Upgrading HP Elite 8300 SFF

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

My new legacy HP desktop Upgrade project is an HP Compaq Elite 8300 SFF.

Actually, I am rebuilding one of my HP Compaq 6300 Pro SFFs, by swapping the HP 6300 Pro SFF's motherboard with an HP Elite 8300 SFF motherboard which I purchased for quite a bargain through eBay:

And voilà, from one moment to the next -as far as Microsoft and HP are concerned, this PC is no longer an HP 6300 Pro SFF, but an HP Elite 8300 SFF. Because a PC's model designation is determined by its motherboard:

Why am I doing this? Well, because I can. And I want to create the fastest HP Elite 8300 SFF just like I have been able to achieve that objective with all my previous legacy HP desktop Upgrade projects -according to UserBenchMark [dot] com. Also, a number of folks expressed an interest in seeing me Upgrading an HP Elite 8300 SFF.

Not that I needed any encouragement per se, since boldly going where few if any have gone before is a sufficient incentive for yours truly.

But I digress.

Both SFF motherboards are almost identical -everything fits A-OK and snaps in place inside the desktop case/chassis without any issues whatsoever. Just a matter of taking stuff apart and moving the same RAM: 4 x 8GB of Crucial CT102464BD160B.C16 DDR3 PC3-12800, 1600 MHz, Non-ECC, Unbuffered UDIMM, 240-pin RAM sticks, and swapping the same processor, the surprisingly agile Gaming-capable i7-3770K (4-Cores, 8-Threads, 3.50 GHz and max turbo frequency of 3.90 GHz). The swap was very successful: Windows 11 started right up -that is, BIOS protested/beeped at me at first because it detected a different processor and different RAM, but after updating etc., this desktop is running great. Haven't yet hooked up an external graphics card: one step at a time. And yes, various (system) drivers and BIOS (version K01 v02.05, 5/7/2012) are way outdated, will take care of that in the coming days.

Anyway, one of the 8300 SFF's advantages is that its motherboard was designed with a PCIe x4 slot, whereas the 6300 SFF's PCIe slot in position X1PCIEXP2 is only a PCIe x1 slot.

Why am I interested in this? Because I want to try out an M.2 NVMe SSD using a PCIe to M.2 NVMe SSD adapter, and you need (at least) a PCIe x4 slot to make it worth your while. And so, I purchased a brand-new 500 GB Silicon Power M.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD, Model UD70 for $33 via Amazon -which in my opinion is an incredible deal since UD70's are manufactured with the latest 3D QLC NAND storage NVMe 1.3 support technology, allowing for theoretical read speeds of up to 3,400 MB/s, and write speeds up to 3,000 MB/s.

Standby.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[BeemerBiker]

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@NonSequitur777 wrote:

Dear Forum,

My new legacy HP desktop Upgrade project is an HP Compaq Elite 8300 SFF.

Haven't yet hooked up an external graphics card: one step at a time. And yes, various (system) drivers and BIOS (version K01 v02.05, 5/7/2012) are way outdated, will take care of that in the coming days.

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Out of  curiosity I looked around and there are a number of single slot  Hi performance GPU's that could fit in your 8300.  Power might be a problem and also low profile.

https://gpuspecs.com/best-graphics-cards/best-single-slot-graphics-cards

I had this one back in 2011 on a Dell.  It ran hot but was the only option for any type of performance back then.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @NonSequitur777 

Hopefully, BIOS v3.08 is new enough to allow the PC to boot from the NVMe SSD.

If not, please see these discussions...

Solved: NVME M.2 SSD in HP ELITE 8300 SMALL FORM FACTOR via NVME ADA... - HP Support Community - 805...

Solved: HP Compaq Elite 8200 CMT booting to NVME - HP Support Community - 6863492

[NonSequitur777]

@BeemerBiker,

Thank you for the suggestion, but I'll stick with parking a high(er) end graphics card outside the case using a PCIe extension cable and secondary synced PSU using the trusted ATX 24-pin power conversion card method.  As you implied, removing a graphics card from a rather cramped SFF case stocked with a limited power supply not to speak of adding additional heat, is better anyway.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

@Paul_Tikkanen,

Yea, first updated BIOS from K01 v02.05 then to K01 v02.99 and then to K01 v03.08:

The HP Elite 8300 SFF is certainly recognizing this new drive:

And:

But so far, I haven't seen this M.2 NVMe SSD in BIOS yet. -But then again, I haven't gone through your links yet.

Standby.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Sorry that it can't boot from the drive.

See if this video helps...I wish the dog wasn't yapping in the background...

How to boot to DUET w/REFIND and Install Win10 - YouTube

If you have already installed Windows on the SSD, you can skip that part.

I am confident you will get it to work.

[NonSequitur777]

@Paul_Tikkanen,

Well, now -I see: both @DGroves and @Grzwacz chimed in to say that you cannot make an M.2 NVMe SSD the primary boot drive on this legacy platform, and I quote:

"your system will not support nvme boot as it lacks the required bios code for this (it will work as a data drive)" -DGroves

[EDIT: To give praise where praise is due, DGroves also provided suggestions to bypass this issue. And after having spent too many hours already, DGroves was indeed correct that this desktop is lacking the required BIOS code (update) to identify an M.2 NVMe SSD as a legit bootable drive... ]

"Sorry, but HP specs per this site (Link) show only SATA support for bootable storage devices." -Grzwacz

[EDIT: And Grzwacz also nailed it]

Precisely the sort of accepted & established dogma I would love to disprove.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Yes, but in his defense, DGroves did say that 'your only possible solution for your nvme drive is a software bootloader such as DUET/REFIND or clover.'

That is what the video I posted is for.

The link to the Duet software is on that page as well.

[BeemerBiker]

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@NonSequitur777 wrote:

@Paul_Tikkanen,

Well, now -I see: both @DGroves and @Grzwacz chimed in to say that you cannot make an M.2 NVMe SSD the primary boot drive on this legacy platform, and I quote:

"your system will not support nvme boot as it lacks the required bios code for this (it will work as a data drive)" -DGroves

"Sorry, but HP specs per this site (Link) show only SATA support for bootable storage devices." -Grzwacz

Precisely the sort of accepted & established dogma I would love to disprove.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

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I tried one in a Z400 and the BIOS never saw it.  It worked fine as a data disk and I moved my copy of PrimoCache to the Z400 to make better use of the M.2

[NonSequitur777]

@Paul_Tikkanen,

My sincere apologies to @DGroves: you did mention, and I quote: "your only possible solution for your nvme drive is a software bootloader such as DUET/REFIND or clover."

And indeed, @BeemerBiker - so far, doggonit, I have been unable to get BIOS to 'see' the Silicon Power M.2 NVMe SSD as a boot option. I haven't tried a couple of tricks yet, and then there are the bootloader options.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777