HP xw6200 WorkStation

D

dar124

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 21, 2012
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Hello, I've been noticing more and more that it's time to upgrade my desktop PC. It's been a while since I've done anything with it, so I've been trying to read up on motherboards / processors and trying to figure out which way to go. I'd be using this PC mainly for downloading (movies, music, and torrents), processing all my media into MCM and then transferring it down to my WHS server, word processing tasks and web browsing.

Yesterday a guy at work said he has a HP xw6200 WorkStation motherboard with both processors that he's pretty much getting rid of (he said he'd take $20 for it just because he's had it sitting around). Is that a good deal and/or would this be an upgrade from my Gateway PC in my signature??

My plan would be to re-use my HD's, Windows 7 COA, video card and a case (either my current Gateway case or another one that I've got lying around), get this motherboard and pick up a Corsair PSU and some memory.

I've never had a dual CPU PC, so I just wanted to run this by the forum to make sure it sounds like something worth doing?? Thanks in advance.
 
I would fire it up and see what kind of Xeons its got under the hood.

If they are the "quicker" S604 Xeons (eg: 90nm) then the HP box would definitely be better.
 
just be careful that your case can handle the heat and that your windows license is Win 7 professional or ultimate - you can't use a home license on a dual cpu machine.

I use a dual cpu machine now and whilst its not as fast as the 3.5ghz+ oc rigs that you see around it doesn't suffer under any kind of load that I put on it.
 
atp1916 said:
I would fire it up and see what kind of Xeons its got under the hood.

If they are the "quicker" S604 Xeons (eg: 90nm) then the HP box would definitely be better.
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I asked him what kind of processors it had and he wasnt sure. He's supposed to bring it in by the end of the week. So I'll check it out then. From looking the motherboard / processor up on line a bit it seems like there were a handful of different processors that the motherboard came with. I'll let ya know what kind it has when I look it over.
 
Nathan_P said:
just be careful that your case can handle the heat and that your windows license is Win 7 professional or ultimate - you can't use a home license on a dual cpu machine.

I use a dual cpu machine now and whilst its not as fast as the 3.5ghz+ oc rigs that you see around it doesn't suffer under any kind of load that I put on it.
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Ok, one of the things on my "list" was to make sure that I picked up some good fans (case fans and possibly 2 good CPU fans) to upgrade from the stock fans. I'll make a mental note to make sure the case has good airflow.

Also I'm currently running W7 Ultimate, so I'll most likely re-use that COA, but I have a handful of W7 Pro COA's around that I could use if necessary.

That few second "pause" when opening multiple programs or loading multiple web pages while streaming music / videos, etc was what was driving me to upgrade my PC. So it's good to hear that this shoud be an upgrade!!!
 
dar124,
That board actually does support SATA I spec. If you really want to avoid that initial pause when opening up stuff, perhaps you could find yourself a compatible SSD. It would be worth it.
 
atp1916 said:
dar124,
That board actually does support SATA I spec. If you really want to avoid that initial pause when opening up stuff, perhaps you could find yourself a compatible SSD. It would be worth it.
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I looked back over my couple of posts here (and I actually also thought it was listed in my signature, but I guess not) but I do have a Samsung 128GB SSD as my OS drive in my current Gateway desktop PC, along with a regular HD for most of the programs. I think that's given the Gateway more life than it would have had. So I'll definitely be moving that over to the new setup.
 
So I decided to go ahead and get this motherboard, hopefully the guy here at work will bring it in at the begining of next week. Also yesterday I picked up the CORSAIR CX500 PSU for around $35 with rebates. Once I have the motherboard & PSU I'll look thru the cases I have lying around to see what will work. The motherboard comes with both processors but I'll need to get 2 heatsinks / fans and some memory.

As far as the memory goes, if I'm going to go with 4GB does it mater if I use 4 x 1GB sticks or 2 x 2GB sticks??
 
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I'd go with 2x2GB sticks instead of 4x1GB sticks, just because you can upgrade later down the road. 4GB used to be fantastic, but.... right now I'm calling it minimal. 8GB is about my sweet spot for desktop stuff.
 
Yea, going with 2GB sticks makes sense to leave room to expand. I currently have W7 Ultimate 32bit on my desktop PC, which would limit me to 4GB. But I have been considering going to 64bit and this might be a good time to make the change.

I should be able to get a disk with the 64bit version of W7 Ultimate and then reuse my current COA. I dont think that any programs that I'm using on the desktop PC will have issues with a 64bit OS. I recently set up my HPTC and installed W7 Pro 64bit and didnt have any issues.
 
I ended up meeting up and getting this motherboard today!!! By looking at the processor I'm not sure what speed it is?? I would think that there's got to be a way to tell the speed just by looking at it?? I posted a pic below.

Was just hoping to figure that out while waiting to pick a case and for the heatsinks, fans, memory, etc to arrive.


IMG_20141212_175412830.jpg
 
dbwillis said:
Standard PSU will have the right wiring for that HP board?
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99% sure.

I've got a HP dc7600 motherboard in my WHS Home Server and I'm using a Corsair PSU (dont remember exactly which one off hand). It had all the appropriate connections.
 
So the processors have "2800DP/1M/800" listed on them, which after some googling appears that they're "Intel Xeon 2.80 GHz, 1M Cache, 800 MHz". Not exactly what I was hoping for, but for only $20 for the board and processors I guess it isn't too bad!!

My first thought is to swap these out for the fastest processors the board can handle :D So could I pick up a pair of "SL7PH Xeon 3.6GHz 1M 800MHz Socket 604 Processors"?? I found these on ebay, which seem like a deal for $10.
 
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If I was gonna look for a couple 3.6GHz processors for this board, would it be as simple as swapping a 3600 for the 2800 in the motherboard numbers to find one that's compatible?? If so I would be looking for a couple "3600DP/1M/800" processors to get the ones that I need.
 
dar124 said:
If I was gonna look for a couple 3.6GHz processors for this board, would it be as simple as swapping a 3600 for the 2800 in the motherboard numbers to find one that's compatible?? If so I would be looking for a couple "3600DP/1M/800" processors to get the ones that I need.
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From looking at your board manual's CPU support list, those 3.6ghz chips are 2mb L2 cache also, so it would be something like "3600DP/2M/800" as well. Not sure if the 2MB cache chips are worth the $$ premium over the 1M cache chips though.
 
Edit: Something like this. The 3.8ghz chips do appear a little bit more expensive.
 
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Thanks atp1916. I just wanted to verify that info so I was sure what I was looking for. Trying to save some money on parts I didn't want to have to by 3 sets of processors just to get the right ones.
 
dar124 said:
Thanks atp1916. I just wanted to verify that info so I was sure what I was looking for. Trying to save some money on parts I didn't want to have to by 3 sets of processors just to get the right ones.
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NP. Keep in mind though that those chips can kick up some serious heat so pick your HSF combo well.
 
atp1916 said:
NP. Keep in mind though that those chips can kick up some serious heat so pick your HSF combo well.
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Yea, I've heard that they run hot. I picked up 2 stock HP heat sinks, so I'd be sure they'd fit alright onto the board. I also got this Cooler Master case from that my brother's friend was getting rid of. I'm gonna replace all the fans (heat sink and case fans) with Noctua fans, so hopefully they'll keep things nice and cool!!!

IMG_20141220_090011.jpg
 
Any idea if this Nocuta fan would work to replace the Delta CPU fans on the xw6200??
 
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So after a bit more searching, I've figured out that the Delta fan is a 70mm and wont work to be replaced with a 40mm Noctua fan. I think that I'll just keep the Delta CPU fans for now. After getting the PC set up I'll monitor the temps & noise and depending on how those levels look I might look to upgrade them at that time.

FYI, I did pick up a couple Noctua case fans (120mm rear & 80mm front) and a couple of Intel XEON 3.600 GHz 3600DP/2M/800 processors. I'm still waiting on the last few items to be delivered. Then I can start putting this PC together!!!
 
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I finally received all the parts that I ordered!!! So now I get to start putting these pieces together :D I got the Cooler Master case, HP motherboard, 2 Noctua case fans, 2 3.6GHz processors, 2 HS's with fans, 8GB of memory and a Corsair CX500 PSU. As I'm getting this PC together I'll slowly take parts from my current Gateway PC, until the day I officially switch over.

Today I took the old motherboard out of the case and am in the process of fitting the HP motherboard in. Didn't have too much time, so I'm not sure exactly how many of the mounting holes are gonna line up?? But we'll get it in there!!!

IMG_20150108_190400200.jpg
 
Gotta love that feeling when it's time to get a build on, eh? :D
 
So this weekend I got the PSU swapped out, 3.6GHz processors put in with the HS's, motherboard secured in the case and both case fans in!!!

When I get a chance this week, I'll start with some of the connections and also pull a couple parts off of my current desktop PC.


IMG_20150111_185025691.jpg
 
Nice. I imagine that case weighs a ton. They don't make em like they use to anymore.
 
Yea, it was fairly heavy to start with. But now that I've got the HP xw6200 motherboard with the dual HS's on it installed, it's got some weight to it!!!
 
I worked on this PC for a bit again this weekend. I connected a handful of things and moved the DVD drives from my Gateway to this new setup.

I realize that not everything from the case will connect to the motherboard (ex. the case has a firewire connection, but the motherboard doesnt). But I'm not sure about some of the front panel connections. I googled "hp xw6200 workstation pinout", but havent been able to find an exact diagram for the this. I found this link, but it's for a xw4300. I'd think that it's probably close to to the same thing for the xw6200, but I'm not sure.

Would anyone out there have a better link for the xw6200 pinout??
 
Ok, so I found this link, it's for a xw8600, but seems to be a similar pinout to my xw6200. The 2nd post down lists some info that seems to be what I need.


Pin 1 = Hard drive clear plastic lens bottom LED (which shows HD activity)… white wire, positive, LED anode wire.
Pin 2 = Frosted lens "dual color" top LED (solid or blinking green LED, or orange motherboard error code signals) (one wire of front panel dual-color LED)… red wire. This is the set that I believe runs opposite polaritiy from the motherboard to either generate the usual green light, or the error orange code light signals. LED lights generally work with only one polarity in DC, but this one seems to have two different color LEDs built into one unit fed by two wires total.
Pin 3 = Hard drive clear plastic lens bottom LED (negative end, the LED's cathode wire)… green wire
Pin 4 = Frosted lens top LED Red (solid orange color LED) (other wire of front panel dual-color LED)… black wire
Pin 5 = No wire attached in xw6400. Ground.
Pin 6 = Front panel switch for power on/off… thick white wire attached.. Positive.
Pin 7 = No wire attached in xw6400
Pin 8 = Front panel switch for power on/off… thick white wire attached. Ground.
Pin 9 = No wire attached in my xw6400. May be +5V
Pin 10 = Key (no pin on motherboard header; plastic filling the #10 hole in the receptacle)
Pin 11 = No wire attached in xw6400. Has gray wire of ambient air temperature thermisitor attached in xw6600 cable
Pin 12 = No wire attached in xw6400. Has brown wire of ambient air temperature thermisitor attached in xw6600 cable
Pin 13 = Orange wire, but not used in my xw6400. For hood sensor connector. Ground.
Pin 14 = Orange wire, but not used in my xw6400. For hood sensor connector.
Pin 15 = Key (no pin on the motherboard; plastic filling the #15 hole in the receptacle)
Pin 16 = Blue wire, but not used in my xw6400. For hood sensor connector.
Pin 17 = Internal speaker +… yellow wire
Pin 18 = Internal speaker - … yellow wire


I connected the wires to these pins and the power switch, reset button and HD lights all seem to work.


hdd led (orange/white) to pins 1 and 3
+ - led's (green/white) to pins 2 and 4
power sw (blue/white) to pins 6 and 8
reset sw (grey wires) to pins 5 and 7


IMG_20150126_074448139_HDR.jpg
 
Another update here.

I've gotten the PC to boot, but I kept getting these errors below.


IMG_20150126_194420315.jpg



I rememberd having similar issues when putting an older HP motherboard into a generic case for my home server. So I knew I had some info regarding how to resolve the Front USB & Front Audio errors, it just took some searching. I finally found it and used the info in this link to get those errors cleared.


There's a bunch of replies in the link, but it's basically:

"HP uses a “sensor” pin to detect that front audio and usb are plugged in. In both cases its the pin that is by itself in the row of pins. It’s the pin that has a blank beside it. All you have to do is take that solo pin and short it out with a ground."


So I found a cable with 2 wires in it and connected it to the USB & Audio connections and then grounded the other end to the case. That eliminated the Front USB & Front Audio errors.


fix1.jpg



Also, I had the front case fan connected to the "front case fan" connection on the motherboard. But the HP case that this motherboard originally went to had 2 rear case fans. So I moved the front case fan's connection back and connected it to the 2nd rear case fan connection. And now there arent any more errors!!! Just boots right into Windows!!!

My next step now that I know everything is working good, is some cable management and then to make sure that everything has been copied / backed up from my current desktop PC so I can transfer my Windows COA over. I'll then shut down the old PC and transition over to this new one!!!
 
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