Which pci card for HP Z640 to carry 4TiB nvme memory

English Hardware
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I am looking for a suitable HP card to carry 4TiB nvme memory. I need this because at present I have a single pci card which has 2 TiB memory and is supporting my OS. I need the additional memory to hold my entire photo database so that it can work with DigiKam. The database set runs to approx 90,000 pictures, hence the need for more storage.

I am posting for advice here because I am confused by the many options offered on line. Do I need a “Quad Pro” Z Pro Turbo drive such as “HP 742006-003 Z Turbo Drive G2 M.2 NVME To PCIE x4 Adaptor Card, No SSD” or do I need 841969-001 HP Z TURBO DRIVE QUAD PRO ADAPTER CARD for HP Z840 Z640 Z440 System?

Whatever I assume I shall need 2no. 2TB nvme cards but which ones and will they all fit.

Sorry to have to ask but I cannot get straight answers anywhere. I have slots 3,4 & 5 available on my system.
All help and advice gratefully received.
Budgie2

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@Budgie2 Nope, just a normal M.2 NVME to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter, nothing special required.

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Hi Malcolm,
Many thanks for the reply. I have asked because if you recall I tried one adapter and although it could hold two memory cards they did not work together. I need one that will work with two x 2TB cards to work as 1 x 4TB.
I see that HP adapters are available at reasonable cost but am spoilt for choice. I only need a normal M.2 NVME to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter but is there an HP version as the Startech ones I have used earlier are not listed locally.

BTW on returning from my trip to NZ I am having to rebuild my TW machine so wanting to get all the parts assembled first.

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@Budgie2 Hi, well I usually get the ones for an M.2 NVMe and a M.2 SSD then can use either/or both. Any spare PCIe x4, x8 x16 slot will work.

So on the one that held two, did you set the channel slot bifurcation to x4x4 in the system BIOS?

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No I sent it back. I had been looking for the one which took two memory cards but mounted as one.
Surely there is an HP device that does this. There are so many on ebay now but I have no idea which of the many would suit.

As an aside I am losing my grip here trying to sort out my machine. In spite of all my earlier precautions of trying to limit the number of snapshots retained and increasing the size of the root partition to 100 GB the @/.snapshots folder filled with 95GB data and my system crashed big time. I have had to rebuild having backed up the 1.6TB of my /home/alastair directory and the process is taking an age.
So frustrated by the kwallet system which I had tried to kill but returns seemingly without my asking and generally frustrated by KDE I thought I would try the Gnome install so now at bottom of learning curve and cannot find anything yet. What fun! I think you use Gnome. Is that correct?

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@Budgie2 So if you want to run two devices, you need to get a card that uses bifurcation and in the BIOS set the slot to x4x4 (in a x8) or x4x4x4x4 (in a x16).

So it needs to be in an x8 or x16 slot in the Z640, is that what you have free?

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@Budgie2 Yes, I do run Gnome (TW, Aeon and Leap), but also use Hyprland on MicroOS

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I have a single NVMe 2TB memory in my original startech device which is in Slot 3 PCIe2x4.
I am reluctant to mess around with this until I am assured that if installed in another card it will still run as I really don’t want to do yet another fresh install. The backed up data is still being transferred as I type.
The next two slots which are both available are
Slot4 PCIe 3 x8
Slot5 PCIe3 x16
Assuming I purchase another 2 2TB memory “chips” hope either to have the two new ones running as a single drive of 4TB or if at all possible put all three “chips” in a quad card but then I would need guidance on how to install and set up.

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@Budgie2 Yes a quad card that supports bifurcation (x4x4x4x4), then in the BIOS -. Advanced → Slot Settings select Slot 5 → Bifurcation, then in the dropdown select x4x4x4x4 and save…

IMG_2916
IMG_2916768×1024 319 KB
IMG_2917
IMG_2917768×1024 288 KB

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Hi Malcolm,
Sorry to be making such a meal of this but if I get a quad card and configure the BIOS as x4x4x4x4 and put all three NVMe chips in the card, how will these be seen by the operation system? Will it or could it give me one 6TiB drive?
My existing card is formatted with btrfs and hold the main OS. Would this be picked up if put into a quad card or would I have to re-build the OS?

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@Budgie2 four (4) individual devices to do what ever with or maybe it does RAID or a mixture, that’s up to the adapter you get.

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As long as it is referenced only by the filesystem UUID (or, probably, by the partition GUID if it is GPT) - yes, it should. As long as your BIOS is capable of booting off this quad card in the first place.

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Well I am now the proud owner of an HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro SP#841969-001. Is this any good for what I want?
Can I install it and configure the BIOS without and NVMe memory being installed and then try putting in my existing NVMe 2TB card? Just going slowly as I really do not want to have to build my system again!!!

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@Budgie2 Did it come with installation and configuration instructions? Not sure what the BIOS needs to be but I suspect some jumpers will need to b e set (or switches) for the NVMe configuration.

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Hi Malcolm,
From the manuals I have found there are a couple of configuration question I need to understand.

The HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro has switches that can be set to four unique addresses. Each HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro must have a unique address. For possible switch configurations and corresponding labels, see the following diagram…

NOTE: HP recommends setting the addresses of any HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pros, and then setting the addresses of any HP Z Turbo Drive solutions. If using a combination of solutions, HP recommends using Address C or Address D for the HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro and Address 0, Address 1, Address 2, or Address 3 for the HP Z Turbo Drive solution.

There is a diagram which I cannot easily show here but I conclude that I would probably be better off using C or D.

There is another warning:-
CAUTION: If you are installing an operating system image on the drive, remove all other storage devices. Verify that you installed this drive in the primary PCIe slot indicated for your workstation, and then install the operating system image before installing a second drive of the same type or reinstalling the other storage devices. The preferred slots are noted in the installation instructions for each computer. If you are using the drive as a data drive, you do not need to remove the other storage devices.

My question here relates to the requirement to remove all other storage devices. Should I removing the SSD?

Now I cannot access all of the PCi slots because the second processor board occupies the first one. The next slot, (2) is taken up by the display adaptor and slot (3) is occupied by my original NVMe adaptor which I shall remove.

I believe the system boots from NVMe but am not sure because the original Windows system is installed on an SSD drive which is used if I select it from my SDDM screen.

What I am planning is to put my existing NVMe “chip” from the old PCi card plus another one or two in the Quad device, set the BIOS with Bifurcation and 4x4x4x4, Install the Quad card in slot 5 and hope this will at least allow the machine to boot. Since I am using btrfs on the NVMe I am assuming I can grow the capacity to use the additional memory once running.

Does this look like a plan?

I shall check arvidjaar’s point but my existing NVMe chip does have a GPT partition and am sure it uses UUID.

All advice and comments gratefully received.
Budgie2

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@Budgie2 I would reboot the system and enter the BIOS (F10), set the x16 slot to x4x4x4x4 save (F10) and reboot, then power off. Set up the card switches as per the manual, add the current NVMe as device 1, pop it in the x16 slot and boot… I’ve swapped slots with adapters before and booted fine.

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Many thanks. Will give it a try with the existing NVMe chip.
Do you think with only one Quad Pro device the switches matter. I shall try C as the instructions suggest but I think this only applies if other devices are also added.

If all goes well and when I have the additional chips, how should I add them and what options are available for “partitioning” the additional capacity?

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I am very pleased to report that with the help of your instructions I am now working on the same machine but with the HP Z Turbo Drive Pro installed with my original NVMe chip in slot 0, so your instructions have been spot on. I did set the HP Z switches to be for “C” but with only the one PCi card I do not think it matters.

I would appreciate your advice on formatting etc. but the additional NVMe chips will not be here for a while.
Regards,
Alastair.

I have ordered the additional NVMe chips which I shall install in slot 1 & 2, leaving 3 if I need more memory.

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@Budgie2 Plug them in and should see them fine, file system to use, your call there…

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I have read up a bit more and conclude that since my primary system is running btrfs I don’t need to format anything as btrfs will see and use the additional storage and all I have to do is re-balance the system. Will let you know how I get on.
Cheers.