Pushing the z440 to the NEXT LEVEL - Budget Gaming PC

[@JuanGonzalez-hv6vs]

This psychotic AB Lincoln brights my day with his craziness.

[@LowcastleTech]

😄

[@pharmdiddy5120]

Didn't realize just how upgradable these were! Neat!

[@Vicshade]

I just bought one of these z440s to create a budget gaming pc so this video is very helpful. I will check out the Lenovo video as well.

[@LowcastleTech]

Very nice! They are definitely a lot of fun to work with.

[@UltraGameWorld]

Good video mate! Surprised to see how capable this older hardware still is

[@lucasrem]

slow frames for OLD people !

[@griffgames9538]

I got the Z440 with the stock 700w PSU. It's actually an outstanding power supply with ample power to push strong gaming GPUs (use good quality 6-pin to 8-pin adapters - don't worry, between the power supplied by the PCIe 16 slot itself and 6-pin PSU cables with adapters, lots of stable power is available). The 700w PSU is built with good components (made to endure living hell 24/7 workstation/rendering use). The other Z440 SKU with a 525w PSU isn't just lower power, the PSU is not as well built. Targeted for lighter load/components and generic server clusters. Z440 AIR FLOW IN GAMING BUILD: UPPER AIR CHANNEL: I yanked the huge plastic memory fan shroud, and yanked the front bottom fan (both of these fan shrouds contain shitty little fans that get loud). I replaced the 2 front case covers for the empty disk bays with 2 perforated mesh bay covers, opening up the upper case front intake air flow. Then I put a 92mm fan inside the gap of the front 2 disk bays, slightly tilting it down so it blows over the ram and CPU. This fan pulls in air through the new mesh bay covers and blows it towards the ram and CPU. That alone dropped CPU temps by 10c (vastly superior to temps with the enormous memory/CPU plastic shroud) and memory temps are never an issue in a 48GB 2400 DDR4 config. The stock air cooler in the 700w version of the Z440 with a v4 Xeon is actually a very decent CPU cooler with a good copper pipe heatsink array. Between the CPU cooler and the rear exhaust fan, a great air flow channel was created by tapping into the front disk bays for air intake. LOWER AIR CHANNEL: After yanking the stock front lower case intake fan manifold, I cleared up cable management down there and attached a compact fan hub using that fan rail. It has ample power for a fan splitter hub. The fan hub is a Deepcool FH-04, providing 4 fan inputs. (You can use any case fan with the Z440 motherboard fan inputs - simply by shaving off the little plastic tab on the right of any PC fan connector cable. Plugs into the Z440 mobo after without a problem. I did this for the fan hub's 4-pin cable to connect to the mobo). Note: the fan splitter also powers the 92mm fan I put in the double disk bay. I installed a superior Noctua 140mm fan in the front lower case, flush up against the inside lower front grill (which has several holes to allow air intake). Then I installed a RTX 3060 Ti, a compact dual fan version of the card. I wanted some space between the new lower front intake fan and the card, to create a flowing air channel. Longer 'blower' or 3-fan cards can fit, but that makes it too stuffy. Plenty of great dual fan gaming GPUs are available. The Z440 came with a 500gb Sata SSD for the OS, which is plenty fast. In my experience, the Windows 10/11 install on a quality Sata SSD is very snappy. I added a 4TB hard drive for raw media file storage (tunes, videos, back ups). I added very fast 1TB and 2TB gen3 NVMe drives using PCIe to NVMe adapters (find a thin adapter type - Lowcastle's adapter here is too large. Less surface space the better, so you're not creating a heat pocket under/over your GPU's fan exhaust). The NVMe drives have Steam game libraries and Unreal Engine installations. Maximum game-related loading performance. I removed all the unused PCI slot covers from the back of the case and put mesh covers over these now open rear PCI slots. This created an outstanding air channel from the new front lower Noctua fan intake - blowing across the entire lower case, cooling the NVMe drives, and exhausting GPU heat out the back thanks to the open PCI slot covers. This dropped GPU load temps significantly and shrank the GPU's hotspot max temp by 12c. With these relatively straightforward front top & bottom air intake modifications and the use of mesh covers, the previously stuffy Z440 case turned into a pleasant front-to-back air flow scenario. It became much quieter at full load compared to the nasty stock fan shrouds (both the stock memory shroud and stock lower case fan manifold have stupid amounts of bulky plastic taking up space and trapping heat in a gaming config), and the overall PC runs much cooler. The 700w PSU with an E5-1650v4, 48GB of DDR4, fast NVMe drives, and the RTX 3060 Ti proves to be a sweet spot for up to 1440p gaming at great frame-rates and good image quality settings. As a secondary workstation rig for Unreal and video/audio editing work, it's really quite good as well. Best complement I could give it in a single word: Stability.

[@timwithtots]

Love the setup! I recently upgraded to a Zotac 3060ti on my Z440 about two weeks ago but just saw a deal for a 3070 for only $40 more. Thinking about returning the 3060ti for it. Do you think the additional performance boost is worth it considering it will eat up more space in the case? I’m currently running the OEM front/RAM fans that you pulled. Prior to the GPU upgrade I was running a 1080. My machine came with the 700w PSU. I have a ridiculous amount of RAM (96GB) and I’m rocking the E5-1630 v3. I did a bit of research and found I could possibly upgrade to a i7-6900K or the i7-6950X (on top of the normal E5-1660 v4, or Xeon E5-1650 v4 options). Any thoughts on the Intel options?

[@luzxkey5175]

you gave extremely good tips, for anyone reading this PLEASE PLEASE get proper good 6 to 8 pin GPU connectors because mine burnt and it made my PC bootloop and made several issues

[@griffgames9538]

@@timwithtots Yes, shopping higher VRAM cards. An 8GB GPU doesn't quite cut it these days at 1440p with good settings. My CPU in this Z440 has just enough juice to stay performance balanced with *slightly* higher tier GPUs beyond 3060ti. In the 16gb card market. There are options.

[@kingyachan]

I don't know how it happened, but I started watching your channel a week ago and I now have two Z220s, one Z230 and two Z240s and I absolutely blame you entirely. I'm drowning in old workstations and I don't even have a pool noodle to keep me safe 😭

[@LowcastleTech]

😂 That is how it happens... though you gotta have a pool noodle, literally solves every imaginable problem!!! 😃

[@kingyachan]

@@LowcastleTech maybe I'll set one of them up as a server to host a forum for everyone one to post their shameful piles of useful E waste 😅

[@LowcastleTech]

@@kingyachan Fair! 😄

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

I kinda did the same thing but not as extreme. I started watching his videos then went nuts ordering every component for the upgrades. I'm having fun and this is my go to pc youtuber :)

[@SkywardKing]

I love these videos! Because there are so many of these older machines just waiting to be upgraded and used and they are more than capable of meeting the productivity needs of the average person and or average professional. I am currently running the E5-1650 v4 in my Lenovo Thinkstation P510. It's crazy that that processor is going for 25 bones now, because it was double that at the start of the year. Maybe a little more lol. Great machine and It's been my project machine for the last couple of months. Now... i'm on to the P520 :)..... 620 next? IDK.

[@IvailoNachev-xc3zu]

Same here I love them too! While I have built myself a medium range PC two months ago it is refreshing to see someone buy a used office PC and get a decent performance by modding it. I feel that current PC component manufacturers have moved too far away into the hype and overprice field. Even when I tried to tone down my expenses a bit I still hit the 1000 Euro (this stuff is expensive here in EU) to build it from scratch which is insane considering years ago you could get an extremely good PC for the same amount including current inflation. I am happy that I built my machine on AM4 rather than AM5 which is still under development considering how problematic it has been since launch. For my current system I will probably change someday my video card with an 16 GB VRAM one when their prices become more reasonable and add more SSD or HDD drives and call it a day. I personally enjoy watching this channel more than some other ones which throw NVIDIA 4090 or the latest AMD card on every possible build. For me they are not as enjoyable because they feel detached from reality when most people struggle to meet their basic demands like rent or food and they use 2000 bucks video card alone on their machines.

[@mikeparadis6599]

Long live the chair desk. I can't wait to see the results. Time for you to take it to the next level. Do it already................ Just do it !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@joshuareynolds6958]

Been surfing ebay for a 1080ti myself. It will be the first I've bought for my little inspiron. Hope yours works well sir

[@lukasgroot]

Wow what a beast of a card, and I always love the background tunes too.

[@LowcastleTech]

Thank you! I have a little drum pad thing I make the beats with, glad you like it! 🙂

[@johnmadison3472]

I love the z440. I bought 4 of them but I only have one gtx 950 lol. They are more than adequate for the stuff I do. I read somewhere if you use all ram slots, you'll need a proprietary heat spreader.

[@ZackBrooksjoeseph]

yeah you would

[@L4ftyOne]

Nah ram doesnt get hot

[@johnmadison3472]

@@L4ftyOne Anything with current running through it gets hot, relatively speaking.

[@LowcastleTech]

If you fill all the RAM slots the PC will bother you with a BIOS message about a memory fan. It allows you to just press a button and skip the message though. I've ran it like that before with the 2133mhz RAM and didn't have any performance issues or anything. The fan is proprietary but if there was overheating, I imagine a strategically placed case fan would be just as effective. Just have to get "creative" with how you mount it 😄. Think it would be fine though.

[@FarBeyondDriven1978]

0:35 This channel is on fire! Literally : )

[@LowcastleTech]

😄

[@moon-doggiegaming7302]

Getting my HP in a few days. Super stoked to give it a whirl.

[@axelvonripper]

Same here. How did it go?

[@moon-doggiegaming7302]

@@axelvonripper solid rig overall. Can't beat the performance for how cheap it was tbh.

[@axelvonripper]

@@moon-doggiegaming7302 i got mine coming with 64gb ddr 4 ram, 256gb ssd and the E5-2698 V3 with a raydon rx 570 4GB card to put in. Expecting some good performance.

[@JeffWaynee]

Also, you don't need 8 sticks of RAM for quad channel. You only need 4.

[@vipcesh]

If he followed the motherboard manual memory guidelines, he was was running in quad channels. The Manual tells you the exact slots for 4 sticks

[@UGRRetribution]

@@vipcesh Hell, even the side panel has that!

[@LowcastleTech]

Yeah i messed up there. I was thinking about pairing the sticks and my brain short circuited, counting pairs instead of just individual channels.

[@OStateAce]

Dude my HPz440 is a monster... I have a 3060 in it and a v4 processor with 6 cores but overclocked to 12 cores the things a monster. I upgraded the HD to a Mvme Samsung Evo Pro and then slapped 64GB of RAM in it, bought the ram and processor fan and the front cage fan and popped a 1000watt power supply in it and it's an absolute animal.

[@shameelkhan209]

How do you overclock it. The motherboard is locked.

[@OStateAce]

@@shameelkhan209 when you boot go to bios and normally the CPU is locked to 3.6 but you can enable Intel boost and turn it up to 4.0

[@majinshinsa]

If there is one thing I dislike about office PCs is that the boards are harder to swap cases and the power supply nonsense. I have a newer Dell Optiplex and ran into the same kind of issues. I don’t have a pool noodle to straighten things out either

[@LowcastleTech]

Very true, I have the same frustrations with them. Dangerously close to invoking the pool noodle wrath!

[@D4RKHORSE95]

Just wantes to say i really love your content. Its entertaining and like that you are very relatable. Playing woth hardware is always fun

[@LowcastleTech]

I appreciate that, thank you for watching!

[@douglomax7461]

Lookf for the z440's that come with the 700 watt OEM PSU, it has 2- 6 pin power connectors that can easily be converted to 8 pins with adapters and it works great.

[@Drdirtydee]

This is the way,

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

Mandalorian! This is the way :)@@Drdirtydee

[@mbe102]

Oh crap, you can only use 3 internal 3.5 inch drives? :O! Also, totally subbed, that narration is equal parts dry and hilarious, and informative and entertaining.

[@the_retag]

You can get 5.25 bay to 3.5 adapters

[@xMandalorex]

Max ram is 256GB (Running 128GB + RTX + 22 CORE XEON) on my HP Z440

[@barkatkadani5432]

brother Can you plz Suggest me the best gaming Processor for Z440

[@xMandalorex]

@@barkatkadani5432 The highest CPU it can take. Xeon 2699 V4

[@johnringgold3036]

Unless the PSU is bad I don't understand why you want to swap it out. These things are tanks, meant to run 24/7 in tower racks. I have used these for years no problems.

[@LowcastleTech]

It was just so I could run the 1080ti. I needed a 6pin as well as a 6+2. The stock PSU only has dual 6pin which, you're right, not bad at all. But I was wanting to see how it did with this card. Edit* - This was also a 525w variation which doesn't have any PCIe power connectors.

[@wildwoody8324]

Got one of these for Christmas. Came bundled with a e5 1660v4 and ironically enough a gtx 1660 ti

[@nabulalke]

i have a 1660 super and i can run games alright. its a fantastic rig

[@rwl0323]

Would love to see you review the Z240. I'm on the verge of buying the 440 or the 240...still undecided. Love your videos BTW!

[@LowcastleTech]

Glad you are liking the content, thank you for watching! I actually do have a video based around the z240. It is not super in depth like a formal review, but I do talk about some of the features and such. Here is a link if you're interested kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXWug2Z8d9JjrcU

[@rwl0323]

@@LowcastleTech Thanks for pointing out the review vid. I like the fact that the Z240 has an M.2 slot and can boot from it where as the Z440 doesn't . On another note...it seems that the Z440 also requires ECC memory. Now, I just need to check out what processors I can upgrade to in the 420. Thanks again!

[@CoalitionGaming]

I love the Z440s! Transplanting em completely into a new case is possible as well! Just need to be aware of some things. Best of luck and great video!

[@LowcastleTech]

Definitely, they are great budget machines and a lot of fun to work with. Glad you liked the video, thank you for watching 🙂

[@KrysRevamps]

Hey, love the idea of turning an old Z440 into a gaming rig, but I think we're missing a few key points. As a tech channel, it's super important to cover all bases, so viewers don't get any nasty surprises. For starters, what about the power consumption? Older machines can really hike up the electricity bill. Also, it would be cool to see how this old beast stacks up against newer hardware in terms of bang for your buck. And about the games - only two? That's a pretty slim selection to judge performance. Why not throw in a couple of gpu benchmarking tools like heaven or 3d mark? That way, we get a better idea of how it performs across the board (these do stress test the CPU) behind the scenes. Stuff like this really helps folks figure out if this is a smart buy or just a fun project. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of making old tech work, but we gotta keep an eye on whether it's actually worth it, you know?

[@JeffWaynee]

Don't forget that X99 supports quad channel RAM, so even 2133 is really 4266, and 2400 is really 4800.

[@Matt-oq4jq]

thank you mister computer man

[@LowcastleTech]

🙂

[@SymbolicSplenetic]

I'm eyeing the Lenovo P520 with 128GB of RAM and 18core/36 thread E5-2699V3 for my new audio production rig. 👀 ....Tbh they look so good and are so cheap, I might get two. (second one being for virtualization and development)

[@dragos-alexandrusofronie1482]

A question please sir, if u have the time. If u were to build a z440 gaming machine what broadwell-E cpu would u buy. What nvidia RTX card would be the maximum to make sense for such a config?

[@theHardwareBench]

I just got a GTX1080 for £120 with a triple fan cooler, the GTX1080ti is £200 so not really a budget card when you can get a brand new RTX3060 for £270. I haven't got around to benching, overclocking or properly testing the 1080 yet but it seems like a 1440p gaming card and 1080p monster so far. Use the windows 10 Xbox screen recorder, doesn't use a lot of resources, records at 1080p and it's free! I just modified my £250 build, the Optiplex now has a GTX 1060 6gb to go with the i7 4770k, it does about 60fps at 1440p in most games.

[@the_retag]

The 1080 ti afaik has some more oompf than the 3060, at 11gb vram. for 70 bucks less not a bad deal

[@asciiditygaming]

Great video. This is my next planned build. My current build is a maxed out z600 with a 1060 6GB.

[@elwoodabb]

Do you think that a Z440 can handle one or even two Nvidia Titan V? I need them to do calculations. Thanks

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

Hi there, revisiting 5:23 where you are putting in the pcie adapter. Can I use any on the market or I read HPZ440 is finicky about it and you can only use the G2 turbo adapter? Is that true? And should the adapter have a heatsink and or a fan? What's best? Thanks sir

[@kaithecrusader]

Cloud has been freed, next clippy

[@LowcastleTech]

CLIPPY IS KING! ... Cloud needs to slow his role though!

[@dungeondark]

If you do fill all 8 ram slots, the bios will give an error code ( memory cooling fan not installed) but you can ok it and move on. till you get a cooling fan at least.

[@Spencerwalker21]

I need some advice I'm looking at getting a z440 on rbay the 709 watt PSU only had dual 6 pins can i plug both of them into those 12 pin Nvidia gpus. If not can i go used 1080 ti or 2070 using one 6 pin and adapting the other to 6 plus 2. Sorry if its a dumb question im a noob I'm looking into getting a cheap 8 core xeon slapping the best gpu i can into it for decent enough triple A 1080p gaming and remote play to my steam deck.

[@LowcastleTech]

No worries, not a dumb question. The 2 6-pin connectors do not carry enough power for the 12-pin unfortunately. Each 6-pin carries 75 watts, so the best you could do is use a dual 6-pin to 8-pin connector (as the 8-pin is a 150w input). So you wouldn't be able to run the 1080ti, but with a dual 6-pin to 8 pin adapter you could run the gtx 1080. That's the route I've gone in the past and 1080p gaming performance is pretty solid for a budget machine. If you were hoping to run a better GPU, I did another video on the Lenovo p520, which is only a little more expensive, but still close to the same range. It is a solid budget machine that is a little more future proof and can also power a better graphics card. I'll put the link at the end here if you're interested in checking out some of the specs. Ultimately it just depends on what you are looking for and hope to get out of it, but I hope this helps. Link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGGlY2dro8SmhNU

[@Zeroneii3]

don't certain 6600s come with 8 pins?

[@Spencerwalker21]

@@LowcastleTech how did I not see your reply. Anyway an eBay workstation seller also recommended there listing of a p520. I got a w-2145 8 core 3.7ghz system for 250$ I just need windows and a ssd.

[@TheLibertyfarmer]

You are GTG upto a ~350w GPU with the 700w PSU. The PSU does not use the ATX specs it uses HP's custom specs . Each 6 pin cable is rated for 18A (~216w) of current, not the 75w the ATX pcie 6 pin spec calls for. These were made to use 6 to 8 pin adapters. HP offers them as OEM options. I cringe when I see people replace the excellent Delta industrial quality platinum rated 700 watt supplies with shitty consumer models because 'tHeY dOnt haVE nO 8 pin coNNecTORs'. I've run 2x 225watt tesla P40's, and a single ~350w 3090 in z440s with the 700w psu without issues.

[@Zeroneii3]

@@LowcastleTech the dual 6 pins on the z440 don't follow ATX standards the are rated at slightly above 200w of power delivery meaning ~400w total

[@50shadesofbeige88]

I love that you purchased the least expensive (blower) version of the 1080ti. *Lowcastle always finds the lowest price, guaranteed™*

[@LowcastleTech]

😄 That is certainly my style

[@nephy8428]

Where did you get the adapters?

[@UGRRetribution]

0:33 - woah V4s also tend to come with lower TDPs, too! Broadwell architecture, and my 2680v4 has 2400 MHz support. 2:08 - hail it! 1650v4 is regularly popping around, it's very common. A 1680v4 could be interesting, too. All slots would require the memory cooler fan, otherwise you'd have to skip an error message before booting into Windows 10. Four is okay, above, it goes into error. 4 16 gig sticks can do the job, though. I'm curious to see what NVMe SSDs work with the Turbo Drive. I'm sure not all of them are supported. Yours is probably a G1, the G2 I have has a heatsink on it. Does the motherboard recognize it without boot software? The lower PSU model is 520W with no 6-pin connectors.

[@LowcastleTech]

I'm not totally sure about SSD support either. I haven't tried a ton of them with the Turbo drive, but my go to is usually the Crucial P3 plus. Not super high end, but good for the price. I've also successfully used the HP EX900, but it isn't anything special, probably even leaves some performance on the table. And with this SSD (Crucial) and the HP z Turbo Drive, it was recognized during install process, didn't require any extra steps or anything.

[@UGRRetribution]

@@LowcastleTech Thanks for the info, I might get that when I get the rest of the parts.

[@jorianburssens]

@@UGRRetribution just adding this: i've tried evo m.2 ssds, micron 2200s, wd black 850,770,... all of them worked fine (:

[@UGRRetribution]

@@jorianburssens Excellent!

[@the_retag]

I just upgraded mine to a 1680v4, although i was lucky to snag it at even 125€ in Germany, so unless you get lucky or buy it already in the z440 probably not worth it. Beast of a cpu tho and i read only 90w stress testing it, temps and noise fine even with the stock cooler

[@SacredRelicGaming]

Hello mate! I've been using a Z440 workstation for quite some time now and it's awesome. Unfortunately a few days ago it started giving me the 4 beeps at the starts which apparently means I should change my PSU. How did you manage to connect a regular PSU into this weird HP case? I've just ordered the cable adapters for the motherboard, but don't know how to connect a regular PSU to the case. Please help if you can!

[@LowcastleTech]

Hello! The stock PSU for the z440 has kind of a weird proprietary shape, I really don't know why they did it that way. When I used the newer PSU, I just kept the case laying on its side so the PSU could kind of rest in there. It's mainly the inch or so of metal near the top that kind of sticks out and holds the PSU from sliding all the way in. You can usually find z440 stock power supplies on eBay for around $25 or so, but I know that kind of sucks if you already got the adapters and another PSU. Aside from just resting the case on the side, or getting the replacement, it might be possible to bend or cut the metal piece out of the way, but that could get tricky and would take some modification. I haven't had the chance to try anything like that yet. Sorry I can't be of more help, they just made the stock PSUs a weird shape for whatever reason.

[@Romar-io]

These kinds of videos make me wish my country had a better variety of PC's and parts that are appropriately priced. Here in Jamaica it doesn't get much better than hp compaqs, dell optiplex and old think centres second hand for not worth it prices and even the "new" ones are mid range PC prices and the import fees here are killer too so all I can do is enjoy games on my phone

[@WanderfalkeAT]

Good luck with the lifetime of your 1080Ti! That blower design screams overheat in this coffin of a case.

[@LowcastleTech]

I'm eventually moving the 1080ti elsewhere, but there is space for several more fans in the case if it was needed.

[@WanderfalkeAT]

@@LowcastleTech The fans aren't the problem - How to get fresh air in and not only circulate the hot air inside the case is the bigger problem here. The blower card will pull the heat from the processor and the mainboard. That case is closed up to fresh air. And believe me that blower 1080Ti gets hot quickly if you give it allready hot air to suck in. If you want to keep it a sleeper PC design I would recommend mounting higher Stands and put a rectangle hole at the bottom of the case and mounting a AIO there for the CPU that blows down and out of the case. I recon a 120mm AIO should be enough. And they are pretty cheap now. A metal Mesh around the hole is not neccessary but would help the optics. You however should probably mount one on top of it, so no objects fall into the radiator fan. One important thing you should do every half year is completely removing the cooler from the 1080Ti and clean everything. Remember that you need new Thermalpaste and possibly Thermalpads. They suck dirt like crazy and you cannot even see it. Cleaning only the fan in the cooler from the outside doesn't help much if the fins inside are not letting air over the aluminium because of dirt.

[@TheLibertyfarmer]

Just adding the OEM intake fan has worked well enough in my experience to keep temps optimal for cards in the 150-220w range. According to HP it is required when using a high watt GPU. That said, This is also why I recommend the z640 in single CPU configuration as a base for gaming builds as it already comes with much better case cooling and can often be had for the same price as a 440 + oem front intake fan.

[@donaldsing9898]

Great to see you and Chair Desk back again. Love the entertainment aspect and appreciate the work you do. Just remember to let Cloud out of the “Box” once in a while 😂

[@LowcastleTech]

Cloud may be out on a probationary basis... we will have to monitor his behavior. 😄

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

Mr. Lowcastle, I upgraded my z440 to an e5-2643 v3 6c and was wondering what are the parameters for upgrading to a v4 10c or higher? Does it have to do with the mobo? Mine is 212b/lga2011. Thanks for any info sir.

[@LowcastleTech]

Hello, the z440s should run any e5 v3 and v4 Xeon. There is a 10 core processor I've tested out, the e5-2640 v4, actually have a vid on it if you're interested. It's one of the earlier videos "$19 CPU, 10 cores this time" is the title. If you're looking for something with more cores, something I occasionally do is search ebay for something like "hp z440 'processor type'" and then see if there are any results for that machine with that specific processor listed for sale, and then I know for sure it will run. But you should be fine with most e5 v3 and v4. Also, just another side note - If you go with one of the v4 CPUs you will be able to run a higher RAM speed, DDR4-2400 as opposed to the DDR4-2133 the v3s can handle. Hope this helps!

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

It did and thank you. I've already bought 4 different xeon chips just fooling around cuz I can't make up my mind.@@LowcastleTech

[@hooman008]

Hello, thank you for the new video, based on your videos i build a hp z440 gaming pc , works wonderfully but then i wanted to upgrade the case, and i ran into the front panel connection mess , what are the pin out ? for the led and how to deal with the front usb and audio jack not connected error in bios , also when i tried to connect the case usb 3 connector to the motherboards connector it just doesn't work , any solutions would be greatly appreciated. BTW i put a rx 5700 xt in it which runs great with the original 700w power supply.

[@LowcastleTech]

Sure thing, thank you for watching! Unfortunately, all the proprietary stuff on z440 motherboard makes a case swap pretty rough. It would likely be inconvenient, but I don't know if there would be any way around pulling the connectors from the original case and trying to mount them somehow, but I've never really attempted to re-case one. As far as the pinout goes for the power connector, all I have messed with in the past is the actual power button itself. I did a short on this, here is the link - kzbin.infoTVL7DCAVog4 ... I don't know which are for the power LEDs though. Sorry I don't have more info, I just haven't really dealt with that specific process. Hope that can at least be of some help.

[@hooman008]

@@LowcastleTechthank you for the reply, yeah ive seen that video and only the power button works so far , i will also try to figure out something and if successful ill comment it back in here , cheers

[@Vicshade]

Thanks! Saved me so much time.

[@LowcastleTech]

Thank you! 🙂

[@RumbaniNdhlovu]

I got a Z440 because of you. I love it. Incase you know, whats the difference between the HP Z Turbo G2 and G4?

[@LowcastleTech]

Awesome, glad it has panned out! As far as the turbo drive adapter, I'm not totally sure. I was under the impression that when sellers list "G2, G3, and G4" they may be referring to the HP models that they often go in, Elitedesk 800 G2, 800 G3 etc., and not necessarily a number for the turbo drive itself. I think the longer string of numbers ending in 002, 003 or 004 are referring to the actual part number of the device. And as far as the individual differences between those, I've had trouble finding info since it's an older, somewhat obscure kind of part. But, I always went with just the cheapest one I could get (usually around $15) and matched it with the Crucial p3 Plus. Typically I go for that drive because they are always on sale on Amazon. They are gen4 but usually priced about the same as the gen3 SSDs. The turbo drive I'm using is one of the "003" ones and I've been really satisfied with the performance. Sometimes listings will come with both the adapter and a drive, but I would try to avoid that as they always seem to use older, not so great m.2 SSDs in them. Sorry, I know that is a long answer and not a ton of info, but researching those kind of OEM-type parts can be a challenge sometimes. Anyway, I hope that can at least help give you an idea. Thank you for watching!

[@RumbaniNdhlovu]

I really appreciate the time you've taken to respond and your reply too @@LowcastleTech It makes a lot of sense and I definitely understand the limited information. I bit the bullet and bought the turbo drive I found for about $27, might be the same models you've bought. Was hoping I'd found a Samsung Evo 970 for a really fair price but the eBay seller seems to be a scammer when it comes to m.2 drives so hopefully I get a refund soon and just buy brand new. And I appreciate the detail in your response, length has never been a problem for me.

[@LowcastleTech]

@@RumbaniNdhlovu Sure thing! And sorry to hear about the drive. SSDs are like the 1 thing that I typically buy new. For whatever reason eBay has a serious problem with SSDs. There are a lot of broken drives that get passed off as new or in good condition, as well as straight up imposters where they relabel drives or they aren't as advertised. Of course, lately there has also been the issue with GPUs, and people putting expensive GPU covers on really old, cheap ones to pass them off as different models. Definitely sucks, but hopefully the refund works out for your drive. If something doesn't come as advertised eBay is usually pretty good at compensating for the cost, even if the individual seller doesn't make it right. Still messed up though.

[@RumbaniNdhlovu]

@@LowcastleTech I appreciate it. Thank you.

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

Hey there, mine has the dual 6 pin connectors but the GPU needs an 8 pin. Where did yours come from? My psu is the 700w

[@LowcastleTech]

I actually did a PSU swap in this one. It is just a generic power supply, but I used adapters to connect the board. But, if your GPU needs a single 8 pin, you can use a dual 6 pin to single 8 pin connector. The 8 pin requires 150 watts and each 6 pin carries 75 watts so they are generally approved of. I would just try to get a name brand one. I saw your other question as well about the 1080ti. Typically, you don't want to use single 6 pin to 8 pin converters because it is upscaling the power and can go bad. I know people have done it but it's a bit risky.

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

Thanks for all your replies; I did do that with the 1080ti (6pin to 8pin converter cable) so how do I do it the right way (on this 1080ti 11GB it has a 6pin and 8pin you have to hook up to)? Let me tell you what I got so far and I'm quite happy with it except for maybe a bigger primary C: drive SSD (mine is a cheap crucial mx500GB) : I have 64GB of 2400mhz pc4-19200 RAM, I got the dual fan memory shroud and the front chassis fan, I swapped out the rear, front and cpu fan with Noctua NF-A9 pwm fans, replace the v3 cpu with a e5-1650 v4 6core, and of course the 1080ti 11GB gpu and found a blu-ray disc player from HP. I've been researching the Xeon E5-2689 v4 10 core but they are quite pricey like from China the cheapest I found was $105. Would it be worth it ? I'm using the Z440 for gaming. Thanks for your time sir.@@LowcastleTech

[@TheLibertyfarmer]

@@davidjosephjohn8599 you are fine with the 6pin to 8pin adapter on these if you have the 700W psu. Each of the 6 pin cables are rated at 18A. I've run up to a 3090 in them with excellent results

[@zainkazmi104]

if you have E5 1650 v3 and above than try to overclock it all core 4.2ghz to 4.5ghz all core it will give give much better performance. i have E5 1660 v3 and OCed to 4.1ghz all core and paired with rtx 3070 and performance is awesome .

[@nicholasdarosa920]

What would be the best cpu upgrade for a z440

[@peterseabourne5156]

I just got a bargain on one of these machines, what's the best processor for it ? Mine currently has the Xeon E5-1620v4..

[@LowcastleTech]

Nice. The best CPU probably depends on what you want to do with it. If you're interested primarily in gaming, you probably don't need one with a ton of cores. I've been doing some gaming on mine with the e5-1650 v4 and it has been pretty solid. It is 6 cores 12 threads. Also, it is pretty commonly available on eBay for about 20 bucks. Those kinds of low cost upgrades are what drew me to this machine in the first place. That and the super wide range of CPUs that it can hold. There is also the e5-2667 v4, it costs a little more, but has 8 cores and 16 threads. Those are the main 2 that I've messed with for gaming. If you had other plans for the machine that required more cores, like running multiple VMs or something, there are several others that you could look at. There are compatible e5s that run 10cores/20thread, 12core/24 thread and a couple that do even more than that if I am remembering correctly. It seems like the ones with the crazy high core counts do get a little more expensive though, and mostly the ones with the highest core counts don't seem to be as fast. So again, all kind of depends on what you want to do with it, and budget and whatnot. Hope that info helps, thanks for checking out the vid!

[@peterseabourne5156]

@@LowcastleTech thank you for your reply, I'll be using it for gaming so I'll get the one you suggested. I just need to get a chair desk. Thank you

[@the_retag]

If you get a rare good deal on it the 1680v4 is imo the best cpu for it, 8 cores is the modern standard, 3.4 ghz with the same 4ghz boost is barely less than the 3.6 on tge 1650v4. Sadly not often an even acceptable, much less good deal on them

[@shanegii]

Would I be able to pair the base Z440 with an RX580 and be fine? Not sure if I need to get anything else.

[@LowcastleTech]

Typically that's fine, but you would need to make sure you have a z440 variant with the 700w power supply. Some of them come with lower wattage supplies that don't have the additional power connectors needed, but seems like all the ones with the 700w PSU have dual 6 pin connectors. Since the RX580 has an 8 pin input, you would also need a dual 6 pin to single 8 pin adapter. Which, the adapters aren't terribly expensive (there are a lot of them for around 10 dollars). But those would be the 2 things to look out for, a PSU that has GPU connectors, and would need to get that adapter. Hope that helps!

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

I need advice: I want to buy a pcie to m2 adapter to install nvme ssd. First off my bios is set to IDE. Do I have to set it to AHCI if I'm buying a HP Z Turbo Drive 512GB SSD for it to be the boot drive? Also, am I capped at 500GB for the ssd or can I put in a 1TB nvme into the z turbo drive? And lastly, is the z turbo drive proprietary to the z440 or can I use any pcie to m2 adapter? If anyone can help with some info it would be appreciated.

[@elmeromero303]

Cinebench and CrystalDiskmark would be nice. Maybe for the next Upgrade. Good Video. Best in 1.5x Speed 😂

[@valentinkovshik]

Could you please tell what is the maximum height (or rather width) of the GPU that fits this case, so the side panel can be closed? I want to buy z440 and I'm trying to plan a GPU purchase too.

[@UGRRetribution]

About 27x11x4 cm. Edit - that's the dimensions of a 1080 Ti, roughly. I think you can easily put in a 3000 or 4000 series but three slot card could mean not having access to other PCI slots.

[@valentinkovshik]

@@UGRRetribution As a result of lots of research, I bought a z440 and a Palit GTX 1660 super (dual fan, dual slot). It fits nicely but the power cable required an additional 180 degrees adapter to avoid bending the adapter cable (2x6pin to 8 pins) too much. Probably, it was possible without 2 adapters in chain but I wouldn't say I liked the idea of having the connector constantly pressed with the lid.

[@UGRRetribution]

@@valentinkovshik That's a good card with solid TDP, and having connectors safe never hurts!

[@the_retag]

I managed to stuff an evga 1080ti in, but the power cables would probably be better off with a 90° adapter at this point to get less squeezed from the sidepanel

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

BTW, what is the top GPU that can go into a HPZ440 that won't cause bottlenecks?

[@the_retag]

Depends on workload/game and installed cpu. The imo best cpu ist the e5 1680v4 with 8c/16t, at 3.4 base clock with up to 4ghz boost (broadwell) so if a game can utilise those and is gpu heavy going considerably above a 1080ti is possible. However the stock psu only comes with up to 700w so a more than 250w card is not exactly advisable. Of you run heavily multithreaded loads cpus with even more cores are afaik possible at the cost of single thread performance, making powerful gpus viable there

[@NebukadV]

5:00 To run quad-channel memory, you need no more than 4 Sticks of RAM. And AFAIK, they way you installed them should have them running in quad-channel mode. Filling up all 8 slots would just give you a second stick on each memory channel.

[@LowcastleTech]

You're right about that, my mind got into a loop thinking about pairing and I had a brain malfunction... wish I could say it was a rare occurrence 😄. I appreciate the comment!

[@papusan...]

I love your videos and your nice voice. And thanks for a very nice youtube channel :) Keep up the good work... Papusan

[@LowcastleTech]

Thank you!

[@grudzien9784]

I bought mine for 200 with an ssd and win 11 pro already installed. I need to change the power supply, I will need to “edit” the case a little ;)

[@michelleobamasthicccocc822]

Just bought one on ebay. 1630v4 32gb ram qaudro p2000. $189 so not a crazy deal but more than reasonable imo

[@DanSnipe-j3c]

Someone was selling the z240 motherboard and psu for $40 on ebay. They had sold over 100.

[@USArmyVet91]

I like your style. Love the build as I also have the Z440... also upgraded the E5-1650 V3, to the E-5 1650 V4. (15 dollar upgrade) Fortunately, my unit came with the 700 Watt PSU and two six pin connectors so no need to upgrade. For the GPU, I have the AMD Radeon 6700 XT. Great little Workstation to have some fun with. Keep up the great work. 👍👍👍👍

[@britannicman9995]

Another awesome video i'd like to get AZ440 But I'm working on Upgrading precision T 7500 Upgrading it with a fastest processor 48 gigs or Ram and AMD AMD RX480 I love the X58 line Where can I get my official chair desk When you set up your Merch shop for your KZbin channel you can use the chair Desk as an image for T-shirt hat mug Coffee mugs You should make a flush toy with that voice obvious cause it sounds so cool saying something computer-related or funny or even Saying chair desk You definitely should have more subscribers people don't know They're Don't know what they're missing you've ignited my passion for use computers again I don't know if that's a bad thing or a good thing but it's a good thing for me because it keeps old computers on the landfill and it's something I love and enjoy doing with old computers fixing them up and upgrading them We had the same addictionKeep up the great work awesome contentYes don't tell them what you put some of these bigger computer KZbin channels to shame you make Fun and entertaining to watch Have a nice day

[@LowcastleTech]

Thank you! Yeah, older hardware can be surprisingly good for the price, and a lot of fun too. I really like working with it. I do have plans to make some Chairdesk shirts eventually 😃. It is taking some time to figure out the logistics and how I can make it happen, but it is something I really want to do. I'm glad you're enjoying the videos, I always appreciate the positive comments!

[@catherinemorgan2741]

You silly, don't light your pawn on fire might have to ground you ROFL

[@LowcastleTech]

😄

[@bobsonuk]

Can you just straight swap a V3 for V4, do you need a bios update or anything first? Also does anyone know the maximum TDP for the Z440, with the HP stock cooler?

[@UGRRetribution]

150W I think? The Z420 had that limit.

[@LowcastleTech]

I'm pretty sure it is possible to run v4 without updating the BIOS, though I'm not 100%. I didn't update the BIOS before this build, but it didn't look original either (version was 2019). As far as the TDP, it is not listed on official specs sheet, but most forums suggest 140-150 as UGR mentioned.

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

Yes, you can just swap it nothing else required

[@TheLibertyfarmer]

it depends on what bios you have. I've had to update a few to accept v4's

[@canny8228]

My chair in the office is a proprietary size that does not do what a chairdesk does. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

[@LowcastleTech]

🤣

[@curvingfyre6810]

Banging my head against the wall with mine lol. For whatever reason, i cannot get it to accept multiple boot options lol. Every time i install something on my spare sata drive, my nvme stops getting recognized, and everytime i reinstall on the nvme, the sata isnt recognised. The only time i got both working, *both* drives stopped working once i removed the sata to reuse it, and now i can't get that windows install, with a lot of work already on it, to be recognized again. Only works when something is installed from scratch.

[@LowcastleTech]

Interesting. I've never tried that on one of these machines specifically, but you could possibly try a bootloader of some kind if you haven't already. I don't know what operating systems you are trying to run, but in the past when I've dual booted Windows and Linux, it required a boot manager program where you could choose between the 2. But, that being said, sounds like something else might be going on. Usually even without a bootloader it will just default to one of the drives and ignore the other one. Does not sound like a fun problem, hope you get it figured out!

[@curvingfyre6810]

@@LowcastleTech basically my old windows install is lost at this point. Ive backed up the files, but nothing i can do has made them be bootable again. I'm just starting with a fresh install, which does seem to work fine.

[@curvingfyre6810]

For anyone with a bit more cash to spend on a future-resistant option, the 1680v4 is gonna be one of the best options for the platform. 8/16 processor with even higher max clocks. Should be capable years from now, and properly saturate high end 30 series, provided you max the graphical settings or play vr.

[@Spencerwalker21]

Need some advice the 700 watt PSU has dual 6 pin what am I limited to with a GPU upgrade. Can I plug both 6 pin into those weird Nvidia 12 pin GPU. Or if I want to go used 1080ti or 2070 super they need 6 plus 8 could I connect one of the PSU 6 pin and adapt the other 6 pin to 6 plus 2. Sorry if I asking dumb question

[@curvingfyre6810]

@@Spencerwalker21 6 plus 2 is 8, its just meant to adapt to whatever GPU you have. You can also get very safe and reliable adapters between 6 and 8 in both directions for very little money.

[@Spencerwalker21]

@@curvingfyre6810 I'm just worried about it lots of people are on forums are saying not to do that. It would be great if I could just do adapt both 6 pins to 6 plus 2 and use it on whatever like a rtx 2070 super that requires 2 8 pin. I'm making sure I'm not going to do something I regret. Any more advice is greatly appreciated the steam deck got me back into PC gaming. Now I want to upgrade a cheap 8 core xeon workstation with a solid GPU mostly for streaming to the deck.

[@Spencerwalker21]

@@curvingfyre6810 oh why does Nvidia have those weird 12 pin GPUs anyway so I'm still confused why 2 6 pins plugged in wouldn't work and would let's say a 4060 or whatever it might've been a 3070 with a 12 pin work safely with a 6 plus 2 adapter. Sorry for dumb questions 😁

[@curvingfyre6810]

@@Spencerwalker21 nvidia changed the plug for basically the same reason apple made the lightning connector. To sell the adapters. As for why 2 6 pins won't fit, nvidia uses miniature pins, and also has an edge connector on top of the 12 atx style pins.

[@Healthywealthyjumbo]

Sir can we install Nvidia 3060ti on this machine

[@griffgames9538]

Sure.

[@WAI36]

use ACTION! Software :) for video recording

[@johncollins5552]

I have a z400 v2 and it has six pin power as staandard 456w

[@terminal2004]

There's no M2 slot and that's FORTUNATE. You sure would ask why. IF it has the M2 slot it would take up more space on board and end up with FEWER M2+PCIE combined.

[@nicholasdarosa920]

Weird my 440 has 700 psu standard

[@catherinemorgan2741]

No eBay for 1 month

[@LowcastleTech]

Be reasonable!!! 😂

[@ipressedabutton]

Mega-HURTS

[@jacke235]

nice video

[@LowcastleTech]

Thank you!

[@ahmedgaming9225]

how much is it

[@LowcastleTech]

Overall price really depends on what upgrades are done. Barebones they are generally around $100, I found this one for $50. Then I bought all the other components used, they are usually available cheap as well. The biggest expense is the GPU, but I'd say once I had everything together it was around $350 total.

[@ygorsantos223]

ok... who let him out?

[@honahwikeepa2115]

I bought one for $230 Australian. E5 1620 V3. 32 GB ddr4. Quadro k2200..

[@finntasticboy]

or use a hdd to 6-8 pin adapter if u really wana get skech

[@LowcastleTech]

🙂 Those are pretty questionable... even for me 😂

[@finntasticboy]

of hell yeheah ill let u know when it burns@@LowcastleTech

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

I'm using the 6 pin to 8 pin adapter with my 1080ti 11 GB and all the temps are fine and I'm running triple A games with no issue whatsoever. I know it isn't sanctioned but I'm keeping an eye on everything and it all seems good to me.

[@finntasticboy]

hmm ok but its diffrent than taking hdd power and using a ali express adapter to power a gtx 1070 founders@@davidjosephjohn8599

[@TheLibertyfarmer]

The PSU does not use the ATX specs it uses HP's custom specs . Each 6 pin cable is rated for 18A (~216w) of current, not the 75w the ATX pcie 6 pin spec calls for. These were made to use 6 to 8 pin adapters. HP offers them as OEM options. I cringe when I see people replace the excellent Delta industrial quality platinum rated 700 watt supplies with shitty consumer models because 'tHeY dOnt haVE nO 8 pin coNNecTORs'. I've run 2x 225watt tesla P40's, and a single ~350w 3090 in z440s with the 700w psu without issues.

[@mattparker9726]

7:20 Nvidia Shadowplay. Literally just a download away. A professional ChairDesk (TM) owner would know all this. SHAME SHAME SHAME! 🤣🤣

[@finntasticboy]

it took me 10.5 FUCKING hours to upgrade it to windows 11 (until i found a tortioal) this is my first build

[@davidjosephjohn8599]

I have Win11 on one of my laptops and I don't like it very much so with my other 4 pc's I'm staying with Win10 until it's no longer supported.

[@vollhorst140]

To be perfectly honest, I really hate HP and their proprietary crap. It produces so much unnecessary ewaste. Shame on you HP.

[@LowcastleTech]

Very true! That is one of my main frustrations as well.

[@johnathanjamesjohnsonjr7408]

...👏👏👏👍🖖

[@iwishilivedinafreecountry5749]

Honestly, I couldn't handle all the cringe.

[@nephy8428]

I thought it was a good video

[@Pocokcic]

This man speaks a lot of rubbish and useless stuff. It is not even funny. I am not sure I will watch the full video.

[@L4ftyOne]

POOLNOODLE THE COMPUTER NOW!!

[@LowcastleTech]

😂 Pool noodle is getting restless...

[@error4159]

You are running quad channel memory with the four sticks you have installed.

[@mikebruzzone9570]

good salvage coverage. mb

[@shidongxu3410]

Why do people like the Z440 for gaming PC?

[@Snakenoman]

#chairdesk lol