HP Z840 Workstation With GTX 980Ti 3-Way SLI - Will It Hold?

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TheHungryOne

TheHungryOne

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Mar 11, 2010
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Hi.

I'm currently in the market for a new high end image and video editing and converting workstation.
I already did my homework regarding the hardware that works best with my needs and budget and came up with this spec for HP Z840 Workstation:

HP Z840 Microsoft Windows Workstation F5G73AV
HP Z840 1125W (1450W/200V) 90 Percent Efficient Chassis G8X50AV
HP Z840 Country Kit F5G74AV#ABA
ENERGY STAR Qualified Configuration G8U73AV
No Integrated Graphics G8U74AV
2TB 7200 RPM SATA 1st Hard Drive J3K73AV
2TB 7200 RPM SATA 2nd Hard Drive J3K94AV
Operating System Load to PCIe J9N95AV
HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro 512GB 1st Solid-State Drive (SSD) P0Q96AV
HP Wireless Keyboard and Mouse G8U77AV#ABA
HP 15-In-1 Media Card Reader G8U83AV
No Included Mouse XU933AV
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (available through downgrade rights from Windows 10 Pro) N2G58AV#ABA
9.5mm Slim SuperMulti DVDRW SATA 1st Optical Disc Drive F5G79AV
HP Single Unit Packaging G8U92AV
Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2643v3 3.4 2133 6C 1st CPU J6F68AV
Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2643v3 3.4 2133 6C 2nd CPU J6F87AV
192GB DDR4-2133 (12x16GB) 2CPU Registered RAM K8F84AV
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OS DVD + Driver DVD G9P47AV#ABA
HP Dual Processor Air Cooling Kit G8X89AV
HP 3/3/3 Warranty F5G83AV#ABA

To that i'll want to add GTX 980Ti 3-Way SLI.
My only concern is that the PSU is too week and lack the required connectors to hold the graphics cards array.

What do you think?
 
If you are willing to build your own, I'd suggest this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2643 V3 3.4GHz 6-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($1439.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2643 V3 3.4GHz 6-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($1439.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($74.90 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler ($74.90 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus Z10PE-D16 WS SSI EEB Dual-CPU LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($495.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 32GB (1 x 32GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($211.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: OCZ RevoDrive 350 Series 960GB PCI-E Solid State Drive ($714.95 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($119.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (3-Way SLI) ($659.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (3-Way SLI) ($659.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB Video Card (3-Way SLI) ($659.95 @ B&H)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Luxe ATX Full Tower Case ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA T2 1600W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($392.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro OEM (64-bit) ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: HP Elite v2 Keyboard Wireless Standard Keyboard ($29.49 @ Amazon)
Mouse: HP H2L63AA Wireless Optical Mouse ($20.48 @ Amazon)
Total: $8879.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-23 05:56 EDT-0400

If you are unwilling to do so, you'll need a bigger power supply, as the one in the prebuilt unit has 25W of extra capacity over what the system will use at maximum loading, so I would replace it with something like the EVGA 1600W T2 power supply as it will give you more capacity and will make the power supply last longer
 
Nuckles_56, thanks for your input.

I am more than willing and capable to build my own PC, but I rather have a warranty for the entire WS as a single product and have on-site service that a custom PC just don't have. It is a professional WS for business, after all, not just a hobby.
Having said that, I don't rule out that option completely.

As far as I know, Z840 PSU cannot be swapped with a standard PSU because the chassis, MB and other parts have a specific connector and measurements that are only compatible with HP PSU that was originally built for that WS. Am I wrong?
 
I can understand that, and I feel that it is perfectly justified.

I'm honestly not sure, I think you'd have to ask HP about it as I'm not familiar with that particular one, I can't see why it would be custom connectors though as generally they use normal, standard connectors
 
TheHungryOne,

From the HP z840 QuickSPecs:

"NOTE:
The 1125W (1450W at 200V Input Voltage) power supply can also supply 1275W of output power when the input voltage is greater than 105V. If the input voltage is less than 105V, but greater than 90V for any reason, the maximum power that can be drawn is 1125W. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is highly recommended if 1275W output power is desired.

The 1125W Power Supply can also supply 1450W of output power when the input voltage is greater than 200V under all conditions"

Power draw of the main components:

2X E5-2643v3 270W (135W each)
3X GTX 980 Ti 750W (250W each)

Doing a quick calculation using eXtreme Power Supply Calculator:

Input:

2X LGA2011-3 CPU,
128GB RAM
3X GTX 980Ti
M.2 SSD
2X SATA 7200 RPM
PCIe RAID controller
5X USB 3.0 device
2X 140mm fans
2X 120mm fans
16 hours /day use
_______________________

eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Result:

Load Wattage: 957 W
Recommended UPS rating: 1750 VA
Recommended PSU Wattage: 1007 W

Amperage (combined)
+3.3V +5V +12V
13.5 A 21.2 A 71.3 A
151 W 856 W

Recommended Power Supply:
(eXtreme Power Supply Calculator recommendations, for power rating only)

EVGA SuperNOVA 1300 G2 80+ GOLD, 1300W Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI and Crossfire Ready 10 Year Warranty Power Supply 120-G2-1300-XR - Available at Amazon

_____________________________________________

> If power supplies are most efficient when the power draw is 80% of the PSU capacity, then a 1007W draw with the additional headroom recommends a 1300w supply.

> If the PSU calculator input is changed to: 2X GTX 980 Ti:

Load Wattage: 694 W
Recommended UPS rating: 1250 VA
Recommended PSU Wattage: 744 W

Amperage (combined)
+3.3V +5V +12V
11.8 A 21.2 A 49.9 A
146 W 599 W

Recommended Power Supply:
(eXtreme Power Supply Calculator recommendations, for power rating only)

Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 80+ GOLD, 850W ECO Mode Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI and Crossfire Ready 10 Year Warranty Power Supply 220-G2-0850-XR - Available at Amazon

So, based on power draw, it appears that a pair of GTX 980Ti is recommended.

Alternative: If I might suggest, as the proposed 2X GTX 980 Ti GPU's are using the combined 2X GPU, 12GB memory, and 5,632 CUDA cores as co-processors, consider changing to 3X Quadro M4000 ($792 each) which provides 3X GPU, 24GB memory, and 4,992 CUDA cores, and including:

> DisplayPort 1.2 full OpenGL, 64X anti-aliasing,4K 30-bit color, 32-bit per component floating point texture filtering and blending, 64X full scene antialiasing, FXAA and TXAA full scene antialiasing, decode acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile, H.264, MVC, VC1, DivX (version 3.11 and later), and Flash (10.1 and later), Dedicated H.264 encoder, and Blu-ray dual-stream hardware accelerating (supporting HD picture-in-picture playback).

Recalculating wattage using 3X Quadro M4000 (120W):

Load Wattage: 552 W
Recommended UPS rating: 1100 VA
Recommended PSU Wattage: 602 W

Amperage (combined)
+3.3V +5V +12V
11.5 A 21.2 A 38.1 A
145 W 458 W

Recommended Power Supply:
(eXtreme Power Supply Calculator recommendations, for power rating only)

Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B1 80+ BRONZE, 750W Semi Modular 5 Year Warranty Power Supply 110-B1-0750-VR - Available at Amazon

The Quadro M4000 has fantastic performance for this application, similar to the previous generation K5200 (8GB) ($1,800). The features specification is specifically for visualization content creation as compared to content consumption that emphasizes frame rates with "good enough" quality, the Quadro emphasis is on image quality, precision, and stability.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) > 32GB DDR3 1866 ECC RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

Rendering:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6 -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)








 


Nuckles_56,

The point of using the power supply calculator was to see what power rating is necessary to supply various GPU configurations. The specific PSU recommendations are made by the calculator site and were included only to indicate the power rating. The results indicate that the standard 1125W PSU would not support three GTX 980Ti's - the recommendation was to use a 1300W supply- the number 1300W in red, but that using two GTX 980TI's would be possible- with an 850W PSU- number in green. My further point was to suggest considering three Quadro M4000's which only demand a 750W supply and have other advantages.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 
I'm located in Israel, so the current voltage is 240V.
Does it mean I can use 3x 980 Tis?

I used the power supply calculator you used and it turned out differently:

XOV PSU Calculator component list http://outervision.com/b/8lR2YW

Motherboard: Server
Socket: Socket LGA 2011-3
CPU: 1 x Intel Xeon E5-2643 v3 3400 MHz Haswell-EP
CPU Speed: 3400MHz
CPU Vcore: 1.2V
CPU Utilization: 90%
Memory: 12 x 16GB DDR4 Module
Video Card Set 1: 3 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti
Core Clock: 1000MHz
Memory Clock: 1750MHz
SLI / CF: Yes
Storage: 1 x PCIe SSD > 500GB
Storage: 2 x SATA 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: 1 x DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive
Keyboard: 1 x Standard Keyboard
Mouse: 1 x Standard Mouse
Computer Utilization: Always On (24/7)
Load Wattage: 1243W
Recommended Wattage: 1293W
Amperage: +3.3V: 14.6A, +5V: 22.6A, +12V: 94.2A
Recommended UPS Rating: 2200VA
Generated by eXtreme PSU Calculator 2016-03-24 07:36:32

Let's say I do change the GPUs, it'll be to ether Quadro M4200 or Quadro M5200 .

Max CUDA cores I get is 2304 x3
As for the memory, as far as I know, SLI array only uses the memory of a single GPU and it's not cumulative, therefor, max memory will be 8GB.

But if I use GTX 970 Tis I get 2816 x3 CUDA cores and only 6GB memory.
For my uses, ~1500 CUDA cores are far more important than 2GB of graphics memory.
 


The Hungry One,

It appears that the HP z840 power supply running at 240V could support the triple 980Ti.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 
No animation. Image analyzing and converting.
Agisoft PhotoScan
Very high quality, very high res, very large files.

I did my homework regarding the optimal configuration for this kind of work for a single workstation in a tower chassis that is not a part of a cluster and can fit my budget :)
 



TheHungryOne.

Very good- you're on your way then.

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 
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