Z240 Workstation Guide : Is this the Ultimate Budget-Friendly Workstation? (ChatGPT Approved)

[@heathmoore5400]

I have the same system, when I got it about few months ago I replaced Intel Core i3-6100 3.70GHz, DDR4 4GBx2 8GB & 400w Power Supply for Intel Xeon E3-1270 v5 4.00GHz, DDR4 16GBx2 32GB & 600w Power Supply(w/adapter). Also added Graphic Card: AMD XFX Radeon 6600, I also added 4TB HDD & 2TB SSD, it works pretty good so far for me.

[@racerrrz]

Hi, that sounds like a solid machine in terms of performance. The Intel Xeon E3-1270 v5 with its 4GHz boost frequency should make for a good experience in modern applications, especially with 32GB of DDR4 RAM. Upgrading the PSU gives you a bit more flexibility GPU wise. I went for a 750W PSU to allow for future upgrades to something like the RTX 3070 if needed. These Z240's remain really good value. If you haven't already considered it, a NVMe could be a nice addition also to speed up your performance even further.

[@heathmoore5400]

@@racerrrz yeah actually I did thought of upgrading the PSU & add NVMe in few months. I did thought of case swapping but can't find a I/O shield anywhere, I decided to keep the original case

[@vynz0789]

Do you have a power draw spec on this machine at idle? :) Speccing out a home server based on this.

[@odeszaa]

So you don’t have the matchine because you fucking replaced everything with better parts. Lol

[@howietorock]

yup i got the same machine complete with xeon and 32g if memory front internal fan and graphics card support for $50nzd about $30usd and brought a gtx1060 3g video card for $10nzd and ended up selling it for $800 nzd

[@racerrrz]

That sounds like good value to me, 50NZD for a Z240 is a steal, I need to update my thumbnail to be more clickbait lol. Well done on making some cash on the on-sale of the system after a quick upgrade. I would say the Z240's value is somewhere between $400 - $800 NZD, so you got top dollar! lol

[@sembutininverse]

awesome video as always 🔥

[@racerrrz]

Thank you! That one took a while to create but it gives a solid overview of the Z240 hardware. I did consider working towards the Z200, Z210, Z220, Z230, but their hardware is a bit aged today.

[@thenotred]

I have the same PC but am wondering if I can turn it into a sleeper build but what's the motherboard size or is it proprietary?

[@racerrrz]

The motherboard is proprietary but only slightly deviates from standard ATX form factor with a couple of screw hole mounts. In my Z240 case swap videos (there are 4 that make up the case swap guide), you'll get some idea of how this could work. Z240 Case Swap Guide: Part 1: Case Unbox kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZ7RmWRnZ9Olmdk Part 2: Mobo Fitment kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXLGkmOfr56mfLM Part 3: Wiring and Power kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4O0kKWiq8xlbrs Part 4: Final Setup kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYPHi393jq2Yo80

[@ulrblitzer]

Thanks for this. Found an i7 6700 version of this for cheap. Just ordered more ram and a M.2

[@racerrrz]

Great find there! The Intel 4 Core 8 Thread 6700K with 4.20 GHz boost clock makes for a solid performer. The extra RAM and M.2 NVMe should get you some solid speeds. You may find this useful also, a quick table / price guide on M.2 NVMe storage: www.reddit.com/r/HSpecWorkstations/comments/13hvvaz/in_my_quests_to_make_the_nvme_selection_process_a/ . Any PCIe 3.0 NVMe will work great in the Z240 as a boot drive.

[@simonveitch6940]

Thanks for that, very useful.

[@racerrrz]

I am glad you found it useful. Did you manage to obtain a Z240 and if so what specs have you got on your system?

[@simonveitch6940]

​@@racerrrz Hi. Yes, following your review I have got myself a z240 (HP Z240 Tower Workstation Core i7 6700 32GB RAM 256GB SSD 1TB HDD NVIDIA WIN 10 NVIDIA QUADRO K620) for $AU250, ie. almost nothing. I'll be adding to it with an NVIDIA 3060 and a Crucial 500gb P5 M2 NVME card. I've been using a z230 for the past few years, which I like a lot (such a well-engineered box!), but it couldn't fit the new 3060 and wasn't going to play well with the NVME card, so I'm glad to see the z240 can handle these things.

[@racerrrz]

For the price point that they go for it really is a good deal. The RTX 3060 should be a perfect match for modern titles in the Z240. The Z230 is a solid performer but it is a little on the old side now. I am sure the Z240 will cover all the needs you may run into, until you decide you need even more power that is (why does that always seem to happen lol). Enjoy the Z240 for the time being. The M.2 NVMe slot on the motherboard is quite handy - and it remains one of the only HP workstations with that feature (some of latest release workstations have slots on the board also - like the HP Z8 G5).

[@Zakdj27]

Thanks for the video. I have the HP Z240 Tower Workstation Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.40 GHz Installed RAM 32.0 GB Edition Windows 10 Pro 22H2 Installed on ‎2/‎25/‎2021 OS build 19045.4170 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19054.1000.0 and i would love to put an NVmE m.2 drive in it to boot from and run my programs. I've read that the M.2 slot will only support certain speeds and anything faster is a waste of money. I've read conflicting reports that a heatsink is good and then if you install one its bad for the drive because it won't get to operating temperature.I've also read that the HP case is the heatsink and you should not use a heatsink on the M.2 slot but use one if you install a HP Z Turbo Drive G2 PCIe card as a second M.2 drive. I've also read that if you do install a M.2 drive that you have to do a clean install of windows because if you clone the drive you won't be able to access it and it will cause problems later if you clone. My current boot drive has all my programs on it and i would hate to do the clone and not be able to access my programs. I'd like to buy one and it's pretty confusing, my current setup has all my video editing software install just as i like it, there are some effects on there that i don't know if i could get back if i lost them. Am i overthinking this? I'd like to install a 2TB drive so i can load videos for editing and then faster rendering. I usually just move/backup the video to a NAS when I'm done with it. Can you suggest a good 2tb nvme m.2 drive and tell me if my concerns are correct or if i just read too much?

[@racerrrz]

Good choice on the HP Z240 - they are a solid platform. The M.2 NVMe slot will be limited to PCIe 3.0 on the Z240 which will limit Read and Write speeds to ~3500MB/s. That doesn't mean you can't run the latest and greatest NVMes but it does mean they will not be able to run at their rated speeds (e.g. Samsung 980 Pro would be limited to ~7200MB/s normally and it's a PCIe 4.0 NVMe - but when placed in a PCIe 3.0 slot it will be limited to ~3500MB/s). I did a quick guide on which NVMes to buy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p16nlKaJhq98ic0 - their prices are much higher now than a few months back - but I included a price list in the video which can help you ensure you get the best model for the best price. I settled on the Adata Legend 800 for my video editing - it's a PCIe 4.0 NVMe that is backward compatible with PCIe 3.0 and it supports only up to 3500MB/s - so well matched to the Z240/Z440/Z640/Z840 workstations. Temperature is a big issue on NVMe drives - especially when you run your OS and all your software off them. There is conflicting information online but generally speaking having a heatsink will help lower the temperatures. The chipset on NVMes begin to throttle performance once the NVMe temperature goes above 75'C. My Samsung 970 Evo Plus use to get up to 95'C during gaming. I wound up using a air-cooled NVMe enclosure that had a fan on it - as well as placing thermally conductive silicone ontop and underneath the NVMe for extra cooling. I managed to bring it's temperature down to ~53 - 65'C. This was what I did: kzbin.info/www/bejne/enWtoGZvrc58a8U Drive cloning is more difficult than it should be. I use to be able to take my Windows 10 Pro OS - clone it - and then transfer that NVMe to the same machine or a new machine without issue. I tried this recently when I upgraded my HP Z840 to a HP Z8 G4 (I cloned my 500GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus to a 1TB 970 Evo Plus), but my new PC refused to read the cloned NVMe - it did read in the HP Z840 however. I concluded that the new security protocols on newer PCs - TPM2.0 which is required for Windows 11 - prevented an OS from a different machine from being detected. I had to create a new Win 10 Pro install and then reinstalled all my software - several hours later - all fixed. In terms of video editing - I would recommend using a large NVMe that is independent from your OS to store your video library. In my system I used 4x 2TB NVMes in RAID 0 to get 8TB of fast storage to store my video library and any cache files generated for a video project. That sped up my processes a lot. The only downside is that not all PCs can support that configuration (the HP Z240 can't - but the HP Z440 etc. can).

[@Zakdj27]

@@racerrrz Thanks for the input, I picked up the Adata Legend 800 on Amazon. Should be here in a few days. Can't wait to see the performance. Thanks again for your help.

[@racerrrz]

@@Zakdj27 Great choice! I am really happy with the performance of the Adata Legend 800 - especially for the price point. Let us know what sort of speeds you get on your Z240. I presume you'll use it in the M.2 NVMe slot on the motherboard?

[@vynz0789]

Do you have a power draw spec on this machine at idle? :) Speccing out a home server based on this.

[@racerrrz]

Hi. Sorry I am a bit slow - I had to go measure the power draw and I don't have this Z240 on hand (it's in the family haha). The base system used ~60W on idle in Windows 10, P620 GPU and i3-6100 CPU, 1x HDD, 1x SSD. My Z240 case swap with a 700W PSU used ~72W on idle in Windows 10 with a GTX 970, 5 fans, 1x HDD, 1x NVMe, 1x SSD. So not exactly low on power draw. If you are looking for something that you can leave running 24/7 I can recommend Mini PCs. I have a HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Mini that I am converting into a less than 30W idle power draw home server (Proxmox + several VMs, SSD RAID pool, 2.5GbE). I have done 4 videos on the project, as an example, here is video #3: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gamplYeqgsmqY8k

[@vynz0789]

Great thanks for the follow up!

[@estarlinjavier3762]

Whats the most powerful cpu that can work in this specific pc?

[@racerrrz]

The most powerful CPU's I have seen used in the Z240 are: Intel Xeon Processor E3-1285V6 (4.1GHz base, 4.5GHz Boost, 4 Core 8 Thread) Intel Core i7-7700K (4.2GHz base, 4.5GHz Boost, 4 Core 8 Thread) (They may not be listed by HP as supported but likely support has been added via BIOS updates etc.; the 7700k will likely not overclock in the Z240) Note: the Xeon CPU would need ECC unbuffered memory and the i7 would need non-ECC memory (DDR4 2400MHz max spec.).

[@estarlinjavier3762]

Thanks, good to know

[@racerrrz]

@@estarlinjavier3762 No trouble. I think either of those CPUs would handle modern titles well, but they may be pricey.

[@estarlinjavier3762]

I have one of this system currently running a i5 6500 and a rtx 2060 6gb, my bottleneck being the cpu that's why I'm trying to upgrade it

[@JordanGospelMinistryInc-go8qp]

@@estarlinjavier3762 I am running a Xeon e3-1240 v6 (I got super cheap ) and a cheap GTX 1080 , even with the e3-1240 v5 I replaced , the GTX 1080 is 100% at 1080p Heaven max /ultra settings and cpu around 78% usage. Maybe a e3-1280 v5 or e3-1240 v6 ? Around the same price and the v6 uses faster ram at 2400 Mts and tad faster clock speed then the v5... Skylake vs Kaby Lake that be a whole other subject :) I7-6700 is around $60.00 and comparable Xeon e3-1240 v6 $40.00 or Xeon e3-1280 v5 $45 or so? Seems anything higher in the Xeons that fit this machine gets way over priced. Or just get a i7-7700k $125 and a good cooler and be done with it :) Then we are losing scope on "Budget Machine " :)

[@temp50]

25:35 A lot of Xeons has iGPs.

[@racerrrz]

Hi. Yes that's correct, quite a few of the Xeons do have iGPU functionality, but not the high performance versions that we often seek out. My understanding is that the Xeon xxx5 models tend to be the ones with iGPU (but there are other model numbers as well), but most of the performance models like Xeon xx99, xx97, xx96, xx87 etc. lack onboard graphics. I don't think I have owned a single Xeon with iGPU functions which is either really lucky or really unlucky lol. Although a link from Wikipedia, this list is somewhat handy for a quick check: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_graphics_processing_units . But definitely worth reading up to confirm CPU details.

[@helmanfrow]

Algo placed this video after LTT. You must be doing something right. ;)

[@racerrrz]

Hi. I'll take that Algo. placement as a compliment, but my editing skills are still under-leveled to be shown behind the seasoned veteran LTT!

[@helmanfrow]

@@racerrrz One day at a time.

[@shephusted2714]

these are just not the value thy used to be now that new cpu prices have dropped - modern cpu smoke these old xeons and use less power while doing it at negligible cost outlays - if you are desperate yeah but otherwise build something new and be happier if a tad bit poorer

[@racerrrz]

I would agree, the performance from new CPUs is far superior compared with 6-8 year old Xeons. The challenge is building a new system with the same cash (say $200 USD) as what is spent on these Z240 workstations systems second-hand. Even a budget modern system will cost ~3x - 5x more than a used Z240 because you need to also factor in the hardware to get that CPU running. If your budget is under $200 USD I still stand by that these Z240's are the great value for that price point, and that is for a complete system - albeit with a weaker GPU etc.

[@shephusted2714]

@@racerrrz great for businesses - all you really need for a new sys is mb/cpu/ram you cn cobble together the rest - lower tco with a newer system helps defray longer term costs and much better perf of new cpu is a major incentive

[@racerrrz]

@@shephusted2714 Fair point there but it may not always be the case for everyone that they have spare hardware sitting around (empty case, decent PSU, case fans, HDDs, SSDs, GPU etc.). In the end it's more about setting your price point for the build and then going from there. I got onto the Z240 as a cheap secondary machine to handle recording video footage I create. The Z240 is hard to beat for $200 USD - and it can game and browse the net, but if you set the budget to $450 USD you could get a Ryzen system. For my main HP Z840 workstation I am at a point where spending more on upgrades just doesn't add any more value to the end experience and I am better off saving for a newer machine. To upgrade my current system I would need more than a new MB/CPU/RAM. As an example, main machine has 28 Cores, 56 Threads, 256GB RAM, 8TB RAID 0 NVMe storage, 4TB RAID 1 SSD storage, 15TB HDD storage, RTX 3090 Ti and 10 GbE networking. From a video production point of view it is reliable and efficient. To assemble an equivalent modern day system I would have to spend much more than I would be willing to spend on hardware. Due to the age of the hardware I get to push projects beyond what I could have done on a similar value, more modern, PC. Add in the workstation reliability and platinum 1450W PSU and I really can't complain about much (aside from power cost and slow boot times). But then I selected this hardware for this specific purpose (it can game but single core speeds on an aged Xeon at 3.6GHz is at times just not enough). When I eventually need to replace this system I will price up a modern system, but I suspect the workstation route will still net better value for the performance.