What should I do with this Compaq Pro 6300

[Hevalisk]

Sorry, I might get yelled out because I wasn't sure where to put this thread.

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/1VK-001E-3JGE8?Item=9SIA6A3A2P3559

 

Short story: There were some activities I wanted to delegate to another PC. Usually things that require me to connect to a VPN, and there are somethings I need to do on my main PC, that I can't do while connected to a VPN.(I can, but it's annoying)  I was looking on newegg for a potential mini PC, when I found the above compaq Pro on sale for $45 bucks, and bought it spur of the moment.

 

The plan was to hook it up to my second monitor using a KVM switch. I have a HDMI to vga adapter, but think it would probably be better to put a cheap GPU in it, as I might hook the compaq up to my 4k tv occasionally. I'm not using the KVM on my main monitor because I'm using the display port connection on it. I might upgrade the CPU as well if there is something better I can get cheaply.

 

KVM switch I purchased:

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/1DJ-00J9-00002?Item=9SIAFY67M23193

 

 

[Bombastinator]

Oh wow.  That’s a 2 core cpu with no OS.  That windows 7 is eol.  It effectively has no operating system.  Possibly vga only in back too.  How do you feel about Linux?  
 

don’t upgrade ANYTHING in that machine.  That’s an old prebuilt and a mini prebuilt at that.  It’s likely to be custom everything.  Changing anything at all except maybe a drive is likely to produce weird problems.  The only upgrade it will likely want is if by some small miracle it has a dvi-di port on the video along with vga, get an adaptor that goes to hdmi. Dvii could be bad too.  Likely it’s just vga though in which case it will need its own monitor.  Bright side is vga 1080p flatscreens should be basically free locally.

[SupaKomputa]

It's a 1st gen core cpu, very slow. You can upgrade the cpu to i3 or i5 but your option might be limited by the power supply.

[AvocadosGuac]

Throw linux on it, run pihole and plex.

[Animal901]

1 hour ago, Hevalisk said:

Sorry, I might get yelled out because I wasn't sure where to put this thread.

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/1VK-001E-3JGE8?Item=9SIA6A3A2P3559

 

Short story: There were some activities I wanted to delegate to another PC. Usually things that require me to connect to a VPN, and there are somethings I need to do on my main PC, that I can't do while connected to a VPN.(I can, but it's annoying)  I was looking on newegg for a potential mini PC, when I found the above compaq Pro on sale for $45 bucks, and bought it spur of the moment.

 

The plan was to hook it up to my second monitor using a KVM switch. I have a HDMI to vga adapter, but think it would probably be better to put a cheap GPU in it, as I might hook the compaq up to my 4k tv occasionally. I'm not using the KVM on my main monitor because I'm using the display port connection on it. I might upgrade the CPU as well if there is something better I can get cheaply.

 

KVM switch I purchased:

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/1DJ-00J9-00002?Item=9SIAFY67M23193

 

 

I would not recommend it unless you could put a better cpu in there. You could use the windows 7 key on that board for windows 10. The video can be upgraded, and im sure you could cram a little bit more ram in there.  Ssd would be nice. That chipset can be slow to boot a windows 10 usb. Depends on the board.  Once you get thru that everything is fine. Windows updates is real reason of ryzen.

[Bombastinator]

23 minutes ago, Animal901 said:

I would not recommend it unless you could put a better cpu in there. You could use the windows 7 key on that board for windows 10. The video can be upgraded, and im sure you could cram a little bit more ram in there.  Ssd would be nice. That chipset can be slow to boot a windows 10 usb. Depends on the board.  Once you get thru that everything is fine. Windows updates is real reason of ryzen.

Windows 10 is still taking win7 keys?!  I thought they stopped that years ago.  If they still do it’s a good buy by itself.

 

i advise against cpu replacement for the single reason that the thing is a turn of the millennium hp prebuilt mini.

 

 prebuilts are evil and prebuilt minis are worse.  The only thing that might make it possibly even worse is if it was a dell prebuilt mini.  On a scale of 1 to 10 it’s a 2.  They leave important parts off those things.  Hp wasn’t quite as bad about it as dell but they did it too.  

It’s going to be hell to even do, and if it does work the chances that it will suddenly sprout weird unexplainable problems is high.

[Animal901]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Windows 10 is still taking win7 keys?!  I thought they stopped that years ago.  If they still do it’s a good buy by itself.

 

i advise against cpu replacement for the single reason that the thing is a turn of the millennium hp prebuilt mini.

 

 prebuilts are evil and prebuilt minis are worse.  The only thing that might make it possibly even worse is if it was a dell prebuilt mini.  On a scale of 1 to 10 it’s a 2.

It’s going to be hell to even do, and if it does work the chances that it will suddenly sprout weird unexplainable problems is high.

I mostly see stuff like this for repairs. People as a whole don't have nice computers. Just the likes of us, and i only buy used parts so im even out of date.   You're off by at least 10 years on the prebuilt. Think 2010. Windows 10 will probably always accept windows 7 keys.  Black market keys are probably sometimes forgotten windows 7 that werent activated. I promise if you can wait thru the possible 30 min windows 10 boot dilema on old boards you can have a nice computer for a couple of bucks. Dual core can be tough now days though. You'd be shocked what enough ram and a decent gpu can do on an old cpu.

[Hevalisk]

Seems like I have a number of possible projects.

One thing I didn't take into account, I sorta forgot about my old gaming PC, that I left in the basement.  It has an i5-3470,  an SSD, and a decent PSU in it. The gpu is an old hd 6790, the thing consumes way too much power for what it actually puts out.  I wasn't thinking about it because I wrote it off due to not having enough room for two mid tower PCs, and the noise. I don't want to salvage it for parts for the compaq since it still works fine. I may be able to put it in my closet, if I can get a longer power cable, and some USB extenders.

 

I wont abandon the Compaq though, I saw someone put a 1050 ti in one. I don't mind messing with it even it it turns out to be a bust, worst case I can just give it to someone who doesn't have a PC. I still have an old emachine, that I put a cheap team group ssd into, downstairs, with an unlicensed version of win10. People that ask to use my computer get swiftly directed to it.

[amdorintel]

5 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

That windows 7 is eol.  It effectively has no operating system.

yeah but w7 will still work well beyond eol, with a system that old hopefully its just a porno surfing machine and nothing of real importance is being done on that pc.

 

buying old used refurbished pcs with windows 10 os on it from reputable sellers like bestbuy is still a great opportunity to get a cheap pc that is usable. i think people today, well its always been what i am going to explain, people today dont need a lot of the high tech features, even with phones people dont need it. people use text, some video, camera once a year and they buy a $1000 apple phone. same with computers, people over buy what they really need.

 

for the original poster, find a pc with windows 10 on it that fits your wallet and try to get alteast 8gb of ram.

 

Refurbished: HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF i5-4570 3.20GHz 4GB 250GB Win 7 Pro 1 Yr Wty

• $107^.99

 

Refurbished: HP Elitedesk 800 G1 SFF i5-4570 3.2GHz 8GB RAM 500GB HDD Windows 10 Home

• $114^.50 
•  

Refurbished: Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF i5-4570 3.2GHz 8GB RAM 500GB HDD Windows 10 Home

• $114^.50 

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Hevalisk said:

People that ask to use my computer get swiftly directed to it.

Heh.. I’m not sure if that qualifies as evil or not...

 

At any rate if you’re willing to hunt down and deal with weird issues from that hp perhaps a cpu upgrade might work for certain definitions of work.  What I remember about prebuilt (and this is a slightly newer vintage than what I was used to so it might have gotten better or not) was they sized their very proprietary PSUs to be no more capable than absolutely necessary. There will be no slop for things that are “only a bit higher wattage”. The g640 according to intel is a 65w chip.

 

do not run any higher wattage than this.   Also I’m having trouble telling if it was sandy bridge or ivy bridge. (It seems to be 2012). If it’s sandy look only at sandy.  If it’s ivy look only at ivy.  You in theory can bios upgrade to the other.  Do not do this.  That bios is very possibly tweaked by HP.

[Animal901]

53 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

do not run any higher wattage than this.   Also I’m having trouble telling if it was sandy bridge or ivy bridge. (It seems to be 2012). If it’s sandy look only at sandy.  If it’s ivy look only at ivy.  You in theory can bios upgrade to the other.  Do not do this.  That bios is very possibly tweaked by HP.

You can definitely upgrade the bios successfully on OEMs.  Ive done it to a hp z400. Some models do not get bios updates. I've updated a dell board  bios transplanted into corsair case for someone. Was able to run an i7 3770 afterwards. That thing got a ssd a firepro gpu. It's a garage multitrack studio pc.

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, Animal901 said:

You can definitely upgrade the bios successfully on OEMs.  Ive done it to a hp z400. Some models do not get bios updates. I've updated a dell board  bios transplanted into corsair case for someone. Was able to run an i7 3770 afterwards. That thing got a ssd a firepro gpu. It's a garage multitrack studio pc.

I’ll go with some OEMs. It’s a bit of a crapshoot.  To be fair the PSU is also a bit of a crapshoot.  There may be more room on it.  It should be checked first though.  I’m thinking worst case.  Stuff that may not be possible.