The highly rated HP Pavilion Slimline PC thread

I have discovered the problem is my CPU. I was convinced the problem was either the motherboard or the power supply (as Prime95 would run for hours without any errors). Since I had no way of checking either of those components I went out and bought me a new ATX motherboard. I put the memory and CPU from the Slimline into the new motherboard and experienced the exact same type of BSOD. So I put a new CPU in the new motherboard and it ran fine (just as expected). I think that's pretty good news because it means my Slimline is salvageable.

Since I plan to use this as a HTPC anyway this is a good excuse for me to buy a 45W processor. Anyone know of a good deal on a 45W processor? I will be doing some video encoding with this so a dual-core is probably important. Any recommendations?
 
NixNick said:
I have discovered the problem is my CPU. I was convinced the problem was either the motherboard or the power supply (as Prime95 would run for hours without any errors). Since I had no way of checking either of those components I went out and bought me a new ATX motherboard. I put the memory and CPU from the Slimline into the new motherboard and experienced the exact same type of BSOD. So I put a new CPU in the new motherboard and it ran fine (just as expected). I think that's pretty good news because it means my Slimline is salvageable.

Since I plan to use this as a HTPC anyway this is a good excuse for me to buy a 45W processor. Anyone know of a good deal on a 45W processor? I will be doing some video encoding with this so a dual-core is probably important. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

What socket are you looking for? AM2? The AMD Athlon X2 5050e should be fine, but I can't find it on the 'Egg anymore.
 
Last edited:
Hello to all. I am new to this forum and not particular savy with some of the technology. I have a question about adding a cooling fan. First off, I picked up a 3750f in Dec/09 with these specs:
Irvine-GL6E motherboard, GeForce 7100/nForce 630i chipset, Intel Core 2 Duo E8200, one Pci -E slot (unoccupied).

I bought an Antec 80mm fan that i want to install on the side of the case for additional cooling. It has a 3 pin connector as well as a 4 pin molex connector. The motherboard has one 12v fan connector (4pin) for CPU fan and PC fan.

What is the simplest way to connect the fan to a power supply? Reading through the forums I did not come upon a direct answer to this. Btw, I have a usb powered fan at the moment (thermaltake mobile fan).

Thanks for the assistance!
 
Halsey said:
What socket are you looking for? AM2? The AMD Athlon X2 5050e should be fine, but I can't find it on the 'Egg anymore.
Click to expand...
AFAIK, AM2 is the only option for my motherboard (M2N61-AR)? Is that right? It does seem like it's hard to find a deal on a 45W dual-core now days.
 
NixNick said:
AFAIK, AM2 is the only option for my motherboard (M2N61-AR)? Is that right? It does seem like it's hard to find a deal on a 45W dual-core now days.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Sorry, when I asked that, I wasn't sure if you were intending to use the new motherboard or not...but when I reread your post, I realized that you mentioned it's a full ATX board, which wouldn't have worked in the slimline anyway, thus you were referring to the Acacia. Lol, my bad.

At any rate, cephusjed provided a link to a good 45 watt processor.
 
Last edited:
Not at that price. $100+ is WAY too much for a 45 watt processor.

Try these searches on ebay. These are all 45 watt AMD dual core CPUs that are AM2 socket and will work with your motherboard. Newegg used to sell the BE-2400 for about $20 as it was closing the chips out for reference.



BE-2300
BE-2350
BE-2400
4850E
5050E

Those processors will all work on your motherboard (assuming you have the latest BIOS revision.
 
psych2 said:
Hello to all. I am new to this forum and not particular savy with some of the technology. I have a question about adding a cooling fan. First off, I picked up a 3750f in Dec/09 with these specs:
Irvine-GL6E motherboard, GeForce 7100/nForce 630i chipset, Intel Core 2 Duo E8200, one Pci -E slot (unoccupied).

I bought an Antec 80mm fan that i want to install on the side of the case for additional cooling. It has a 3 pin connector as well as a 4 pin molex connector. The motherboard has one 12v fan connector (4pin) for CPU fan and PC fan.

What is the simplest way to connect the fan to a power supply? Reading through the forums I did not come upon a direct answer to this. Btw, I have a usb powered fan at the moment (thermaltake mobile fan).

Thanks for the assistance!
Click to expand...

You can't piggy back off the fan header on the motherboard (at least I wouldn't advise it - you wouldn't want to risk blowing that fan header and causing grief to your motherboard.

I think your OEM/Stock power supply should be like the other slimline power supplies I've seen that have only SATA power connectors. (no white molex standard four pin connectors)

The easiest thing to do if you have a stock power supply is just to buy a sata power splitter - search for the cheapest price
http://www.walmart.com/ip/StarTech....-Cable/13214029?sourceid=44444444440163961653

And then just spice your fan into one of teh two split adapters (so you aren't tearing up your stock power supply - only tearing up the cheap adapter. You could splice directly into your hard drive or cd-rom power feed, but I would advise tearing up a cheap adapter over possibly your power supply. Yellow wire is 12 volt lead and black wire is ground. In truth with your setup (no aftermarket video and nothing in your PCI-E nor PCI slot) there is probably no need to add any additional cooling over the notebook cooler you are currently running via USB. In the form you are u using the slimline you should be fine with the stock cooling and no additional cooling requirements.
 
Aww I just bought the GTS 250 a few days ago and here it is on sale. I installed the GTS 250 and 4 Gigs of G.Skill RAM into my beloved slimline and added a 1.5 TB external drive. Paired with a Samsung 24'' monitor at 1920 x 1080 Modern Warfare 2 is blazing fast with settings cranked up. I would definitely suggest getting this card. I removed the optical drive and added a FSP 450w supplemental psu.
 
comment on it's volume? My 9800GT is silent except at first power on. I've never heard it spin up during gaming or benchmark sessions? How is the GTS 250?
 
odd -- the sparkle 9800GT low profile card is faster than the full size sparkle 9800GT
Core Clock : 600MHz
Processor Cores : 112
Memory Clock : 1800 MHz
Memory Type : 512MB GDDR3
Memory Interface : 256-Bit
Processor Clock : 1500 MHz

check this out

Sparkle lp 9800GT
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product_detail.asp?id=76&sub_id=279
lp card is faster spec'ed than the full size sparkle 9800GT
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product_detail.asp?id=76&sub_id=323


However the low profile GTS 250 is slower than the full size GTS 250. I wonder why the change from the 9800GT. I wish I could find benchmarks side by side. If the GTS 250 1GB is faster than my 9800GT I'd jump on it. But I don't see spending the money for no performance increase and the severe underclock on the GTS250 (9800GTX + equivalent at stock speeds) may mean the 9800GT is actually faster.
Core Clock 600MHz
Stream Processors 128
Memory Effective Memory Clock 1500MHz
Memory Size 1GB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR3
 
Last edited:
Archaea said:
comment on it's volume? My 9800GT is silent except at first power on. I've never heard it spin up during gaming or benchmark sessions? How is the GTS 250?
Click to expand...

Archaea, the GTS 250 is silent except during power on. I am very pleased with my purchase. I would jump on this Newegg deal if I had the money and needed one. I can really tell a difference in performance. I am able to max out my resolution, high settings and frame rates are great. The 9800 GT was beginning to strain a little. I think that the double memory size and extra 16 stream processors make it excel. I haven't overclocked it or even thought about it yet really. I overclocked the 9800 GT the day I installed it.

I have also considered upgrading the CPU as I feel that is my primary bottleneck. I wanted to build a super massive gaming rig this year (i7, 12 gigs RAM, GTX 295 x2 SLI), but that will not happen. So I poured what money I had to spend into getting a monitor (upgraded from 19" to 24"), graphics card and updating the RAM.

What are my options for CPU upgrade? I have the Acacia Mobo with Athlon 64 X2 (B) 5200+ 2.7 GHz (65W). Are the only options the Phenom-9100e - 9350e (65W) and Athlon 64 X2 (B) 5600+ 2.9GHz(65W) ? What would you suggest?
 
Archaea said:
odd -- the sparkle 9800GT low profile card is faster than the full size sparkle 9800GT
Core Clock : 600MHz
Processor Cores : 112
Memory Clock : 1800 MHz
Memory Type : 512MB GDDR3
Memory Interface : 256-Bit
Processor Clock : 1500 MHz

check this out

Sparkle lp 9800GT
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product_detail.asp?id=76&sub_id=279
lp card is faster spec'ed than the full size sparkle 9800GT
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product_detail.asp?id=76&sub_id=323
Click to expand...

Arch, I noticed in the pictures that there is no 6-pin PCI-E power connector on the full-size sparkle 9800GT that you linked - which makes sense, as I remember reading somewhere that the biggest factor on power draw (at least for CPU's and GPU's) was the clock speeds (high clock speed = higher power draw and vice versa).

The lower clocks and lack of additional power connector suggest that that specific card you linked may be a special "low power" card similar to the Galaxy 9800GT green edition.
 
Just tried installing the AX5450 into my s3100y and it physically fit well, but that's where the love ended. I have a stock 180w PSU that draws up to 60w on boot from the wall (no fancy stuff in the box yet). Installing the AX5450 into the box drew 62w from the wall on boot, but the box never got to POST. I even tried it without HD or CD connected to power. Still no go. Before I go jumping into the PSU replacement mode, does anyone know if there is any limitation on the PCIe slot that would prevent this card from functioning?

BTW, I did place the card in a different home-built (Biostart mainboard) system and it runs just fine. So the card is definitely functional.
 
miosis said:
I have also considered upgrading the CPU as I feel that is my primary bottleneck. I wanted to build a super massive gaming rig this year (i7, 12 gigs RAM, GTX 295 x2 SLI), but that will not happen. So I poured what money I had to spend into getting a monitor (upgraded from 19" to 24"), graphics card and updating the RAM.

What are my options for CPU upgrade? I have the Acacia Mobo with Athlon 64 X2 (B) 5200+ 2.7 GHz (65W). Are the only options the Phenom-9100e - 9350e (65W) and Athlon 64 X2 (B) 5600+ 2.9GHz(65W) ? What would you suggest?
Click to expand...

man - tough spot.

The upgrade options for you are limited. I believe the best X2 you can get is the 5600+ 65 watt chip as you mentioned. That's not really that much faster than what you have...

The Phenoms are quad cores would be the way to go. Operating system performance would be much better, games would likely see a slight increase in most cases, but actually a preformance hit in fewer other cases......

Here is some direct benchmarks showing variances in the chips you are investigating. Choose your benchmark and compare the 9350e vs. the x2 5600+ to get some ideas.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-cpu-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,31.html
 
Archaea said:
Not at that price. $100+ is WAY too much for a 45 watt processor.
Click to expand...
Yeah, $100 was way over my budget too. I found a 2.1GHZ 45W CPU online for $38. I think I'll order that. That should be fast enough for my needs.

I also emailed the guy who sold me the computer on Craigslist and told him it had a defective CPU. He offered me a $60 refund so I could buy a new CPU. I told him I'd be happy with $38. So that all worked out OK too. My new CPU will be slower than what I bought but it's also a 45W processor. I think that's a fair trade off.
 
Some slimline motherboards provide for what would have been a 3-pin header for a case fan. Has anyone installed such a header and did it work?
 
I've not seen it on any of the 3xxx series slimlines - there is a single fan header on the motherboard - it is for the CPU. I'm not sure about the older gray slimlines or the newer 5xxx series.
 
If I plug in a PCIe-x16 graphics card that has only DVI-D and HDMI (low profile, no spare slot), does it mean that I cannot use VGA any more?
 
Hi there,

My motherboard has died.
Power light turns on but nothing else... blank screen, no bios screen, no beeping sound even with all ram sticks removed...

I have a s3120n which comes with the M2NC51-AR board.
Does anyone know if I can replace the board with the M2N61-AR instead?
(with no modification to the chassis etc...)

thanks very much for your help in advance
ckx
 
AirCool said:
If I plug in a PCIe-x16 graphics card that has only DVI-D and HDMI (low profile, no spare slot), does it mean that I cannot use VGA any more?
Click to expand...

depends on the motherboard if you can still use your VGA onboard video solution with an aftermarket video card plugged in. BUT you won't be able to utilize the faster processing of the aftermarket video card solution through the VGA onboard port either way so there's no point. Get a DVI - VGA adapter from a place like www.monoprice.com if necessary and only use the aftermarket video card -- it will be of better quality than your onboard video card.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10419&cs_id=1041903&p_id=2396&seq=1&format=2
 
ckx said:
Hi there,

My motherboard has died.
Power light turns on but nothing else... blank screen, no bios screen, no beeping sound even with all ram sticks removed...

I have a s3120n which comes with the M2NC51-AR board.
Does anyone know if I can replace the board with the M2N61-AR instead?
(with no modification to the chassis etc...)

thanks very much for your help in advance
ckx
Click to expand...

yes you can - if you read back the last couple pages I have the EXACT same problem with my dad's slimline with the M2NC51-AR motherboard. I replaced it with a broken M2N61-AR motherboard from ebay :)

It does fit - just frustratingly expensive and if it doesn't work - returning is always a hassle.
 
Thanks so much for the tip & I found your post... seems like your dad's machine died just a month ago. Perhaps this is the year they were designed to expire !...

My other option was to buy a shuttle barebone but that still costs more than $60 boards on Ebay from China... hope they work...
 
ckx said:
Thanks so much for the tip & I found your post... seems like your dad's machine died just a month ago. Perhaps this is the year they were designed to expire !...

My other option was to buy a shuttle barebone but that still costs more than $60 boards on Ebay from China... hope they work...
Click to expand...

I assume you are looking at diypc2008. The last time I checked they are the only vendors on eBay selling Acacia boards for $60. They claim these are new boards. Purchased one: works great. Be patient if you have problems and try to communicate. Their command of English was marginal and my command of Chinese was zilch. For the most part, they seem to be honest.

Would the Hematite (A8MN-BR) or Pyrite (A8N-BR) boards work? The replacement boards RX890-69001 which HP replaced the RX890AA-AR, etc. under limited warranty appears similar in description to the old Hematite board: PCIe only- no PCI.
 
Dear all, I am a new user to HP Slimline. As I googled "hp slimline power", I came across this website, and I would like to thank all people who contributed valuable information to this thread. I've searched the whole thread, but it seems my question hasn't been answered before.

I have HP Slimline s5380t, and these are the specifications:

# Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
# • Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q8400 [2.66GHz, 4MB L2, 1333MHz FSB]
# • 6GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [3 DIMMs]
# • 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive f
# • Integrated graphics - Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 [VGA]
# • LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
# • Wireless-N LAN card
# • 6-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, headphone port
# • Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports

Motherboard specifications:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...ry&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=4136713


I didn't purchase a discrete graphic card from HP and have Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 as my current graphic card. Now that I'm thinking of upgrading, is it possible for me to use Nvidia Geforce GT240 as an upgrade option without having to upgrade my PSU?

As far as I know, Hp Slimline comes with a 220w power supply. And on the official website, HP offers to customize Nvidia GeForce GT220 into the s5380t Slimline series, so I would assume GT220 should work fine on the 220w PSU. But nothing is certain about GT240. Has anyone tried GT240?

According to Tom's Hardware Review (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-240,2475-19.html), GT240 has a slightly higher power consumption than GT220.
 
Last edited:
In our collective exp. HP pretty much knows the boundaries of their power supplies and sometimes may even overstep a smidge on what we have found to be long term reliable. That being said - assuming the review link you posted at Tom's equates with the GT240 you are considering 3 watts shouldn't make a lick of difference in the grand scheme of things. So it might be worth a shot.
 
Ignis said:
RobHP said:
Will this power supply be ok to use in a Slimline?
Click to expand...
I actually just purchased that power supply and had it arrive. It fits fine inside the case (you can only hold it in place with one screw, but that's enough) and everything matches up, except it was supposed to come with a 20pin to 24pin mini adapter, and my adapter was not included. I'm currently working with the seller to resolve that problem. I don't foresee any other issues with that.
Click to expand...
Hey guys, I just wanted to drop in with a brief follow up about the power supply discussed above. The installation went smoothly after the 24pin mini adapter arrived, however the power supply was so loud it sounded like an airplane taking off at all times. After barely a week of use, it died. I'm now trying to return it and will stick to the Sparkle 270w listed in the first post as that seems to be the most reliable option.

In short, avoid avoid avoid.
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Archaea said:
In our collective exp. HP pretty much knows the boundaries of their power supplies and sometimes may even overstep a smidge on what we have found to be long term reliable. That being said - assuming the review link you posted at Tom's equates with the GT240 you are considering 3 watts shouldn't make a lick of difference in the grand scheme of things. So it might be worth a shot.
Click to expand...


Thank you for your input. I'm also considering ATI's Radeon HD 5670, which has the same power consumption as GT240 but a slightly higher performance. But I've heard that ATI's graphic cards are troublesome because they often are not compatible with games/softwares. Is it true? And is the support of DirectX 11 very important to modern games?

Also, will the Sparkle 270w PSU fit in my slimline if I decide to upgrade my PSU? I noticed (or am guessing) that the position of the PSUs between the s5000 series and s3000 series are different.

Here is the link to view the content of the s5000 series:
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5133/pictureaf.jpg
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalciti...iCountry/disassembly_deskto_2009625182814.pdf

Thank you. :).
 
i had a different ati 1300 card in there to begin with, where the bsod started, so i switched to the other ati 2400 instead. i updated all the drivers which is really when all this started happening. it does run hot! i will try using prime95 to test the temps and such soon.
it has still not had an error with the card disabled but my graphics are terrible. anyway i just bought a sweet new system that i am playing around with. will get back to the hp soon enough. thanks!!!

Halsey said:
It sounds like when you disable the HD 2400 in the device manager, what you're doing is in effect turning off that card, and using the onboard by having it output through the ports on the HD 2400 instead of through the VGA port integrated into the motherboard.

Moreover, it sounds like your ATI HD 2400 might be the problem. From my understanding (thanks Google) a BSOD 124 indicates some kind of hardware/driver failure, and if disabling the card stops the BSOD, then it sounds like your ATI card is experiencing failure of some kind. Have you tried reinstalling/updating the ATI drivers? Also, have you tried running the computer after physically removing the card, and do you still experience those BSOD's when the card is not in the computer?
Click to expand...
 
all dudes and chics, I am wondering anyone who have CM CPU Cooler- VORTEX 752 in their slimline rig?

b_193147.jpg


b_193210.jpg


b_193229.jpg


r270_b_195418.jpg

CM VORTEX 752 Cooler is fit in HP Slimline 3000 series PC!
 
xs725 said:
Pc 91,

I have the Intel version of the computer and I replaced the stock heatsink/fan with a Coolermaster Vortex 752.
Its bigger but a perfect fit. It is also a lot quieter than the stock fan probably due to slower speeds (although I am not sure what the speed for the stock fan is) but it lowered the idle temperature of the CPU from about 49-50c stock to 45-46c

For my intel version I had to remove the whole motherboard to replace the bracket behind it. The stock rear brack I had to replace was held on very tightly to the motherboard by double sided tape.

http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?language=en&act=detail&tbcate=1&id=2546
Click to expand...

It was tried on an Intel slimline as evidenced above. I tried it on my semifunctional HematiteXL. Worked fine as long as the system was open (CPU temp<35C). It blows down on the CPU and also somewhat on one of the graphics chips cooling both. However once reinstalling the case side cover panel, heat starts building leading to lockup. The stock CPU fan was designed to exhaust the computer, the Cooler Master Vortex 752 will not.
 
Thank you for all the posting - I've been reading all afternoon. Now I know enough to be really confused.
I have a s3620f slimline. - stock. The video card died - I assume - suddenly no connection to monitor which does work when connected to another computer.
So, I was off to find a new card. HP wants $200. Figured I could do better.
I am confused though - HP says no more than 256MB, its a PCIe-X16.
I don't need much gaming - any card better than the stock should be fine - Call of Duty4 is what my son plays. Other than that, watch some Hulu, you tube, nothing special - office work. Hoping not to spend over $80 - looks like that could work.
As far as I can tell, ATI4550 or HD 5750 would both be drop in cards with no power supply issues. I keep getting hung up though on the 512 vs 256MB and PCIe-X16 or PCIe2.0 cards. What do I really need to be looking at?
If I do upgrade power supply the following seems to be the recommended herehttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103915&cm_re=sparkle_power_supply-_-17-103-915-_-Product
And - if I do the upgrade the 9500Gs seems to be the favorite - no additional fans needed.
Thanks!
 
Thx. The top and sole reason I prefer GT240 more is its low wattage usage and low temperature, but it doesn't seem easy to find a low profile one in the States. I just called Sparkle and they said they right now have no intention to carry out the low profile GT240 in the US in the near future. sigh.

If I don't get the GT240, the other options I'm considering are 9600 GT and GT250 low profile. I think running GT9600 (or GT250 low profile) will need me to update my PSU. Do you know if I buy this PSU from newegg: (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151090), would I need to purchase any additional adapters? It comes with 300w. (175*85*70 mm (6.9" *3.3" * 2.8 "))

There is also these other two that come with 270w and 300w, respectively.
http://www.supernotebook.com/power-supply.php?psupart=457209
http://www.google.com/products/cata...refox-a&cid=2139791564368534795&os=tech-specs


Thank you.

And can you please help me to check this website?
They have a normal size GT240 but says it's "Low Profile Compatible". What exactly does that mean? Can it fit into slimline? I am confused. :(.
(http://www.provantage.com/xfx-gt240xzhfc~7PINE0K1.htm)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top