SM951 M.2 SSD in a HP Z620

[Brian1965]

Here's a pic of my current set-up;

I'm using a pair of Behringer Truth B2031A's as my main reference monitors. They're active bi-amp monitors (250W each) with 8" bass drivers. Listened to loads of others, (including some at 4 times the price), but still prefer the overall tone and depth of sound of the Behringers. I also have a Cambridge Audio A5 amp connected to the Tascam US-1641 monitor outs which drive a set of Mission 737's and vintage Tannoy Mercury speakers for an alternative audio reference. My monitor is a Samsung 34" ultrawide (21:9 ratio) curved display running at 3440 x 1440 resolution. There's also the obvious Korg Trident Extreme sitting in front mainly used for MIDI input but the audio outs are plugged into the Tascam for recording. Partly obscured in the background is my SpacePilot 3D mouse which I use all the time with SolidWorks, (and it's also great fun to use in Google Earth!). The speaker stands and computer keyboard stand were made by myself so I could make the computer keyboard float above the Korg.

3DConnexion SpacePilot

Cubase mix

The 2.5"/3.5" drive enclosure I mentioned is actually installed in the bay below my DVD drive, (2.5" and 3.5" drives are present);

I've never used the remote desktop app in windows but I have in the past used the remote assistance app many times to fix my friends computers who live 150 miles away.  Very handy and saves a ton of time. (You know exactly what I mean after you spend 3 nights on the phone trying to explain to a friend or relative how to resolve a simple computer problem). I have also used vnc quite a bit in the past when I built a headless file server and connected it to my home network, (along with all the kids computers) . You can have multiple sessions running at once giving you a real time view (and control) of all the desktops simultaneously. I don't think vnc takes up much CPU resource to run either.

Talking about PassMark, tonight's score is . . . .

Drum roll . . . .

Ran it again straight away and got 4723?

Passmark System Rating= 4718 / CPU= 19561 / 2D= 524 / 3D = 0? / Mem =2210 / Disk = 8218

Bit of a  jump in memory speed and the M.2 is  creeping up? I don't know why but the 3D tests run absolutely fine one day then not the next. Sometimes the DirectX 9 complex test goes to a black window which I need to close otherwise the testing just hangs at that point. The DirectX 10 and 11 tests run fine? Might try a different graphics driver, (currently using 361.91).

Managed to download a 14 day trial version of bunkspeed, (bought over by Dasault Systems and changed to SolidWorks Visualize), which I plan to test the K4200 and Tesla cards this week. It has the option to select between CPU and GPU rendering so should be interesting to see if the Tesla is doing much.

Checked my BIOS version and it's 3.88;

I'm sure I upgraded the BIOS myself about 5 months ago, (just after I bought the Z620 and prior to fitting the CPU riser and 2670's), and if I remember correctly, it was a breeze to do. I downloaded the Windows version and ran the app. After a reboot, all done! Simple.

After much deep thought and deliberation, (about 10 minutes actually), I have decided to take the plunge and give the UEFI Windows install a go. Took me a whole day, but I eventually managed to locate and purchase a boxed full retail version, (unused with the cling film still on the box), of Windows 7 Professional. Definitely not an OEM version and has both 32bit and 64bit DVD's. I've printed off the guide from the link you posted and reading the fine detail now. I'll remove all my additional hardware first bar the CPU's, memory and K4200 and check the prerequesites first. I also have a USB DVD reader/writer handy just in case. Hopefully, the Windows 7 will arrive before the weekend.

I'll let you know how I get on with the 3D render testing.

[BambiBoom_Z]

Brian1965,

I apologize for the long delay in replying.  It was never explained,  but since 3 August I was not allowed to sign in and I concluded that my forum account / registration had been deleted.  Perhaps too much off topic posting? In the end, last evening I created a new account.

I enjoyed your description of the audio side of your system- very good choices and the results are highly professional- really excellent. Often on computer forums, there is so much focus on a single problem or upgrade, one never sees for what these systems are used. 

Your z620 seems to be going from strength to stronger. You mentioned variability in the Passmarks results.  Over time and testing of many systems,  I've seen this too and I think it has to do with the processes that are running at the time of the test.  i've had updates notices pop up during the test, and have run the test with certain programs running in the background and these seems to impact the results.

In my news,  I updated the z620 BIOS to 3.88.  This, I have to say doesn't look correct, as starting now,  it goes through a storm of quickly flashing screens including a list of drives and prompt to configure RAID and etc.  Extremely messy.  this may have to do with the ancient hard drives,  but I would like to solve that situation  in some way. Does you z620 have this dog's dinner of screens called "American Megatrends"? Or perhaps for you, "U.K Highly Populars"?  It's very annoying and may in fact not be properly done.

I've bought an HP Z Turbo 256GB AHCI which uses the Samsung SM951 - with a large heatsink added and is supposed to have better performance than an SM951 on a third party adapter card.  The one I bought was taken from a new HP  z - series and as soon  as I popped it in and started the system, Windows 7 appeared, "Starting your computer for the first time".  Encouraging to occasionally have something work unexpectedly well.  The Z Turbo  has the more modern GPT in place of MBR partitioning and I need to look a bit more into the implications of that. GPT does recognize drives over 2TB and can have many, many partitions- I think they can be as small as 2MB- without the extended partition bodge of MBR set ups to have more than 4 partitions per drive and the drive information  is distributed, as compared to MBR being all in one place.  If the MBR is corrupted the drive can't be read.  If a GPT drive has trouble,  it can use the duplicated drive information and recover. 

My dilemma is to whether I might setup the drive on the z620 and then transfer it to the z420. Then, I could clone the Z Turbo to the  Intel 730 that will go into the z620 and be done. This would mean that I could work out the drive carefully on the 620 without interrupting work on the 420.  The z420 and z620 share the same BIOS- or rather the z420 currently has 3.84- not 3.88 and these days, Windows is activated automatically to the system, so there's no fuss about the Windows key.  When finished, I would try to transfer the Intel 730 to the z620 and with a Passmark disk rating of 4794 that should wake up the 620 a bit from the Seagate that scores 574.

I also bought a couple of HP 2.5" to 3.5" drive adapters as in the z620 the data and power connections have to be precisely located to plug in with the quick change drive caddy.  In the z420, the SSD must be also precisely located as the 3- drive power connector cable is so stiff it puts a lot of pressure on the SSD  if it's centered in the caddy on  a conventional adapter.  the SSD must be in the left front corner.  At the time as I couldn't find a suitable adapter, I designed one and a friend cut it out of acrylic on a laser.  Even used, these things are expensive.  What are you using for your SanDisk SSD in the z620?

Cheers,

BambiBoom_Z

[Brian1965]

It's a bit strange you seem to be getting bombarded with prompts, etc. during start-up. If you check my previous post (with the blue BIOS screens) you can see the settings I have for Power-on Options and Device Options. My Z620 simply boots to the windows log-on screen on power up.

I had similar issue when I tried to install the 4TB drive (in that I needed to format it as GPT), which was very easy to do using the free MiniTool Partion Wizard software I also mentioned previously. I have my 4TB drive divided into 3 separate partitions. Another interesting note is that I ran the CrystalDiskMark on all my drives with some surprising results.

From left to right;

1. 2TB Hitachi HGST 7200rpm connected to SATA III on motherboard (MBR)

2. 4TB Seagate 5900rpm connected to SATA II on motherboard (GPT Partition 1)

3. 4TB Seagate 5900rpm connected to SATA II on motherboard (GPT Partition 2)

4. 4TB Seagate 5900rpm connected to SATA II on motherboard (GPT Partition 3)

5. 480GB SanDisk Ultra II connected to SATA III on motherboard

I was expecting to see a noticable speed difference between the 7200rpm and 5900rpm drives especially since the 7200rpm drive is on a SATA III port and the 5900rpm drive is on a SATA II port?

You also mention SSD caddy's for the Z620, (and like yourself, I was shocked to see the price of the genuine HP caddy which looks identical to these);

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-SSD-SAS-to-3-5-SATA-Hard-Disk-Drive-HDD-Adapter-CADDY-TRAY-Hot-Swap-Pl...

Not sure if the above link will work but here's the eBay item number:

121970145804

I have bought 3 of these in the past and have successfully installed them on a couple of Z600's and also have one in my current Z620. Great price if you don't mind the wait and they fit perfectly.

Unfortunately my retail version of WIndows 7 Pro hasn't arrived yet but should arrive early next week. I can wipe the Samsung M.2 and format it as GPT before I start the fresh install. Looking forward to seeing if it improves the boot up time. (Not looking forward to re-installing all my software and plug-ins though).

Regarding the GPU benchmarking, I managed to download some demo programs from bunkspeed, lightwave and keyshot. Unfortunately not as straightforward as I first thought. Only some of the software utilizes GPU rendering and it''s a bit more complicated than simply loading a 3D model and pressing a render button. You need to set up a scene with lighting, etc. I also downloaded some basic graphics benchmarking tools so I'll probably spend a few days learning before I can generate some meaningful data for comparison. I'm particularly interested to see if the Tesla M2090 is contributing to the performance of my Z620.

Just wanted to ask if you use any of the HP utilities software, (HP Support Assistance or HP Performance Advisor)? My previous Z600 was supplied with the genuine HP Z600 OEM Windows disks so already had this software installed. When I bought the Z620 it had a generic OEM version of WIndows installed so I located the HP software on the HP web site and installed these myself. Amongst many other very handy other features, you can view and edit the system BIOS settings from within Windows (though you still need to reboot). It's also very handy for checking for certified drivers and performance issues.

[BambiBoom_Z]

Brian1965,


Yes, the z620 startup has to be wrong,  only updated the BIOS from it's 2014 version and it's became an even slower-starting mess.  I'm going to go through the BIOS settings to see if something has been changed- RAID mode or whatever I can find.  The Passmark marks did improve overall and although the CPU mark did drop a bit, the disk mark moved from abysmal to slightly less abysmal.  The terrible 2010 Seagate 750GB HD may be a factor- perhaps all this happens anyway but too quickly on an SSD.  I have a Dell Dimension E520 with a Core2 Duo E6700 and a pair of 2009 WD 320GB drives that runs the television machine  and it does start with the Press CNTL R RAID configuration screen but that system originally had a RAID 1 and it doesn't fly through eight or ten other screens.  The reason I think the slow disk is at fault stems from the fact that the z420 starts so quickly on the Intel 730- ready to use in about 20 seconds and when I tried the Z Turbo drive yesterday it went to the "Starting the computer for the first time" much faster than that.


The GPT partitioning appears to have so many advantages, I think I'd like to gradually migrate all the systems that can use it. Apparently, GPT can run on systems with MBR drives.  Are all your drives now GPT?


Does this new disk scheme seem plausible /sensible to you? >


1. Setup a new master C:\ on the Z Turbo Drive on the Z620,


2.  As the z620 and Z420 use the same BIOS, move that drive to the Z420.  The copy of Windows should automatically activate.  On several systems I've loaded new Window: the z420 about a year ago, and the Precision T3500 and T5500 did not ask for a product key, all of them just installed and activated.


3.  Clone the Z Turbo to the Intel 730 in the z420


4.  Move the Intel 730 to the z620.  My hope is that Windows will automatically load the z420 chipset driver.


The value of setting up on the z620 is that it won't interrupt work on the z420.  I have a lot of fussy software and I would say loading, updating, and making basic settings of everything is a 12-hour process.  If I could do that for both systems at once, over two or three days it's a help.  

With the e5-1660 v z420 I setup the C: on a mech'l disk so I could upgrade, optimize, defragment, and consolidate it, avoiding wear on the SSD memory and then migrated it to the SSD.  i was told that the access is so fast on an SSd, that it's not necessary, but I thought it can't hurt.  The Passmark disk score was well above average,  but SSD's do start the data in a differnet spot.  


My idea now is to setup a Remote Desktop so I can setup renderings on the z420 and then send the files and start them on the z620 from the same K/B mouse, and monitors.  When the z620 is fully setup though I intend to test the z420 and z620 to see if the 620 might become the main system.  The single-thread performance of the E5-1660 v2  3.7 /4.0GHz is one of the best (Passmark 2025) , and I don't like to sell it as it's so well worked out, but I'm going to run the same models on the two systems and see if the 620 is sufficient in modeling speed- the 3.8GHz turbo speed should be good (Passmark 1888). The Precision T5500's X5680's are 1520 and still not bad witha  good GPU. It's encouraging that you're using E5-2670's at the level of work you're doing.   Given the small proportion of time I run renderings, I don't really need a separate system.  However, the project that includes the model posted earlier also includes another much larger with 23 buildings- 2.2M sq.ft.  I imagine there will be about 50-60 large renderings looming from those two parts.  So, perhaps the z620 could sit in the corner and work on that awhile.


It is surprisingly that the 5900 and 7200RPM drives have similar results in some parameters,  but the 4K random read /writes are 1.3  to the 5900RPM drives' . 449-.577 so the higher access times of 5900 drives are reflected for small files.  The Hitachi 2TB and WD 4TB also probably have 2X and 4X 1TB platters so the access arm is traveling  laterally the same distance for each platter.


Thanks for mentioning the all-rounder drive caddy adapter.  The used HP adapter purchase is a regret.  I bought two at $18 each ( offer from $22) These arrived somewhat dirty and scratched, appearing high mileage, and the $7.00 shipping somehow became $8.60  They are however of very good quality and I'll have one for the the Intel 730 and the other for the Samsung 840 in the  z420 / E5-1620.


The world of CPU/ GPU rendering is really difficult- maddening really.  In the current situation, it seems inevitable that every visualization workstation needs to have good  in both.  And, then there's some programs that are CUDA performance and Quadro specific- Solidworks and others will run on NVIDIA GTX- Premiere.  I've tried both CPU and a bit of GPU rendering and I see definitely better quality for single images using CPU renderings, particularly in smooth color gradients, reflections and in particles and water.  But that was five years ago and now the situation is changed -and more difficult to sort as it's impossible  try all of them to learn and anyway, it takes quite along time to be fluent.  When I was playing with Solidworks,  I tried to snap a tangent to a   point on a torus and I never did work out that one. Embarrassingly,  I eventually did that in AutoCad 3D and exported to Sketchup where all hope of precision is abandoned anyway.

When I had the misreading temperatures in the z620 I did look briefly into HP Performance Advisor though only with regard to the temperature.  I missed that it included Windows BIOS editing - that's a very  thing to know- thanks.
valuable

I'm a bit curious as to the reason you bought the new copy of Windows 7?  I think HP will provide a copy of the original software for that system which can be updated. In the case of the Precision T5500, Dell sent me a recovery disk with Windows free of charge and this activated automatically.  I used the same disk on the T3500 and likewise it installed activated without ever entering the product key.  The two z420's arrived with recovery disks that include Windows and as that disk is listed as the same for the z420 and 620. The original HD's also have a recovery partition with the HP OEM Windows as does the  Z Turbo drive I bought recently.  I use both original HD's  for the z420's in a 3.5" USB 3 enclosure as my external backup. When I received the z620,  I simply plugged  the z420 E5-1660 v2 (2015) backup drive into the z620 and installed Windows from the recovery partition and updated.


Cheers,


BambiBoom_Z

[Brian1965]

Just a quick update regarding my rendering tests.

Downloaded a trial version of bunkspeed (now SolidWorks Visualize) and tried to run a couple of tests. What I liked about this trial software is it gave you an option to select either CPU, GPU or Hybrid (both) rendering. Unfortunately it did not have any option to select which GPU to use, (if you have multiple GPU's in your system). Initially tried to load my previous SolidWorks model but was only presented with a blank screen though I believe it may be due to bunkspeed being a 2015 version and the SolidWorks model being created in SolidWorks 2016. Went online and downloaded a couple of relatively complex earlier version SolidWorks models and tried these. Through some trial and error and educated guess work I was able to load a model and render a scene - great! Pressed the render button and after a couple of minutes my screen went completely blank/black and the computer was unresponsive (but the power was still on and the fans had spun up).

(Similar issue to when I had my previous Z600 and Quadro 4000 setup? Long story, but in brief it was down to the vanes on the Quadro 4000 card being blocked by PC fluff. Removed the fluff and the workstation was a lot quieter and no more black screen/shut downs. Obviously this issue was down to over heating, or more correctly, the lack of cooling!).

I was also wondering whether it was the GPU cards overheating or down to pulling to much power from the Z620 800W psu. Did a quick calculation;

Quadro K4200 = 108W

Tesla M2090 = 225W

2x E5-2670 @115W ea = 250W

Total = 583W

I'm effectively leaving only 217W to power everything else, e.g. motherboard, SATA III card, ASUS M.2 SM951, 64GB memory, all the DVD/SSD/HDD's and the enclosure fans. Did some more digging and can confirm the Z620 does support the maximus set-up (up to 225W power) so should be okay? One thing to note is that the Tesla M2090 card does have a 6-pin and a 8-pin PCIe power connectors but since I was already using one of the 6-pin power connectors on the Z620 for the Quadro K4200, I only had one spare 6-pin PCIe power connector. I purchased a 6-pin PCIe to 8-pin PCIe adapter cable from Maplin and used that to power the card. (NOTE: The Tesla data/spec sheet says it requires either 2x 6-pin connections or a single 8-pin connection for power so should be okay. Also, the HP site does state that adapters can be used provided the PSU can handle the power demand on the 12v power rails). NOTE: If any HP techs are reading this and know what the power rails are rated at then please let me know. I searched everywhere for a detailed spec of the HP Z620 800W psu without any luck? I note on other threads it is stated as 50W per rail and since the PCIe 6-pin socket has 3x 12v rails should be able to handle 150W (the PCIe lane provides and additional 75W giving 225W in total).

Posted by rgaik elsewhere on this forum;

Still wasn't 100% certain at this point if the black screen was software or hardware related so started looking for some way of monitoring the GPU temperatures in real time.

Found another really good GPU rendering benchmark program called Octanebench which is now my favourite GPU benchmark tool. It's a standalone program (can even run directly from a USB stick) but the main difference is it allows you to select which GPU to use for benchmarking and it is specifically optimized for CUDA processing. Tried to run a test last night rendering with both GPU's and the screen went blank again. Tried the Quadro K4200 by itself and it ran no problem. Running with only the Tesla M2090 went to the blank screen.

Thought I would give it another try this morning (with effectively a cold/cooler PC) and was able to run all the tests successfully;

Quadro K4200 score = 39.92

Tesla M2090 score = 46.84

Quadro K4200 + Tesla M2090 = 86.59

https://render.otoy.com/octanebench/results.php

Looking at the benchmark tables, this score is comparable to a single quadro K6000 benchmark which I'm very happy with. I obviously need to investigate the over heating or PSU issue but clearly the Tesla is more that doubling my rendering performance (dependant on the rendering program utilizing CUDA). Using the nvidia control panel I was able to monitor the GPU utilization in real time;

Planning on pulling the Tesla M2090 from the workstation today and give it a good inspection and clean. I will consider the problem resolved once I can get bunkspeed to run in Hybrid mode without the PC crashing.

[Brian1965]

I initially only had my 4TB drive formatted GPT, (since I couldn't use it otherwise or only as a 2TB drive if done as MBR). Just after reading your last post I thought I would try and see if I could convert my other drives to GPT. Used MiniTool again and have now converted my 2TB Hitachi and 480GB SanDisk SSD's to GPT. Only took about 10-15 seconds each to convert? Sure enough they are now displayed as GPT;

Didn't want to take a chance on my OS drive just yet. The drive on the bottom of the list is actually a 4TB Seagate NAS drive connected to my router and it appears to use it's own propriety disk controller, (I believe it is so that older OS's [and android] can see and access the 4TB drive). Ran a couple of checks on the disks and can confirm that the data on both drives is fully intact.

With regards to your method of cloning the Z620 drive and putting into the Z420, does the Z420 motherboard share the same chip sets? e.g. SATA/SAS controllers, etc.? Have you done anything similar in the past in this regard? Would be very interested to know if this works. I know you can pull an OS drive from a Z620 and stick it into another Z620 but not to a different model?

When I bought my Z600 it was supplied with the original HP recovery/restore discs (3x DVD's) but I bought the Z620 on ebay and didn't get any DVD's or even a recovery partition so didn't have a set of WIndows 7 Professional disks. After reading your first post regarding the UEFI boot install;

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c03465686

It states; "NOTE: The Zx20 restore DVD only supports BIOS-based OS installs. You need a Windows 7 (x64) DVD (for example, a retail DVD) to perform this installation in UEFI mode."

[Brian1965]

So I pulled the Tesla M2090 card from my system and checked the heatsink for blockage. No issue there so removed the heatsink from the card;

Carefully removed the old silver heatsink paste (which was starting to go hard) using a wipe and some methylated spirits then re-applied fresh silver compound heatsink paste before re-attaching the heatsink. Re-fitted the card to the PC and switched on. Booted to windows as normal and everything was looking okay. Tried to re-run octanebench render benchmark program but the computer went to the black screen again after about 2-3minutes into the test. The fact that I was able to run the benchmark on a 'cold' PC would indicate the PSU can cope with the power demands of both GPU cards but perhaps the M2090's passive cooling may not be upto the job. When you see how tightly the cards are fitted you can see air flow may be a major issue;

I will look at ways to improve the cooling this week.

Just some more info on boot times for my PC. The times are based from the moment the power button is pressed;

1. Windows Logo appears after 35seconds

2. Logon prompt appears after 1min 12seconds

3. Windows fully loaded (with a ton of background apps and VPN) after 3mins 40seconds

[BambiBoom_Z]

Brian1965,

Solidworks Visualize reads as a great addition of flexibility to rendering.  The ability to use all the available processors is the future and solves to some degree the conflicts of CPU / GPU- CUDA rendering.  The additional degree is in my view, an ability to easily select between GPU's without problems.  There are many users that could benefit from having a Quadro and a GTX as  this has been tried by many users.  If a workstation needed to do: 3D modeling, scientific (Quadro /Tesla), and video editing/ processing, animation, F/X (GTX), it would be wonderful to click on a button and select the GPU. 

However, many have tried this and these experiments inevitably end in disappointment. I keep thinking that the problem must be one of driver conflict as the Quadro and GTX drivers must have files with the same name given that a Quadro can run a GTX driver, but not vice versa. So, perhaps, it's possible to set up a Quadro /Tesla system and run a GTX VM.  If BIOS can be changed in Windows as you mentioned, the primary GPU can be selected through Windows when the VM is initiated.

I like the idea of a Quadro /Tesla Maximus that can be running ECC memory,  but compare the 3D power of a  Quadro M6000 to a new GTX 1080.  This, in Passmark terms, is comparing 11701 to 12713 and correspondingly, $5000 to $670.  On the proletarian level, the K4200 at only $800 is still more than enough for the GTX1080 that is faster than an M6000.

Returning to the subject of the K4200 /M2090, it's very good news that it's possible to run the system without interruption.  The results are the power consumption does not seem to me likely to be the trouble. Power supplies are actually at their most efficient when the draw is 80% of the capacity.  If the K4200 /M2090/ 2X E5-2670= 583W and a motherboard is another 25W, plus drives at 12W each, plus another spoonfull for the pot, that seems like about 650W at the most- that's running everything at 100% which would be very rare. At 80% of 800W = 640W but workstations PSUs are robust and designed for stress over long periods in the manner of servers.  Here's a wild guess: That the Quadro is not specified as the primary graphics card in BIOS. Another m but less likely possibility is if the system is set for power saving rather than high performance in power options and  there is slow response to the sudden power up when the M2090 initiates.  This is less likely as the power draw on the PSU is gradual.  Watching a power analyzer when a system starts up, it builds quite gradually.

The specification shows up to 225W in the primary graphics card slot.  You're correct that the PSU rails will have different speicifications ( and I can't find those either), but specifying for 225W in the primary slot would not affect using those same auxiliary 6 and or 8-pin connectors being connected to the secondary card the M2090.

Heat could well be an issue with a 225W card, what are the temperatures of the M2090 reading? 

I've also had cases of HQ4kS : Hot Quadro 4000 Syndrome.  Once, while rendering I looked in and saw the Quadro 4000 at 102C- the maximum.  I shut it down immediately and there were no ill effects. It was odd as there was no signs of overheating,  but I'd read of toubles with them running hot- they should have been double-height cards.  There was a Gelid aftermarket cooling block for the 4000,  but  never bought one- $120.  The 4000 is in the T5500 when I moved the Quadro K2000 to the z620.

It's impressive and encouraging that the K4200 /M2090 is working at K6000 level - Well done!  I've often thought of using a depreciated Tesla in a system. In the US M2090's sell for as little as $100- and were $2,700 new.

Drive Cloning: I've shared drive images between quite different systems.  The Precision T5500 is running off a clone of the HP z420 (E5- 1660v2)   I had to load drivers for the PERC H310 RAID controller in the T5500- which was a bit fussy- but as Windows has so many drivers included, the system image worked well. I did have to activate the licenses on the T5500  but the software allows it to be on a second system as long as it's not used simultaneously or by another person. In the EaseUS ToDo Backup Workstation software I use, there is simply a button called:  "Restore to dissimilar hardware" and if the source system image was done on a mech'l drive, one also presses "Optimize for SSD" which start the data in he correct sector. I tested the limits of this four years ago.  I still have my 2004 Dell 8400 with a Pentium 4 630 (single-core 3.0GHz)- one of the first hyperthreading , 64-bit CPU's and a Quadro FX3800.  At the time (2012),  I used the Precision T5400 (2X Xeon X5460/ 16GB/ Quadro FX4800/ WD RE4) which ran on Windows 7 Ultimate. For fun,  I restored for very dissimilar hardware and he Dell 8400 ran far better than I thought possible.  So many programs are single-threaded, the  AutoCad 2011, Adobe CS4, Wordperfect X4, and Sketchup 8 all did quite well. I tried to give that system away but no one would have it. The disk was very slow, but a surprise nonetheless.  I tried to give that system away but no one would have it.  GPT Drives:  Thanks for the information GPT file structured drives, which I thought was a speciality of servers. I'm going to also process carefully.  Fortunately I have a pair of unused Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB drives and I thought to format and set them up as GPT and then clone form the MBR drives leaving them untouched.  I've never had a serious data loss, but also never relaxed for a minute as an obsessive about backups- three copies and one on an external drive that runs only when backing up.

This week I'll move along with the z620 drive and will be very interested to follow your Quadro  /Tesla configuration.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

[Brian1965]

Looks like I've found the root cause of the M2090 card. Found this on another forum;

Time to start modding . . .

[BambiBoom_Z]

Brian1965,

Regarding the Tesla M2090 cooling situation:

OPTION 1: Change to Tesla C2075:

The last Tesla GPU I saw was a the local particle accelerator and that was a Telsa C2075 (6GB) sitting out on a table, which more resembles a conventional GPU- it has a case with fan and a single DVI video output- possibly the only Tesla with that. Those however seem to be in the £200+ category. Somewhat expensive as an option, depending on the value of the M2090. If the swap was under £50 or so it might be worthwhile as the M-series are definitely server-centric and solutions may fall into the mildly dodgy bodge department. The C2075 does however have 448 CUDA cores to the M2090's 512.

Still, there's nothng like a challenge so follows are some more quick ideas for a Tesla M2090 cooling solution. 

OPTION 2: Adapting GPU Gaming Fan Array to Heatsink:

This option would use a GTX gaming card triple fan array and heatsink that replaces the M2090 passive heatsink. For example:

EVGA Geforce GTX 980 Ti - Heat Sink & Fans Only - New Unused > £40.00

This is logical as the GTX 980Ti is about the same size with 6GB of memory and  may be in the same league as far as heat dissipation needs.  The mounting holes for the heatsink may be redrilled,  but appear in the photo to have a similar spacing to the M2090 passive mounting.

To exhaust the case air, drilling the rear case panel below the M2090, the rear brackets for the M2090, M2. adapter, and the SATA /USB cards should help.

If this would fit, it seems the best and easiest solution.  However, I think the problem is that the GTX and all of these highperofrmance GPU's are double height cards and the M2090 with that heatsink /fan mayd not fit in the vertical space with enough clearance for the fan to draw air well. a doulble height card is about 35mm. I have a double-height Quadro and I might give it a go in the z620. 

OPTION 3:  Liquid Cooling

This concept replaces the passive heatsink with a closed loop liquid CPU cooler such as the Corsair H90 Hydro All in One.  I think this option would have the most effective thermal transfer rate.

The choice would need to be based on the M2090 GPU die size and the heat dissipation rate of the cooler. It looks like a large GPU to me- so choose a version that is for LGA2011 CPU's. Still, if the Tesla C2075 can work with a relatively small diameter fan and heatsink, the M2090 should be adaptable.

To adapt the CPU liquid cooling system:

1. Create a bracket that matches the passive mounting spacing on the M2090

2.  Mount the cooling block to the GPU using thermal paste.

3.  Mount the radiator.  This is a bit of a problem though as the logical spot is the volume at the bottom of the case to the front of the M2090.  It would draw cool air from the lower front panel, asssisited by the lower case fans,  but the ezxxhaust is into the back volme of the case, adding to the thermal load. The solution would be to cut an opening in the side access panel, and the fan would have to remain in situ whe the access panel is removed- a bit extreme.  It's possible though to consider that that the trneral load total in the case is the same as with the passive heat sink.  With the C2075, the heat is exhausted through a perforated rear bracket.  So, it might be possible to drill the M2090 rear bracket and also drill a regular pattern in the rear panel area under the M2090. With a little study, that area in total may well prove to be adequate. The virtue of this solution is that as compared o the GTX fan /heatsink,  it puts the heatsink . fan depth vertically and elsewhere so It can fit the volume

OPTION 4: Adapting Case Fan Array to Heatsink in Shroud:

This option has the most fabrication, creating a non attached fan shroud that conducts and acclerates the output of a pair of vertcial case fans through the standard M2090 heatsink.

1.  The idea is to create a shroud from sheet acrylic mounting on the z620 case bottom on sized grommets to level it. 

2.  On the vertical side facing the front panel is a pair of 100 or so mm fans connected to a spare 4-pin Molex connector power cable that direct air towards the M2090. These fans are intended to draw and accelerate air entering from the front lower panel.

3. The shroud is tapered in both elevation and plan so as to accelerate the air speed.  To mount the enclosure, the Tesla M2090 would be inserted into the enclosure first with the PCIe connection protruding and the assembly inserted in the case so the M2090 could be inserted to the PCIe slot, and then the cooling enclosure as it is actually independent and has some clearance to the M2090,  is mounted to the case bottom.

4.  The M2090 rear bracket is removed or drilled and the small area of the z620 rear panel is drilled in a regular pattern to create as much air flow through as possible. 

5.  If possible, another pair of 90mm fans are mounted externally  that extract the air from the lower rear case. 

6.  It would be desirable to also drill the rear panel mounting brackets of the  M.2 adapter card and Syba SATA/USB card.

Sorry for the terrible quality of this sketch,  but I think it shows the general idea, which is to try and move a volume of air comparable to a server case environment.

Cheers,

BambiBoom_Z