I need an HP Z800 workstation geek. Upgrade time to SSD boot/storage. $ is A HUGE ISSUE and don't want to burn my love.

Cosgringo

Commendable
Apr 7, 2016
5
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1,510
I need an HP Z800 geek. Feasible? Add a PCIe card to add in an M.2 SSD boot drive (256G is sweet spot). I realize the hazed engineers of HP will say "no" as they have not tested it. I am not sure of my board and which gen it is but I suspect it's the 1st gen. I don't want a 2.5 SSD if possible.

I want to boot and my OS with "key" proggies like Adobe PS. I am not looking to spend much more so I want to live with this cool-ly internally engineered machine to live on. I am only mid range on the vid (V5900) and at 12G of ECC RAM on 2 quad Xeons. I gotta run my system fisherman to see the details as I am not in front of it. Lots of SATA/ IDE storage though I have really moved more to NAS/NET storage since I do a lot of photos. $ is a huge issue as I cannot work right now thank you lame last spine surgeon. I still like to when possible (rarely) work on my loves in life like photography and dialing up my network/love of movies on my NAS. THANK U KINDLY- Oh looking to boot WIN 10. Don't injure me. I am not going the way of the UNIX when I am dependent on PS and it's plug in's.
 
Solution
I do have a portable Windows 10 on a 240GB SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure that i use for work (I have windows 10 enterprise so I can do the Windows on the go) There are ways to get other editions work but not legally.

You'd be better off buying a SATA 6Gbps card and running the OS on that.

You can still use M.2 NVMe but can't boot and on a PCIe gen 2 slot you won't be able to max it out.

The question is what exactly do you need the speed for then we can figure out which is the best and cheapest way to go for you
This workstation came out LONG before bootable NVMe drivers even existed. I highly doubt it can and every other Intel 5520 chipset set i look up doesn't seem to boot up from a PCIe slot. Booting from a NVMe requires 1) a uEFI bios 2) a uEFI bios that then support booting from a PCIe slot

You CAN use it as a DATA drive but I highly doubt you will be able to use it as a OS drive as it just old tech meets new tech.

 

Cosgringo

Commendable
Apr 7, 2016
5
0
1,510
Thanks drtweak. In ur opinion, looking for a combo of a fast boot/fast OS and prime used apps with a balance of durability/safety on the boot (not sure I am comfortable with a USB/external drive boot via USB 3). Any thoughts? I definitely see me adding the drive(s) for perhaps the images-and/or SW I am using (Adobe, etc.). I realize I can run say Win10 externally from a 3.0 drive or USB but USB sounds out of the question though they make some nice ones now.

I still have to add a 3.0 card as I am sitting with 2.0. I have slots open PCI Gen2 x8.

I guess it's not even a "hey I am will just max it out", I want to be smart with it and I have to pay for a surgery in a few weeks. Omabacare doesn't care that much...

THX!

So some thoughts- I am thinking using the existing limits of the SATA controller on the Z800 (3G/s) and putting in a small 128 SSD boot there. Then add the extra PCIe M.2 compatible card for the M.2 SSD(s).

I am thinking that's my best option off the cuff at 1 am in the morning after vodka and cranberry (my kidneys requested it).
 
I do have a portable Windows 10 on a 240GB SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure that i use for work (I have windows 10 enterprise so I can do the Windows on the go) There are ways to get other editions work but not legally.

You'd be better off buying a SATA 6Gbps card and running the OS on that.

You can still use M.2 NVMe but can't boot and on a PCIe gen 2 slot you won't be able to max it out.

The question is what exactly do you need the speed for then we can figure out which is the best and cheapest way to go for you
 
Solution

Sleepy3103

Reputable
Apr 27, 2014
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4,660
I don't know if those will work but I put a PCI-E SATA 3 card in my Z800 to boot my SSD from so I get full speed from it and it works fine. I use a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD and get the normal 550 or so speeds.
 


His issue wasn't the fact of SATA 6GBps ports but the fact that he wanted to use NVMe SSD and NOT a SATA SSD which this machine can not boot form a PCIe NVMe due to it not supporting it.

Tossing in a 6GBps SATA card will not pose a booting issue as PC's have been booting off ISA/PCI/PCIe slots for those kind of stuff for well as long as I can remember. Just NVMe is a whole different ball game VS SATA/IDE Storage.