HP Microtower Upgrade

[Carlix]

Budget (including currency): 200-ish€

Country: Germany

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Witcher 3, other similar games

Hey guys, 

A year ago, I bought a used HP 285 G3 Microtower with Ryzen 5 2400g and 2x8GB 2400MHz RAM.

I've been very happy with the performance, especially considering I paid so little, it can run Witcher 3 at 1080p (everything low ofc, about 30FPS), which I didn't even expect. 

Now I thought, since I saved up some money, maybe I could give it a few Upgrades. The first thing I considered was RAM, but according to my manual, the MB only supports up to 2666MHz, would that really make a difference to my gaming performance? Or is HP lying and I could run 3000 or more MHz?

Would it be worth considering upgrading to a GPU like a used 1050 ti? That would also mean I'd have to upgrade the PSU and since it's an HP proprietary SFF one, I can only go up to 310w, so I'm pretty limited. 

Would all of that even be worth it?

[aager]

42 minutes ago, Carlix said:

Budget (including currency): 200-ish€

Country: Germany

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Witcher 3, other similar games

Hey guys, 

A year ago, I bought a used HP 285 G3 Microtower with Ryzen 5 2400g and 2x8GB 2400MHz RAM.

I've been very happy with the performance, especially considering I paid so little, it can run Witcher 3 at 1080p (everything low ofc, about 30FPS), which I didn't even expect. 

Now I thought, since I saved up some money, maybe I could give it a few Upgrades. The first thing I considered was RAM, but according to my manual, the MB only supports up to 2666MHz, would that really make a difference to my gaming performance? Or is HP lying and I could run 3000 or more MHz?

Would it be worth considering upgrading to a GPU like a used 1050 ti? That would also mean I'd have to upgrade the PSU and since it's an HP proprietary SFF one, I can only go up to 310w, so I'm pretty limited. 

Would all of that even be worth it?

Ram wise if it supports xmp most likely but id test that first before you buy more ram 

for a gpu id rec a 1650 lp

300w would be pretty much maxing it but you should be okay as it only cosumes 75w via the pci-e slot

but i also looked up people on 300w can use a i5 8400 and 1650 lp so you should be just fine

asfar as performance regarding the ram it shouldn't effect it that much you might gain at max with higher speed ram at most 9-15 fps

[jaslion]

The best gpu you can get is a gtx 1650 with NO pcie power connectors.

 

the rx6500 is better but needs pcie 4.0 to work well so its off the table.

 

Changing ram for a little faster ram is a pointless upgrade.

 

Other than snagging a cheap used gtx 1650 with NO pcie power connector and if this doesnt have an ssd adding a ssd to boot from Id not spend any more money on it

[jaslion]

Just now, aager said:

Ram wise if it supports xmp most likely but id test that first before you buy more ram 

for a gpu id rec a 1650 lp

300w would be pretty much maxing it but you should be okay as it only cosumes 75w via the pci-e slot

but i also looked up people on 300w can use a i5 8400 and 1650 lp so you should be just fine

It uses full size gpu slots

[aager]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

It uses full size gpu slots

not the LP Model (edit im dumb) i thought microtower ment sff

[porina]

Check if the bios allows XMP, if not, then if you want to change ram, make sure it has a SPD profile at that speed. If you're sticking with the built in GPU then it could make a bit of a difference. 

 

A GPU could more significantly increase gaming performance. To save replacing the PSU, look for a GPU that doesn't need a power connector. Of course, this limits you to lower power ones. While a bit old, best on nvidia side is the 1650. The 1050Ti is another older option. On the AMD side there's the 6400 but people don't seem to like that as it has potential performance problems when used with older systems.

[Carlix]

Thank you so much, already very helpful!

To clarify: the system currently uses its original 180w PSU, which I don't think can run any graphics card better than the APU, so I would have to buy an HP replacement one with 310W for approx. 100€ (more than halt the price I paid for the system already).

I thought maybe there was some obvious upgrade that would give a little performance boost and not break the bank.

But since I'm currently fine, maybe I'll just keep saving money and eventually build a proper system without a shitty restrictive motherboard which doesn't even have a 24-pin.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Carlix said:

Thank you so much, already very helpful!

To clarify: the system currently uses its original 180w PSU, which I don't think can run any graphics card better than the APU, so I would have to buy an HP replacement one with 310W for approx. 100€ (more than halt the price I paid for the system already).

I thought maybe there was some obvious upgrade that would give a little performance boost and not break the bank.

But since I'm currently fine, maybe I'll just keep saving money and eventually build a proper system without a shitty restrictive motherboard which doesn't even have a 24-pin.

Oh yeah skip.

 

Sell this thing for like the 2-300 you'll get for it and opt for a starter 500-600€ gaming system.

 

The money spent on this is wasted

[porina]

180W PSU does raise power concerns. 2400G is 65W TDP, which if it follows other Zen 2/Zen 3 CPUs, means it is 88W PPT. That leaves a potential 92W for everything else if you run the PSU to its limit. Not a lot. While there are lower power GPUs available, the question then becomes if they can offer more performance than the iGPU. Looking it up, 2400G is comparable to a GT 1030 or RX 550, so no point going to either of those. Above that is going to 75W power class. It will be a gamble if the system could take a 75W GPU, unless you're willing to limit power on CPU and/or GPU, if you even have the ability to limit CPU power. Not worth the risk IMO.