HP Pavilion 500-277c Motherboard diagram and other questions

[Jedi105]

Hello all. Ran a search for this but nothing came up for my specific model. As a 30 plus year user of computers I am very disappointed with the documentation that came with my new rig. I just bought a refurbished HP Pavilion 5000-277c. Opened it up to look around (I have future plans on upgrading the PSU, video and adding another hard drive). Unfortunately, I guess with that 30 plus years, I have also aged and can no longer really see the writing on the MB. I was wondering if anyone had information on where to go to get a mother board diagram like the old Dell or even the Packard Bell computers came with back in the day. I'm curious to the extra ports  and the pin settings. 

Second, like I said, I popped open the case as soon as I got it and I was impressed with the space available inside. I mean,, this thing is an absolute cavern and the wiring is a beauty to behold. I'm used to the rats nest of cables all over the place but this one has a minimal set of wires and they are routed along the chasis to allow unobstructed air flow. The problem I have is the HDD is mounted on an aluminum plate mounted on the side of the chasis. There is only 1 HDD present and as I usually do with new computers, I wanted to add a second hard drive. I do not see any other bays for a HDD. I was wondering if there is a rail set that would connect the second hard drive to piggyback it on the original, similar to the old Dell computers. This is very important to me as 1gb of HDD space simply wont cut it. I'm considering adding an SSD drive and that would also need some way to mount in the case. An external HDD is not an option as I already have 4 inside a NAS. I want more HDD space inside the computer as I dont always power on the NAS.

Next question is - PSU. Can someone name a specific PSU in the 600 - 650W range. Its for the future gaming upgrade. Any PSU MUST have all of the current power connectors plus an extra or 2 for the discrete graphics card

And lastly - can someone name a discrete video card that will be compatible with this rig. I'm interested in gaming but I'm not hard core so I dont need a 300$ or higher card. Something that could play todays games at mid to high detail levels with acceptable frame rates and no more than 200 bones. I should also have HDMI out.

Thanks in advance for the antipated responses.

Steve

[Big_Dave]

Hi,

HP did not post a B/W motherboard layout for your PC.  The below color image perhaps will meet your needs.

As for the power supply, the Corsair CX500 or CX600 are perfect fits for your PC.

For a graphics card, look at the NVIDIA GTX 660.  $179 after mail in rebate.

Your PC is only provisioned for one hard drive.  I have seen some posts out here where the posters have fabricated some sheet metal brackets so that one hard drive could be added. I don't have the url offhand.If you don't like to fabricate sheet metal brackets then another option might be to remove the optical drive and mount the SSD using 5.25" to 2.5" adapter brackets in that bay.   An external optical drive is fairly inexpensive.  Another option is to consider one of the newer hybrid hard drives with a built in SSD cache.

[Jedi105]

Thank you very much.