HP Z400 (2009)

2009–2012 · tower

Specifications

Cpu: Intel Xeon W3503 dual-core up to W3690 3.46 GHz six-core (Nehalem/Westmere, LGA 1366); six-core W3600 chips need the 2010 6-slot board
Gpu: No integrated graphics; NVIDIA Quadro and AMD/ATI FirePro card options (e.g. Quadro 600, FirePro V4900)
Ram: max: 16 GB (4-slot boards, 4x4 GB) or 24 GB (6-slot boards, 6x4 GB) DDR3-1333 ECC unbuffered; registered DIMMs are not supported · base: 2 to 4 GB DDR3 ECC unbuffered (config dependent)
Ports: USB 2.0 x8 (2 front, 6 rear) · FireWire 400 (front) · PS/2 keyboard and mouse · Gigabit Ethernet · Audio line in, line out, microphone · 2x PCIe x16 Gen2, 2x PCIe x4, 2x PCI slots
Storage: base: 250 GB 7200 rpm SATA HDD · options: 500 GB to 2 TB SATA HDDs, up to 4 drives (8 TB max) · SAS 10K/15K HDDs with optional controller card · SATA SSDs (factory 128 to 300 GB options) · 2 internal 3.5" bays plus 3 external 5.25" bays
Os Support: latest: Windows 10 (unofficial, widely used); Linux fully supported · shipped: Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate 64-bit (Vista and XP options); Red Hat Enterprise Linux options

Variants

Revisions

Z400 (4 DIMM slots, 2009)Original board: 4 memory slots, 16 GB max, Xeon W3500 series (dual and quad-core).

Z400 Revision 2 (6 DIMM slots, 2010)Revised 2010 board: 6 memory slots, 24 GB max, adds six-core Xeon W3600 series support. The one to hunt for.

Upgrade paths

RAM

16 GB (4-slot) or 24 GB (6-slot) DDR3-1333 ECC unbuffered · Tool-free side panel, ECC unbuffered DDR3 only. Count your slots first: 4-slot boards top out at 16 GB, the 2010 6-slot revision at 24 GB.

~$30

EASY

CPU

Xeon W3690 six-core (6-slot boards); Xeon W3565/W3580 quad-core (4-slot boards) · LGA 1366 socket. Six-core W3600 chips are dirt cheap used and drop into the 6-slot revision; original 4-slot boards stay on the W3500 series.

~$20

MODERATE

storage

SATA SSD plus up to 4 HDDs · Two internal 3.5" bays and three 5.25" bays with tool-free rails. SATA is 3 Gb/s, which still suits a cheap SSD boot drive.

~$30

EASY

GPU

PCIe x16 Gen2 graphics card within the 475 W power supply budget · Standard PCIe slot takes consumer cards too. Mind the stock 475 W supply and its limited PCIe power connectors when picking a card.

EASY