Help with HPz230 SFF Upgrade Project

[Jonah_A]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am in need of some help, I am trying to advance my skills in drafting and design, and am looking to upgrade an HP z230 SFF that I was given by my school.  I don't have a massive budget so I am hoping to upgrade this machine instead of buying/building a new one (though I hope to do a build when I graduate).  I am looking to max the specs on this thing so it will run Vectorworks, MatLab, and AutoCAD as well as it possibly could.  

Was thinking of upgrading to 16-32 gb of RAM, a SATA 3 SSD, an i7-4790 (instead of the i5 it currently has) and a decent graphics card.  

What I need help with is the Graphics Card. Vectorworks recommends something with 4gb of vram or more....

 

What should I go with? If I have to upgrade the PSU is that possible? 

 

I know that this may seem like it's not worth it, but I figured I'd explore this upgrade path rather than try to go right for a new build.  I also like the SFF case design because of it's size. 

 

I would greatly appreciate any help!

Thanks,

J

[just that pc guy]

6 minutes ago, Jonah_A said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I am in need of some help, I am trying to advance my skills in drafting and design, and am looking to upgrade an HP z230 SFF that I was given by my school.  I don't have a massive budget so I am hoping to upgrade this machine instead of buying/building a new one (though I hope to do a build when I graduate).  I am looking to max the specs on this thing so it will run Vectorworks, MatLab, and AutoCAD as well as it possibly could.  

Was thinking of upgrading to 16-32 gb of RAM, a SATA 3 SSD, an i7-4790 (instead of the i5 it currently has) and a decent graphics card.  

What I need help with is the Graphics Card. Vectorworks recommends something with 4gb of vram or more....

 

What should I go with? If I have to upgrade the PSU is that possible? 

 

I know that this may seem like it's not worth it, but I figured I'd explore this upgrade path rather than try to go right for a new build.  I also like the SFF case design because of it's size. 

 

I would greatly appreciate any help!

Thanks,

J

msi geforce gtx 1650 low profile so it can fit in the small form factor 

[jaslion]

You already are pretty much building half a new computer. The sff form factor and psu are hard limits to what you can do. Best gpu you can have is a gtx 1650 sff and it's not cheap as it's an sff card. A 4790 hovers around 100$ at least too so that's expensive. Ram won't be too bad but still around 80 for 32gb. Basically you will be spending close to 400 which is 100 away from a complete new system that will be better than this one. My advice is to get a ryzen 2600+b450 motherboard+whatever amount of ram based system with a used gpu. It's going to end up being the same price and be better than what you can do now.

[jaslion]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$119.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$74.98 @ Amazon
Memory	GeIL EVO POTENZA 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$64.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$59.99 @ Amazon
Case	Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$44.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	Corsair CX (2017) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$59.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$444.93
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$424.93
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-02-27 11:03 EST-0500

A very simple outline of a new build. No gpu because you are free to pick whatever now be it used or new. If you don't mind going used you can snag some powerfull cards for quite cheap. So add another 100$ if you want to go cheap. One to look out for is the gtx 970 atm. I see it being dumped online for under 80$ often.

 

The z230 upgrades system would cost:

4790 -> around 100$

16 gb of ram -> around 60$

WD blue ssd -> 59,99 on amazon

Gtx 1650 sff -> cheapest I found is 155$

 

Total cost: around 375$

 

Cost new system: around 520$