Upgrading an HP Pavilion Desktop 590-p0030

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Community,

Occasionally I browse through local online market "classifieds" computer sales, and it so happened that yours truly came across an HP Pavilion Desktop 590-p0030 (3LA14AA) offered for just $30:

Thinking that surely someone had already scooped up this incredible sales offer, I contacted the individual and was informed that yes, the PC was still available! In short, purchased this desktop -which looked very clean on the outside btw, took it home, took it apart -dusty but otherwise unblemished, cleaned it, swapped the 1TB HDD for a 256GB Silicon Power SATA SSD for now (there is an M.2 NVMe SSD slot available), and installed Windows 11 Home.

These are the specs of the HP Pavilion 590-p0030:

Windows 11 Home (was W10 Home), an Intel Core i3-8100, Lincs motherboard (SSID: 843B) with Intel chipset H370, a single 8GB of Samsung DDR4 2666 MHz RAM stick with p/n: M378A1K43DB2-CTD (running at 2400 MHz), a 1TB Seagate 7200 RPM SATA HDD primary drive, an HP ODD HLDS DVDRW GUD1N DVD Writer,  and a 310-watt power supply with p/n: L08262-002, Realtek RTL8821CE Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (1x1) & Bluetooth 4.2 M.2 and BIOS version: AMI F.48, 7/27/2022 [updated to F.51 9/6/2023].

[EDIT:] Replaced the RAM with 2x8GB of Crucial DDR4 2666 MHz p/n: CT8G4DFS8266.C8FE, running at 2400 MHz because of the fact that the max RAM speed an i3-8100 (4-Cores, 4-Threads, 3.60 GHz, 65-watt TDP) allows is 2400 MHz.

[EDIT:] Just for the heck of it, purchased an Intel Core i5-9600KF (6-Cores, 6-Threads, 3.70 GHz up to 4.60 GHz, 95-watt TDP) via eBay for about $70 (including tax/S&H).  The CPU performance increase will be significant: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i5-9600KF-vs-Intel-Core-i3-8100/m772658vs3942.  This particular processor is one of the very best performing Intel Core 8th/9th gen budget purchase options. This CPU upgrade will also allow the 2x8GB DDR4 2666 RAM to actually run at 2666 MHz.

Btw, this CPU (i5-9600KF and i5-9600K) are not well known -for example, amongst more than 2,100 HP Pavilion Desktop 590-p0xxx Users, only one (1) other User has one of these processors installed! 

[EDIT:] Installed a Nvidia Quadro K2200 4GB GDDR5 graphics card, since it was one of the GPU options I had available, and it definitely beats the Intel i3-8100 iGPU's UHD Graphics 630: https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-K2200-vs-Intel-UHD-Graphics-630-Desktop-Coffee-L....

[EDIT:] Current Userbenchmark status: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/70917930.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Esteemed Forum,

FYI: noticed that every time when I removed the HP Pavilion 590-p0030 from power, and when restoring power to the PC and rebooting it, it would show a CMOS checksum error, and the system time was off.

Clear signs that the CMOS CR2032 lithium button cell battery needed to be replaced, and indeed once replaced, these issues disappeared.

[EDIT:] Shopped around at eBay and just purchased a 500GB Netac NV5000 M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 SSD for $32.36 (including tax, free shipping) with max 4800 MB/s Read speed and max 2700 MB/s Write speed.  This M.2 NVMe SSD is to become the primary (boot) drive for the HP Pavilion Desktop 590-p0030. This Gen 4 drive is backwards compatible with the motherboard's Gen 3 slot but will of course be limited to Gen 3 I/O speeds.

[EDIT:] Dug around in my ever-expanding PC components collection, and 'found' 2x16GB of Timetec DDR4 2666 MHz dual-rank (2Rx8) RAM sticks.  I installed this RAM kit, but the PC apparently didn't like it and greeted me with angry not-compatible beeps. Therefore, back to the proven 2x8GB Crucial RAM!

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

A Monday, August 11th brief:

This is where research pays of: just tried out a 500-watt power supply with p/n: L77487-003 (alternatively: L89233-001) which is equipped with two 8-pin PCIe power supply cables, and it works A-OK!  This is not a power supply that is listed anywhere by HP as being compatible with the HP Pavilion 590-p0xxx platform, but it is: with totally normal thermals etc.

This is a great plus, because with a 500-watt power supply I can actually power a high-performing graphics card, yet to be determined.

Also, because I am going to install a 9th gen (i5-9600KF) 95-watt TDP processor, I will remove the (massive) black drive bay/cage bracket which spans the entire case, in order to allow the installation of an additional cooling fan (or fans) beneath (or topside) the top panel in order to blow air down onto the CPU heatsink.  I don't need the drive bay anyway -or the ODD for that matter, and I will use Velcro to attach a 1TB Samsung SATA SSD secondary drive onto the power supply.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Greetings,

Latest updates on this HP Pavilion 590-p0030 upgrade project:

Ordered the following parts -not in any specific order per se:

1.) An HP 95-watt TDP rated heatsink with p/n: 644724-001 "Heatsink - 95W, Kidd".

2.) 2x16GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2666 MHz UDIMM RAM sticks with p/n: HX426C16FB3/16.

3.) Two Thermalright White TL-8015W 80mm cooling fans (to be installed either beneath or on top of the removeable panel's ventilation grille blowing air down).

4.) An M.2 NVMe SSD heatsink (black) for the 500GB Netac M.2 PCIe Gen 4.0×4 NVMe SSD.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Community,

Successfully installed the Intel Core i5-9600KF (6-Cores, 6-Threads, 3.70 GHz up to 4.60 GHz, 95-watt TDP).

Because the current CPU heatsink is rated at 65-watt TDP, I added an additional CPU cooling fan on top of the original cooling fan (powered by a 4-pin PWM cooling fan splitter cable) in order to increase the airflow and thus improving CPU cooling.  This is working out pretty good so far.

[EDIT:] Current Userbenchmark status: HP Pavilion Desktop 590-p0xxx Performance Results - UserBenchmark.  RAM is now running at 2666 MHz.  Processor performance (with the i3-8100) jumped from 80.1% to 91.6%, with still room left for optimization.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[DGroves]

your current posts on upgrading systems appear to be quite helpful for people wanting to upgrade their systems

perhaps you could provide a price breakdown of the final components used in this system upgrade at the end of your posts on upgrading system and rank it's final performance numbers cpu/gpu/ram/storage with a benchmarking program so people could decide to follow your upgrade steps over time or decide to wait till they could buy a same or better performing system (used or new)

listing the base systems performance vs the end result along with what current used system you think your upgraded system is equal to should be very useful to people thinking about upgrading/replacing  their system

[NonSequitur777]

@DGroves,

Thank you my friend, that is a great idea. I will provide a price breakdown and a performance ranking at the end of this upgrade project.  I sort of already am doing this, but it will be far more structured and referrable. 

Even though I am always looking for great deals & sales opportunities (and why the hεll not) whilst pursuing an HP computer upgrade project, more often than not I change my mind and decide to purchase high(er) end -and thus more expensive components, be it processors, RAM, drives, heatsinks, etc. in order to push the ultimate (gaming) performance to the max, something I suppose many people aren't necessarily interested in or are willing to afford for that matter.

Anyway, for me tinkering, upgrading/optimizing, exploring, (re-)inventing novel upgrading ways where few have gone before and venturing outside the HP Reservation -and yes, assisting others and learning at the same time, is a long awaited dream come true.  I am at a point in my life's journey where I can pretty much devote lots of time & expenditures to pursue these endeavors.  But I digress.

Warm Regards,

NonSequitur777

[San_cheese]

I can't believe how much of a great timing this project started as this specific HP Pavilion model was my old pc and finding it recently I decided to dissemble it and upgrade it. However, there are poor documentation on this model and i was worried the chipset was poor at handling higher watts CPUS (e.g unlocked K versions) but thanks to this project i feel a lot confident into upgrading it 

I am curious if you could try (with the PSU upgrade) a more higher wattage GPU such as a rx570/rx580 or possibly a gtx 1660?

[DGroves]

most OEM are rather good on making basic documentation available on their products and HP is no exception however this model is not a business or workstation system rather it's a consumer line product (Pavilion)  as such some things like a product service manual which covers disassembly of a system is not available for most consumer computer systems

https://support.hp.com/nz-en/product/details/hp-pavilion-desktop-pc-590-p0000i/model/21984398

https://support.hp.com/nz-en/product/setup-user-guides/hp-pavilion-desktop-pc-590-p0000i/model/21984...

[NonSequitur777]

@San_cheese,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

Yea, this vintage Desktop still has plenty of live in it if you are willing to spend some money upgrading it!  When you 'shop' around -online (local newspaper) market places, eBay, AliExpress, etc., you can make it fun and affordable!

With the 500-watt power supply (p/n: L77487-003 or alternatively: L89233-001), you can indeed power an RX 570 or RX 580, whilst the GTX 1660 / GTX 1660 Ti / GTX 1660 Super can easily be powered by a 400-watt power supply with p/n: L04618-800 (alternatively: 942332-001 or L76557-001) which can be purchased via eBay-UK, for example, such as here.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777