Upgrading an HP EliteDesk 800 65W G3 Desktop Mini (DM) PC

[NonSequitur777]

@tcsenter,

Glad to hear you fixed your power supply issue!

The 250-watt power supply with p/n: L08417-004 was the one I purchased for my HP EliteDesk 800 G4 SFF upgrade project: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Upgrading-HP-EliteDesk-800-G4-S..., and powers my G5 motherboard after this upgrade project.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

The NGFF M.2 A/E Key Cable adapter came in and wanted to install it in order to try out an external graphics card.  To that end, used a backup heatsink for the HP EliteDesk 800 65W G3 DM to put this mini-PC back together.  In order to route the adapter cable (the HDMI end) through the back panel to the "Beast" dock, I removed the VGA connector:

Setting it all up, using a synced EVGA 400-watt ATX power supply to power a Dell Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 graphics card:

And it booted right up through the GTX 1660 Ti. Installed the graphics driver:

And benchmarked it through UserBenchmark: HP EliteDesk 800 G3 DM 65W Compatible Components, and already -without additional optimizations, scored #2 in the "HP System EliteDesk 800 G3 DM 65W":

Link: HP EliteDesk 800 G3 DM 65W Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

Mind you, the graphics card only "runs" (bandwidth) at PCIe x1 speed:

Even so, it performs pretty good as-is, IMO.  Once I upgrade this HP G3 mini-PC with an HP G4 mini motherboard, I will use one of its two M.2 NVMe SSD slots to use an M.2 NVMe SSD adapter cable to the EXP GDX Beast Dock to achieve PCIe x4 speeds, which will provide more than sufficient graphics bandwidth to smoke the competition.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Replaced the GTX 1660 Ti with an HP Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6:

And reran the UserBenchMark performance test -scoring first:

Link: HP EliteDesk 800 G3 DM 65W Performance Results - UserBenchmark.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Latest update on this upgrade project: decided to order a (much) better epoxy-based, 68% aluminum and zinc oxide containing thermally conductive adhesive rather than to wait for the (silicon-based) slow boat from the PRC: MG Chemicals 8329TCS Thermally Conductive Adhesive - Slow Cure Epoxy, 50 mL, 2-Part Kit: Amazon.com:...:

Once the modified high-performance heatsink is put together, will close out this upgrade project and replace/upgrade the HP EliteDesk 800 65W G3 DM motherboard with an HP EliteDesk 65W G4 DM motherboard.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

Dear Forum,

Speaking of my next upgrade ("G4-DM") project, submitted an offer to a trusted eBay Seller to purchase an HP EliteDesk 800 G4 65W DM motherboard (p/n: L19394-001 "SPS-MBD 800G4DM CFL-Q370 65W") for $40:

And the offer was accepted & completed purchase:

I am sharing these purchase details to show that upgrading can be affordable and convenient.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

@C0mputerH4ck,

Your comments about dual-rank RAM prompted me to research this topic in more depth.

Long story short: you convinced me to go this route:

Btw, this RAM is intended not for my current (HP EliteDesk 800 G3 65W DM) upgrade project, but for my follow-up "G4-DM" upgrade, which is going to be fitted with an i7-8700K, with max 2666 MHz RAM speed.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[Law_A0423]

Hi there! did you need to heat up the heatsink to remove the fins? This guy did so and I'm wondering if heating it up was necessary since I wanted to do this mod as well

[NonSequitur777]

@Law_A0423,

Greetings to you as well.

I didn't use heat to remove the copper heatsink fins*.  As shown, I used a pair of side (diagonal) pliers, rolling (stripping) each copper fin off the base one by one.  The video you referenced is a good one, but my approach is different if only because the heatsink for the 65-watt G3-DM is different than the one shown in the video: I will use no steel wire holders, as my heatsink will be glued onto the copper heatsink base plate which in turn will be glued onto the metal heatsink base.

The resulting modified heatsink can then be screwed back onto the motherboard, using a high-quality thermal paste between the processor and the heatsink. That also means no circular hole in the DM top panel, but rather a rectangular cut enabling the top panel to slide on and off the G3 DM.

* I will use heat from a hair blower to cure the high-performance aluminum/zinc oxide-based epoxy adhesive.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

@Law_A0423,

Your reference to soldering got me thinking about silver soldering using a propane/MAPP torch.

Incidentally, not the first time I considered this particular metal bonding option, but I didn't get around acting upon it.

Until now.

Just ordered this inexpensive silver soldering kit:

The solder contains 56% Silver, 20% Copper, 17% Zinc, and 5% Tin. Highly heat conductive, exactly what is needed for a heatsink.

Thank you reigniting (pun intended) this concept!

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

@C0mputerH4ck,

The "Timetec 32GB KIT(2x16GB) DDR4 3200MHz (DDR4-3200) PC4-25600 Non-ECC Unbuffered 1.2V CL22 2Rx8 Dual Rank 260 Pin SODIMM" RAM showed up, and installed successfully:

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777