Looks like hp z-240’s are coming off lease (i7-6700).. are they good?

I

ICUatnight

n3wb
Sep 1, 2019
12
6
Flint Michigan
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It's pricey for my blood and has no OS or storage to boot.
300 computer shipped
100 for Windows 10
80-100 for SSD/M.2

How long do you want to keep your recordings for?
160+ for 10TB
90+ for 6TB
70+ for 4 TB
The above prices are really good deals if you can find them but you would be hardpressed to get it on impulse.

Cameras?
POE switch?
Cabling?
Blue Iris License

It's a really good starting point but you have to figure out your budget you want to initially spend and how many cameras and types you want to start off with and add later on down the line.
Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

Check the wiki. It has tons of info.
 
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wasn't asking if the price was good - I'm pretty sure it's one of the least expensive available today.

I'm not aware of any "off lease" systems coming with 4-10tb hard drives - even if they were, I'd want new - so including a hard drive that's just going to go into the trash adds no benefit for me.

bootable nvme drives are so cheap new that there's no reason to buy used.

$100 for a windows license? lol.. nope.

I did read the wiki.

I asked about specs for this system, from people who've owned or used them.
 
If no one has tried these before you might have to be a guinea pig to see for 100%, but usually what I do is google image search and sometimes a useful image will pull up that gives you an idea what the internal configuration might look like.

It’s not perfect, YMMV, because sometimes it’s a lightly newer or older model, but according to the manual and looking at this picture HP Z240 SFF Workstation Intel Core i7-6700 - Google Search it appears to show a 3.5 hard drive installed plus another 3.5 internal/external directly below the DVD drive. My guess is the SSD installs above the 3.5 that is pictured. The manual lists the drive bays as tool-less but that eBay seller doesn’t seem to send extra parts with their systems, so a bit of a dice roll whether you would get or have to buy separately those tool-less clips.

And I would try slapping a boot SSD in it and see if Windows picks up your computer ID and installs, I know @fenderman and others swear this method works most the time on these old off-lease systems.
 
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Just got one in - pretty impressive at first glance, looking like it’ll support an nvme drive & a pair of 3.5” hard drives as well as having a 2.5” slot & a cd-drive slot that could be adapted for even one more 2.5” drive..

the seller did include the tool-free hard drive sleeve for the primary 3.5” drive & HP left what appears to be the correct screws for a second hard drive screwed right into the chassis. I ordered the version with 32 gigs of ram & was quite surprised that it shipped with 2 - 16 gig sticks of genuine hp ram - so there’s two open slots if 32 gigs somehow wasn’t enough ram..
 
If you pay more than $30 for an SSD for Blue Iris, then you are overpaying in my opinion. 120/128 GB SSDs are $20.

Windows 10 may have already been on the system before. Skylake CPUs were released at the end of Sept 2015, and Win10 was released only 2 months earlier at the end of July. So I guess they could have been sold with Win7/8 still. I'm not sure what was popular in business PCs at the time. I'm also not sure if the factory-installed versions had digital licenses tied to the motherboard, or if that only happened for folks who took the free upgrade.
 
bp2008 said:
If you pay more than $30 for an SSD for Blue Iris, then you are overpaying in my opinion. 120/128 GB SSDs are $20.

Windows 10 may have already been on the system before. Skylake CPUs were released at the end of Sept 2015, and Win10 was released only 2 months earlier at the end of July. So I guess they could have been sold with Win7/8 still. I'm not sure what was popular in business PCs at the time. I'm also not sure if the factory-installed versions had digital licenses tied to the motherboard, or if that only happened for folks who took the free upgrade.
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With respect to the elitedesks, they came with windows 7 installed but were licensed for a free 10 pro upgrade (before MS was giving it away for free), good chance these were the same..cant hurt to try.
 
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Yeah, trying for the free win 10 is next-

I got my nvme drive physically mounted (hp left a proprietary screw/bushing thingy in the case just for that) I also verified the rows of screws left in the case were for adding additional drives - both 2.5” and 3.5” - so it’s ready to run whatever assortment of drives you prefer - without having to track down those proprietary hard drive/ ssd drive or nvme screws.. the nvme screw is torx T8 & the 3.5” drive screws for the second 3.5” drive are T15. No duct- tape required.

I saw an earlier thread where someone was trying to track down hard drive screws for an elite desk and I’m wondering now if he has a row of unused ones hidden in plain sight somewhere?

The case on this really looks like the spitting image of the pro desk/ elite desk g2.. with the drive mounting configuration of the g3? I’d almost be willing to bet the drive bracket/holder/carrier thingy could be swapped between the generations on those?

I’ll post some pictures later so anyone who runs across the thread knows where to look for the screws & such.
 
ICUatnight said:
No love on the windows 10 activation, I had to go to eBay & buy a genuine license for $1.24.
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I got a 7040 OptiPlex from eBay, a week ago. Description said Windows 10 Pro, but it shipped with Windows 10 Home. I CBF sending an email to seller. My genuine Windows 10 Pro key cost a hell of a lot more. It was $1.99!
 
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I bought a i7-6700 in 2015/16 - I still use it and it works great. It had window 10 downgraded to win 7 - check side of sticker of the case? It should be able to load win 10 with ms media tool. I was able to get windows 10 pro installed on a laptop I had from 2010 with WIndows 7 just last week. Am I missing something to why you are not able to?
 
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TL1096r said:
I bought a i7-6700 in 2015/16 - I still use it and it works great. It had window 10 downgraded to win 7 - check side of sticker of the case? It should be able to load win 10 with ms media tool. I was able to get windows 10 pro installed on a laptop I had from 2010 with WIndows 7 just last week. Am I missing something to why you are not able to?
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There was no COA sticker on the side of the case & windows wouldn’t “self activate”.. there was some Mylar sticker residue on the side of the case where it looks like a COA might have been peeled off. That said, there were no signs of use at all on either the interior or the exterior of the unit.. no scuffs or sticker goo on the face of the computer, no munge or dust-bunnies anywhere inside - even on the wiring, the cpu cooler or the power supply. If this one was even deployed, it wasn’t used much. The bios update was sometime in 2017 - based on that and the “remaining warranty” , I suspect this was one of the last ones sold - if they had updated the bios as part of the “refurbishment” process, they would have gotten a 4/2019 bios revision.

I really don’t see anyone spending the time necessary to clean or “refurbish” a computer to that level if it’s going on eBay for $249 before fees.. a quick blow-out with an air gun would have left some dust and munge somewhere. Looks like they just pulled the video card & hard drive & peeled that COA sticker before selling them off in big piles.
 
ICUatnight said:
T


There was no COA sticker on the side of the case & windows wouldn’t “self activate”.. there was some Mylar sticker residue on the side of the case where it looks like a COA might have been peeled off. That said, there were no signs of use at all on either the interior or the exterior of the unit.. no scuffs or sticker goo on the face of the computer, no munge or dust-bunnies anywhere inside - even on the wiring, the cpu cooler or the power supply. If this one was even deployed, it wasn’t used much. The bios update was sometime in 2017 - based on that and the “remaining warranty” , I suspect this was one of the last ones sold - if they had updated the bios as part of the “refurbishment” process, they would have gotten a 4/2019 bios revision.

I really don’t see anyone spending the time necessary to clean or “refurbish” a computer to that level if it’s going on eBay for $249 before fees.. a quick blow-out with an air gun would have left some dust and munge somewhere. Looks like they just pulled the video card & hard drive & peeled that COA sticker before selling them off in big piles.
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if it came with 10 only, then there would be no coa sticker, you would just skip the entry of the key at setup then it would activate automatically once you connect to the net. You can call hp business support (which is us based and great) and they may give you info on what was installed, maybe even give you the 7 key which you can use to upgrade to 10.
 
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