC RAM is great for data integrity if you're storing data on the machine. Thanks for watching!

[@dlg5485]

I recently acquired a used Z840 that I upgraded and am using as my Plex media server as well as for encoding/editing. It's running dual Xeon E5-2620 processors, 128gb ram, 512gb PCIe system drive, GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, and 4 - 16tb Seagate Iron Wolf Pro HDDs in a RAID 1+0 (29.1tb total storage). I've gone thru several media server setups over the last 15 years and, while it was quite an investment overall, this Z840 is my most capable solution yet, by far. Nice workstation!

[@ArtofServer]

Congrats! The Z840 is a very capable machine indeed! :-) Thanks for watching!

[@ussmillerco]

For 45 bucks, you might consider upgrading those 2620’s to dual 2690v4’s as they have very respectable benchmark scores in both single thread, and multi thread. I just paid $45 for both of those processors and beat your 2620s handily performance wise. FYI

[@ussmillerco]

Just looked, dual 2690v4 : passmark score 32k multi and 2100 single, to your dual 2620v4 :15k multithread, and 1700 single. Dual 2620 V3, multi was 13k. Big gain for little dollars, no brainer!

[@gregoryrunningelk865]

Hi, I have an HP z420 . I didn’t think about turning it into a server until now. So I will be watching to see what your doing. Thank you!

[@ArtofServer]

Awesome! Thanks for watching!

[@UnkyjoesPlayhouse]

That box is sweet, it has Unraid written all over it. VM's with shared video, storage management, dockers etc etc etc. :) I am a little envious, and I want one :)

[@hacked2123]

Look into the Z820, its a bit more budget friendly

[@ArtofServer]

I paid about $450-ish for this barebone, so need to add cpu and storage. It's all relative, but I think I'm getting a lot of value for the price. I wish the side panels were not scratched up, but the internals are solid. More videos on this Z840 to come. If you are interested, let me know and I'll ping you next time I see a good deal on one.

[@ArtofServer]

@hacked2123 yes, Z820 is a nice machine too! And the E5-2687v2 are not that expensive now so you can get great value! It doesn't support PCIe bifurcation though, and I really wanted the quad z turbo drive!

[@BeachBoyAAA]

Every once in a while you can find new side panels on ebay for next to nothing. You can also refinish them.

[@ArtofServer]

@@ELECTR0HERMIT what do you mean by pre-850 PSU?

[@mrmikieshomestead4668]

Very nice, I love the way they built these

[@ArtofServer]

These Z840 are still one of my favorites.

[@mrmikieshomestead4668]

I got my 2nd unit today! @@ArtofServer

[@cavisualproductions4406]

I've never owned the Z8** series but I do have a Z420 and just today I have a friend that works at a manufacturing plant that was looking to offload more of the older systems....shortly put, he gave me four Z420s and two Z440's. So six units total. Can plan to use one of them or two for Truenas since they all have Xeon CPUs and ECC RAM (440's have ECC RDIMMS). I also find the conversion to desktop very neat as well.

[@ArtofServer]

Congrats on acquiring those machines! They are all very nice machines. The Z4xx don't have the storage capacity like the Z8xx, but they are still very nice machines! Hope you enjoy using them! :-)

[@cavisualproductions4406]

@@ArtofServer yes I surely will find uses for them! I know the 420s doesn't have as much storage capacity but one of them would make a great Proxmox hypervisor. And given how cheap the ECC RAM is its a no-brainer. I am finding the Z840 an interesting machine for a possible video and audio editing workstation given that the motherboard has two CPU sockets and tons of RAM slots. This will work great until I am able to get my numerous Dell and SM rack servers out of storage...I could have a GREAT homelab!

[@tbranch227]

This is so much nicer than those old dell workstations I was buying!

[@ArtofServer]

Which Dell workstations were you buying? The T7910 I have is pretty comparable to this Z840, but I think the HP is prettier! Lol

[@tbranch227]

@@ArtofServer T5600s - I like them. They have a ton of compute power and memory capacity at an awesome price. However, the drive setup is pretty terrible. I'll check out the T7910 as well next time I buy, if I decide not to buy more rack mounted hardware.

[@jonathankovacs1809]

Thanks for talking about apartments I live in one now. I did set up a server rack because I had to stay at home due to covid-19 of course . Great video..

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for watching! Glad you liked it! Wow... rack in apartment? Is it a small rack or are you in a ground level apartment? I can't imagine installing a 42U rack in above ground level apartment...

[@jonathankovacs1809]

@@ArtofServer Yes I do live in a ground unit it is a 42 unit rack my girlfriend was not to happy with me that day.. She was happy that we would be spending more time together.

[@mansooralikhan4768]

Very nice sir

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks!

[@safn1949]

I have a HP Z230 I bought for $75, fantastic machine.

[@ArtofServer]

Congrats! Hope you enjoy using it! :-)

[@DP-je2sk]

Your videos are always fantastic! Nice work!

[@ArtofServer]

Thank you!

[@steviewondar3456]

I've binged on your content lately and think one of the HP Z series is a great option to be the core of my home lab and use a couple Lenovo laptops with upgraded RAM/NVME as clients or test beds. Don't require 24/7, but depending on electricity costs the HP Z could provide that for various VMs & Plex. Have your Ebay store pegged for buying some components. Thanks

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for watching my content! I hope you find some of my content helpful to you!

[@AhmedMohamed-xs5ij]

I respect you and your channel cos of it very powerful info, thanks a lot :)

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for your kind words!

[@sysadmin102]

Another great video! I like workstations too cause it's quieter to have a workstation in the office compared to a server.

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for watching!

[@hectorcardenas2171]

Why quieter?

[@ArtofServer]

Because they are designed for low noise where as servers, especially older rack mount ones, are not designed for noise reduction since they are deployed in data centers or dedicated server room.

[@savoyblue777]

Thank you again You have helped me out so much watching your video's Please keep it up!!!!!!

[@ArtofServer]

Glad I was able to help! Thanks for watching and please like and subscribe 😊

[@hacked2123]

Anyone who is looking to use a Z820/Z840 for gaming, when using a large GPU like the 2080/3080/3090, the lower shroud can be removed permanently without much compromise.

[@ArtofServer]

just be careful that the PCIe hold down bracket will not lock in place without the lower shroud. if moving the machine around, especially with heavy cards like GPU, there's a chance it can slip out.

[@pacoreguenga]

I just been enjoying my HP Z600 for two months and I already love it. I put a second cpu on it, 48gb ram and 5 hard drives totaling 11 terabytes. Two of them are system drives (Windows 11 Pro and Ubuntu Studio) so I’m upgrading them to SSD. At the moment I’m using a GTX 1050 Ti from my old HP Pavillion computer, which is now my new server. I’m already thinking the Z600 will be my next server as soon as I get a Z840. These Z Workstations are real workhorses. The new Z8 doesn’t look as appealing to me.

[@ArtofServer]

That's awesome. I love the Z800, Z820, and Z840. The latest Z8 not so appealing...

[@PoundNetTexas]

What about the Z4 or Z6? Seems they are more in the PC family than server family @@ArtofServer

[@OsX86H3AvY]

I bought the Z600 and then finally upgraded to the Z840 and also bought a Z440 motherboard which is basically ATX so I could put that MoBo into a regular ATX case with a regular PSU with adapters and I had two issues - front USB which I solved with a little internal USB to USB adapter board plugged in for a few bucks and then if there are more than 4 DIMMs in then it tells me I need a fan - so I run with fewer than 8 and I can WoL boot juuuuuust fine anywhere anyways...i generally dont really like HP but I have LOVED their workstations and teh Z-series is what did it

[@ArtofServer]

I agree, I'm not usually a fan of HP stuff, but the Z800/Z820/Z840 generation has been nice. I'm not so fond of the newer Z8 though...

[@Oswee]

Thinking to get something like this. The only concern i have is the noise level it produces in full configuration. If the noise level is like for the rocket engine, then it is more suitable to get few pizza-boxes in the basement. Quick price lookup tells me that this box can suck in up to 6K Eur to get 22 core cpus, max memory and so on. For the 6K you can get 5 decent HP DL* pizza-boxes with 10 core Xeons, which in total is like 100 core compute power (1000 vCPUs) plus like 90 RAM slots and still having tremendous upgrade options in future. Talking from my automation programming and virtualization perspective where i need to test different server clusters, networking and what not. No need for gaming or any other GPU stuff. So for me the noise level is kinda selling point. If its really quite to put right next to me for daily work in quite environment... then its probably worth to consider. Financially ... pizza-boxes makes more sense even including 24U rack. Recently got Solaris 48U rack with the full PDU for 120 Eur. :D Happy as hell. But overall, really appealing thing. Researching it.

[@ArtofServer]

Because this machine is designed to be a desktop workstation, which means it will sit near the person working on it, it is by design a quiet machine. Certainly much quieter than most rack mount servers. It is not completely silent though, but if put under a desk, I think you can barely hear it. There is also an option to upgrade to vapor chamber coolers that reduce any noise pollution even further. I will cover that option in future video.

[@DarkStar1967]

Another great video, thanks for sharing!!

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for watching! :-)

[@danielhetorilla8177]

thanks I've been looking for something like this.

[@ArtofServer]

Glad you liked it. Hope it helps 😃

[@curvingfyre6810]

tbh, these (dell, hp, supermicro, huananzi) literally are just servers. All server components, tons of server interfaces, in a home friendly box. They're probably the most flexible machines on the market. You can spec for gaming with two of the fastest clock speed of the most recent gen processor, mixed methods with the lga2011 feature of mixed CPUs, with one fast cpu and one huge cpu, and the CPU benches you can get from these (2011 v3, or the original) matches (or surpasses on v3) literally anything up to threadripper. They're not always the fastest, but if you need something that can very literally do anything, get a 2 socket xeon. Even if you can only get the one cpu at first, they all work in single socket mode too, so just upgrade later.

[@ArtofServer]

thanks for watching! i can't wait until the AMD threadripper PRO workstations hit the used market!

[@Dcatts-i2z]

After doing some part # cross referencing, I've learned that the fans in workstations are really nice and cost 25-30 bucks a pop on their own. Why but something that needs $100 of Noctua fans when the workstations come with h the same thing.

[@d2cbro]

Wait you can mix CPUs?

[@OctoomyYTOfficial]

My homelab is just a Dell Poweredge R420 with dual xeons and 96 gigs of memory with a Optiplex XE ontop of it running a program that automatically backup all data from the R420, compresses it and stores it to a disk. I'm guessing that's a perfectly valid setup.

[@ArtofServer]

Yeah, that's not a bad setup. Make sure there's some level of redundancy though, both at the storage level of the R420, and also location wise. I would always try to backup my data in at least 3 locations, 2 of them physically separated.

[@OctoomyYTOfficial]

@@ArtofServer, yep, I follow the 3-2-1 (3 copies, 2 different mediums, one offsite) method, too. My offsite is smaller than my local since it is reserved for critical data and secured as such.

[@gurukantdesai4225]

subscribed. is it possible to install windows xp on this workstation?

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for the sub! Wow... I don't know about Win XP... that's very old now and although this machine can support legacy BIOS boot mode, I just don't know if XP will work, or even have the drivers for this generation of hardware.

[@woxit6107]

Thanks for your time and effort! ;-)

[@ArtofServer]

My pleasure!

[@BigDaveJacket]

Nice video. You've given me something to think about for my current build. Go this route instead of build from scratch with SuperMicro server MB. My only concern is that I assume there is no IPMI type functionality since this is a workstation and not a server. This will be up on a shelf in a closet headless and remote management may be a deal breaker for me.

[@ArtofServer]

Yup, out of band remote management is not available. For a server put away in a closet, I would go rack mount system. This was meant to help those who are just getting started with servers and want a tower/desktop server that can be tolerated in a home office.

[@jawny5332]

Theres no IPMI, but what about the Intel ME/AMT? Unlike the Z640 which only has a single RJ45, there's 2 RJ45's on the back of the Z840 and the bottom one is dedicated to AMT. I believe there's a few different companies that make aftermarket management software, each with there own pros and cons. But, right out of the box you can set up a web interface after initializing MEBx. You just press "ctrl-p" after POST, and enter in your network info and preferences.

[@vng]

Dell has tower versions of their rack servers in the Poweredge series, the Txxx can be installed with a iDRAC module to allow IPMI. A T630 will allow you to mount 2 E5-2600 v3/v4 CPUs and lots of RAM and several PCIe cards, plus some come with 8 hotswap 3.5" bays for not just a media server but even NAS.

[@NikitaLab]

Yup they're great, I ran a Dell R7610 with 2667 v2 chips as my workstation. Now I have a ryzen rig that is still rackmounted and has display going over fiber DP and usb over fiber (icron 2344).

[@ArtofServer]

Cool! What is this fiber DP you speak of?

[@NikitaLab]

@@ArtofServer they're all over amazon if you search fiber DP, $75 for a 15M cable. Work at least at full DP 1.2 4k60 spec, they're great.

[@ArtofServer]

@@NikitaLab thanks!

[@PeterBatah]

I would like to install Vmware ESXi on either a Z820 or Z840. Your thoughts.

[@ArtofServer]

shouldn't be a problem unless VMware dropped some more drivers. In 7.0, they dropped the LSI SAS2008 drivers.

[@PeterBatah]

Thank you so much for the prompt response. Much appreciated. How would I go about verifying if the drivers existed in version 6.5 for example. I do possess a licensed version. Have an awesome weekend.@@ArtofServer

[@nlcirque]

HP Z workstations are designed to run 24h a day for 5 years. Great machines.

[@ArtofServer]

Yes they are!

[@johnczyz]

What is that PCI expansion card that is just above the single slot Quadro video card? M.2 xpander? or wifi? thank you

[@ArtofServer]

That's the HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 PCIe adapter. I talk about it in my video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aV7Wc2mwiJtkd8k

[@wolfthunder2984]

I wanted to make a server for web hosting and I'm not sure what to get. I wanted to ask you what you think about hp z420 to use it as a web hosting server?

[@ArtofServer]

For a starter server, and if you don't want to go with a rackmount setup, I think the Z420 or the Z8x0 series are great machines.

[@ajama1335]

What's the power consumption like? Power is pretty expensive in the UK unfortunately. Also is there any performance penalty of using the built in LSI controller?

[@ArtofServer]

Don't know yet, and that's going to vary greatly depending on choice of CPU, GPU, etc. when I'm done setting up this machine, I may run a power consumption test and make a video about it. the onboard LSI SAS2308 controller is great for both HDD and SSD use. It's a great IT mode SAS controller, but not so great RAID controller. I'm planning to flash it to IT mode to use with ZFS. but, if you plan to use it as hardware RAID controller, I would recommend instead adding a better RAID PCIe card like LSI SAS2208 or SAS3108 that has onboard cache.

[@rcdenis1]

My power bill went up $30 per month with a z840 setup similarly as a server and running 24 hours a day.

[@hectorcardenas2171]

@@rcdenis1 You’re using mechanical HDDs?

[@rcdenis1]

@@hectorcardenas2171 yes, 4.

[@hectorcardenas2171]

@@rcdenis1 That’s the main reason.

[@PaulRandle-sc8qk]

If you want a cost-effective home server, get an HP microserver (G7). You can safely ignore the HP specs, I currently have two with 4x 6TB drives. One I have upgraded to SAS drives at minimal cost. As far as I can see, the only advantage of a Z840 (as a server), is that you can have four SAS drives without any other hardware changes. The downside is the cost of the electricity to run a high power workstation 24-7. PS I lust after Z840s, but not as servers.

[@caz5021]

I’m debating between a Z840 or a Precision T7910. Which one do you prefer?

[@ArtofServer]

I think the Z840 is a much better designed system. It's something you would appreciate to look at and use. The T7910 is a very capable machine, but it's just like any other PC, covered in plastic parts and not something you care to look at, but will do the job. The Z840 is capable of holding a lot more HDDs if you're looking to setup for bulk storage. The T7910 will hold more 2.5" drives like SSDs. Both can also use NVMe PCIe drives. My personal preference is the Z840.

[@caz5021]

@@ArtofServer Hey, thanks for the reply! I had a guy willing to sell me his 7910, but I think I'll hold out for a Z840.

[@patrickschouten4769]

This video sold me on making this my new Unraid/plex server. Do you have any suggestions on a PCI NVME card that can support 2 NVME''s using Bifurcation?

[@ArtofServer]

even better... look at the HP Turbo Quad card....

[@pacocote]

I have the same HP Z840 I suggest to you install the AORUS Gen4 AIC Adaptor supports up to 4 nvme

[@seemasaiprasanthreddy1400]

Can i edit 4k raw footage videos?

[@ericwanner7966]

Thinking about getting one but just today became aware of them. Will have to figure out best way to order one. Curious, would something like an A4000 graphics card fit/work in this workstation? If not, what is the best option for GPUs?

[@ArtofServer]

I don't know much about the A4000. HP does provide specs for how long of a card can put used in these workstations. I previously had a GTX 980Ti, and currently a RX6700XT in my Z840. PCIe power will be limited by PSU option, so be sure to watch that video on my channel.

[@zilog1]

Do you think theres enough ducted airflow for a couple of tesla cards and a quadro? A friends gave me some old tesla cards that have no fans meant for in a server. i saw the old listing for the config of these on HPs website and one of the options was to equip it with a tesla. but im not sure if those were the hard to find ones with the fans or not. I have noticed a lot of OEM cards for this machine like the Quadro K6000 have that metal bracket in the back that slot into the case nice and neat that looks like to channel air flow towoards the front of the card form the fans. But im not sure about using these in this case or not. Any thoughts on this?

[@ArtofServer]

how many watts of heat do you need to dissipate with that hardware?

[@zilog1]

@@ArtofServer 250Watts each :p Its a pair of tesla p40s

[@molohov3875]

Any suggestions for other workstation machines of a similar caliber, specifically with that amount of drive bays?

[@ArtofServer]

I think the HP Z8x0 series is the best, but take a look at the Dell Precision T7910 and Lenovo ThinkStation P900 or P910 as well.

[@molohov3875]

@@ArtofServer do you know of any that are single CPU instead?

[@michaelpearce4861]

Hello I have a z820 2 x Xeon E5-2580 v2 total 20cores / 40 threads what would I need to convert this into a server,still learning about this machine.Thank you

[@ArtofServer]

That depends on what kind of server you plan to build with it. You have a nice machine there that's very capable of many roles. I recommend you watch my Z840 series as it has a lot in common with the Z820.

[@mumblety96]

A server OS and some storage?

[@mdrafikulhasan1369]

How to possible ram overclocking in z840 workstation?

[@ArtofServer]

I don't know of a way to do that with Xeon based systems.

[@windseer55]

i wonder if you can hack your way to use a standard ATX 1000W+ power supply to use on these machinese, judging you cant find a replacement power supply

[@ArtofServer]

Actually, PSUs for these workstations are abundantly available on eBay. I'm sure with enough effort, one could adapt a ATX PSU for this, but the standby voltage might be the only quirky part that you'd have to engineer a real solution for. The rest is probably pretty standard and you just need some sort of adapter cable.

[@windseer55]

@@ArtofServer sadly i dont have access to decent ebay prices since im from asia. Shipping fees here ranges from 200 usd to 2000 usd for used pc or parts, id probably use this for hosting a game server for friends honestly. And doing some video editing.

[@howardleen4182]

Can you recommend a server be used for big data analytics, VM and ml/ai purposes? (I'm trying to set up a home lab for days science purposes and I'm struggling to find options that under 1k just for the chassis!)

[@ArtofServer]

you really don't need much to play around with those type of tools.

[@wangyi6854]

How about the noise level? I think this is another important factor of decision.

[@kristopherleslie8343]

I have 6 servers in my room. No noise.

[@hectorcardenas2171]

@@kristopherleslie8343 You have SSD’s in them?

[@kristopherleslie8343]

@@hectorcardenas2171 split between ssds and fast old server storage

[@GrupoLibertyNETCLUB]

Can you tell us the solution that you choose on Z840 related to storage: NMVE SSD ? PCI express card, cables, etc...

[@GrupoLibertyNETCLUB]

Waiting for video explaining this part, thank you.

[@Bigjunk9999]

This looks like a great idea . . . but the platform is from 2014. How many more years can you really keep it going?

[@ArtofServer]

for basic server needs, i think it should be fine for some years. many of the people who watch this channel are still using westmere xeons! LOL as long as high compute performance isn't a requirement, i think older equipment is affordable enough to justify re-using them. if you're looking for absolute compute performance, then the more modern platforms are much more efficient and will get the benchmark results.

[@derekp6636]

gotta ask, any luck installing esxi 6.7 on it? I'd love to upgrade my older workstation/host. Love the 'quieter' design vs the rackmount having one is enough...

[@ArtofServer]

Never tried it. But the onboard sas2308 is compatible with esxi 7.0

[@dannydanquah3681]

I have a second unit currently running ESXi 6.7 so yes it will install without problems. Make sure you enable hyper v in BIOS prior to installing ESXi.

[@mumblety96]

have had everything on mine: proxmox, UNRAID, esxi. all works. only drawback is getting damn GPU passthrough to MacOS costs expensive consulting time with an expert.

[@TheRangeControl]

Hi there! I just wanted to touch base. I'm sure that you have been busy and had quite a bit going on over the holidays... But, I am not sure if you received my follow up email to see if you received any more H200?

[@ArtofServer]

Hi!!! Sorry if I missed an email! I get a lot of messages so sometimes I don't get to see all of them! H200 are in stock in my store! Link to my store is in the video description. Thanks!

[@TheRangeControl]

@@ArtofServer I was the guy coordinating for Paypal because of the Ebay address issues. :-)

[@TheRangeControl]

@@ArtofServer Please, I desperately need the IT Mode H200, still dealing with address mis-shipping issue with Ebay. However, can still do paypal. Please advise

[@xisop]

When you convert this tower to a 19" unit.. It will be a 4u?

[@ArtofServer]

It's 8-inches wide, so that would be about 5U.

[@BeefJerky4104]

I just got 6 of these for free because they're being retired at my work. They all come with dual Xeons, 64GB of RAM, Quadros, and 12TB of HDD. They'll be joining my existing nodes in a proxmox cluster.

[@ArtofServer]

Those are great machines! Congrats on the new acquisition! There's also a rackmount kit to put these Z840 side ways in a rack.

[@ssesangahenryii9217]

Hey am Henry from Uganda and am looking for these used pieces can we talk and we do some business?

[@rico7772007]

I wonder what it is like with a firmware upgrade because unlike dell, hp requires a license to download new drivers to the servers. Is it the same with these machines?

[@ytguy2010]

The Proliant servers require a license. The Z series firmwares, BIOS updates and drivers are free available from the HP website.

[@AchwaqKhalid]

I need one based on #EPYC 🖥

[@ArtofServer]

Have you checked out my videos on the Lenovo P620 with the Threadripper Pro? Basically a EPYC workstation!

[@AchwaqKhalid]

@@ArtofServer sure did but I'm after is a modular workstation that I can change however I want plus that p620 is a bit pricy (only option available so far is: DIY) after all dual socket supermicro mobos are available at a reasonable price 💲

[@openbabel]

can you use oios openindiana on it ?

[@ArtofServer]

maybe, but I don't know...

[@ytguy2010]

This thing weighs a lot (upwards of 65 pounds according to the manual). At least they give you handles on top to lift it. 😁

[@ArtofServer]

Indeed... it's definitely not light weight and those handles are great! Same goes for the Dell T7910 too.

[@GumShoeNoir]

"2) Onboard LSI SAS2308 SAS controller - great for ZFS, TrueNAS, Unraid, etc. " Does this controller allow pass through via configuration / menu option for ZFS/JBOD? Or is it necessary to flash with IT mode firmware? Regardless, if a firmware update was desirable for the 2308, can it be accomplished in a similar manner as demonstrated in your "HP Z840 workstation | How to update BIOS without OS" video?

[@ArtofServer]

By default, HP puts the IR (RAID) firmware on the LSI controller. But, it is easy to flash to IT mode firmware. I'll be releasing a video on how to do that in the future. The method involves booting FreeDOS from USB or UEFI shell. I don't know of a way to do that from the BIOS/UEFI system menu. If using ZFS, best to use the IT mode firmware.

[@CassegrainSweden]

@@ArtofServer Recently having bought a z840 an instruction on how to flash the on-board SAS-controller to IT-mode would be gold :) Looking forward for it.

[@dineshsingh-gb6un]

Muje putahe workstation me server bhi aate me pehle gaya bhi tha

[@pbrigham]

How much you paid for this Machine ?

[@ArtofServer]

About 450 USD.

[@njronray99]

@@ArtofServerI bought 5 days ago a Z800 with 48 gb ram . 2 processors and 4 x500gb hhd for only $ 90.00 dollars and is like new that machine.

[@ArtofServer]

@@njronray99 that is awesome 👍

[@VintageTechRepairs]

Prices range from £ 900 to £ 1500 in the UK 🇬🇧. Ouch

[@ArtofServer]

I found one on eBay UK for 740 pounds, but that is still over 1000 USD! I got mine here in USA for about 450 USD. So expensive over in the UK!

[@Mr.Leeroy]

That probably only works in US, maybe some other countries with a lot of server surplus (but I believe they do not come even close to US). In every other place you are probably better of with Supermicro board based whitebox. Especially as a beginner.

[@ArtofServer]

well, yes, of course local market conditions apply. but these HP Z workstations are easily found on eBay in US, Canada, UK, and Europe. Also, many US sellers are willing to ship outside the USA. but you are correct in that availability will vary based upon region.

[@Mr.Leeroy]

@@ArtofServer How much power draw BTW? Idle/load from an outlet. I am avoiding dual sockets and e5 since it was horrible on LGA2011.

[@ArtofServer]

What was "horrible" power consumption to you? I find most systems from ivybridge and newer are pretty good with power consumption. But, I'll make a video on this question in the future with actual numbers.

[@jusw]

@@ArtofServer Horrible for me is a Dell T5610 with E5-2650v2 (Ivy Bridge-EP) 16GB DDR3 2x12TB WD Whites and it idles at ~100W which at 25c/KWh (in UK) is $220/yr. I can upgrade to a Z640 E5-2630Lv3 for $330 but I'd really like to get a clear picture of how much lower the idle power draw will be?

[@dineshsingh-gb6un]

Muje dual ya 4 processor wala dikha

[@britthale7917]

HP Z series is no slouch. Look at the specs and it may as well be a server... Just don't get a Celeron or i5 and expect much.

[@ArtofServer]

Exactly! It's basically server components in a desktop PC!

[@MnemonicCarrier]

Why doesn't HP do AMD workstations? I definitely would have purchased one.

[@ArtofServer]

I don't know why HP doesn't make any Threadripper workstations, but AMD was out of the workstation space for many years until Lisa Su and Zen finally made a come back. Maybe HP will make some AMD based workstations in the future? I know Dell, Lenovo, and Supermicro have AMD based workstations now...

[@MetaSportsLive]

I have like 15 of these for sale haha.

[@ArtofServer]

They are great machines!

[@cp_pdn]

Can we put in a raid card inside ? Say a H710 ? But these workstations can only take 2 drives right ? Oops ...more bays available ... Nice ...

[@ArtofServer]

Sure, if you want hardware RAID, you can add a RAID card and switch the drive bays to the add-on card. I would not recommend a Dell RAID card in this HP workstation though, likely to have smbus conflict. Just get a good LSI SAS2208 or SAS3108 RAID controller.

[@chirpingbluebird]

i bought this 2 months ago and love it.. but why do people compare AMD ryzen and say 840 is vintage

[@YuriShevchouk]

Are there dell alternatives to this. I despise hp.

[@Radovanslav]

funilly enough I feel the same way but exactly opposite -- I've had good experience with HP stuff with Dells either not working well or not at all. Good luck.

[@YuriShevchouk]

@@Radovanslav weird. Every hp product I have tried has broken within 3 year. Dell on the other hand has lasted for 10+ years.

[@MrRolloTamasi]

@@YuriShevchouk here I have Gen 10, 20 y old LJet, newer col ljet, z400 and z420 and some hp displays. Looks like an hp fan club resort. No probs, stuff just works.

[@YuriShevchouk]

@@MrRolloTamasi maybe this will make me give them a second chance.

[@hacked2123]

Fyi, I never buy HP, and I worked for Dell ProSupport call center back in the day, so I know how awesome Dell is...but I've owned 3 Z800's, a Z440, a Z620, and a Z820. One Z800 is in storage, one Z800 was gutted and put into a 4u Rosewill server chasis with 15x 3.5" bays, one Z800 gave to a friend, the Z440 was too little to be useful and gave it to a friend (took the m.2 pci-e card), Z620 passed onto my wife, and the Z820 is my daily driver.

[@papuchobello]

A lot of no standard components.

[@ArtofServer]

Some parts, but standard CPU, RAM, HDDs, SSDs, GPUs. Not that bad.

[@eric3434]

The HP z840 is the same architecture as servers, but without the redundancy. The on-board raid is not too great on these machines. These z workstations are professional workstations. They make terrible servers. Besides an HP Proliant Gen9 (which is similar to the HPZ840) is less expensive. And fully redundant. And with fantastic raid controller. So if you need a server, buy one of those. Like the HP Proliant ML350 Gen9.