Prebuilt Upgrade Path

[AdmiralJuicy]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone can tell me what processor and motherboard upgrades, if any, I can make with this pre-built PC (HP Pavilion 500-252ep). It currently has an i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz and uses the Hewlett Packard 2aF7 version 1.04 motherboard.

I’ve already tried to upgrade the 300W power supply to give me a bit more headroom, but it seems to be screwed in with unusual screws that I can’t remove.

I’m currently using a GTX 1650 and plan to upgrade to an RTX 3050 in the future. I also have 16 GB of RAM, but I think the motherboard and CPU might be bottlenecking my performance in some games and applications.

Any suggestions?

[NonSequitur777 · Accepted solution]

@AdmiralJuicy,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

Your HP Pavilion 500-252ep (F6K28EA) is fitted with the Memphis-S (SSID 2AF7) motherboard, which supports Intel 4th-gen (Haswell) CPUs. Since you already have an i7-4770, the best possible upgrade would be an i7-4790K -the fastest CPU this board can handle. HP’s BIOS won’t allow overclocking, but the higher stock clock speeds will make it a nice upgrade.

For the power supply: the “weird screws” are actually Torx T15 screws. With a Torx T15 screwdriver you can remove the old 300-watt PSU and install a standard ATX unit. A quality 500–650-watt PSU (Corsair, Seasonic, EVGA, etc.) will comfortably power an RTX 3050.

A huge performance boost comes from switching your boot drive to a 2.5-inch SATA SSD -if you haven't done so already. The motherboard doesn’t support NVMe, but even a SATA SSD will give dramatically faster boot times and app/game loading compared to the stock HDD.

Your GTX 1650 is already well balanced for this system. An RTX 3050 upgrade will work fine, but don’t expect huge gains -the Haswell platform is starting to bottleneck newer GPUs.

Summary:

• CPU: i7-4790K is the best processor upgrade.

• Use a SATA SSD for your primary (boot) drive.

• PSU: needs Torx T15 to remove, then replace with a 500–650-watt ATX PSU.

• GPU: RTX 3050 works, but eventually consider a full platform upgrade for larger improvements.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[AdmiralJuicy]

@NonSequitur777 Thanks for the fast and comprehensive suggestions! Do you also have a recommendation for possible motherboard upgrades? Essentially gutting the whole thing but keeping the case at that point haha I have also added an SSD a couple of years ago which boosted the performance massively.

[NonSequitur777]

@AdmiralJuicy,

It may very well be possible to find a different, more modern motherboard that would miraculously fit inside your case and uses the same (proprietary) HP data and power connectors -unlikely, but possible, I suppose. In any regards, I don't have any information about that.

Honestly, if you are interested in a higher performing PC, replacing the entire setup is the way to go.  Allow your HP Pavilion 500-252ep to retire or gift it to someone who would appreciate it for what it is.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[AdmiralJuicy]

@NonSequitur777

Thanks again! I'm essentially trying to squeeze as much as I can from this old dog before putting it to rest or using it as a media center. Thanks again for the wonderful suggestions 🙂

[NonSequitur777]

@AdmiralJuicy,

You are very welcome and wishing you Smooth Sailing!

Warm Regards,

NonSequitur777