Adding Dedicated Graphics Card to HP Pavilion Desktop 510-p127c

[jgower]

I am trying to upgrade my HP Pavilion Desktop 510-p127c with a more robust graphics card.

Because of the disc drive, the card has to be short (less than 6 1/2" long).  There is one PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot available and a space next to this slot that's not quite the size of a second slot...blocking this from being a complete second slot are two plugs in the motherboard (one I believe is for sound).  I have found several GeForce cards that look CLOSE to fitting, but without ordering one and trying it out, I don't know if any will hit the two plugs on the board or not.  This is an example of one that I think would work: EVGA GeForce TTX 1050 Ti.  Has anyone added a 4gb graphics card to this machine, and if so, which one?  Has anyone installed the 1050 Ti?  I need to know if it fits before I order one!

Aside from the space issues, I realize I will need to upgrade the power supply as well (which is no big deal).  I have many choices of power supplies that will work fine.

[old_geekster]

@jgower, welcome to the forum.

This is not the usual forum that you are used to using for help with upgrading.  The average member on this forum comes here with a problem, gets it solved and leaves.  They may never return.  Therefore, you may not get a response on your question about a card that fits.

I am not certain that the video slot is PCI 3.0.  The specs appear to show otherwise.  They don't show the 3.0.  Normally, if it is 3.0 HP will show it.

Here is a card that should fit.  However, I suggest that you contact EVGA's Tech Support (1-888-880-3842) to see what they have to say.  They are very helpful.

Please click the Thumbs up + button if I have helped you and click Accept as Solution if your problem is solved.

[AntPhoenixFlyer]

Hello, did you find a graphics card that worked for you? I'm looking to upgrade mine as well, and would really appreciate the help. Thank you very much!

[old_geekster]

@AntPhoenixFlyer, welcome to the forum.

The card that I recommended in my previous post should work.  You can take a look at it to see if it has what you want.

[jgower]

Yes, I did upgrade this computer (two of them) one each with a different 4gb video card.

My son and I have the same computer (though I have the 2tb hd version).

For my son's computer I installed a XFX AMD Radeon RX 560 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 I purchased (and which is on sale right now at Best Buy for $129.99.  This card requires a 6 pin power connector which this PC does not have--so I upgraded the power supply as well with a FSP Dagger 600W Mini ITX Solution / SFX 12V / Micro ATX 80 Plus Gold Certified Plus Modular VR / 4K Ready Gaming Power Supply from Newegg.  This worked wonderfully well.  For my computer I installed the EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC Gaming 4GB GDDR5 DX12 OSD Support from Newegg.  The 1050 Ti is supposed to be a little better than the RX 560 but both systems run great.  Also, the 1050 Ti doesn't require power run directly from the power supply to the card--it takes it's power from the motherboard PCI slot...however, I was leery of trying to run this graphics card without upgrading the very slight power supply the computer comes with, which is 180w...so that's why I upgraded the power supply.

Now for a couple of notes on installation:

The video cards both needed to have their "shrowd" trimmed.  What I'm calling the shroud is the plastic cover that the fan sits in and that covers the card itself.  There are two plugs on the motherboard that will get impinged hard if the video card is not trimmed.  The cover is easy to remove...just a few tiny screws.  With the cover removed, trim the portion that would otherwise hit the two plugs on the motherboard right next to the PCI Express slot the video card will go into.  You can put the card mostly into the slot and see exactly where it needs to be trimmed.  I used a dremel tool to trim both of my cards, but anything that can safely cut cheap, hard plastic will work.  Also, I needed to temporarily slide the DVD drive out a couple inches to make inserting the video card a little easier.

Finally the power supply I chose was a small but powerful.  It came with an adapter to make it fit into place correctly but I still needed to trim a couple of small edges on the computer case to make sure enough screws matched up to hold the power supply firmly in place.  I am somewhat of a nit picker, so I wanted at least four screws securing the power supply.

This may seem like a lot to do to upgrade a computer...but it's a great machine and it was relatively cheap.  My son runs multiple games on his system and I run a couple of fairly demanding games...without an issue.  I can run Forza Horizon 3 on medium settings with no issues or lag at all.

[AntPhoenixFlyer]

jgower thank you so so much for taking the time to give me all this tremendous detail! This is going to help me so much. I'm also extremely impressed and jealous of your handiness to trim down the shrowd - I'm pretty sure if I bought these cards and realized they didnt fit I would have just gotten really mad and returned them!

Since you seem to be very knowledgable about all these things, I really hope you don't mind me asking a few followup questions:

1. If I removed the DVD drive completely (I never use it), would that make cutting the shrowd down no longer necessary? Or does that have nothing to do with it not fitting properly.

2. I noticed you said you purchased 4GB graphic cards - Was that the max you felt the computer could handle, or do you think a 6GB or higher could also be used? I'm just afraid of installing a 4GB card then a year from now all games say you should have a 6 or higher.

Thank you thank you thank you!!

[jgower]

Cutting the shroud down is to keep it from hitting the two plugs on the motherboard next to the PCI Express slot.  The length of the two video cards I used was short enough I didn't have to worry about them hitting anything (I was worried about the DVD drive which is in the way of using a longer card).  I took a chance doing this because, of course, if there was a problem with the video card (if it were defective) I couldn't return it once I cut the shrowd...and I couldn't try the card out without cutting the shrowd so it would fit in the computer.  I will try to include a picture showing about where I cut the shrowd (I've just drawn a red line about where I cut and a yellow arrow showing one of the screws that have to be removed to get the shrowd off).

Also, I don't believe this computer would have any problems supporting a video card with more memory, 6, 8, 11, 16GB or whatever.  The issue is how much you want to spend and what the dimensions of the card are.  My wallet only allowed me to go for the 4GB cards.  I may upgrade later to a better card (probably 8GB in the next two years or so).  If the card is too long, though, the DVD drive will have to be removed.  And I don't remember if there were other obstacles as well...I THINK all you'd have to do is trim the shroud on the bottom where it may hit objects on the motherboard next to the PCI slot and remove the DVD drive...but as I've not put a longer card in, I don't know off-hand.  And, sorry, I don't want to pully my system out right now and see.

If I were you, I'd get the card I want that looks as though it will fit--but don't do any cutting until you've put it roughly where it would be when modified--to verify that with minor surgery, it WILL fit.  That way, if there's no way to make it work, you can return it.

[Sodakproud]

I helped my Brother In law add a RX 560 card to his HP Pavilion 570. 

We had to remove the fan case shroud on the RX 560 and re-add the fan back to the heat sink. (Because HP added a M.2 slot right next to the PCI slot and cards don't fit right.)

Then with the card out of the system we did F11/F10 got into the bios. And found and turned on Legacy boot so the card would be recognized.

Then added it back in.

We also upgraded to this power supply: FSP Dagger 600W Mini ITX Solution / SFX 12V / Micro ATX 80 Plus Gold Certified Plus Modular VR / 4K Ready Gaming Power Supply from Newegg too.