HP Z420 Workstations

Chassis and form factor

The Z420 is a convertible minitower in HP's Jack Black finish: the 5.25-inch drive cage rotates so the same chassis stands upright as a tower or lies flat as a desktop. Inside are three internal 3.5-inch bays with acoustic dampening rails fitted, and three external 5.25-inch bays for optical drives, a media card reader or a fourth hard drive. An optional handle kit in the top optical bay carries two small-form-factor drives and doubles as a lifting grip.

The side panel, expansion card retainer, processor heatsink and memory are all tool-less. HP offered a liquid cooling option for the processor, which is mandatory with the 150 W Xeon E5-2687W. For rack installations HP listed a depth-adjustable fixed rail kit shared with the Z2 and Z4 chassis line, so the Z420 can live in a cabinet as well as under a desk.

Processors

One LGA2011 socket on the Intel C602 chipset, with QPI to 8.0 GT/s. The Z420 accepts the Intel Xeon E5-1600 family (four and six cores) and selected E5-2600 processors (eight cores). Although the E5-2600 family supports two processors, the Z420 board has a single socket and cannot be upgraded to dual-CPU operation. The table lists the processors in HP's QuickSpecs for the model.

The E5-1600 parts have the higher clocks and suit single-threaded CAD and modelling work; the E5-2665 trades clock speed for eight cores at a lower TDP. The E5-2687W needs the liquid cooler. HP revised the Z420 during its production life, so the processor fitted to a particular refurbished unit can differ from this list: tell us the workload and we confirm what a specific machine carries. Spare CPUs are in processors.

Memory

Eight DDR3 slots on four channels, two per channel. The Z420 supports only unbuffered ECC DIMMs (UDIMM); registered modules do not work in this board. Speeds of 1066, 1333 and 1600 MHz are supported, and the processor sets the clock: an E5-1603 or E5-1607 runs any DIMM at 1066 MHz. HP shipped 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB modules, giving a maximum of 64 GB with eight 8 GB DIMMs.

Fit at least one DIMM in each of the four channels for full bandwidth; HP's load order is slots 1, 5, 3, 7, 8, 4, 6, 2, and the diagram is printed inside the side panel. A 32-bit operating system sees at most 4 GB. Compatible DDR3 ECC UDIMMs are in server memory; quote the DIMM type when ordering, because the same capacity in registered form will not post.

Graphics

The Z420 has no integrated graphics, so a card is always required. Two full-length PCIe Gen3 x16 slots take the professional cards HP qualified, grouped by tier. Up to three 2D cards, two entry or mid-range 3D cards, or one high-end 3D card can be fitted; a third NVS card needs HP's Fan and Front Card Guide Kit for airflow.

Later cards fit the x16 slots physically, but the 600 W supply and driver support decide whether they run. Send us the card you intend to use and we check the power connectors and slot clearance before you buy. Professional cards are listed in graphics cards.

Storage

The board carries a ten-channel SATA controller: two ports at 6 Gb/s and eight at 3 Gb/s, with six of them configurable as eSATA through an optional cable kit. Integrated RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 is available for SATA drives under Windows only, requires identical drives, and arrays must stay under 2 TB. SAS drives need an add-in controller: HP qualified the LSI 9212 4-port card and the LSI MegaRAID 9260-8i with optional battery backup.

Three drives sit in the internal 3.5-inch bays; a fourth takes one of the 5.25-inch bays, or the two-drive handle carrier for small-form-factor units. Optical options were a DVD-ROM, DVD writer and Blu-ray writer, plus a 22-in-1 media card reader. Modern 2.5-inch SATA SSDs from solid-state drives are the usual refurbishment upgrade; only the two 6 Gb/s ports give them full speed, so put the boot SSD on one of those. Hard disks in both sizes are in hard drives.

Expansion slots and ports

The open-ended connectors let a wider card sit in a narrower slot at reduced bandwidth. The legacy PCI slot still matters for older capture and instrumentation cards.

• Front: 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0, 1 x IEEE 1394a, headphone, microphone
• Rear: 2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x IEEE 1394a, 2 x PS/2, RJ-45, line in, line out, microphone
• Internal: 6 x USB 2.0 on three headers, one serial header
• Network: integrated Intel 82579LM Gigabit Ethernet with AMT 7.0, DASH 1.1, Wake on LAN and PXE 2.1
• Audio: integrated Realtek ALC262; security: TPM 1.2, solenoid hood lock and hood sensor option

HP's option list added Intel and Broadcom single-port Gigabit cards, the HP NC360T dual-port Gigabit adapter, an 802.11b/g/n wireless card, a two-port IEEE 1394b card and a serial port bracket.

Power supply

A single 600 W custom supply rated at 90% efficiency and 80 PLUS compliant, with active power factor correction. It is wide-ranging, accepting 90 to 269 V AC at 47 to 66 Hz, so it runs on Qatar's 240 V mains without any selector, and it withstands surges to 2000 V. Rated input current is 8.0 A. A built-in self-test LED on the supply shows whether it is healthy before the system is opened. Sleep-state draw is under 10 W. There is no redundant supply option; this is a workstation, not a server.

Physical specification

Supported operating systems

HP's QuickSpecs list Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and Windows 7 Professional 32-bit and 64-bit as preinstall options, with Windows 7 Enterprise supported. On the Linux side HP offered SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11, an HP Installer Kit for Linux with drivers for 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6, and a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation paper licence. The document predates Windows 8 and Windows 10, so those are not in HP's list for the Z420; if you need a current operating system on this platform, ask us before ordering and we will say what we have run on it.

Buying a refurbished HP Z420 from ServerDove

ServerDove lists the Z420 as a barebone tower: chassis, board and power supply, ready for the processor, memory, graphics and drives you specify. Complete systems can be quoted from stock in Doha, and we source individual parts for a unit you already own. Every refurbished machine is tested before it is listed and is covered by the ServerDove warranty, with extended cover quoted on request.

Delivery across Qatar is typically one day from Doha stock, and installation and base configuration are available as a service. If the Z420 is too small, the dual-socket HP Z820 is the same generation with more of everything, and the HP Z440 is the direct successor with DDR4 and Xeon E5 v3 and v4 processors. The full range is in HP workstations. Send the configuration you need by WhatsApp on +974 5521 2108, email sales@serverdove.com or the contact page.