HP - Compaq 6000 Pro Microtower motherboard upgrade

[trentcreek]

I have upgraded this tower to the max with 16GB of RAM, SSD storage, Q9650 CPU, and even managed to fit a GTX 1660 Ti in  it (with help of kind people on here).

It still runs great, but the CPU is starting to show its age. I am trying to run advanced applications on it, and some will not function due to the CPU lacking AVX2 instructions. Not to mention with some games, I am able to run the graphics at max, but there are some settings in the game which also depend on the CPU. When I try to max out those settings, the CPU is unable to keep up, and so the game starts stuttering. 

I would rather not dump the computer since it has been functioning great all these years.

Is there a possibility of swapping out the motherboard from another newer computer which could possibly fit? I am asking because it seems HP has been making non industry standard parts for their computers.  And I know some third parties have made parts to retrofit onto HP computers.

Anything out there?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The best motherboard you can do a direct swap with is a motherboard from the HP 6300 Pro MT, as they use the same case.

The 3300 Pro MT has 4 USB 3 ports in the rear according to the specs:

HP Compaq Pro 6300 Business PC (bargainhardware.co.uk)

But unfortunately, the i7-3770/i7-3770K processor (which is the best ones you can install), only supports AVX, not AVX2 according to the specs I found below:

HP 657239-001 Desktop Motherboard Pro 6300 MT LGA 1155 w/Core i7-3770 + 4gb RAM | eBay

Intel Core i7-3770 Specs | TechPowerUp CPU Database

I see that the Q9650 doesn't support AVX at all:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 Specs | TechPowerUp CPU Database

You can also use the motherboard from the HP 6200 Pro MT which supports up to an Intel i7-2600/2600K

That motherboard only has USB 2 ports in the rear.

Both motherboards support 4 x 8 GB of memory.

[trentcreek]

Thanks for that suggestion! Yes, while it may not have AVX2, it will at least give the computer more years of usage.

Thanks again so much for your help.

It's too bad that companies do not, or unable to make those retrofit kits like they did back in the 90s to the early 2000s where one could put in a newer generation of CPU on an older socket.

I will probably get that motherboard.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome. 

[trentcreek]

A little update. Got the board and installed it. I also had to cut away some of the CPU cooler fins on this one also to get the GPU to fit (maybe I should get liquid cooler). 

Anyway, I got two good surprises. First was the project I was trying to run actually ran for the first time, which means the minimal requirement is AVX, not AVX2. Secondly, I was surprised the board supports 32GB of RAM, double of the 6000. That is even better as I am trying to learn AI stuff, as some of the models require a minimum of 32GB of RAM.

Thanks again!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

That is great news you were able to fairly easily upgrade your PC.

If you got the 6300 Pro motherboard and an Intel 3rd gen core processor, the board does support 4 x 8 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz memory.

With a second gen core processor the memory will only run at 1333 MHz.

If you are interested in upgrading the PC to W11 let me know. 

There's are easy workarounds to bypass the W11 hardware checks.

That way after W10 goes out of support in October 2025, you can still get the security updates and whatnot.

[trentcreek]

Some innovative Chinese people came up with a desktop gaming motherboard which uses an Intel LGA2011-3 Xeon E5 2650 V4 processor (12 cores/24 threads). On AliExpress you can get one with CPU, board, and 16GB of DDR4 ECC RAM for only $50. Doing some research, I see that socket supports up to a  Xeon E5-2699 v4 which has 22 core, and 44 threads. 

Come this March, I think I will build a whole system around that with the max 128GB of RAM, and the added 22 core Xeon.

With that, the CPU is a bit old, and is not supported by Windows 11, so yes, I would like to put Windows 11 on the now 6300 Pro, and new one I will build.

Thanks for the offer!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Here's two methods you can use:

You can read this discussion for how I upgraded several HP and Dell notebook and desktop PC's that did not meet the W11 hardware requirements to W11 22H2/22H3.

You have to use the version of the Rufus utility that I zipped up and attached in the discussion (v3.18).

Re: Issues upgrading to windows 11 - HP Support Community - 8517912

If the in-place upgrade fails, you should be able to clean install W11 using the bootable W11 installation flash drive you made with Rufus.

When W11 24H2 comes out, things have changed a bit, so watch this video for how to update your W11 23H2 installation to 24H2.

How to install Windows 11 24H2 on Unsupported PC (Early Access) 2024 (youtube.com)

You might even be able to use this video to upgrade from W10 to 23H2.

[trentcreek]

Thanks a lot, again!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime. 

I used the W10 Realtek audio driver from the 800 G1 which is better than the generic W10 /W11 driver that Windows installs, and you will probably need to use the AMT driver from the 6300 Pro support page for the PCI serial port and PCI Simple Communications Controller devices that W11 won't install. 

That should be it.