HP Z840 Workstation User Manual

Push your computing boundaries with the HP Z840 Workstation that helps you
keep up with your biggest projects. Built for high-end computing and
visualization, it delivers outstanding performance in one of the industry’s most
expandable chassis.
Table of contents
Chassis and system highlights ......................................................................................................................................... 2
System architecture ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
I/O slot optimizations .............................................................................................................................................................. 8
Storage congurations and RAID ....................................................................................................................................... 11
High-density storage option ...............................................................................................................................................20
Memory congurations and optimization..................................................................................................................... 22
New UEFI BIOS and features/legacy support ...................................................................................................................25
Technical white paper
HP Z840 Workstation
More power to you

HP Z840 Workstation Specifications

General

Chipset	Intel C612
Processor	Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 series
Storage	SATA, SAS, SSD
Graphics	NVIDIA Quadro or AMD FirePro
Expansion Slots	7 PCIe slots
Power Supply	1125 W 90% efficient power supply
Operating System	Windows 10 Pro, Linux
Dimensions	444 mm
Weight	Starting at 21.1 kg

Summary

Chassis and system highlights

Mobility and flexibility

Describes carrying handles, USB ports, and expansion slots.

Interior design

Describes streamlined interior, touchpoints, and cable management.

Designing the experience

Quiet and reliable

Discusses acoustic and thermal management for performance.

Designed with the environment in mind

Focuses on energy efficiency and recyclability.

System architecture

New Intel® Processor micro-architecture

Details the C612 chipset and Haswell processors.

Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0 (Intel® AVX2)

Explains AVX2 features for performance.

Intel® Data Protection Technology with AES-NI

Describes AES-NI for data encryption.

Next generation Intel® Active Management Technology

Lists new features for AMT 9.1.

Memory technology

Introduces DDR4 memory and capacity support.

Intel® USB 3.0

USB charging ability

Describes the charging capabilities of front USB 3.0 ports.

Thunderbolt™ 2 technology

Details Thunderbolt 2 features and capabilities.

I/O and storage

Internal I/O

Describes PCIe slots and internal USB connectors.

Storage

External I/O

Lists front and rear I/O ports.

Graphics

Mentions power supply support for graphics cards.

Other features

Covers power supply, manageability, and environmental certifications.

HP Z840 supported CPU line-up

I/O slot optimizations

Integrated PCI and PCI-Express 3.0

Explains the use of PCIe 3.0 controllers and backward compatibility.

PCI-Express performance

Discusses performance benefits of PCIe 3.0 integration, DMA caching, and QPI.

I/O slot options

Storage configurations and RAID

Storage Features

Details controller interfaces and supported drive types (SATA, SSATA, SAS).

RAID Levels

Lists supported RAID levels (0, 1, 5, 10) for different controllers.

Option ROM Launch Policy

Explains OROM/UEFI driver selection for RAID controller configuration.

Controller Enable/Disable

Describes how to enable/disable SATA, SSATA, and SAS storage controllers.

Creating RAID Arrays on the SATA and sSATA controllers

Pre-OS RAID creation through the Option ROM (OROM)

Details OROM RAID creation for SATA/SSATA controllers.

RAID creation using the UEFI driver within 3rd Party Option ROM Management in BIOS setup

RAID creation from a DOS or EFI shell.

RAID creation from within the OS using the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology enterprise GUI.

Creating RAID Arrays on the SAS controller

1. Pre-OS RAID creation through the Option ROM (OROM)

Details OROM RAID creation for SAS controllers.

RAID creation using the SAS-2 Integrated RAID Configuration Utility (SAS2IRCU)

RAID array creation using the LSI Logic MegaRAID Storage Manager for LSI MegaRAID SAS Controllers.

Performance considerations

SSDs used in RAID configurations and TRIM support

Discusses SSDs, TRIM support, and performance in RAID.

Storage Caching Options

Windows Write-caching policy

Explains Windows write-caching settings and their impact.

Intel® RSTe write-back cache

Details Intel RSTe write-back cache for RAID volumes and its benefits.

LSI SAS Disk Write Caching Policy

Describes LSI SAS disk write caching policy based on RAID level.

High-density storage option

Memory configurations and optimization

Supported memory modules

Lists supported and unsupported memory types (DDR4 Registered/LR DIMMs).

Platform capabilities

Details memory capacity, sockets, speed, and channel configurations.

Memory features

ECC

Explains ECC error correction and detection for memory modules.

Command and Address parity

Describes parity error detection for memory command and address signals.

Optimize performance

Discusses optimizing memory performance through configuration.

New UEFI BIOS and features/legacy support

New BIOS core

Introduces the common BIOS image (M60) shared across workstation models.

Compatibility

Discusses UEFI and legacy OS compatibility with the M60 BIOS.

New BIOS tools

Lists new BIOS configuration and update tools for the M60 BIOS.

New Computer Setup graphical interface

Boot modes

Explains UEFI, legacy, and secure boot options in the BIOS.

NVMe support

Discusses NVMe SSD support for improved performance over AHCI.

Network BIOS update

Describes remote BIOS update functionality within Computer Setup.

New performance settings

Processor snoop modes

Lists available processor snoop modes supported by the Xeon E5 v3 processor.

Security defaults

Mentions BIOS security defaults accessed via the Security menu.

New Secure Boot key

Discusses updated Secure Boot keys for HP UEFI applications.

Changes to replacement motherboards

Covers information required for motherboard replacement and first boot.