Improve your HP Elite Small Form Factor PC

[@philscomputerlab]

I get a lot of questions about the power supply. Check this video segment kzbin.info/www/bejne/jp-lfp6FhJhnhM0m33s That's an 8200 maxed out with an i7, 32GB Ram and 1050 Ti, and the worst power consumption I measured (at the wall) was 135W. Factor in that the PSU isn't 100% efficient, actual usage is even less. So hopefully this shows what's really going on :)

[@nemesisblack00]

Hey Phil, will this work with a HP 8300 too? I could get one with an i5 3570 , 16GB Ram for 90€ , i would buy a low profile gtx 1050ti after buying the pc :)

[@philscomputerlab]

It should!

[@spawnergr]

Can you play Netflix 4k UHD H265 with this?

[@adamsirois4672]

Just got a hp 8300 sff and want to add a large 4tb storage hdd. Will that work with this older pc?

[@Bonjour-World]

I looked up the actual specs for the HP 8300 SFF (DA-14268 Version 20 - 12/4/2012): The PCIe X1 slot is rated at 10 watts. The PCIe X4, PCIe X16 and PCI slots are rated at 35 watts. The other point of note is that the first two (light blue and blue) SATA connectors are rated at 6GB/s. The other two are rated at 3 GB/s.

[@jasongooden917]

One of the quickest ways to determine which direction a fan moves air is to remember "UGLY SIDE BLOWS" I've never seen a PC fan designed otherwise.

[@eduardoavila646]

Jason Gooden I've seen, but often even the cheap ones have arrows in them pointing where the fan spins and where the air comes out.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

There are even arrows on most if not all fans that show the air and rotation direction. But in most cases it's the side that holds the middel that is the "exhaust"

[@lars3213]

correct, but if you have seen an intel stock cooler you have seen a fan where it is the otherway around.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Those can't even be removed properly. Unless you're talking about way back in the slot 1/socket 370 days. Any Intel stock after that was basically a unit pieced together, where the plastic mount holding the fan in place was also what kept the cooler from moving away. Guess anyone working with a 3d printer and super glue could make the fan got elsewhere, but why not get a standard fan instead.

[@marioman971]

Apple fans (think PowerMacs and Xserve units as well as the iMac G4 I believe) had them reversed on exhaust fans so the frame would be hidden behind the blades

[@CatWithoutAHat901]

No, you should tighten the CPU cooler in a cross pattern, to even out the pressure thats applied to it. BUt otherwise nice video!

[@eduardoavila646]

Paul Reyher Exatly, and not tighten one screw fully, go a little bit in the cross pattern, until all of them are tighten. Also intel has a reccomendation of thermal paste applying (even tho it wont matter too much).

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Intel even has a recommendation for the internal air temperature of the case. But yes, the screws go over cross and step by step.

[@JacobTechShit]

even then b, you're supposed to tighten all the way before moving to the next one

[@maksim225]

that made me cringe so hard

[@JCD87]

Not really an issue, because the IHS (heatspreader) is large. With old gen cpu's where the core was bare you could wreck the core by faulty tightening the screws. If a bit of the corner broke off, the cpu was dead. My first lesson's with the AMD Duron CPU's back in the day... these were fragile!

[@eduardoavila646]

The only problem with hps, its their bios. Usually its extremelly limited, and even more than some laptops. So no overclock or downclock or any tweak that could help, like undervolt (or overvolt for oldand worn-out cpus). But there is a solution for many of these (at least the 775 ones), often hp uses other manufacturers boards as asus, foxconn, gigabyte, etc. So, with a good search in the web, you may be able to flash a non hp bios to be able to tweak it a bit and even overclock!

[@marioman971]

HP makes their own boards with these business-class desktops - basically, take everything you know about the HP consumer PCs and throw it right out the window when it comes to these. Though, the limited BIOS still remains.

[@pierreuntel1970]

These machines are not suitable for such purpose, they have limited cooling and space and everything so they just minimize the risk of hardware damage

[@marioman971]

SandPox You'd be surprised at the airflow and cooling capability of these things.

[@Mystosia]

Indeed these things are incredibly well engineered, love the little boxes worked on many myself, always a pain to take apart though ESPECIALLY the older ones.

[@eduardoavila646]

Jay Pattyson Well, i've had a 775 slim case pc like that, that used a gigabyte motherboard just rebranded and with a hp bios. Got a gigabyte bios and i could save my processor that was having issues with the standard voltage

[@thegreat682]

I recently bought one of these machines as a gift for my wife. I really appreciate your thorough breakdown! I will order replacement fans soon

[@TurboBass]

PHIL. NO. When you affix the heatsink you're supposed to do crisscross! Just like with a car tire. :)

[@matthewmckenzie7687]

Or a cylinder head.

[@benTi900]

Or anything important.

[@nausi5105]

@@benTi900 anything important that's supposed to be tightened evenly.

[@fc2078_]

Apply equal pressure

[@memeboi8472]

You can’t do that on that heat sink - I couldn’t at least

[@David_Crayford]

This has been the most useful video on KZbin for me and I keep coming back. A few days ago I removed the front fan, cleaned out a tonne of dust, manually blew hard through the power supply [non-smoker!] and finally got round to fitting an SSD. Maybe it's just UK autumn kicking in but the GPU is down to 20ºC now and everything is much faster.

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you 🙂

[@texemplarstudios5481]

I have one of these! I wanted to put my 5770 in, (as well as an ATX power supply, a Lepa N500) which was full height, so I decided to make my own case out of cardboard. Running strong and hasn’t burned down for two years now!

[@mg86_]

still running?

[@texemplarstudios5481]

@@mg86_ It's actually a dc5800 SFF PC my bad, but yes, it still is, quite well 😁

[@AlexandruT1987]

My brother got one off a sale for 8€. i5-2500, no drive, no ram, we hooked it up with ram and an old harddrive and it worked. We were blown away that such a small pc can do so much. This video was simply anything we wanted to know about this pc. Thanks man.

[@WH250398]

These pc's are very popular in schools. Often paired with AG Neovo screens.

[@cheesythegamer9771]

My old school has similar systems, I usually saw them with the original hp displays that came with them.

[@SmellsLikeEMinor]

Lol I used to install computers and servers in schools. I can confirm this

[@NiGhtPiSH]

The air compressor is the most important thing if you want to restore old machines. I've got a really clean AMD SKU - 6305 Pro SFF, but I'm planning to turn it into a NAS.

[@jessicabruno2820]

I love this series so much, if I ever build another gaming PC I would so get one of these!

[@devl547]

As for PCIe power, the specification says it should provide up to 75watts no matter what HP says. If the slot cannot provide needed power, it just cannot be certified as pcie.

[@jerpingherping]

I don’t even have a small form factor pc, but I still like watching these videos.

[@SamuelFlint]

At my work we have a dozen or so of these, the 8100, 8200, can be updated with the BIOS of the 8300. Once that's done, you can add an i7-3770, 32gb Corsair Vengeance LP, Geforce 1650 4gb, ddr6 cards. The other important upgrade is a pci-e x1 slot card that has a SATA-III/600Mbps controller and takes a M.2 SATA SSD such as the Samsung Evo 860, as the chipset ports are SATA-II with a bug that limits them to 150mbps, severely limiting SSD speeds. Bear in mind that the BIOS, even the latest current as of this post, DOES NOT support NVME, so it must be a SATA SSD. The things are absolutely epic upgraders. We are shortly about to try out a Quadro RTX A2000 6gb in one of them, which is roughly equivalent to the Geforce 3050.. cross fingers it works well.

[@campampates]

POST A VIDEO OMG....

[@wezelesworth]

Great video like usual Phil! I have a similar hp 8300 sff machine. You actually inspired me to buy a used sff machine and upgrade it for a gaming machine. it came with an i5 3470, 8gb of ram, and a 500 gb hard drive. i bought a gt 1030 for it and it's an amazing gaming machine for the money. Thanks for showing me options :) i have also considered upgrading the fans. I've already opened my power supply before and i'm going to probably going to replace the fan in there as well as the cpu fan. Thanks man, keep up the good work! Update: I replaced the fans with the arctic f9 pwm, as well as some fresh thermal paste. system is quieter now. I've also added a refurb 320 GB westen digital drive as an additional game drive.

[@dellstudio10]

I've got an HP 8300 elite in a mid tower and not the sff version shown here. I specifically went for a mid tower because of all the extra space there was to work with. It runs very cool and quiet. Mine came with a 320 watt power supply, an I7 3770, eight gigs of RAM, windows 10 and I threw in a 1050TI. It's a very nice and fast spare gaming rig. I'd definitely buy another one, but not the sff. It's just too cramped in that tiny case.

[@Slevin-Kelevra]

I love picking up units like these and ones from IBM and Dell & making them all nice as spice maxed. Very cost effective! Can even make a profit if you got time to wait for the right buying knowing the value of what they are.

[@greyskiesrainfallandpeace3006]

These are really tough machines. I complete took mine apart without any care of being gentle with it. Pulled the motherboard out and got a dedicated power supply, put the motherboard on a box, got my gtx 980ti and a small heatsink and put it on the board. I did it for the lols. Completely put it back together as normal and it was good as new. Despite what i threw at it. I was also surprised how well it performed with the 980ti

[@stonent]

The i5-2400 is one of the best value CPUs on the market right now. Usually sells between 30 and 40 USD, has 4 real cores (no HT) and gets a passmark score of about 6000 which is similar to a much newer Skylake i3. Don't confuse the 2400 with the 2400S though. The 2400S is about 15% slower.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

When I tested my old X5460 (basically a core 2 quad), it got around 6200 in passmark 8 and around 5700 in passmark 9. So depending on the test it is either slightly slower or slightly faster.

[@carlos2004]

For normal use maybe, but if anyone is going to be gaming on it, make sure to pick up the 2400. Night and day difference. My old pc was the core2quad and I'm now on the 2600

[@stonent]

The Xeon X processors also consume a lot of power and push out a lot of heat. I had a dual X5355 Dell workstation and it would use 300 to 500W of power under load (It has an older chipset that can run E54 or X54 processors). The room would also heat up to an uncomfortable temperature. I changed the 2 X5355 CPUs to E5345 CPUs and despite being a lower speed CPU the benchmarks were slightly better. In my "server" computer that had a Core 2 Duo, I modded it for a socket 771 Xeon and run an E5440 and it stays nice and cool.

[@yourproblemthesolution]

I just upgraded an HP6305 SFF with double SSD, 20 gigs of ram, and an AMD A10-5800. Just need to upgrade the video card, but the system works great, really fast for everyday use. Great video Phil!

[@DragonBuilds]

Those older refurbished SFF PCs are great for a home theater PC, small server, for experimenting with, or even a compact PC for less resource intensive tasks. I wouldn't want one as my main PC, but I would like to have something similar as a TV computer. Also, they are really fun to take apart and mess with, especially since they are often free.

[@tostadorafuriosa69]

im using one of this for exactly that

[@anthonyj.wheeldon6733]

Home media server is what I've turned mine into.

[@blackterminal]

Not free here. Usually bidding wars in New Zealand

[@robertfonovic3551]

@@blackterminal how do i connect mine to my smart tv as the computer does not have a hdmi input. help!!!

[@blackterminal]

@@robertfonovic3551Hello . What sort of computer?

[@willaimkazer9754]

For the Hard drives: Make sure that ESATA is enabled in the BIOS or the drive won't show up in Windows evenon the internal port. My Z220 is like that. Look at tag inside cover for connection. There is a difference in speed. 1 is 6 GBPS, and 1 is 3 GBPS.Use Optical drives on 3 GBPS. I have a Pioneer Blue Ray drive, a ADATA SU850 1TB SSD, and a Seagate 2TB SSHD. I also have a card reader. I can get away without USB 3 in the front because it has 4 on the back. For fans I have a 90MM PWM Noctua in the front. In the Z220, I have a I7-3770,GTX 1050 TI and 16GB Memory running at 1600 MHz. There is a GTX low profile GTX 1650 TI out now I'm pretty sure. That might increase performance even more. I know a GTX 1660 did in My HP Pro 3500 which is similar in spec. to Z220. Also, HP Elete is close too. You should make a video on the PSU fan. Mine is still good in my Z220. The PSUs are probably the same.

[@amagnier]

I got one for my photography club. I love it with ssd and ram upgraded. Could be nice to in an electronic/computer lab with the form factor.

[@isotonix8280]

I gave mine a 240gb SSD with windows 10 32gbs of 1333Mhz ddr 3 ram A GTX 1650 Upgraded the CPU to an I7 3770k Added a 1TB plus a 2TB HDD Updated The Fan and the heat sink Runs games and editing extremely well, VR works nicely too. All Drives are laptop thin 2.5"

[@lasset9916]

Great video. Good to see that you tested how may watts it draws from the wall. I have a nearly the same setup and have never used over 200 watts from the wall. Im updating the fans in my setup, like yours. Thank you for a great update tutorial.

[@grafwittensee9692]

This is a helpful video. Unfortunately, the fan connectors of the arctic fans and the sockets on the motherboard on my HP 8300 SFF do not fit together well: the lip on the sockets is nearly as wide as the four metal pins but the Arctic fan connectors expect a lip only about three pins wide. That's why" a little bit of strength" is needed in the video from 8:29 to attach the connector to the board. At 8:36 you can clearly see the misfit: the brown lip of the socket on the board is bent strongly by the white, inappropriate connector. Probably does not matter here, but it does not feel right to do this inside the PSU where the same mismatch occurs.

[@piotrgorecki657]

Did you replace a psu fan? What kind of fan did you put? PWM? How quiet is your hp after this upgrade?

[@grafwittensee9692]

@@piotrgorecki657 Yes, I replaced both the case fan and the PSU fan, after shaving off the small protruding ridges from the connectors. I used the type of fan suggested in the video, and replaced the old HDD by an SSD since it was very noisy. The fans are much quieter than the original ones, that's for sure. Personally, I would not want the machine on my desk though, maybe it would be quiet enough to have it under the desk. I do not know how to make it more silent since the motherboard does not seem to allow access to the fans (using a program such as SpeedFan).

[@piotrgorecki657]

Graf Wittensee What kind of fan did you put in a psu? Pwm or fixed speed?

[@grafwittensee9692]

@@piotrgorecki657 pwm.

[@soli-ethd]

Nice video as always, Phil! This video gave me a lot of options besides what I've already done. I have the 8300 SFF, and I added a GTX 1050 Ti, an ASUS Wi-Fi card, a Blu-ray drive, a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, and a 3TB hard drive. I use it for just about everything you can use a PC for and it's awesome and cheap.

[@elverjimenez9044]

Psu stock?

[@mfab0502]

Mine using stock i3..is it possible to plug n play i5 processor?

[@jbol2454]

Are you using a 3tb 3.5 or 2.5 HDD?

[@johnstancliff7328]

I have 2 of these, and love them.... use 1 in my shop and the other is a media player in my livingroom. taking good care of them is always important. I use 2.5" drives and a 3.5 to 2.5" double adapter to expand my storage space... since the units support up to 3 SATA devices. (1 DVD-RW drive and 2 2.5" interal drives) Always put as much memory in them that they are designed to hold and a good video card for watching movies and playing games

[@lucifersinatra9010]

I got this pc for 85 bucks with a 128 GB SSD and 8GBs of DDR3 RAM

[@Elvis-dw7ux]

For years I used my ORIGINAL XP DVD to reformat Acer Aspire Desktop....now I got a HP Compaq DC7900 Tower, and, it would just not complete the XP installation...it reads the DVD fine and then I get the BSOD....changed the CD ROM too...no luck! Help!

[@zsombor_99]

I have a similar "HP 6005 Pro Business" computer. Yes, the "small form factor" is definitely an issue for upgrades, especially for PCI cards. It can hold two HDD and a DVD drive nicely (cables can be a bit crowded).

[@rhyzon]

Once again, great content. Always loved your work with your SFF HP. If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't have bought the extremely reliable HP 8300 Elite SFF I'm using right now. I upgraded it with an i7 3770, 16GB of RAM, 1050Ti and a 240GB SSD, it just rocks. I have been thinking about replacing the power supply fan, this video just made me want to do that even more.

[@rhyzon]

Perch Arnel The 1050TI I got is the MSI low profile one, the normal sized ones will not fit the case. The power supply is the one that came with the unit, can't be 100% sure right now but I think it is rated at 240W. I also got an extra 1 TB HDD, a PCI audio card and a PCI-E USB 3.0 card there, and I have had no problem whatsoever with power, I've stress tested the system more than once and have been gaming on it for a couple of weeks.

[@carlos2004]

Just a heads up, it's on sale right now for $100 if you're in the U.S. www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137079&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID= Also, this 240watt power supply has zero problems running these things. I would know because I'm running a Rx 470 on it.

[@Dino-oj2pr]

I5 3570 12 gb ram 250 gb ssd 320 gb hdd 160 gb ssd Msi 1050 ti low profile Stock DVD Stock PSU

[@rhyzon]

@mharris1270 Absolutely. A 1TB hard drive is pretty cheap these days.

[@AlbertMilander]

@@rhyzon I have mine with i5 3470, can i upgrade to i7? tell me which model please, and also i will put a 1050ti oc 4gb version full size in this case :v

[@Bonjour-World]

Missing funny HP hard drive screws ??? Thread sizes are marked on the front of the case: 6-32 and M3 In a pinch, hex-socket head machine screws may work.

[@Edman_79]

Those are positive points for HP. Changing fans on SFF Dell (GX620, 755 - don't know about newer models) is a nightmare, they're all proprietary and usually dead as a doornail nowadays. And of course Arctic rocks again :D ... and of course... YOU ARE A KZbin GOD, PHIL :D Love all your stuff!

[@kirbyswarp]

On the newer ones it's the same thing. I hate it, you can't upgrade the Cpu cooler because of it.

[@eduardoavila646]

The only problem with hp is the extreme limited bios, maybe even more than some laptops. So no overclock for you and no tweakings...

[@Edman_79]

kirbyswarp: That is so bad to hear. I always liked Dell, but this is exactly a kind of thing that turns you off when thinking about buying one. Funny thing is - I never liked HP, but thanks to Phil here, I'm gonna change my view right about now 'cause this is a pretty nifty machine.

[@Edman_79]

Eduardo Avila: I was never big on overclocking so this one is no issue for me, but I understand that getting some extra oomph from such machine might be desirable for many :D

[@carlos2004]

Just got a Dell board. I read up on the fans which (hopefully) only switch the cables around. Reason I got the board is because I want to get a new PSU and case for my system. I've been running my rx 470 at 1100mhz since that stupid non atx PSU can't be upgraded because it uses different voltages, so I figured I'd try the Dell motherboard and see how it goes.

[@Wooble57]

you can buy cabinet bumpers (clear rubber stick on button things) that work great as feet for these things and look a whole lot nicer. I still have a stash from back when i installed cabinets for a job.

[@diodimov]

Hi Phil, very informative video. Do you know if a 3rd fan can be added in anyway? Does the motherboard have any more 4pin connectors? Thanks.

[@TaurusSI]

If the fan is ratling you don't necessarily have to replace it. You could just open the fan cover under the sticker and drip some machine oil into it.

[@kooky216]

That was fun, hopefully you'll do more like this.

[@Acoustic_Theory]

If you use a typical "quiet" fan for the front fan (a fan that only runs at low speed) then the CPU can overheat because the front fan needs to be able to ramp up if necessary to cool the CPU at full load. Instead, you need a faster-running fan that is also quiet at low RPMs, so that the fan can be quiet at idle but move more air when cooling load increases.

[@theottergames1969]

You built a decent pc, it will be enough even for cpu workloads :) I Wonder how big is the difference in transfer speeds between onboard(maybe from newer platform or some notebook) usb controller and that you put to this pc. You are doing great content. In my eyes your channel is among best computer related channels on KZbin

[@inabsentia439]

You can replace PSU with aftermarket, if need more juice for GPU. Use a 24 Pin to 6 Pin ATX Power Adapter Cable adapter. sticking with 240v on my Prodesk 600 g1 as want to keep power useage low. GTX 750 ti OC stable.

[@InsaneWayne355]

I would NOT install any HP UEFI/BIOS firmware that's not at least two months old. HP has been rushing out Spectre/Meltdown microcode updates that conflict with MS patches, which when both are applied ... completely brick systems. Tread carefully.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

I usually stay with the latest non beta version. And on some boards even older, depending on the changes with an update. Sometimes they add compatability for newer chips, sometimes they worsen overclocking.

[@MPHI77]

What version in your opinion is the best?

[@gregbenwell6173]

I have a small form factor HP as well, and my "fix" to it was to yank the motherboard OUT OF IT, and put it in a larger case (a normal Mid tower case) with a normal 500 watt power supply to start with!! And with that I noticed my board had four SATA ports on it, and was able to upgrade to 4 gigs of RAM, so I stuffed in as much RAM as the thing could handle gave it three hard drives (A 500 gig for the OS and two 1 TB drives for storage) and a new DVD RW drive to round it out! The 3.0 MHz processor didn't seem to mind any of it, and I have been using the system configured like this for about four years now!! Originally the machine was shipped with Windows 7 and for a long time it was running great but lately I noticed in it that Windows 7 was running just "weird", so I installed Ubuntu Studio into it!! Ubuntu works fine in it and it is faster now than it was with Windows installed for some reason!! And it is still running fairly strong, but I just got another computer that has more RAM and a faster CPU to replace it, so in its next life it will get a new hard drive set and a new motherboard and become my home server!! BUT I have got five or so years of life out of it, and I might end up re-configuring the parts to work in a totally different case, and giving it to my grand kids!!

[@TheLionAndTheLamb777]

Some HP boards use a non standard power supply so that don't always work. I've done it on a few though as well.

[@JRRacing64]

Love this pc! Got one of these back in May as well as a Zotec 1050 ti. No issues other then the Zotec getting a little warm with the case top on, lol.

[@paulvankesteren5934]

Awesome! I found a 6000 Pro in the street a few weeks back. It's not in the best of cosmetic conditions but it works and is really quiet. With your instructions I'll be able to do some more cleaning/modding, cheers!

[@TheBigupz]

i bought a Friend a Dell SMFF mini a year ago for 100$usdm with a core i3 4gb of ram and 250gb hdd, now its running an i7 2600 16gb of ram (4x4), 500gb ssd, and a GTX 1030 (he doesnt play much but does alot of illustration work), and man it is blazing fast and is a really good deal, pc is dead quiet, also came with a 300w gold psu, grea value machines totally recomend hunting this and upgrading them for super cheap pcs

[@carlos2004]

I bought mine about 2 years ago. I added a GPU and an SSD, and it's honestly one of the best purchases I've made. The 2600 runs all of my games still quite smoothly and while it would nice if I had gotten the non SFF case in order to fit my gpu inside, this machine has worked extremely well for my needs. I'll maybe upgrade next year since it's still running fine.

[@janwitkowsky8787]

I feel drivebays are getting more and more difficult to find, now-a-days. I just got an inter-tech x-3531 (5.25" bay - 4x 2.5" bay) Got it about US$20. The rear fan is a bit noisy and I am looking into a 3rd party 30-40mm fan for it already (Haven't meassured yet). But it's a joy to have on the tower desktop and for the first time in 15+ years, I've had a chance to actually clean up and sort my data. 4 SATA-cables included and all powered by a single molex plug. Argueably very useful for ease of work and organizing a tower. A video dedicated to front bay accesories, perhaps? And how to find them and what search terms to use?

[@BandanazX]

The HP Elite 8200, and EliteDesk 800 and later make nice cheap small servers for ESXi as well, as Q series of chipsets support PCIe passthrough and the CPUs support AES-NI. Great for consolidating a virtual router, storage system, and other services.

[@Seatux]

Power must be cheap to run basically full sized machines for that kind of thing. My power tariff is pretty much from ECS Liva till NUC only at home.

[@BandanazX]

Those processors throttle down power usage pretty well, but I get your point. In Kalifornia, we pay some of the highest power rates in the US.

[@MrDenis]

I opened up the power supply today to do a fan change on a 8300 but closed it again as the connectors were glued with some kind of adhesive - front fan was straightforward

[@philscomputerlab]

Hmm I can't remember if I had this issue.

[@walruspolish]

Hi, which of the artic fans shown here did you put into the PSU?

[@GUCFan]

The whole PCIE power can be very confusing to some. For example Lenovo saying in their data sheet for the M83 SFF PC that the PCIE slot is rated for 40W max. Yet the same motherboard is used in the mini tower configuration. The bottomline is, that max wattage thing is only there because of SFF specifications. Those slots do provide 75w since having configuration specific motherboards with the power draw being set that low would be very inefficient in terms of manufacturing the PC. Run out of motherboards for the SFF config? Well now they gotta wait until they get more in inventory to manufacture more SFF PC's. Whereas using the same motherboards for all the configurations is more efficient, its really the "25w Max" or "40w Max" is there due to SFF specifications, but doesn't mean much as the slots will still provide 75w of power to the GPU

[@nonsensicalfox]

What is that drive bay with the hot swappable HDDs and USB 3.0 built in? I can't find an Icy Dock product like that, and there's nothing in the description.

[@philscomputerlab]

It's from China, but couldn't find it anymore :(

[@TTSpeter]

@@philscomputerlab I could: nl.aliexpress.com/item/Nieuwe-Dual-Bay-3-5-2-5-Inch-SATA-III-Harde-Schijf-HDD-SSD-Tray-Caddy/32864220854.html?spm=a2g0z.10010108.1000014.4.42e52863Ly9A4F&pvid=0d553461-6aeb-4f50-ae4b-2c9b979dfb70&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.13338.112281.000000000000000&scm-url=1007.13338.112281.000000000000000&scm_id=1007.13338.112281.000000000000000

[@thebeyonder2353]

Syba 5.25" Drive Bay Mobile Rack for 2.5" 3.5" SATA HDD with USB3.0 Ports

[@Jdcrouch1972]

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-Quality-3-5-2-5-SATAIII-Hard-Drive-HDD-SSD-Tray-Caddy-Rack-Enclosure-L0U6/353053558625?hash=item5233a1c761:g:RzYAAOSwKJxew5GZ

[@agenttexx]

On the SATA ports, you may have to activate the additional SATA ports in BIOs. I used to support several of these and the newer versions with Gen 3 and Gen 4 I5s.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes you are correct, there are BIOS options for the SATA ports.

[@vicchopin]

Amazing as usual!! Now some gameplay to satisfy our gaming thirst!! ;)

[@Kenny_Ded]

Yes. This! I'd love to see some benchmarks of this system with a 1050 Ti running Windows 10 and some modern games.

[@daxnoxlc3791]

Hey guys, i want to run some 2k10 games like nfs undercover, gta eflc and like that, i have a hp 8300 cmt with a i7-3770, 16gb ram and intel hd graphics 4000 wich has some weird technology that it supposed to grab vram from ram but anyway i want to upgrade my gpu to a gtx 960 2gb, it worth it or not? Also my psu is 320w and the seller said i need atleast 400w, is really necessary to change it? Pls help im new with these desktop stuff...

[@kellybodley8363]

@@daxnoxlc3791 no, you could always buy a s model cpu just in case( s models have lower power consumption

[@tadejsadar7033]

These small form business pcs are really nice to work with. Quality builds.

[@uptechextreme2921]

Great video, good options for someone on a budget that can upgrade a part or two at at a time and end up with a nice machine in the end :)

[@ScienceDrummer]

8:30 So I can just shove it in and it'll work? I just got one today and noticed the connector clips were too small for the header.

[@ScienceDrummer]

I'll try and see what happens lmao

[@cybercat1531]

This is now a PH (Phils Highspec) SFF PC! :D You've replaced enough that I shall no longer call this an HP Small Form Factor PC

[@HardwareHackers]

my main machine for the last few years has been a number of HP and Dell SFF machines, they are hard to beat for value. My current machine is an OptiPlex from dell, the 3050 with an i7 7700, refurbished from the dell outlet they work out a bargain, the price I paid would barely have bought me the processor and motherboard if I was building It myself! never mind the rest of the components and windows 10 pro licence!

[@matthewplehn4271]

very satisfying video phil....nicely done

[@salaciouscreations4323]

The 2 blue sata ports are gen 3 and the other 2 are gen 2 with the black one having esata options in the bios if you fit an additional sata card in pcie slot the grey and black ports no longer work

[@philscomputerlab]

Thanks.

[@weebtrash992]

im watching this on my HP Compaq 8100 Elite stock with a Intel Core i5-650, 4 gigs of ram, and the Intel Q57 chipset. this is a good little PC! though i plan to upgrade this Core i5 to a Core i7-860 and a low profile 1050. i think this should make allot better of a gaming machine after these upgrade. *edit* i also plan to put in an 8 gigabyte RAM kit to get some dual channel goodness.

[@bochaltwoo]

Same as you, but with a 1030 and 8gb ram, gonna max it out w/ an I7 880, 16GB, and 1050ti though.

[@weebtrash992]

@@bochaltwoo i got my upgrades done on a budget smaller than i was gonna do final specs are Intel Xeon X3470, 16 gigs DDR3 RAM and a 2 gig GeForce GT 1030 GDDR5

[@weebtrash992]

@@bochaltwoo oh yeah and i just got done installing macOS High Sierra on it so it's good for macOS too

[@weebtrash992]

@Jorge Garcia ay not bad though i must say this Xeon X3470 and GT 1030 i decided on its doing really well!! im glad your liking yours!!

[@nsvaluto48328]

The question is, where do find what processor will work how do I look up my current one?

[@stonent]

I have an Elite 8300 board that I bought an ATX cable adapter from China. It seemed to work for about 20 minutes and then the board started smoking. :( Beware of any adapters you buy and make sure they are reputable.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

In the end the cables are the same, just the layout is different. Should be possible to just switch around the wires. But those proprietary power solutions are usually the worst part about OEM systems.

[@TheLionAndTheLamb777]

@@HappyBeezerStudios No, on the HP Elite they use a 12 volt standby mode instead of the standard 5 volt. You need a boost converter to take the 5 volt to 12 volt to make it work.

[@johncollins5552]

The light blue sata is for optical drives. I have a problem that my 5810 only boots with one stick of ram, anyone up to 8 GB in any of the 4 slots works but any 2 or more and no boot, I tested them individual, all good. I suspect a bios update somehow affected the dual ram controller in some way? That's all I can think of. So now I have a bunch of unused 4 GB sticks lying around.

[@chicagochris1988]

I recently turned my sff dell optiplex 790 with an i5 2400 into a gaming pc for my truck. Used the zotac 1050ti. I upgraded the ram as well, I plan to put an i7 and an ssd in it in the coming months, works great

[@nosirrahx]

Got that same GFX card in my 8300 SFF. With the CPU maxed out and 8 GB of RAM the thing handles mid range gaming with ease. It makes for a nice little system that you can lay flat and put a small monitor right on top, takes up almost no space at all.

[@chicagochris1988]

nosirrahx nice I did a Dell sff because it's easy to store when not in use in my semi truck lol. I was going to build something but I couldn't pass the deal on the tower up now that they make good worth buying low profile gpus

[@nosirrahx]

What I like most about the older Dell and HP SFF business PCs is that they are surprisingly well supported. Everything from XP to Windows 10 works on just about all of them. That Zotac card is also a beast for what it is.

[@chicagochris1988]

nosirrahx it sure is, my last gaming pc had crossfire 7770s in them an 1gn of vram didn't cut it, I was blown away at how well the 1050ti with an i5 2400 performs in the latest games that I do play. Totally impressed with this little thing

[@nufrequency84]

That i7 is gonna cost pretty much the same as Ryzen 2200G, which came out months ago and is faster. Upgrading these machines is quite pointless unless you can get the parts at a substantial discount

[@memeboi8472]

Hi my man! I have a HP Compaq 6005 Pro Microtower with a Phenom II X3 B75. The CPU fan is being really whiny, but the case fan is ok I bought a be Quiet! Pure Wings 92mm 1900 RPM PWM fan, should that fan be ok as a CPU fan? Or should I use the case fan? The case fan is the same as the stock ones you had.

[@StaticVapour590]

Great video, try to find modded BIOS to tweak it more. Also remember to tighten up the CPU cooler in cross pattern, from corner to corner

[@tomspyhook9372]

Have 8100 Elite SFF. Fitted the USB2 card reader and attached the cable to the USB2 headers but does not work. Looks like there's no power as tried fitting old USB2 2 port and no joy. I wondered if the headers could be disabled in the BIOS though Ive not seen any setting. Seems strange that both are not working. Any ideas?

[@DHChkDsk]

Good video! I would recommend screwing CPU-coolers and similar in a cross-pattern(1-3-4-2) and not clockwise(1-2-3-4) around, to balance the force.

[@philscomputerlab]

Fair enough!

[@LeoInterVir]

You should really use that pattern for screwing anything in. It ensures equal pressure and contact between surfaces.

[@larrybreavman4864]

Thanks for this great video that inspired me to improve my bargain PC, a HP 6000 Pro which originally had a Pentium E5700, 4 gb DRR3, a HDD 250 gb and the crappy Intel Graphics Q43/45. Now works flawlessly with a Q9400, 6 gb DDR3, a SSD 128 gb and a GT 730 DDR5. The total cost of this improvement was only 55€ for used Q9400 and GT 730 (I had at home the SSD and 2gb DDR3).

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice! Yea a Quad-Core, more RAM and SSD helps immensely.

[@larrybreavman4864]

Sure! I like very much your channel which I recently found.

[@Russell970]

Oh thank you so much, you're a life saver!

[@philscomputerlab]

Confirmed first :D

[@apogipinoy]

How do you turn on the PWM function in the BIOS? I bought 5e Arctic F9 PWM and it wants me to plug the CPU power plug into a female port on the F9 fan, which then plugs into the board.

[@marioman971]

The sleeve bearings in those Foxconn fans are just bad. Every one I've seen wears out pretty quickly. I usually replace them with Panaflo's. The HP business machines are pretty fun to work with; great case design (for BTX at least), and on the towers fully standard power supplies and room for a dual slot GPU. Of course the semi-tool-less drive bays are pretty neat. The boards are built to much higher standards than most consumer OEM boards with all 105c rated caps or higher. I love these things

[@RetroReviewYT]

Jay Pattyson Love my 8200 Elite CMT myself (i7-2600, 6 GB memory, GT 1030 (GDDR5) 2GB, 250 GB WD Blue SSD with Windows 10 installed.) Runs circles around my main laptop that is a year older than it.

[@valkaielod]

Out of about 100 desktop of these series I've seen worn out fans on ~5 year old machines in about 2 cases.

[@StaticVapour590]

They should use Yate Loon fans

[@MDKNemesis]

Are the sleeve bearings those rubber grommets for the fan in the front??

[@marioman971]

Randolph Hanson umm, no.. a sleeve bearing is the bearing the fan shaft rides in (the shaft is the inner portion of the bearing). It basically rides inside a metal sleeve, usually oil filled. Typically very short lifespan compared to a ball bearing, although Panasonic did a good job improving basic sleeve bearings with FDB (which many manufacturers have either liscensed or loosely copied)

[@dudebrochill6583]

The elite 8100 small form factor is what I have. I wanted to put it in anew case so I could put in a better graphics card that I already own. It’s been a no go. The sff motherboards do not work in any other case I can find.

[@RiskyBRiskyB]

What is that, an OEM PSU for ants??

[@abousono1]

LMAO!!!

[@aaronfillion643]

How did you figure out the fan speeds that were represented by the various notches in the HP BIOS? I think one could assume the maximum setting would be full speed, but I am not sure how you came up with the other values. I am going to upgrade the fans in my HP 8200 ultra slim form factor PC, but could not figure out how to get the fan speed from the BIOS as every software program I tried could not read fan speed from the BIOS. As a side note the HP 8200 ultra slim form uses 60mm x 25mm fans in front and back. It may be a moot point as I can only find one quiet 60mm fan, so that is what I will probably get.

[@simonwrcarter2999]

A simply brilliant video... !! Subbed 😉

[@timgray5373]

Thanks for the vid. A note - I was just installing a new case fan in my 8300 and found the motherboard connector was a non-standard type and I couldn’t do it. It’s 4 pins, but the plastic lug goes across the whole width so a standard 4-pin plug can’t slide into place. I’ve mailed the new fan maker just in case they know the answer.

[@allerganallergan6899]

Hi, It is the same with the Noctua NF-A9. You just have to cut the plastic end on the fan connector.

[@issaissa9802]

can i change pc ssf to tower ?

[@Aaron-uz8xt]

issa issa you would need a new motherboard, psu, etc

[@Cheese_1337]

you could, but then you would need a btx style case

[@brianstokes2572]

Which fan type make and model would you for a very silent one, Just for every day use no gaming or videos ? Thanks

[@brentsummers7377]

It is a small diameter fan so will be somewhat noisy due to the speed. I know mine is considerably quieter when it is completely free of dust.

[@youtubasoarus]

Always love these videos :)

[@efrenmuniz2692]

Hello, I know the computer has inside a 90mmm case fan. Which size did you use for the case and Powersupply? Online I find only 92mmm Arctic F9 fan. Thanks

[@aaronwoodcock4715]

These small things are console killers. You can run vr with a gtx 1650 on these. I know, I've tried on my nephew's rig.

[@Seany-boy]

Agreed , I run a GTX 1650 low profile card with no issues at all.

[@triftiduda7636]

the black "sata" port on the mb is actually an e-sata port as the imprint states beside the port

[@64bit72]

Your are becoming my favorite youtuber XD

[@philscomputerlab]

:O

[@alanmcrae8594]

Liked & subscribed! Excellent presentation, easy to follow and links to some installed devices included. Very professional.

[@1AloneX2]

very professional!

[@Mark-lr7zp]

By the way I took your advice changed both fans with the exact same models in your video (14$ each) i found the back was a little more difficult for me. Also your right the sound of the fan was like comparing a bearing on a car....now the fans sound very quite even though the fans speed is 3 out of 6 in the bios.

[@gogolapeter]

Mine works with a GT630, but also a GTX560Ti worked ( with a stronger PSU of course).

[@maxeijsten4880]

Peter Gogola how did you get a new psu?

[@rtate69]

What PSU did you upgrade to? Wondering which ones would fit this.

[@maxeijsten4880]

rtate69 i havent upgraded yet because i dont think they will fit in my pc, i have a hp compaq 8200 elite sff

[@kevinzawarrior]

@@maxeijsten4880 have you ever figured it out?have the same GPU but the psu isnt powerful enough

[@dannydonovan1985]

Very interesting - a bit daunting as it was the first time I've taken the cover off my machine! I have a problem in that my my desktop won't go beyond the HP start-up logo - any thoughts please?

[@drunkredninja]

Criss cross, like lug nuts on car tires.

[@marvenvelez7570]

really want to transfer my 8300 sff to a bigger case but i cant find one... please help

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea that isn't straight forward, the layout is totally different, the power connectors also.

[@1NIGHTMAREGAMER]

U spraying the alcohal has small chance of not disapaiting / evaperating and shorting out stuff 99% alcohol is 1% watter lol

[@lucassmith5634]

How much quieter do these new fans make the system? The stock fans are quite loud!

[@1NIGHTMAREGAMER]

Eh its oem it was always ugly XD

[@PrzeszczepiX]

1NIGHTMAREGAMER why are you buying pc, for playing games on it or for looking at it? please consider

[@1NIGHTMAREGAMER]

PrzeszczepiX i build my pcs

[@Chad.1337]

theres a guy that mods oems and they dont look complete shit /watch?v=FupU6pZrm58&t=

[@allerganallergan6899]

Thanks for the video. I tried to install a 5.25 rack. But it doesn't work because there is no hot plug setting in the bios. Have you tested yours with 2.5 and 3.5 disks? Thank you.

[@daverees8644]

Ive got a similar Hp machine, ive added a 1gb graphics card, 5.1 soundblaster card, 4gb of memory, bluray drive and a card reader, i have plans to change the cpu cooler, cpu and case fan and i was looking into adding a usb 3 pci-e card too, at the moment it runs very quiet and fast.

[@jamesearlcash4736]

Make video on fully upgrading Hp7800 SFF