Upgrading HP Compaq Elite 8300 USDT

[NonSequitur777]

Indeed, that's what I am hoping for, my friend. At the very least, DDR3L 1866MHz RAM is backwards compatible with DDR3 1600MHz RAM.  There's little historical documentation that I could find to suggest that there's no chance at all it could work, and even some unsupported anecdotal stories that it does work, albeit on different -but not too dissimilar PCs.

[NonSequitur777]

The Xeon E3-1220 V2 3.10GHz (3.10-3.50, 4 cores, 4 threads) came in, and tried out: it works!  That would suggest that the top Xeon LGA 1155 CPU, the E3-1290 V2 3.70GHz (3.70-4.10, 4 cores, 8 threads), is also compatible. According to PerformanceTest 10.1, the Xeon E3-1220 V2 CPU Bench Mark rating came out at 4735, compared to a score of 6572 for the i7-3770K (un-overclocked).

My only hesitance to purchase the E3-1290 V2 right away is that these CPU's are pretty pricey right now at $160+.

Prior to install, downloaded two available Intel Xeon system drivers (see pic).

[franush]

Hi NonSequitur777

You're doing an amazing job building on this platform and making it sing.  I've got this USDT and my challenge has been to connect it to monitor via HDMI and have tried with two different DP to HDMI adapters but didn't get any signal through either of them and am still only using the VGA.  Would this mean that (apart from the possibility that both adapters are duds) there is a problem with the motherboard?  Any comments would be appreciated.

Best wishes

Frank

[NonSequitur777]

Hi Frank, if I understand your question correctly, my first thought is that the DisplayPorts provide a digital signal, whereas the VGA port is analog.  Make sure that when you connect any of the the USDT DPs to your monitor, that the receiving input -especially if it is a DVI port, is capable for digital input.

Elsewhere on an MS forum I found someone who was successful getting the digital display signal to work using a DP male to DVI female active adapter and then used it to connect a standard DVI to DVI cable to his monitor, but I digress.

Come to think of it, I never got the DP to HDMI to work either, and I abandoned the integrated HD Graphics 4000 in favor of an external graphics card by switching first to the PCIe X1 to PCIe X16 connector and now to the MXM 3.0 X16 to PCIe X16 connector, even though the latter option is quite expensive.

And yes, it is entirely possible that there could be a problem with your MB -that was the case for me (read my thread).  Checking: you can get a replacement 8300 USDT MB for around $20 via Ebay.

[NonSequitur777]

And, lest I forget, please make sure you have the latest graphics driver. Btw, what OS do you use?

[NonSequitur777]

After thinking this through, instead of getting an Intel Xeon E3-1290 V2, I placed an order for a Xeon E3-1280 V2.  There were three reasons for that, 1).- much cheaper, 2).-TDP wattage much lower: 69w vs. 87w, thus less heat, and 3).- according to bench marking, the difference in performance between the 1290 & 1280 is too small to justify double the cost.

[franush]

Hi NS7, Thanks for the quick reply. To clarify I have a monitor that takes all 3 inputs (VGA, DVI and HDMI) and have been using the 8300USDT's VGA output successfully but wanted HDMI with the eventual aim of a UHD monitor but had no luck with anything coming out of my DP to HDMI adapters.  Actually I tried using DP to HDMI adapters on an unrelated PC and also found them useless - I guess they must work in some cases -scratches head-.  Maybe a DP to DVI would work given you've had reports that this has worked for someone.  Replacing the motherboard may work but as we both haven't had success with DP to HDMI adapters a new motherboard may still not have it working.

I find your jedi level use of a video card externally enlightening, I'd consider that if I got an hdmi port in the process.  To be clear, you have the video card outside the case?  Would it be true that the only way to get a hdmi port with a new video card would be with a high performance card like the one you ended up using?

[NonSequitur777]

Yes, the graphics card is conveniently parked outside the HP case, either connected with a PCIe x1 ribbon cable or the MXM 3.0 x16 ribbon cable -see picture. And yes, I would strongly advise you to invest in a decent HDMI enabled external PCIe x16 graphics card, such as the AMD RX 570 I am using currently. It is really too bad that decent / high(er) performance graphics cards are way overpriced at the moment. I had to dish out $340 for a used RX 570 -double what it should cost.

Here's a close up of the "Beast" cable & dock (still sells for $21 via Ebay).

[franush]

Cool look, plus if you're in the northern hemisphere it will soon be handy to have a nice blow heater, especially if you get your overclocking going too.

On your earlier question, my OS is win 10 so I was considering upgrading my graphics driver but instead booted up into linux to see if there was any change with the DP2HDMI adapter but no difference so am pretty confident that there is something really wrong with the hardware.  I am even wondering whether the DP ports are even operational but I have no way of knowing but it doesn't give me a lot of confidence to try a DP2DVI adapter.

As for me a video card looks like a too expensive option, my motivation was to only invest up to half the price of the original PC which was great value as a used PC for me, I have bumped it up to an SSD, new case fan on order, extra RAM to 8GB.  I even tried to do some jedi socket work, the idea was to use an adapter on the PCI port to connect a SATA card for a second HDD but that didn't work.  Alas still can't get HDMI out 😞

My box came with a i5-3470S and with a quick check on benchmarking sites there doesn't seem enough boost when upgrading to a compatible i7, but I did see that the i7-3770K you mentioned does give you a better integrated graphics, not that you would want to use it.

[NonSequitur777]

By the way, still needed to thank you for your kind words describing my HP 8300 USDT upgrade efforts!

You mentioned getting a 2nd HDD to work on your PC. By far the most affordable option is to switch out the CD-ROM/DVD player for a 12.7mm SATA 3.0 2.5" Caddy. I have installed that in my USDT too. Also, this PC has an mSATA slot (to the left of the PCIe X1), that can also be used for extra memory.

By switching to an SSD and adding extra memory alone, the USDTs performance improved significantly. I don't know if you are comfortable ordering from Ebay or AliExpress, but you can often find quality upgrade products there at much lower cost than via traditional vendors.