Upgrading HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Pushing more air/increasing air-velocity through the CPU heatsink has been very successful with previous legacy HP desktops upgrade projects.  To that end, I fitted an additional (identical) CPU cooling fan in tandem on top of the existing CPU cooling fan.  I had to remove part of the lower section of the drives bay -something I would have to do anyway if I wanted to install an aftermarket or larger, alternative CPU/cooling fan assembly, in order to make things fit. The optical drive is now bye-bye, not a particularly great loss:

Disconnected the secondary 9025 stock cooling fan, but kept the 8025 top-panel fan powered up, to facilitate air moving through the heatsink.

Well, it didn't make much of a difference.  Telling me once and for all that the HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT's stock CPU heatsink is insufficient to deal with the high-powered i7-7700K, no matter how much air you can force through it.

But this is all part of a scientific approach:  conduct an experiment to test a hypothesis and then draw a conclusion, based on objective, observable and factual evidence.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Experimented with another alternative CPU heatsink/fan combo, this time the "alternate" heatsink/fan combo made for the HP Z240 Tower Workstation, with HP p/n: 810281-001, intended for "performance <=95W" processors.  I purchased this combo a little while ago from eBay, because by looking at it, I thought this might come in handy because its design is more robust, and it has a copper CPU heat plate & three goodly-sized copper heat pipes:

And what do you know: this worked great!  -Reduced temps on average by approximately 12~14°C, keeping the i7-7700K (TDP=91 watt) temps below 90°C when stressed. Thinking carefully through airflow dynamics options, the way I chose to set this up was that I rotated the heatsink 180 degrees on the LGA1151 socket, so that the CPU fan blows air to the front of the desktop, assisted by the secondary cooling fan fitted on the exterior of the rear of the PC, which blows air directly into the CPU cooling fan.

The third cooling fan, mounted on the inside of the top panel, assists by blowing air down towards the CPU heatsink.  I needed a PWM 4-pin extension cable for the CPU cooling fan, in order to be able to plug in the CPU cooling fan's 4-pin connector into the CPU PWM motherboard connector:

This then, will be the final CPU cooling configuration.  The reason why I have been hesitant to use any of my aftermarket heatsink/cooling fan combos, is because I would have had to remove the motherboard in order to attach any of them.  That is sort of a pain, and I wanted to avoid it if I could.

In other words, HP saved the day with a heatsink never intended to be fitted on an HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT, but it sure works as intended!

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Esteemed Forum,

Well, even though the Z240 Tower heatsink/fan combo solved the i7-7700K heat issue, I am still not done with the heatsink upgrade concept. We can cool this processor even more.

For kicks, just purchased an HP Z440 Workstation CPU heatsink/fan combo (HP p/n: 749554-001).  This heatsink/fan combo was designed to cool Intel processors up to a TDP of 140 watt, such as the Xeon E5-1650 v4 or the i7-6850K:

I know, this heatsink/fan combo was designed for an LGA 2011 socket -and will have to switch the 6-pin cooling fan for a standard 4-pin PWM fan, but I am confident that modifying the heatsink's motherboard attachment positioning (perhaps with the aid of an LGA 1151 mounting kit) can make this heavy-duty black beauty fit onto an LGA 1151 socket.  At least worth a serious try.  Yes, I do like to go where few if any have gone before.

[EDIT:] And purchased an HP Z400 Workstation p/n: 463981-001 heatsink/cooling fan combo (LGA1366 socket), designed to handle up to 130 watt TDP Xeon CPUs:

[EDIT:] And it so happened that I just found a brand-new eBay listing for a high-end HP p/n: L30413-001 EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF heatsink/fan combo ($75), and immediately bid ($50) for it.  The Seller accepted the offer, and I purchased it ASAP:

These particular 4-heatpipe copper heatsinks -especially made for 95-watt LGA1151 socket processors (such as the i7-8700K), are very scarce (Google it!) and I have been looking for one of these for sale in the US during the last couple of months.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Successfully applied some additional gaming/graphics optimizations:

Link: HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

Especially the HP Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 graphics performance -benchmarked at a whopping 109%: "Performing way above expectations (100th percentile)", has far surpassed my expectations. Obviously, I overclocked this card, but at a stable and sustainable level.  Easily beating the average RTX 2070 8GB GDDR6 or the RX 6700 10GB GDDR6, for example!

To give praise where praise is due: HP made/branded/sponsored an awesome graphics card -or just maybe I won the "silicon lottery" GPU equivalent!

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

I am going to modify the HP Z440 Workstation CPU Heatsink/Cooling Fan Combo (HP p/n: 749554-001) I purchased recently, which was designed for an LGA 2011 socket.  After removing the heatsink spring screws, the plan is to fill the screw holes (see blue arrows) with metal putty, and after curing and sanding, to redrill the holes so that they match the heatsink spring screw positions of an LGA1151 socket:

To that end, I ordered two different brands of metal putty/liquid metal filler product:

This heatsink/fan combo is quite substantial: LxWxH: 5.25 x 3.00 x 4.75 inches, and it will barely fit (I think), without having to modify the drives-bay further. We'll see. Regardless, nice little project.  Whatever gets me through the night, right?

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[amoeboid]

Very interesting thread, thanks for posting all this. I recently put a GTX 1650 in my 600 G3 MT, before I'd read your post about the cross-compatibility of the 400W power supply, but you've provided me with an option for a future upgrade path now; very useful.

I'm thinking about upgrading the i3-6100 CPU, probably to just an i7-7700 (the 65W version) and am considering upgrading the cooler while I'm at it - if only to cut down on fan noise. So I'm very interested in your investigations in this direction. I'm not sure my engineering skills are quite up to drilling new holes for a 749554-001 (which is a shame as there is one on ebay here for £20).

Did you try fitting the 463981-001 or the L30413-001 yet? There's a L30413-001 available here for £50, which is a little more than I'd intended to spend, but the 463981-001's are under 20 quid - a bargain if I could get one fitted with my limited skills.

Thanks again for all the information you've already provided.

[NonSequitur777]

@amoeboid,

Thank you for your kind words, appreciate it.

The HP p/n: 463981-001 was designed for an LGA1366 socket, which also means that it won't fit onto an LGA1151 socket.  Reason I haven't touched it yet, is because the steel bracket would be more difficult to modify to fit onto an LGA1151 socket than the 749554-001's aluminum bracket.

That leaves the L30413-001, which was specifically made for high-performance LGA1151 socket processors. Even though it would cost you the equivalent of $60, I would still go for it, if you would rather skip the DIY hassle.

No, haven't tried this heatsink/cooling fan combo either, but I am sure it will perform better than the HP Z240 Tower Workstation's heatsink/cooling fan combo (HP p/n: 810281-001), which is currently fitted in my HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Since I have an i7-8700K left from a previous upgrade project (HP EliteDesk 800 G4 to G5 SFF), leaving the option open to upgrade my HP ProDesk 600 G3 MT to an HP ProDesk 600 G4 MT (for 8th gen Intel), purchased a "G4" motherboard via eBay quite inexpensively:

The HP ProDesk 600 motherboard swap is pretty straightforward, but I may not do it for the time being as the i7-7700K as currently fitted in the G3 config (7th gen Intel), is plenty fast for gaming purposes, and will likely be A-OK for the foreseeable future.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[amoeboid]

Thank you, it's enormously helpful having someone provide flashes of light as I blunder through all this complexity shrouded in ignorance.

I'm giving the L30413-001 some serious consideration.

How much confidence should I have that it (for an LGA1151 v2 (?) ) will fit the mounting holes on my motherboard (LGA1151 v1)?

Many thanks.

[NonSequitur777]

@amoeboid,

The L30413-001 fits just fine on an LGA1151 motherboard (HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF) as you can see:

The difference between an LGA1151 v1 and an LGA1151 v2 socket, is that the former uses a so-called land-grid array (LGA) 1151 processor socket, whereas the latter uses a so-called pin-grid array (PGA) 1151 processor socket.

This is only relevant to what gen Intel processors are going to be compatible with either version, it does not affect the LGA1151 heatsink fit whatsoever.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777