Some information about HP T620 Plus Flexible Thin Client machines for network appliance builds...

[SwanRonson]

Lack of AES-NI? Both thin clients mentioned in this thread (t620 plus/t730) will support AES-NI instructions natively.

thanks, I was comparing it to the EdgeRouter X and got confused.

ER-X, even without AES-NI, would be plenty fast enough for my use case. Unfortunately, a common problem with them is hardware failure from overheating. With the way I have my gear setup, heat is a pretty big factor.


Is there a list of BIOS/EUFI options for these thin clients? If I could tweak the voltage down a little bit it would probably be perfect for me.

 

[BLinux]

Is there a list of BIOS/EUFI options for these thin clients? If I could tweak the voltage down a little bit it would probably be perfect for me.

Completely unnecessary. This thing hardly gets warm. I've had it running for over a month as a firewall, and it remains cool to the touch. If it fails, it won't be due to a heat problem.

 

[Geran]

How well does OpenVPN perform on these?

 

[Dhiru]

What's the average weight of each machine?

 

[WANg]

What's the average weight of each machine?

What, did they omit the information from the HP Quickspecs?

 

[billc.cn]

Did anyone notice any memory bandwidth problem with the 2018 firmware? On UserBenchmark.com, I can see several results with more than 6GB/s multi-core, but I only managed to achieve 3.4GB. I have upgraded the machine to the latest firmware and installed two sticks (which limits it to 1333MHz), but I am not expecting the memory bandwidth to half.

I think one suspect is the newer CPU microcode in the BIOS which probably included some Spectre/Meltdown fix; however, similar microcode update is included in Windows 10 anyway.

Also, all benchmarks indicate some noticeable performance drop on the SSDs (compared to the same disks' performance in other computers). I am not sure if this is due to CPU power or inferior disk controller design.

 

[nthu9280]

How well does OpenVPN perform on these?

This thread or may be the other one Blinux linked at he beginning has the the info.

 

[WANg]

Did anyone notice any memory bandwidth problem with the 2018 firmware? On UserBenchmark.com, I can see several results with more than 6GB/s multi-core, but I only managed to achieve 3.4GB. I have upgraded the machine to the latest firmware and installed two sticks (which limits it to 1333MHz), but I am not expecting the memory bandwidth to half.

I think one suspect is the newer CPU microcode in the BIOS which probably included some Spectre/Meltdown fix; however, similar microcode update is included in Windows 10 anyway.

Also, all benchmarks indicate some noticeable performance drop on the SSDs (compared to the same disks' performance in other computers). I am not sure if this is due to CPU power or inferior disk controller design.

HP has new firmware out? I thought the latest BIOS update is version L40 from September 2016. No, didn't notice any massive performance degradation on the t620 Plus models after the update.

 

[nthu9280]

HP has new firmware out? I thought the latest BIOS update is version L40 from September 2016. No, didn't notice any massive performance degradation on the t620 Plus models after the update.

I think there is another one after this thread started and @fohdeesha crated the iso / usb image.

Stupid HP site you have to check under windows 8.1 for the latest bios. Other OS you will find older ones. You'd think they will all be in sync.

 

[WANg]

I think there is another one after this thread started and @fohdeesha crated the iso / usb image.

Stupid HP site you have to check under windows 8.1 for the latest bios. Other OS you will find older ones. You'd think they will all be in sync.

Jesus. Wow, I stand corrected - looks like the latest verison is v2.18 Rev A, which came out in July 2018. Not sure if this new patch is critical or not as the t730s did not show any BIOS revisions for the past 2 years OS choices notwithstanding, and I would find it rather unlikely for the RX427BB to not have Spectre-based issues. If it's not really fixing a fault, it might be a good idea to roll back to a previous release.

 

[nthu9280]

Not certain on what this means but here is the summary from revision history - If you have 2.15 or above, rollback could be a challenge...

****
Version: 00.02.15 Rev.A
Fixed in this release: - Fixes issue where AMI and HP copyright is incorrect in system BIOS.
- Fixes issue where BIOS can be rolled back to previous version via all flash tool.
- Fixes issue where some information is incorrect in release note.
- Fixes issue where Information in autoexec.bat is incorrect. - Adds gray out "Power On Passowrd" in the Browse Mode based on 1.13b spec.
- Changes Date Format in release notes and autoexec.bat.
****

 

[nerdalertdk]

Have anybody tested it with 32gb ram?

 

[WANg]

Have anybody tested it with 32gb ram?

...Do you happen to have 16GB DDR3L 204 Pin notebook SODIMMs lying around?
AFAIK they are expensive (I was quoted $160+/stick) which was way beyond the value of the t620 Plus, and I am not even sure if they are dual ranks or quad ranks. I have no idea what the AMD 16h family memory controller (the APU in the t620 Plus is Jaguar based, so it's family 16h) looks like, but my guess is that it's one channel, quad rank max, so you'll need a pair of dualrank 16GB RAM modules. The only other place where you can use RAM like that would be Broadwell/early Skylake NUCs/notebooks and nothing much else.

I ordered a pair from Nemix but they'll be going into my t730 / Broadwell i7 NUC first, but we'll have to see.

 

[WANg]

Oh yeah, for those of you who are thinking about buying a t620 Plus for gaming, Phil from Phil's Computer Lab just did a review of the machine on Youtube with gaming and HTPC applications in mind. I would not say that the t620 Plus "contains PS4 DNA" (same family of APUs but with half the core count, a much weaker GPU and much less logic dedicated to implementing HSA Zero-copy), but I do agree that having an nVidia GT1030 to give it decent gaming/HTPC longevity in Win10 is a good idea.

 

[fossxplorer]

Yep, same here, got ~ 3GB/s mem b/w.
Also, it can't use 1.35v, only 1.50v for memory, tried 3 different ddr3l sodimms.

Strange...

Did anyone notice any memory bandwidth problem with the 2018 firmware? On UserBenchmark.com, I can see several results with more than 6GB/s multi-core, but I only managed to achieve 3.4GB. I have upgraded the machine to the latest firmware and installed two sticks (which limits it to 1333MHz), but I am not expecting the memory bandwidth to half.

I think one suspect is the newer CPU microcode in the BIOS which probably included some Spectre/Meltdown fix; however, similar microcode update is included in Windows 10 anyway.

Also, all benchmarks indicate some noticeable performance drop on the SSDs (compared to the same disks' performance in other computers). I am not sure if this is due to CPU power or inferior disk controller design.

 

[WANg]

Have anybody tested it with 32gb ram?

Well, I don't have access to a t620 Plus at the moment, but I just confirmed that 16GB SODIMMs will work on the t730. There is a possibility the t620s can take 32GB of RAM (of course, whether that's a good idea is another matter altogether).

 

[SwanRonson]

Oh yeah, for those of you who are thinking about buying a t620 Plus for gaming, Phil from Phil's Computer Lab just did a review of the machine on Youtube with gaming and HTPC applications in mind. I would not say that the t620 Plus "contains PS4 DNA" (same family of APUs but with half the core count, a much weaker GPU and much less logic dedicated to implementing HSA Zero-copy), but I do agree that having an nVidia GTX1030 to give it decent gaming/HTPC longevity in Win10 is a good idea.

seems like he should've gone with the T730 instead

 

[WANg]

seems like he should've gone with the T730 instead

I actually asked him about that - he didn't want to spend that much money on an HTPC. I suggested the DFI DT122BE (industrial PC equivalent to the t730), but I think he was more concerned about the extra noise at that point - those t730s aren't that cheap compared to the t620 Plus and their 100 USD outlay.

 

[WANg]

Hey, if anyone has a t620 Plus and is located in the NYC Metro area and don't mind lending it out, can you give me a holler? I am trying to see if the 620 Pluses are compatible with 16GB DIMMs. Need the verification done for an unrelated project (trying to figure out whether the control plane for a router using a similar SoC can take 16GB DIMMs)

 

[fossxplorer]

Unless you find out by then, i will be able to confirm it in 2 weeks. Have 2x16GB SODIMM incoming.