HP z555 Upgrade Project - Page 3

I used the Rosewill SATA controller from NewEgg. It's only SATA-150, but doesn't matter. It's playing Stargate (Blu-ray) right now with perfect display and sound (DTS-HD downmixed to DTS-ES). Looks and sounds awesome.

$11 plus $5 shipping. Good deal to me.

BW

@ jongig,

+1. Do one step at a time. That way, when you have problems, you know what change did it, and can save yourself considerable time troubleshooting it. You shouldn't have any trouble with the card (hopefully), but let me give you one piece of advice:

Before you install the new card, COMPLETELY uninstall the drivers for the old video card. I did not do this, and it is causing me issues with standard DVD playback (I think). I'm going to try and clean it out, but I'm not sure what did it. My Xbox360 suffices for now for standard DVD playback, so I have no capability problem, but I do want it to work.

Good luck, and please post your results.

BW

Some do. The z55x series don't, the z56x series does, as near as I can tell from my research.

The z55x's use the Intel 915P chipset, which supports at most the Pentium 4 650 (3.4GHz 2MB L2 cache). The z56x's use the Intel 945P chipset, which supports up to the Core 2 Extreme on some motherboards. I haven't found anyone yet with a z56x who has put in a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Extreme yet, but I see no reason it wouldn't work.

Anyone who turns this particular trick, please post here and let us know! I might upgrade to a z560 for that one.

BW

@ jongig,

The different z5xx's are differentiated by, among other things (RAM, HD capacity), the CPU in them:

z555: P4 530 3.0 GHz
z556: P4 630 3.0 GHz
z557: P4 530 3.0 GHz
z558: P4 640 3.2 GHz
z560: PD 925 3.0 GHz

...and so on. Sorry, I should have been more clear. You're right, the Pentium D is a dual-core CPU. LOL, what the Worm meant to say was a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Extreme. I'll update the above post. Thanks for the correction!

If you have a z56x series, then the 945P chipset should support up to a Core 2 Duo, perhaps even an Extreme. Click here for a list of motherboards at NewEgg that have this chipset, and note the supported processors.

A z55x series PC would not be upgradeable to the Pentium D, since the 915P chipset doesn't support that CPU. I went from a P4 530 at 3.0GHz (1MB L2 cache) to a P4 650 at 3.4GHz (2MB L2 cache). The 650 is the highest that I could find that was supported by that chipset. Even the 660 and 670 weren't listed, and the only difference I could find there was the clock speeds (3.6 and 3.8 GHz, respectively). They were made on the same 90nm process as the 650, but weren't explicitly stated as compatible, where the 650 was.

BW

@ Jongig,

The reason you have no audio over HDMI is because you didn't use the connector cables that came with it. The easiest to use would be the one that has a single yellow RCA plug at one end and a jumper connector at the other. The RCA connection goes into your coaxial S/PDIF audio jack on the back of your PC, snakes back inside the case, and connects to the 8500GT at the proper connection point (there are two, I think it's the one closest to the heatsink).

What this does is it takes the S/PDIF audio bitstream, funnels it onto the video card, and combines it with the video stream to create the HDMI A/V stream. You have to make this connection or there will be no audio.

Alternatively, the other connection cable can be used if your sound card (or motherboard with onboard sound) has an internal connection. That way, no cable looping from the outside to the inside. My z555 has a connector on the motherboard labeled "SPDIF1" which I think is for this purpose. I haven't bought my HDMI receiver yet, so I haven't been able to test HDMI A/V functionality. I am using a HDMI-DVI cable to go from the HDMI port on the card to the DVI connection on my HDTV, and using the optical jack for audio.

Again, that RCA-jumper cable (or the internal one) must be connected for audio data to be sent over the HDMI cable.

BW

LOL! The best laid plans of mice and men... Oh well, enjoy your coffee!

On my motherboard (z555) the internal connector that I think is an internal SPDIF is directly behind the external connectors. Kind of hard to see since it's very close to the power supply. You having a different model motherboard than me, it may not be there at all, or in a different place. Can't really help you on this one, I don't have a z56x in front of me to examine.

For the front panel, there are plastic tabs holding it to the main chassis on top, sides, and bottom. Be very careful when removing it, the ribbon cable that goes to the front display doesn't look like it would take too much stretching. What I did was pop the tabs, then flip the panel over and lay it on top of the chassis. Removing the drive was easy, pop-slide tabs. The rails will need to be removed from the stock drive and reattached to the LG drive.

Once reinserted, there should be plenty of clearance between the drive and the 8500GT's heatsink. Plus, the SATA cables attach to the other side of the drive, so no problem with cable clearance either.

BW

@ a.dave,

LOL! These motherboards were custom made by Asus for HP, specifically for these machines! That's why you're having trouble finding info on it.

To answer your question, you are correct. The RCA jumper cable that came with the 8500GT is so that you can pipe your S/PDIF coaxial into the HDMI so both audio and video can travel over the HDMI cable. It has nothing to do with the optical S/PDIF. Right now, my RCA jumper is coming out of the coaxial S/PDIF on the back of the machine, back into the case through the hole where the VGA connector used to be, and plugs into the 8500GT in the jumper socket. However, since I don't have an HDMI receiver (yet), this does nothing; I only did it so I wouldn't have to worry about it later. My audio is coming out the optical Toslink port and into the receiver. So apparently there isn't even a problem with using both the optical and coaxial S/PDIF ports at the same time!

As far as the OS goes, I'm kind of curious myself how VMC would behave on my PC. The Vista Upgrade Advisor says I'm Vista ready, but I don't know how much it would drag the system. XP MCE does just fine for my purposes, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade. Whichever way you go, let us know, it might change some people's minds!

I'm going to have to do a reinstall myself. Something I did broke playback of standard DVD's. I keep getting an error message that they can't play in (quote unquote) "this" resolution. Fine and dandy, but it says that in every resolution from 640x480 up to 1920x1080! It's either PowerDVD Ultra, The FireSTB software, or something screwy with the 8500GT's drivers. Anyone else have this problem that have done the video card and LG drive upgrades?

BW

PS. To reply to your comment about teamwork, I get so tired of seeing posts where someone asks an honest question, and gets flamed with "Use teh search, n00b!" He may not even know how, and I think that people sometimes forget that they were "n00bs" at one point themselves. My goal here is to make no judgements about the validity of any question asked, but to relate my experiences and try to help whoever needs it as best I can.

My little way of bringing peace and harmony to the world. Heck, I even went format neutral so I wouldn't have to take sides in the "War of the Formats!"

@ Jongig,

Awesome news! Great to hear that you met with success. Now enjoy those movies on your new rig!

You are right about the buttons not working, this is an endemic problem to replacing the drive on a z56x machine. The interface for the front panel buttons is different between the z55x and z56x machines, so ours (z55x's) will work where the z56x's won't. Just a function of the design, unfortunately.

For the CPU, good question. I honestly don't know which would be the better choice. My workstation/gaming rig has a socket 478 P4 on an AGP motherboard. It's over 3 years old, and not yet really ready for an upgrade yet. Point being, I have no hands-on experience with true dual-core chips, and would not be in the position of providing good advice. There are several people on here who good tell you better, though.

I figure I've given my z555 at least another 2-3 years of relevant life, unless it experiences hardware failure first. At that point, the drive, controller, and video card will all be transferable to whatever device I build at that point. I think you've done at least that much, if not more, given your superior chipset and CPU capability.

Again, congratulations on some damn fine work on saving another "Z-machine" from an inglorious end!

BW

@ a.dave,

Well, the easiest way is probably going to be removing the top cover, removing the front panel, and popping the emergency ejct hole.

If it must be done without disassembly, I would see about getting a small Linux installation with the proper drivers, putting it on a thumbdrive, and trying to boot from that. If this motherboard supports that (doubtful).

I would go the first route, personally. Good luck!

BW

@ a.dave,

Not necessarily. I ordered the Recovery DVD, but that was because I wanted one. It is possible to do what you're intending without need of a floppy. The solution is a bit technical, but you seem like you do this stuff well. I did this for my workstation PC (which has a SATA boot drive) and it worked flawlessly.

What you want to do is called slipstreaming. Basically what you're doing is taking a standard Windows XP install CD, adding the drivers that you want (like for a SATA controller), and reburning the CD. Now you have an installation CD that has the drivers you need built in, and will load them at the proper time in the installation sequence.

If you want, you can even "slipstream in" things like SP2, IE7, WMP10, and other apps. The install CD I built for my office PC has the drivers for all components (MOBO, graphics card, on board sound, LAN, etc.), SP2, various hotfixes, and other things slipstreamed in so when I have to do a reload, it loads it all at install time. Less stuff I have to download after install is complete.

The guide I used is Paul Thurrott's guide. It was a lifesaver and explained the process very well. That will tell you how to slipstream in the SP. To get the drivers integrated, you'll need to use a tool like nLite. If you have a second PC to do all this on, give it a try. The most it could cost you is a blank CD or two.

Let me know if you have any questions on that one. Like I said, I did it for my other PC, and could have done it for the z555, but I wanted the Recovery DVD anyway. Good luck!

BW

SATA RAID/ACHI

LAN

Chipset

Found in this link.

I agree with the original poster. Intel 945 chipset, should work. Won't cost anything to try, anyway. I also found the drivers for the 915 chipset on Intel's site, so I may try it myself, that way I can get MCE without all of HP's bloatware.

Know where I can find a copy of the MCE installation disk? If that's legal to ask, that is. I have a license for it (obviously) but not the media, just HP's Recovery DVD. The only installation CD I have for XP is for Professional for my workstation.

BW