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HP Recommended
HP Compaq Pro 6300 Small Form Factor PC (ENERGY STAR)

Background:

 

Whacky non-gaming question here.  Note that I'm pretty much but not entirely a newbie when it comes to computer video issues...

 

I have a 43" 4k TV that I want to use primarily as a PC monitor for big spreadsheets, side by side documents, side by side line graphs, and so on. Ie., lots of text, often small. Often I screen capture text loaded windows and save them as image files, usually png, gif, or pdf. Rarely, BMP. A lot of these saved images eventually get printed later on a $500+ 600 dpi laser printer. Secondary use is viewing movies (nothing over Full HD), and of course TV. No games whatsoever. (That's my daughter's computer - haha.) My recently purchased refurb. laptop cranks out 4k images with small text content (say, Libre Office) into this 43" 4k TV just fine, via it's i7-8650 CPU (doing the GP work). BUT, my "best" desktop is a HP6300 Pro SFF with an i5-3740 CPU. SFAIK, without a great deal of work, there's no practical way to put an 8th gen i-series (etc.) CPU in that (desktop) machine, so, if I want 4k output from it, I need a video card made for a SFF machine. 24 Hz @ 4k would probably be ok, and 30 Hz at 4k would surely be ok. Rendering and speed in general are not that important (just a lot of clean text!)

 

Minimal cost is important (or I'd just go ahead and look for a refurb. business desktop with an 8th gen or later i-series CPU and Win 11 Pro, tho' I'd prefer to hold off on that a year or two. So, best case, I'm looking for 4k output from this machine for only a year or two - another reason to hold down cost.)  Plus, the ol' budget is very tight after the holidays.  😞

 

On other forums I got snooty gamers telling me I needed to spend 3 or 4x what the HP6300 is worth (or my "new" laptop is worth, for that matter.)  I guess they can't comprehend my modest / essentially business use needs.


BTW, I believe passive cooling would be ok, as demands on the GPU would be very intermittent (low average power dissipation.) But, a fan is not a deal breaker.

 

I have another refurbed HP 6300 Pro SFF with a GeForce GT 430 installed.  (That's the 6300 in my profile:  It's 3rd gen i3, Win 10 Pro).   However, the GT 430 appears to be dead:   No output, fan never turns, etc.  I do have video from the m-board / integrated graphics.  I suppose I can go into Device Manager and look for it.  Advice on other checks (to see if this is a hardware, firmware, or software issue) would be appreciated. 

 

However, that's not the main issue, as I'm pretty sure the GT 430 can only output a maximum HDMI resolution of 1920 x 1200.  I might be better off with its maximum VGA resolution, as the TV does have a VGA input.  (Looked poor for small text off my laptop's VGA output.)   

 

So... BOTTOM LINE:    I'm looking for a used  SFF video card that can output 4k at slow speeds.   Recommendations?

 

The GT710 looks promising but I am NOT seeing very many used SFF GT 710 cards with HDMI 4k output and 2 GB of DDR5 at good prices on eBay.  Is that overkill FOR THIS PURPOSE?  I do see some with 2 GB of DDR3 occasionally.

 

 Would I be ok with 1 GB of DDR5?  2 GB of DDR3?  A GT730 with 2 GB of DDR3?  An alternate card?

 

Thanks in advance!

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.