Upgrading an HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Purchased a well-priced 'barebone' HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR -though fitted with an Intel Core i5-6500 (4-Cores, 4-Threads, 3.20 GHz up to 3.60 GHz, 65-watt TDP) for just $60 and free shipping: https://www.ebay.com/itm/267259193011:

Having been around for a while, this HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR purchase option is one of those outstanding eBay offers that will show up once in a while. I couldn't help myself (OCD-ish?) -I just had to buy it. Come to think of it, I have been told that I'm borderline hoarding, but nah -I sort of see myself more as a Collector of sorts, and I am planning to eventually offload (sell) completed upgrade projects via eBay [maybe 🤔], so that I can buy more discounted stuff, etc. -but I digress.

Anyway, this HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Tower system is highly upgradeable, comes with a 250-watt power supply, and could very easily be made into a decent gaming PC for cheap -even with the i5-6500: throw in 2x8GB of 2400 MHz DDR4 UDIMM RAM for $24: https://www.amazon.com/PC4-19200-2400MHZ-288-pin-Upgrade-Desktop/dp/B0BJZQCMY5/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1A7AR..., a GTX 1660 Super for $140: https://www.amazon.com/PNY-GeForce-Gaming-Overclocked-Renewed/dp/B092MWFP7J/ref=sr_1_8?crid=34ZDJQ82..., and a 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD as the primary (boot) drive for just $40: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Plus-500GB-PCIe-5000MB/dp/B0B25NTRGD/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1XZC4YK1LT22F&di..., and you got yourself a rather decent gaming PC for well under $300 -tax/tariffs included.

Don't expect to play high-end games in super-fast 4K, but at least you'll get around in medium settings at 1080p with a decent (60+) fps in quite a few games: https://www.pcgamebenchmark.com/compatible-games.

Say, if you were to upgrade the processor from an i5-6500 to an i7-7700K (or even an i5-7600K) -then you'll see a serious gaming improvement for sure.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

As mentioned, the stock power supply for an HP EliteDesk 800 G3 Tower is a 250-watt unit.

However, you can upgrade the power supply with a number of quality power supplies, such as:

400-watt with p/n: L04618-800 / 942332-001

500-watt with p/n: 901759-013 / L77487-003 / L77487-001 / L05757-800 / 913290-001 / L89233-001 / L81009-800

650-watt with p/n: L57253-003 / L36049-003

This means that this full-sized PC can be fitted with a great many (high(er)-end) graphics cards, including many larger-sized (triple fan) cards* and still have plenty of room to fill up the PC with up to four SATA storage drives, plus you got an M.2 NVME SSD slot -preferably to be used as your primary (boot) drive, and an additional PCIe 3.0 x16 (wired as x4) slot, which you can use to install an additional M.2 NVMe SSD, using a PCIe to M.2 NVMe SSD adapter card. And last but not least, you got a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for a graphics card.

* In order to fit the largest of GPUs, you can remove the removeable drives bay or 'modify' it by removing aka 'snip out' a section.

In addition to the high-end i7-7700K (4-Cores, 8-Threads, 4.20 GHz up to 4.50 GHz, 91-watt TDP), this PC may also be compatible with the Xeon E3-12xx v6 processor family, including the Xeon E3-1280 v6 (4-Cores, 8-Threads, 3.90 GHZ up to 4.20 GHz, 72-watt TDP), which I have in my CPU Collection.  Before I try this processor and see how it goes, I will first install an i5-7600K (4-Cores, 4-Threads, 3.80 GHz up to 4.20 GHz, 91-watt TDP) to download the most recent BIOS version and system drivers.

Got 4x8GB of Samsung DDR4 PC4-19200, Non-ECC, UDIMM, 288-pin RAM (p/n: M378A1K43CB2-CRC) sticks for this project.

Also have two M.2 NVMe SSD drives available: a 500GB WD Blue SN550 and a 500GB Silicon Power UD70, and one SATA SSD: 1TB Samsung 870 QVO (p/n: MZ7M31T0HALD).

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

The 'barebone' HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR showed up today and started to work on it.

Successfully replaced the Intel Core i5-6600 (yes: the PC came with an i5-6600, not the i5-6500 as advertised!) with an Intel Core i5-7600K (4-Cores, 4-Threads, 3.80 GHz up to 4.20 GHz, 91-watt TDP), added 4x8GB Samsung DDR4 2400 MHz UDIMM RAM sticks (p/n: M378A1K43CB2-CRC), a 500GB WD Blue SN550 M.2 NVMe SSD as the primary (boot) drive, removed the stock 250-watt power supply and replaced it with a 500-watt power supply (p/n: L77487-003). Installed a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X graphics card.

Also added a 500GB Silicon Power UD70, by using an M.2 NVMe SSD to PCIe adapter on the PCIe x16 (wired as x4) slot, and a SATA SSD 1TB Samsung 870 QVO.

First order of business was to install Windows 10, which completed without a hitch.  The install confirmed that this PC got a bona fide embedded Windows 10 Pro license. The BIOS version was old: 02.06 (June 2017) and updated to the most recent BIOS version: 02.50 (July 2024).

Then installed Windows 11 Pro using one -if not the easiest install method yet developed for unsupported devices: How to Install Windows 11 on Unsupported PC in 2025 (New Easiest Method, No CMD), using a nifty Microsoft backdoor Server install method.

And here we are:

Now I am going to install a Xeon E3-1280 v6 (4-Cores, 8-Threads, 3.90 GHz up to 4.20 GHz, 72-watt TDP) and see what happens.  This Intel Kaby Lake processor should theoretically be compatible with the HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR.

[EDIT:] Well, that was that: the E3-1280 v6 did not work -or at least it didn't work for me.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

First HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR Userbenchmark performance evaluation run:

Link: HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777 · Accepted solution]

Dear Forum,

Added an 80mm front panel cooling fan ("HK FAN" p/n: AS8025V12, 0.50A) using two zip ties which fitted perfectly using the case's tiny square venting holes.  (Yes, no "slice & dice" this time around!) Using a 4-pin PWM splitter cable to the "CHFAN2" power connector. The front panel snaps into place without any issues.  Rather than relying on passive air intake from the front, I changed it to a forced air intake in order to improve the airflow through the case.

Because the GTX 1080 is rather large in length, I removed the drives bay.  Because of this, I had to use Velcro tape to secure the SATA SSD on top of the 500-watt power supply.

The other secondary (M.2 NVMe SSD) drive can be seen between the graphics card and the power supply:

I marked this HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR upgrade project as "ACCEPT THIS SOLUTION" because I upgraded this legacy PC to become an acceptable gaming platform, which what this exercise was all about.  The processor can be upgraded to an i7-7700K, but since the i5-7600K is providing sufficient horsepower to game in medium to high 1080P settings, I called it good.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Thinking about it, the gaming PC I had made for my daughter a while back, a heavily modified HP Z240 Tower Workstation, was fitted with an i7-7700K.

Now, it just occurred to me that the Z240 platform is compatible with the Xeon E3-12xxx v6 family, and I decided to swap her i7-7700K with the Xeon E3-1280 v6, which worked out A-OK.  -I had installed the Xeon processor earlier anyway during my upgrade project. This exchange was a more-or-less horizontal swap: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Xeon-E3-1280-v6-vs-Intel-Core-i7-7700K/m344226vs3647, and I installed the i7-7700K in the HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR and, not surprisingly, got an immediate -and significant, performance boost out of it:

Link: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/70344685.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Upon running the IPDT (Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool) under "CPULoad", I found that the i7-7700K thermals exceeded 86° C.

This required some immediate remedial action.

So, I double-stacked the vertical CPU heatsink cooling fans, and added a 92mm TL-9015W ThermalRight performance cooling fan directly over the processor, blowing air in, secured on the inside of the HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR top panel (or side panel, depending on your perspective) plus an obligatory finger guard:

And the result of these cooling mods was a significant 14+°C decrease in processor temps -I was very happy to see this:

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777