HP XW8400 Modding

[Muhammad Abdullah-CC]

Hello Everyone,
i needed help regarding my i case i have an XW8400 with the standard case motherboard and wiring i cant go for a new case or a psu so i will be stuck with this for a while,can anyone suggest me some mods that i can do with the case also some cable management tips since the case doesnt have any place to stash the cables

 

[bambiboom]

Hello Everyone,
i needed help regarding my i case i have an XW8400 with the standard case motherboard and wiring i cant go for a new case or a psu so i will be stuck with this for a while,can anyone suggest me some mods that i can do with the case also some cable management tips since the case doesnt have any place to stash the cables

Muhammad Abdullah-CC,

For "mods that i can do with the case", do you mean improving the appearance of the case and a neater arrangement of the cables or is the goal to improve the performance of the system ?

In my opinion, the performance has some good potential, but changing the appearance and cable arrangement is not going to be good use of effort and money.

What is this system used for?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Muhammad Abdullah-CC]

Hello Everyone,
i needed help regarding my i case i have an XW8400 with the standard case motherboard and wiring i cant go for a new case or a psu so i will be stuck with this for a while,can anyone suggest me some mods that i can do with the case also some cable management tips since the case doesnt have any place to stash the cables

Muhammad Abdullah-CC,

For "mods that i can do with the case", do you mean improving the appearance of the case and a neater arrangement of the cables or is the goal to improve the performance of the system ?

In my opinion, the performance has some good potential, but changing the appearance and cable arrangement is not going to be good use of effort and money.

What is this system used for?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

primarily gaming and yes i am going for the apperence but it would be helpful if you suggest a system upgrade as well my specs are amd 6870 8 gb ddr2 fb dimm 1 tb harddrive and xeon x5355 x2 processors

 

[bambiboom]

Muhammad Abdullah-CC,

As far as the performance enhancement, the top Passmark CPU mark for an XW8400 with a pair of Xeon X5355 2.66GHz CPU's is 6328. There appears to be only one choice that is better, the Xeon X5365 3.0GHz which has a top score of 6867. However, the improvement is less than 10% and I'm not sure if that would be noticeable enough to be worth the cost and effort.

The highest 3D score in the XW8400 is 4723 using a Radeon 7970. There is not a score for the HD 6870, but the average 3D mark for the 6870 is 2570, so the 3D can be at least significantly improved and I think that would improve the gaming experience. Other considerations: GTX 750 Ti : 3862. GTX 760: 4950. If you can find a good used GTX 760 that would be my choice.

As for appearance: if you have access to the tools to do it,

1. Cut a rectangular window in the metal side panel at a size and position to show the CPU's and graphics card.
2. With the window opening finished properly, paint the panel and the other side panel glossy bright red.
3. Cut a rectangular piece of grey acrylic that is 2cm larger on every side than the opening to the back of the panel
4. Glue the acrylic window to the back of the panel opening.

5. Add one or two LED light strips to the inside of the case. These can run off the power from a spare Molex 4-pin connector.

6. Replace the SATA cables with longer black, mesh covered cables and use discreet twist ties to route them neatly.

Not to throw a wrench into the works, but is there a chance you can buy a used Dell Precision T3500? My thought is to sell the XW8400 and used that money, plus the upgrade budget and buy and upgrade a T3500. I did this last December:

Purchased for $53 on Ebay US:

Precision T3500 (2011) (Original) Xeon W3530 4-core @ 2.8 /3.06GHz > 4GB (2X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > GeForce 9800 GT (1GB)> WD Black 500GB
[[Passmark system rating = 1963, CPU = 4482 / 2D= 609 / 3D=805 / Mem= 1409 / Disk=1048]

Bought:

CPU: $60
RAM: $43
GPU and drives: left over from other upgrades

Result:

Dell Precision T3500 (2011) (Rev 2) Xeon X5677 4-core @ 3.46 / 3.73GHz > 12GB (6X 2GB) DDR3-1333 ECC > Quadro 4000 (2GB) > PERC 6/i + Seagate 300GB 15K SAS ST3300657SS + WD Black 500GB > 525W PSU> Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > 2X Dell 19" LCD
[Passmark system rating = 2751> CPU = 7236 / 2D= 658 / 3D=2020 / Mem= 1875 / Disk=1221]

For comparison, the best HP XW8400 is rated 2102. The Passmark single-threaded rating of the X5355 - the important number for gaming- is 1044, the X5365 is 1171, and the X5677 is 1520. There is an X5687 4-core @ 3.6 / 3.86GHz- 1579.

Cheers,

BambiBoom