Upgrade or Replace an old HP desktop

[Dan in Oxford]

Hi all! The LTT YouTube channel has had the desired effect, and I am bravely considering either upgrading my ancient HP Pavilion Desktop (circa 2011 ...) or else junking it for something new and self built. Being a novice when it comes to building your own PC I am reaching out for some expertise from the wider community.

 

First key question - what am I using it for?

Well, both the desktop and laptop I have do the basic jobs I need (web browsing and running Microsoft Office), but there are three gaps in my capacity:

1. I want to run Civ 6 - which means I need some GPU capacity (It plays very slowly when I attempt it now) - the specs for that say I would need a GPU upgrade - 1 GB & AMD 5570 or nVidia 450. CPU only needs an i3 at 2.5GHz (but I'd like more processing power in any event!)

2. I'd like to do some rudimentary video editing - nothing 4K standard, but certainly better than Microsoft Video Editor!

3. I am planning to record music at home, and may use software to create backing tracks for virtual instruments.

 

Second key question - what are the current specs?

The motherboard is a Foxconn 2ABF (Sandy Bridge) - so the highest capacity CPU I could run is the Intel Core i7-2700K.

My CPU is an Intel Core i3-2120 @ 3.30Ghz

I've already upgraded the RAM from 4Gb to the maximum 8Gb (would prefer 16Gb but that is luxury for faster web browsing rather than essential)

At the moment I'm using the integrated Intel Graphics rather than a GPU

The Power Supply is a 300W HP Switching Power Supply (like this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alimentation-Power-supply-replacement-HP-PCA230-HP-633190-001-Alimentation-PC-/332058114964)

At the moment I am running the system off a traditional 1GB HDD, but I have a 2.5" 240GB SATA 3 SSD that I intend to install in the optical bay once I get the right bracket for it (on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N5IB20Q/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ASYMEbRRGF9YZ)

 

It looks to me like the biggest bottleneck is the power supply, as I'm not sure I could run a GPU alongside my existing set up. That being the case, it feels like buying a new CPU, GPU and PSU is the point at which it makes more sense to get a new rig. However, if I could keep the PSU and keep the cost of GPU and CPU upgrades under £200 that feels like a good short term move while saving for a beefier rig a few years down the line.

 

While on the subject of cost - if getting a new rig I'd prefer to cap myself at £600 (separate budget for monitors etc) but would stretch to £700 for the right components. I would be nervous of doing a self build at this point, and part of the attraction in upgrading is to get practice at working with computer components. Likewise, as I'm not a heavy user I'd feel guilty spending tons of money on hardware I didn't really need!

 

Anyone had any similar experience and have suggestions? I'd particularly value advice on whether the power unit would need replaced, and how to choose a good bang-for-buck GPU. Thank you very much!

 

[Sam.MP4]

4 minutes ago, Dan in Oxford said:

Hi all! The LTT YouTube channel has had the desired effect, and I am bravely considering either upgrading my ancient HP Pavilion Desktop (circa 2011 ...) or else junking it for something new and self built. Being a novice when it comes to building your own PC I am reaching out for some expertise from the wider community.

 

First key question - what am I using it for?

Well, both the desktop and laptop I have do the basic jobs I need (web browsing and running Microsoft Office), but there are three gaps in my capacity:

1. I want to run Civ 6 - which means I need some GPU capacity (It plays very slowly when I attempt it now) - the specs for that say I would need a GPU upgrade - 1 GB & AMD 5570 or nVidia 450. CPU only needs an i3 at 2.5GHz (but I'd like more processing power in any event!)

2. I'd like to do some rudimentary video editing - nothing 4K standard, but certainly better than Microsoft Video Editor!

3. I am planning to record music at home, and may use software to create backing tracks for virtual instruments.

 

Second key question - what are the current specs?

The motherboard is a Foxconn 2ABF (Sandy Bridge) - so the highest capacity CPU I could run is the Intel Core i7-2700K.

My CPU is an Intel Core i3-2120 @ 3.30Ghz

I've already upgraded the RAM from 4Gb to the maximum 8Gb (would prefer 16Gb but that is luxury for faster web browsing rather than essential)

At the moment I'm using the integrated Intel Graphics rather than a GPU

The Power Supply is a 300W HP Switching Power Supply (like this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alimentation-Power-supply-replacement-HP-PCA230-HP-633190-001-Alimentation-PC-/332058114964)

At the moment I am running the system off a traditional 1GB HDD, but I have a 2.5" 240GB SATA 3 SSD that I intend to install in the optical bay once I get the right bracket for it (on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N5IB20Q/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_ASYMEbRRGF9YZ)

 

It looks to me like the biggest bottleneck is the power supply, as I'm not sure I could run a GPU alongside my existing set up. That being the case, it feels like buying a new CPU, GPU and PSU is the point at which it makes more sense to get a new rig. However, if I could keep the PSU and keep the cost of GPU and CPU upgrades under £200 that feels like a good short term move while saving for a beefier rig a few years down the line.

 

While on the subject of cost - if getting a new rig I'd prefer to cap myself at £600 (separate budget for monitors etc) but would stretch to £700 for the right components. I would be nervous of doing a self build at this point, and part of the attraction in upgrading is to get practice at working with computer components. Likewise, as I'm not a heavy user I'd feel guilty spending tons of money on hardware I didn't really need!

 

Anyone had any similar experience and have suggestions? I'd particularly value advice on whether the power unit would need replaced, and how to choose a good bang-for-buck GPU. Thank you very much!

 

Seeing as how you are a bit nervous about building it and the budget, I couldn’t defined tell you. Personally I would scrap it and get a new rig. By the time you would have to upgrade it would be replacing a lot of components. I don’t think the PSU would be able to handle a different CPU and GPU. I also don’t entirely know if you would be able to find an old graphics card. You could probably go for a 1050 based off your needs but that might be a bit much because you are only playing one game. What you could do is see if you could just upgrade the GPU to something like a GT 1030 and see if the game is on GeForce Now as it runs off the cloud not your PC. Hope this helps!

[lexidobe]

There are a few things to consider here:

 

1. We're talking about a 9 year old low end motherboard here and it is likely nearing the end of its life. If you upgrade the CPU and the motherboard goes out that was pretty much money wasted, although you could resell the CPU.

 

2. Your old 300W PSU couldn't handle a powerful GPU, so about the best you could (maybe) do is a low end card like a GT 1030 as someone else said. And even then an old low wattage PSU like what is in that system may not tolerate that.

 

3. If you want to upgrade your system, a good bet would be parts you could move to your new system like a nice PSU and a decent GPU, maybe a used GTX 1050 or something. Worst case scenario if your motherboard goes out or you decide to upgrade you have a couple parts you can use in your new build that you would need anyways. 

[YT_DomDaBomb20]

1 hour ago, lexidobe said:

There are a few things to consider here:

 

1. We're talking about a 9 year old low end motherboard here and it is likely nearing the end of its life. If you upgrade the CPU and the motherboard goes out that was pretty much money wasted, although you could resell the CPU.

 

2. Your old 300W PSU couldn't handle a powerful GPU, so about the best you could (maybe) do is a low end card like a GT 1030 as someone else said. And even then an old low wattage PSU like what is in that system may not tolerate that.

 

3. If you want to upgrade your system, a good bet would be parts you could move to your new system like a nice PSU and a decent GPU, maybe a used GTX 1050 or something. Worst case scenario if your motherboard goes out or you decide to upgrade you have a couple parts you can use in your new build that you would need anyways. 

or he could just buy a gtx 1650 because it gets all the power it needs from the pcie slot

[lexidobe]

18 minutes ago, YT_DomDaBomb20 said:

or he could just buy a gtx 1650 because it gets all the power it needs from the pcie slot

That could work, but the graphics card still draws power from the PSU and I don't know if such an old low wattage PSU could handle it. Those prebuilt systems don't come with overly large PSUs.

[YT_DomDaBomb20]

59 minutes ago, lexidobe said:

That could work, but the graphics card still draws power from the PSU and I don't know if such an old low wattage PSU could handle it. Those prebuilt systems don't come with overly large PSUs.

True

[Dan in Oxford]

On 4/18/2020 at 11:54 PM, lexidobe said:

That could work, but the graphics card still draws power from the PSU and I don't know if such an old low wattage PSU could handle it. Those prebuilt systems don't come with overly large PSUs.

Thank you everyone for helpful replies, and for graciously forgiving my slow acknowledgement (lockdown with a two year old and a six month old - SO much fun!)

Status update - PC already sooooo much better with my SSD finally fitted. I bought a power meter, and after running Cinebench (score 574 - my system completely sucks!) the power did not go higher than 70.6W on full load.

It sounds to me like the sensible thing would be to buy an entry level GPU like the GTX 1650 - if it will only draw 75W (as I am reading elsewhere) that sounds like my pathetic 300W PSU could handle it, give me a short term boost in performance (albeit massively bottlenecked by the awful CPU), but still be a decent GPU that can be carried forward to a more expensive build in two or three years.

Anyone see any warning lights with this? Also, if I keep an eye out for second hand processors, am I definitely limited to second gen Intel, or would 3rd gen still work with Sandy Bridge? I'm not wedded to upgrading the processor for this machine as (1) it's ancient, and (2) the most cost effective thing would be to buy a completely new motherboard with a more efficient CPU.

[Dan in Oxford]

On 5/21/2020 at 10:50 PM, Dan in Oxford said:

Thank you everyone for helpful replies, and for graciously forgiving my slow acknowledgement (lockdown with a two year old and a six month old - SO much fun!)

Status update - PC already sooooo much better with my SSD finally fitted. I bought a power meter, and after running Cinebench (score 574 - my system completely sucks!) the power did not go higher than 70.6W on full load.

It sounds to me like the sensible thing would be to buy an entry level GPU like the GTX 1650 - if it will only draw 75W (as I am reading elsewhere) that sounds like my pathetic 300W PSU could handle it, give me a short term boost in performance (albeit massively bottlenecked by the awful CPU), but still be a decent GPU that can be carried forward to a more expensive build in two or three years.

Anyone see any warning lights with this? Also, if I keep an eye out for second hand processors, am I definitely limited to second gen Intel, or would 3rd gen still work with Sandy Bridge? I'm not wedded to upgrading the processor for this machine as (1) it's ancient, and (2) the most cost effective thing would be to buy a completely new motherboard with a more efficient CPU.

Further update! I bought myself a very tasty Zotac GeForce GTX1650 - but the following is happening:

 

1. if I do nothing - it doesn't boot - it sticks on the HP screen

2. pressing ESC gets me to the BIOS - and I can use this to boot to Windows BUT - the screen loads hyper zoomed in at a too small resolution.

3. When I run the driver update Windows reports a code 43 error for the GPU

4. the fix on the GeForce website causes the screen to go black midway through installing and the computer does not recover.

Have checked the BIOS and integrated graphics appear to be switched off ... so I'm a bit puzzled!

 

Would appreciate any wisdom to fix this!

[kocothehoooman]

On 6/21/2020 at 7:19 PM, Dan in Oxford said:

Further update! I bought myself a very tasty Zotac GeForce GTX1650 - but the following is happening:

 

1. if I do nothing - it doesn't boot - it sticks on the HP screen

2. pressing ESC gets me to the BIOS - and I can use this to boot to Windows BUT - the screen loads hyper zoomed in at a too small resolution.

3. When I run the driver update Windows reports a code 43 error for the GPU

4. the fix on the GeForce website causes the screen to go black midway through installing and the computer does not recover.

Have checked the BIOS and integrated graphics appear to be switched off ... so I'm a bit puzzled!

 

Would appreciate any wisdom to fix this!

This thread is pretty dead but while I was researching for answers to something similar I stumbled upon this post. 
Anyways to the point - I have a HP Pro 3400 MT which has the same mobo as your pc and it turns out - by default with older bioses(not sure about newer ones) UEFI capable GPU's don't run on it and the GTX 1650 is a UEFI capable card. I'm guessing by now you've either bought a new pc around the budget you said or you figured out. 

 

EDIT: If by some miracle you're still working on fixing this one interesting thing I saw is that you were capable of booting into windows at all, since most people I've seen haven't been able to even get so far