HP 290 G2 MT power supply upgrade check

[SoapyRap]

@NonSequitur777

I have an i5 8500, Gtx 1050 ti, 8GB ddr4 2666Mhz RAM but my power supply is only 180w 80+ gold. Somehow it is running and I can run valorant at 300 FPS with it. You're probably thinking that this will end bad eventually with some sort of power shortage however I downloaded Geforce experience and I found my GPU only draws max 50w. I'm not planning on burning my house down so I'm still going to upgrade it.

I have done some research on PSU upgrades and found a thread on this website with the amazing individual tagged above recommending two different models of hp PSU which would match my office PC. 

I have found one of these models on eBay. Pictures below. The proprietary 7 pin matches up with my PSU.

 

 

 

The problem here is that the 4 pin power cables are slightly different. Both of the 4 pin's wires on my current 180w PSU are 2 black 2 yellow. On this eBay one there is one 4 pin that has 2 black wires 2 yellow and another 4 pin which is 2 black 2 brown. Will this be fine? Any electrical engineers here to help? I actually want to become an electrical engineer when I'm older so this is good practice lol. Thank you!

Picture of my PSU wires: 

My PSU: 

 

[NonSequitur777]

@SoapyRap,

Welcome to our HP community forum!

Yea, I just saw your reply in a different discussion thread.

All right, this is what I would recommend you to do:

Forget about a 310-watt power supply, but rather consider a 400-watt power supply with p/n: L69242-800 / L76557-001 / L04618-800, but make sure/confirm with whoever you purchase it from, that the "P2" power connector is exactly like this:

So, NOT:

The main reason why I would recommend this 400-watt power supply (which is equipped with one 6+2-PCIe power cable), is that it will allow you to choose to power a lot more GPUs, including high(er) end graphics cards for (future) gaming upgrades, such as a smaller-sized RTX 4060 model powered by a single 8-pin PCIe power cable, like this one.

Unfortunately, it appears that there are not too many purchase options available in your neck of the woods. There is one via an eBay-United Kingdom Seller: HP Envy TE01 Pavilion TG01 TP01 Internal PSU Power Supply 400W L69242-800 | eBay. And if you are interested, I would still contact the Seller to verify the "P2" wiring: black, empty, grey, green, empty, empty, empty.

No guarantees: but this is what I would try.  The aforementioned Seller allows for return, so this minimizes your risks.

There you go. I hope that unlike previous community members, like here, you will report back.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[NonSequitur777]

@SoapyRap,

FYI: I just realized that your HP 290 G2 MT is far more versatile/upgradeable than what the HP specs reveal: your desktop is also compatible with 9th-gen processors, thanks to its H370 Intel chipset: Intel® H370 Chipset.

And, just in case you wondered, your desktop is also compatible with an i7-8700K (6-Cores, 12-Threads, 3.70 GHz up to 4.70 GHz, 95-watt TDP).  This is a processor I have used very successfully for high-demand gaming when paired with sufficient RAM (in your case: 2 x 16GB DDR4, 2666 MHz), an M.2 NVMe SSD as primary (boot) drive, and of course a decent graphics card, specifically the smaller-sized RTX 4060 I mentioned in my previous comment -but I digress.

The compatibility with 9th gen Intel processors is most relevant, since 9th gen Intel processors are generally inexpensive to buy (such as via eBay) and would allow you to continue to upgrade your desktop for years to come.

Examples of 9th gen processors I would heartily recommend: i7-9700 or i7-9700F (TDP: 65-watt), i7-9700K or i7-9700KF (TDP: 95-watt), or an i9-9900 (TDP: 65-watt).  Mind you, if you choose a 95-watt processor, you'll have to add an additional cooling fan in your desktop to improve the air flow and replace your 65-watt rated LGA 1151 CPU heat sink (p/n: L15933-001) with a 95-watt rated heat sink, with p/n: 908718-001.

You can find HP 290 G2 MT Users who fitted 9th gen processors here: UserBenchmark: HP 290 G2 MT Business PC Compatible Components.

Hope this was helpful -probably more than you bargained for, I suppose.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[SoapyRap]

@NonSequitur777

First of all, thank you for all the assistance that you provide in this community. I would like to point out the only reason i'm here is because i saw the question you linked above before posting this and that there wasn't any outcome from that so I will do my level best to provide a solution to this very specific question. 

Just to reiterate, the problem here is that the 4 pin motherboard power cables of the £25 PSU i've found are slightly different in colour to mine. Both of the 4 pin's wires on my current 180w PSU are 2 black 2 yellow. On this eBay listing below there is one 4 pin that has 2 black wires 2 yellow and another 4 pin which is 2 black 2 brown. 

the 4 pin cable at the front has 2 brown wires

From my research and limited knowledge, this chart might help to understand the problem slightly further 

Of course, if you happened to know anyone with expertise in this subject of electrical wiring and were able to redirect them here then that would be greatly appreciated. From what I can tell, the brown wire might have a lower voltage so I don't know if that will damage the motherboard.

As for the mention of a 400w PSU, I have looked around and not been able to find one for a good price (around £25 like the 310w PSU I found). This will have to be a future upgrade for when I'm rich and famous haha. The idea of upgrading my little office PC like some used car definitely excites me!

find the PSU i'm planning to buy here: HP 600 800 G3 G4 310W Power Supply Unit DPS-310AB-1 A 901772-003 | eBay

Kind regards,

Soap

[SoapyRap]

UPDATE: 

I've found some slightly helpful threads which make me more confident in making this purchase.

[SOLVED] - What is the voltage for brown wiring | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

the thread above basically decides that it's probably a 12V wire.

Installing ATX PSU instead of Proprietary PSU - HP Support Community - 7730580

The individual in this thread seems quite knowledgable and states that the brown wire is a 12V however I'm wondering now if the reason that it didn't work is because of the brown wire... well nvm just thought it might be helpful.

Many thanks,

Soap

[NonSequitur777]

@SoapyRap,

Yea, different 4-pins power supply wire coloring.  Not entirely consistent across the board, by the way. Based on my personal -anecdotal- experience regarding this topic, I wouldn't worry about that too much.  HP has configured its power connectors in such a way, that the individual power supply connectors will only fit where they are supposed to fit (CPU power, motherboard/SATA power, and the "P2" power connector).

In a nutshell, the 310-watt power supply will either work or it will not. In my experience, these were the only outcomes -yea, I don't want to jinx that yet: no spectacular electrical discharges or smoke and such.  Look, I'm not going to obfuscate on you: there is always a risk when you "try out" a different HP power supply.  When you hook it up, just pay very close attention what happens when you power it up. Chances are you're going to be fine.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[SoapyRap · Accepted solution]

I have successfully purchased and installed the 310W power supply  found here: HP 280 285 G3 MT 310W Power Supply Unit 901772-004 | eBay

It fits perfectly and is working with my GTX 1050ti. The brown wires don't seem to be a problem and powers the CPU fine. The only difference I could notice was that the brown wires are slightly thinner at 18 AWG compared to yellow wires at 20 AWG. I suspect that I could even upgrade to a 1650 and i7-8700 and it would be fine since this configuration worked with the 180W 80+ gold PSU. to the person who bought the PSU i linked for £20, I hope you enjoy it. this PSU cost me £38. 

Temps look fine as CPU hasn't gone over 60 Celsius and GPU is even cooler at around 50 degrees celsius. PSU makes slight buzzing noise when PC is in sleep mode and I got one blue screen but i'm guessing that's because I was messing with my valorant settings. 

Finally, I would like to thank @NonSequitur777 (still don't know how to tag people properly) for all the assistance and suggestions for PSU models.

[NonSequitur777]

@SoapyRap,

You're welcome -glad things worked out.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777