The highly rated HP Pavilion Slimline PC thread

7720user said:
Can I use any regular Memory ? are addditional tweaks required ? or is this just plug in an go ?

Hope Kakawak or anyone else can answer my question !

thanx,

Don :)
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hi there

if you use the memory ive quoted in my description you will be fine. there is no tweaks needed for my setup to work and yes it is a case of plug in and go you should be fine however, many people in this forum dont recommend my setup so its up to you if you follow suit!

my pc is still going strong and im playing crysis, red alert 3 etc... although i still do have venting problems which im trying to fix! as you will know this baby generates enough heat to melt the icecaps so when that is fixed im sure any problems ive had with lock ups will dissapear. i must say i wish they would release another bios update for this slimline!

regards me
 
ARCHAEA & 360SPIDER

lol dont you think its funny that people dont follow instructions? this forum is for help...yes! but we all dont adhere to rules and regulations! hence why people like me and others choose to do these things thats why they call it modding. but for arguments sake yes there are precautions and at the end of the day its a gamble and if that gamble pays off then were all happy, if it doesnt then tough $hit , your help is appreciated but at least you can say " im not the one that told you so but I TOLD YOU SO!" :D

i like your arrogance Horace however i cant be arsed looking back the pages to read your posts so i will take spiders word for it.

it feels good to be bad doesnt it? heh heh

hmmmm for my next upgrade........9800gt rofl :eek:

regards me
 
chklin said:
I have an HVR-1250. NTSC / ATSC / ClearQAM, low profile, and comes with both full-height and low-profile brackets.
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Thanks, that looks like a pretty good TV tuner. Only problem is I need a PCI one b/c my 2 PCI-e slots are utilized by a wireless card and soon-to-be video card (still waiting to order that).
 
miosis said:
UPDATE - I received the Sparkle 9800 GT Low Profile Card, installed it fine and it was DOA. Sent it back and am waiting for a replacement. I was very disappointed about receiving a card that did not work. Basically the fan would power on, but windows didn't see the card nor was there any video output whatsoever.
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It may not have been DOA. This happened to me with my 9600GT and then I realized that duh, my supplemental PSU wasn't plugged in. Basically all the fan did on the card was run full blast with no video output. Turned off my computer, plugged my supplemental PSU back in, and it worked like a charm. But then again, that was just my experience.:p
 
360Spider said:
It may not have been DOA. This happened to me with my 9600GT and then I realized that duh, my supplemental PSU wasn't plugged in. Basically all the fan did on the card was run full blast with no video output. Turned off my computer, plugged my supplemental PSU back in, and it worked like a charm. But then again, that was just my experience.:p
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User error can never fully be ruled out I suppose. I did remove the card and install it three times to help rule out mistakes such as loose cables etc. In between installing I would check to make sure "everything was ok" by testing with 9600 GT, which worked fine. Now perhaps the power connector on the 9800 GT end wasn't connecting properly. I honestly can't say. I suppose I could have got out a multimeter and checked, but alas I didn't. Anyway I know the PSU (and connectors) are good, the PCI-e Slot is good so that leads me to believe that perhaps there was defect in the card. I did take pics... which I may post. Hopefully my new card will be here eventually AND work. I will let you guys know what happens.
 
True-true. Well good luck with that and I hope your next card will work! I can't wait to see the results! :)
 
This is my first post. I have been building and repairing these slimlines now for about 2 years. I modify and have installed larger power supplies on about 6 units. I have listed one on Ebay at the present time Item number: 170298794250. I have been reading the post now for several months with interest as I am always looking for new hardware ideas. I have found with purchasing of many dead units ways of bringing them back to life such as no video on screen, contrary to what has been written I have never found fault with Nvidia bad chips on motherboard but mostly with bios and cpu problems. One thing I have been looking for is a smaller case to replace the HP case as I have at present 3 freight damaged units which I would like to remove the componets and place in a case other than HP's.
 
iwctoys said:
This is my first post. I have been building and repairing these slimlines now for about 2 years. I modify and have installed larger power supplies on about 6 units. I have listed one on Ebay at the present time Item number: 170298794250. I have been reading the post now for several months with interest as I am always looking for new hardware ideas. I have found with purchasing of many dead units ways of bringing them back to life such as no video on screen, contrary to what has been written I have never found fault with Nvidia bad chips on motherboard but mostly with bios and cpu problems. One thing I have been looking for is a smaller case to replace the HP case as I have at present 3 freight damaged units which I would like to remove the componets and place in a case other than HP's.
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I looked at your eBay item. You definitely do not need an upgraded PSU to run a Blu-Ray player. I'm running one now with the stock PSU. And although I can't speak to the power consumption requirements of the 4550 in a Slimline, the card is said to use only 20-25W.
 
Blu-Ray players can use roughly tripple the amperage of a standard DVD player (up to 3.0AMPS + on the 12 volt rail--- so I applaude the guy for upping the power supply given that he is selling the slimlines in an upgraded state!--- it'll help avoid hassles for his customer.

Blu-Ray player amps picture from some slimlines I've torn down. Notice in picture the Blu-RAY drive takes 1.9 amp off 5 volt rail and draws 3 amps off the 12 volt rail. (that's just shy of 50 watts in total for a bare drive alone)

http://www.putfile.com/album/186901

Lets put this all together for with estimated max power draws.
50 watt for BLU-RAY drive
65 watt processor
15 watt hard-drive
15 watt RAM
40 watt 8400GS or 8500GT
???? motherboard?????


You are looking at 190watts right there...already more power draw than any of the slimlines with their 160 watt and 180 watt PSUs (except the brand new units with the >200watt PSUs) are capable of "stock" and we've not even counted in all the components! Note: We are not counting USB wireless, other preipherals, mouse, keyboard, PCI or PCI-E cards, CPU fan, etc ---- and motherboard draw(I don't know what the motherboards on these slimlines draw - but you can safely assume it would at least take 20-40 watts in range based on other micro ATX motherboard reviews I've seen. -Heck - even the Intel Atom motherboards take like 22 watts and that's meant to be a "green" system) -

And remember that you shouldn't run a PSU for any extended length of time at over 80% load to avoid strain on the PSU and the accompanied voltage irregualrites that stem from overburdening the PSU.

So I hope this puts everything into perspective on just how close these stock PSUs teeter on the brink of incapable for even slight upgrades.
 
Your right you can run these units with stock power supply, the only problem is the power supply will be overstressed and will at some stage either cause problems or have a total failure. Also the cost of a losing a BD-RE disk at some $10.00 each because the power supply was maxed out is not worth it. The number one item in the shop we end up replacing in all these units is the power supply. If you stress these power supplies for long periods of time they always end up failing. HP is at fault as they could of built these units from day one with a power supply that was up to the task of larger CPU's or video cards.
 
Getting back to my original question does anyone have a recommendation for a case to replace the HP slimline case. I would like a case that still leaves a small footprint. Thanks
 
iwctoys said:
Getting back to my original question does anyone have a recommendation for a case to replace the HP slimline case. I would like a case that still leaves a small footprint. Thanks
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Most folk on this board like newegg --- most any mini ITX case would work (Mini-ITX: form factor - 7.5 in X 6.8 in ) -- basically just pick on cosmetics...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

Perhaps someone else has some real world exp. with one of these cases however --- I do not.
 
I have tried several Mini-ITX cases and none work as the cases I have tried are for the Mini-ITX boards which are 170mm x170mm. HP actually list the form factor for these as "Micro"-ITX size form factor, 7.5 in x 6.7 in or 190mm x 170mm.Yes there is a mini and micro ITX. I have googled and have never seen a case specked that will hold these boards.
 
iwctoys said:
Your right you can run these units with stock power supply, the only problem is the power supply will be overstressed and will at some stage either cause problems or have a total failure. Also the cost of a losing a BD-RE disk at some $10.00 each because the power supply was maxed out is not worth it. The number one item in the shop we end up replacing in all these units is the power supply. If you stress these power supplies for long periods of time they always end up failing. HP is at fault as they could of built these units from day one with a power supply that was up to the task of larger CPU's or video cards.
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OK mine (well the one I bought for my parents) has only a BD-ROM, so I don't know how the power requirements differ from BD-writable.

It's got a 4850e so I saved 20 watts there, and a 9300GS with DVI, VGA and HDMI, not sure how much power that uses.

Seems to play back Blu-Ray at 1080p just fine, CPU does get a bit warm but nothing too out of line.

I will read back over this thread about PSU replacements if theirs fails once the unit is out of the standard 1yr HP warranty. If I HAD to replace it then I would definitely upsize some, probably mid 250s.

On a side note, I do have an Intel mini-ITX mobo D201GLY2 running my FreeNAS box, I'm glad I didn't buy a slimline case for it as I bet it wouldn't fit. But if you have a mini-ITX case that you want to unload that can handle 2 standard sized hard drives then I'd be interested. (you mentioned that you tried some)
 
Much like driving a car all day at 5000rpm when redline is set for 5200rpm. I would suspect your motor will burn out a lot sooner. Also does not leave a lot of room for power surges.
 
I've search the thread and followed the instructions posted by Archaea for upgrading the onboard video on my Slimline s3020n and am getting a blank screen. Here's what I've done:

Changed the BIOS to PCI-E for video
Uninstalled the onboard video (NVIDA 6150) with device manager
Uninstalled the drivers for the onboard video
Installed the new videocard ASUS EAH3450 Radeon HD 3450 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121259
Hooked up the VGA output of the new card to the VGA input of monitor (50" panasonic plasma)
boot up and blank screen, I've tried the VGA,DVI and HDMI outputs

The card is good, checked it in another system. I thought maybe the PCI-E slot on my MOBO is bad, (never used it) I ran the HP Hardware Diagnostic tool and nothing bad shows up on the PCI-E slot without the card in.

When I switch back to the onboard video output, I have video. It appears the new card is not recognized (the only new hardware that shows up is the onboard video that I uninstalled).

I've tried installing the drivers for the new videocard and rebooting, but still blank. I think I've read where others have used this Radeon 3450 card in the slimlines.

Any thoughts?
 
Hi all and thanks for compiling all this great information. I had this issue as well today when I grabbed an NVIDIA 7200GS. I'm kinda glad it didn't work out as I'm planning to go all out and update the P/S, get a 9500GT and see how it performs with some World Of Warcraft.
 
oiames said:
I've search the thread and followed the instructions posted by Archaea for upgrading the onboard video on my Slimline s3020n and am getting a blank screen. Here's what I've done:

Changed the BIOS to PCI-E for video
Uninstalled the onboard video (NVIDA 6150) with device manager
Uninstalled the drivers for the onboard video
Installed the new videocard ASUS EAH3450 Radeon HD 3450 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121259
Hooked up the VGA output of the new card to the VGA input of monitor (50" panasonic plasma)
boot up and blank screen, I've tried the VGA,DVI and HDMI outputs

The card is good, checked it in another system. I thought maybe the PCI-E slot on my MOBO is bad, (never used it) I ran the HP Hardware Diagnostic tool and nothing bad shows up on the PCI-E slot without the card in.

When I switch back to the onboard video output, I have video. It appears the new card is not recognized (the only new hardware that shows up is the onboard video that I uninstalled).

I've tried installing the drivers for the new videocard and rebooting, but still blank. I think I've read where others have used this Radeon 3450 card in the slimlines.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

two thoughts - and one I discovered this weekend.

First off - easiest - verify that the video card does or doesn't work with a regular LCD or CRT monitor rather than your 50" screen. Sometimes there are issues that have to be resolved when connecting to a TV for the first time.

2nd - This weekend for the superbowl party at my cousins house I brought over my HD projector to hook up to her HP Computer with a TV tuner. I spent about an hour trying to get the projector to work. I would see the BIOS/CMOS screens and see the windows logo splash screen, but when the desktop appeared the screen would go blank. I rebooted the machine and went to safe mode by pressing f8 and the computer worked fine through the projector - but of course I couldn't use the TV tuner in safe mode. I spent the next while playing with resolutions, and refresh rates and trying to get anything to work in normal mode. Not until I started shutting down unknown proecess threads in task manager was I able to get it to display on the projector. Some application - yet unknown in Vista x64 was preventing the display from working correctly on the projector. I have NO idea why. Basically - I hooked up the video cable to the LCD and it worked fine, closed several proecesses I didn't recognize and then tried the projector again. The projector had no picture. I did this multiple times and finally - paydirt. I'm not sure which application it was that was causing the greif, but it was on an HP desktop ---- At that point I didn't care and just wanted to watch the game ---- so I guess I'll never know. The keypoint of this story being that the LCD monitor ALWAYS worked, while the projector (IE TV) only worked after I got the buggy application out of the way. I was just moving the cable back and forth and 1280x720 at 60hz only worked on the projector after I remedidated the unknown issue.

I'VE NEVER SEEN anything like that before. Since when does a display device not work correctly if the proper refresh and resolutions are set! At any rate - good luck and come back with further questions.
 
^ Nice bit of troubleshooting there, Arch! :cool: That reminds me of a problem my sister is having w/ her HP laptop, where it used to connect to her LCD TV just fine. But then one day, it stopped working. Yet her HP laptop connects to a computer monitor just fine using the same output. And her TV's input works w/ her company laptop (non-HP) just fine as well. I didn't think that maybe an application on her HP may now be preventing her laptop from communicating to the LCD TV. I'll suggest to her to shut down processes one at a time like you did to see if that would somehow allow the laptop to display on the TV.
 
Thanks for the tip!

Dragged the s3020n upstairs and connected it to a Dell LCD. Went through the same steps (BIOS change PCI-E, uninstalled the NVIDA 6150 in device manager, shut down, installed the ASUS 3450 card, boot up) and blank screen again.

The card works (in another system) and seems to draw power in the HP Slimline (heats up). After the system boots up (and I have a blank screen via the new card output) I can plug into the monitor via the onboard video and get video. Each time the VISTA new hardware wizard tells me it has discovered the NVIDA 6150 display adapter that I uninstalled with device manager, but no mention of the new PCI-E card, and asks me to install drivers for the NVIDA 6150.

I've clicked "not now", installed the drivers for the new ASUS 3450 card, unistalled the NVIDA 6150 onboard again, rebooted, and blank screen via the new card. Again, when I check the video via the onboard the system has rediscovered the NVIDA 6150 and the new card is no where to be found.

Is there another way I should uninstall the NVIDA 6150? Not sure what else could be causing the conflict.

This is my HTCP and I was upgrading the video card in hopes of getting a better picture from streaming video sources such as netflixs.
 
Wow, looks like the new ATI 4550 is better on the PSU than my 3450. Its defo gonna be my next upgrade after I replace my naccered TV tuner.
 
jamesvill said:
I'm not sure if reversing the fan will help much. The fan is on the side of the PSU instead of the rear:

And when mounted, the PSU fan sits directly on top of the CPU fan:

I've never actually let Prime95 run for too long for fear of damaging the CPU from overheating. AMD says that the max temp for my CPU should be 55 to 68ºC, so 80º++ is REALLY bad. I ran CPU-Z and even at temps past 84º it's still not throttling down.

I did notice that I get a cooler temp when the cover is off, but that's not something I want.
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Hey james,
I like the PSU you went with, do you have any pics of the back, as well as were you able to mount it at all with screws or did you use only that double sided tape you mentioned. Also have you noticed if your temp is higher with that fan blowing over your CPU, or if you have gotten that resolved or not? Just thinking about going that route, would prefer to be safe with the bigger card.
Thanks
 
^^ The screw holes on the PSU don't match the case, except for one which I did screw in:
21kxbmu.jpg


The power supply fits in very snugly so you don't have to worry so much about holding it in place. Just a few strips of double sided tape on the top just to be safe.




I reversed the power supply fan as suggested by Archaea, and it did help to lower the CPU temp.
I also bought a couple of 40mm fans and attached them to the back of the case:

31XqVxcMrdL._SL500_AA250_.jpg


epitxh.jpg


169qgew.jpg




The fans arrived without screws, so I was stuck using whatever screws I had around. I used wood screws and they work well enough, if you don't mind that they're too long and a part of them sticks out.

These tiny fans are awesome. There is very little circulation inside the slimline case, and I noticed that the hard drive gets especially hot during prolonged computer use. These fans move a lot of air, which is exactly what the slimline needs.

I also wanted to add that both CoreTemp and HWMonitor now report that my maximum temp is around 68 to 72ºC when running the Prime95 torture test. Much better than the 84++ I used to get!!
 
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has anyone replaced the cpu cooler with anything better? my cores are allways on the wrong side of 50... Ive even changed the cooling paste but .... It could be better.
 
Well, I've had my slimline s3600t since Christmas now, and I'm on it pretty much everyday. I got the 9500GT from XFX and it has been working flawlessly since the day I got it. No stutters and no lock-ups. Easily the best computer I've ever had. Since then, I've already beat the Witcher and almost beat Fallout 3, all on medium settings. My PC never gets really hot and I never even hear it vamping up. Completely silent. Love it!

So there's a success story for you for all you doubters! (knock on wood). :D
 
Blaire said:
Well, I've had my slimline s3600t since Christmas now, and I'm on it pretty much everyday. I got the 9500GT from XFX and it has been working flawlessly since the day I got it. No stutters and no lock-ups. Easily the best computer I've ever had. Since then, I've already beat the Witcher and almost beat Fallout 3, all on medium settings. My PC never gets really hot and I never even hear it vamping up. Completely silent. Love it!

So there's a success story for you for all you doubters! (knock on wood). :D
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nice to hear that blaire, i bought my xfx 9500 gt the same time you did and worked fine from december till the end of january when my rig started locking up on me and all i played was call of duty 4..haha..best of luck to your rig though=)
 
jamesvill said:
These tiny fans are awesome. There is very little circulation inside the slimline case, and I noticed that the hard drive gets especially hot during prolonged computer use. These fans move a lot of air, which is exactly what the slimline needs.
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I like the look of those fans. :cool:

Do those case fans work with the stock psu? Also, I noticed that the M2N61-AR motherboard has a power connector for a case fan. It's right next to the CPU fan connector, in the upper right hand corner-ish area. See here. Since the Slimline doesn't have a case fan per se, is it possible to install a case fan (given size/power constraints) using that motherboard connector? Moreover, will that connector work for powering these fans? :confused:
I'd appreciate any advice, thanks :)
 
Well, there goes my late-night reply to Archaea's post... (and the post I was replying to, along with everything in the past five days)...
 
Well I received the replacement 9800GT and no deal. The only thing I can figure is the FSP Supplemental power supply is only putting out 25 amps on the 12v rail and the 9800gt wants to see 26 amps. Any suggestions, hints, tips would be very appreciated.
 
It's not that precise....25 vs. 26 amps -- The 26 amps is just a general guideline for total system draw requirements.

What power supply do you have miosis?

If you have a single stock style PSU - you could unplug all the accessories...Unplug the CD-ROM, unplug the USB wireless, unplug the memory card reader and try again.
 
chklin said:
Well, there goes my late-night reply to Archaea's post... (and the post I was replying to, along with everything in the past five days)...
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Yeah - man - that sucks....

We lost some great discussion on Power Supply possibilities. :mad:

This forum seems down more than it's up lately.

I'm debating between the 400 watt 1u server chasis seasonic PSU and the Shuttle PC50 300 watt cpu and the 270 watt sparkle PSU.

I had a great thread going in the Power Supplies forum as well that got lost.

shucks...
 
Archaea said:
It's not that precise....25 vs. 26 amps -- The 26 amps is just a general guideline for total system draw requirements.

What power supply do you have miosis?

If you have a single stock style PSU - you could unplug all the accessories...Unplug the CD-ROM, unplug the USB wireless, unplug the memory card reader and try again.
Click to expand...

FSP Group BoosterX 3 FSP300-1E01 Max. 400W Independent/Supplementary Power Supply. No CDROM as the PSU takes the space where that would go. Do you think that terminating the wifi and memory reader would have any effect? any other suggestions and or hacks are welcome.
 
miosis said:
FSP Group BoosterX 3 FSP300-1E01 Max. 400W Independent/Supplementary Power Supply. No CDROM as the PSU takes the space where that would go. Do you think that terminating the wifi and memory reader would have any effect? any other suggestions and or hacks are welcome.
Click to expand...

It's worth a shot, because assumably it does draw some power from the PCI-E slot...

...I'd also suggest trying the card in another computer - the fact that you have two that haven't worked suggests your slimline might be the problem rather than the card.


I also don't think it's the booster alone either....you have the 400watt model - but the 450 watt model has positive reviews on newegg saying they are running 280GTX cards on it...those cards are power hungry mongrels....the 9800GT should sip power when compared to the 280GTX.
 
I just called Seasonic about their Seasonic SS-400H1U PSU.

This 400 watt server PSU is rated very highly by jonnyguru.com. It is supposed to be between 25db and 38db depending on load, according to a phone call to seasonic tech support. It has a massive 29 amps on the 12 volt rail! That's like 2.5 times what the HP stock 180watt powers supply has (12.5 amps on the 12 volt rail)

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=131

The 25db-38db is quiet enough by the specs at least. I e-mailed the jonnyguru reviewer and asked him to give me more information about his thoughts on its noise levels for use in a desktop PC.

From his review - My general impressions of the fans were... they're not quiet. 40mm fans rarely are. They were audible in test one, and very audible in test five and CL2.

--- ..If he says it's too loud I'll likely just go with the Shuttle PC50. I've read lost of people's comments on that one and they say it is quiet. It is rated at <30db.

Shuttle PC50 specs:

http://eu.shuttle.com/en/Portaldata/1/Resources/download/specs/accessories/spec_pc50_en.pdf

and review here

http://www.sfftech.com/index.php?/articles/show/695



My 9800GT should be coming in the next couple days - my quad core s3600t from ubid came today - I'm burning it in now --- trying to get an idea of how hot it gets!


I really like the price and appreciate the name brand of the sparkle 270 watt (having had one of their full size standard desktop PSU's in the past and being very impressed with the build quality, weight, and reliability) --- but I'm afraid their might not be enough juice in the 12 volt rail for the 9800GT. You can find the 270 watt sparkle for $45 bucks which is half price of the other two...Heck I just might go this way anyway. It's an 80% efficient unit. The seasonic is as well. The PC50 is not.

Specs:
http://www.sparklepower.com/pdf/SPI270LE.pdf

Purchase for $45 using $5 off coupon.
http://www.censuspc.com/product-pr-5902.html
 
I ripped out all non-essentials (the wifi and card reader). Still no luck getting it going. Practically can hot swap other (9600) cards. Don't have another computer that I can "check" 9800 in right now either. I am under a lot of stress having to deal with my son teething and I am ill on top of this card business so I may not quite remember the exact wiring of wifi and card reader. Just left them unhooked, but I would like to get them back "online". SO I may need help with that later. I am out of ideas for getting the 9800 GT going in this machine. Deus Ex Machina please!
 
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