HP z620 + Xeon E5-2690 = 76C

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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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Hello,

I recently purchased a, HP z620 with a Xeon E5-1620 4-core with the intention of replacing it. I should note that this system had some damage in shipping, but appeared to run reasonably well:

HP z620 (Original) Xeon E5-1620 4-core @ 3.6 /3.8GHz) / 8GB (1X 8GB DDR3-1333) / AMD Firepro V5900 (2GB) / Seagate Barracuda 750GB + Samsung 500Gb + WD 500GB
[ Passmark System Rating= 2408 / CPU= 8361 / 2D= 846 / 3D = 1613 / Mem =1584 / Disk = 574 ] 7.13.16

Note the terrible disk score from a 2008 Seagate Barracuda 750GB.

I updated the BIOS and chipset drivers to the latest . The replacement is an E5-2690 8-core 2.9 /3.8GHz. I cleaned the heatsink thoroughly and used Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste. I've changed quite a few CPU's over the years. All the settings in BIOS and control Panel are performance-oriented.

1. After installing I ran Passmark Performance Test with the side access door off. It completed the test. I then started HWMonitor and saw the CPU temperature had been 82C peak and while checking was 76C so I shut the system down.

HP z620 (Rev 1) Xeon E5-2690 8-core @ 2.9 /3.8GHz) / 8GB (4X 2GB DDR3-1333) / AMD Firepro V5900 (2GB) / Seagate barracuda 750GB + Samsung 500Gb + WD 500GB
[ Passmark System Rating= 2101 / CPU= 14027 / 2D= 760 / 3D = 1680 / Mem =2169 / Disk = 465 ] 7.15.16 The CPU score is below average of 14400

For comparison, the HP z420 (E5-1660 v2) I use everyday has been running for some time and is showing all 6-cores at 40 to 44C.

2. The system cooled l and restarted. Checking, I can see that the front case fan, memory fan and heatsink fan all appear to be running.

3. Restarted side door on. The core temperatures start at 42 C for a minute of so and then began creeping up.

4. Restarted Firefox briefly and after about 5 minutes one core went to 64C quite quickly, so I shut it down.

5. I reinstalled the E5-2690 with a careful application /distribution of thermal paste. Same results.

What am I doing wrong? Is there a problem with the E5-2690? incorrect thermal paste? Did the shipping damage do something unseen?

Unfortunately, as I was changing the E5-1620 anyway I never checked the temperatures running that CPU.

I have two z420's and if it's critical knowledge I could try the E5-2690 in that system.

This is a worry.

Thanks!

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 
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George Phillips

George Phillips

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Although their TDP are similar: 130w vs 135w, their Tcase temperatures are 8 degree apart, 64 vs 72 degrees:

Xeon E5-1620 4-core
http://ark.intel.com/products/64621/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1620-10M-Cache-3_60-GHz-0_0-GTs-Intel-QPI
Xeon E5-2690
http://ark.intel.com/products/64596/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2690-20M-Cache-2_90-GHz-8_00-GTs-Intel-QPI

This 8-core Xeon E5-2690 processor in reality probably use significantly more power and produces much more heat and the temperature can increase significantly if you use a smaller one rated for Xeon E5-1620.
I highly recommend to upgrade your cooling solution to a larger heatsink rated for Xeon E5-2690 or get a water cooling that can handling the 135 w cpu properly.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XXeon+E5-2690+heatsink.TRS0&_nkw=Xeon+E5-2690+heatsink&_sacat=0
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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George Philips,

It's mysterious. The HP z620 can be a single or dual CPU system with the addition of CPU/ fan / memory riser. The standard fan / heatsink is rated for a 150W CPU- the Xeon E5-2687w. HP does make a liquid cooling unit, but I think that is for dual LGA-2011-3 with 12 or more cores each processor.

The odd thing is that I never saw a thermal warning or noticed the fans running at high RPM- the z620 is by far the quietest system I've ever been around.

Thinking about it, as I was fussing with this system I had a glancing notice somewhere a setting that in some way forced the CPU to run at the highest clock rate all the time, but I can't remember if that was in BIOS or Control Panel. Is that familiar to you?

I did try setting the fan idle speed in BIOS well up, and chngedn Power Options from Performance to Balanced in , which helped but it only delayed the temperature rise to 64C at idle.

Thanks!

BambiBoom

 
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George Phillips

George Phillips

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You are right about how the Z620 should be able to handle it without any thermal issues normally because these HP systems are designed with precise specifications. So I wonder if there is already something wrong with the new processor.

Did you get Xeon E5-2690 from eBay? Could it be that the CPU was used 24/7 previously and somehow the previous environment/case it was in has degraded its thermal performance?
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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George Phillips,

This has been resolved over the weekend in an unexpected way.

On Saturday, I ran the Intel Processor Diagnostic that showed the E5-2690 having normal temperatures. This displays in a strange way- "Expected temperature more than 1 degree below maximum." This suggests that the CPU is designed to run near the rated maximum and probably that rating is conservative. In the CPU stress test, this test ran: 34 degrees below maximum, then progressed through to the end at 25 degrees below maximum. This result made me suspect the sensors were at fault.

Yesterday, Sunday, there was a large scale Windows 7 update -about 90 minutes downloading and installing. Just checking, I reran the Intel Diagnostic and starting at 40 degrees below maximum it progressed to end at 23 degrees below maximum. Looking at HWMonitor, a moment later, the CPU was idling at 38C- completely normal. I ran Passmark Performance Test which is quite stressful on all the components and was struck that the CPU rating changed from 14027 to 14741. After that test, the CPU was at 42C and dropped in a few minutes to 39-40C.

Conclusions: My idea is that the algorithm that converts the sensor data to temperature numbers was updated. The copy of Windows 7 Prof'l installed was from a HP recovery partition of 2013 (on an HP z420) and the results are confirmed by the earlier Intel Diagnostic test -there never was a problem. As for the +4-5% improved CPU results, my guess is that earlier, the system throttled the CPU based on the incorrect sensor data.

Quite a relief.

Thank you for your reply.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 
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George Phillips

George Phillips

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Hi BambiBoom,

That's quite an amazing process to troubleshoot and correctly identify the issue. Based on your description, it is correct that the all software and hardware related processes must be patched and updated to the latest version to make the processor run most efficiently and also to get the correct readings from different monitor applications, either built-in or 3rd party applications. It's great to have and use such a great system!!
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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George Phillips,

It is an odd confluence of circumstances and I don't know exactly the source of the resolution because there were hundreds of vaguely titled Windows updates in the period between the high readings and the normal ones.

Encouraged by the results, I've received another E5-2690 and have the the elaborate CPU /Memory fan riser on it's way as well. I never understood why these were done this way rather than just having a dual socket motherboard. The z620 design includes a daughterboard with four RAM slots, an LGA2011 socket, and special and strangely angled heatsink, fan and shroud. It's quite neat looking when all together, but an expensive design.

I have a Dell Precision T5400 and there are simply two sockets on the motherboard, but the Precision T5500 has a riser board as do T7500's. The crazy feature is that the T5500 and T7500 use very sightly different add-on risers- an inefficient engineering concept. However the HP z820 has a conventional double socket on the main board. The z820 case is however 2" longer than the z620 which is very close in outside dimension to the z420, so perhaps there's an efficiency at least dimensionally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sArSaUlcbiw

Yes, it will be interesting to see if the z620 reaches expectation. I'm going to add the Quadro K2200 (4GB) from the T5500, and may use the Intel 730 480GB from the z420 as that has a Samsung SM951 256GB. The 730 has a Passmark score of 4694- quite good, but the SM951 rates 11599. it possible though I'll use a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB.

I've also received the kit from HP that includes all the plastic case parts and that will correct the shipping damage- really only three parts, and have it looking as new. It's an reasonable cost- $56.

Should be a good performer a system that started out as $270, plus the E5-1620 and Firepro V5900 (2GB) that were included can be worth about $140. The V5900 might become the GPU for the Precision 390 which now has a Quadro K600 (1GB) or it may go the Precision T3500.

Thank you for your replies and interest.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 
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