Upgrade my CPU processor a bit

vgchat said:

Ok so as I thought, it looks like you don't have a graphics card and your system is being forced to use the onboard graphics from the intel cpu... not ideal as your cpu is forced to do both graphics and whatever else you're doing (coding).

I suggest you get some kind of graphics card. This would offset the load from the cpu to the gpu and free your cpu to have more horsepower to do other things.

This is a cheap option from newegg at $44, it can get the job done for what you need it for and you should notice that your cpu isn't always tied up as much as before, giving you a bit more horsepower to work with as the gpu would now be doing the graphics/display work.
GIGABYTE GeForce GT 710 Video Card GV-N710D3-2GL 1.0 - Newegg.com

Is my motherboard limited to which graphics card will work?
I’m assuming I can only use DDR3, is this true?

I see a boat-load of used ones locally in the price range of the GT 710:
$15 - PNY NVIDIA QADRO NVS450 512MB GDDR3 single slot Silent Video Card (Newegg $187).
$15 - MSI ATI Radeon HD 4350 1GB DDR3 SDRAM PCI Express x16 Video Card (Amazon $200).
There’s also a GeForce GT 710 for $20, but the new one for $44 is a logical option as well.

BTW, my $100 UG budget is strictly based on me not wanting to spend too much on an end-of-life box.
I will replace it eventually but hopefully, no time soon, whatever that means.

I don't think a gpu addon card would make much difference unless you were going to put something considerably stronger than a gt 710 combined with more workload like rendering. An older GTX card in it like a 1050 sff or something.

You never actually specified the chassis of your computer so we are still assuming, you won't be able to fit a full size card in this if it is SFF system so i would be careful here if you do consider it just know that would limit what you can put in it among other factors, or you can post here the actual spec or a photo of the computer if you are unsure.

Personally i think GT 710 would be a side grade at best it has more speed but less G ram unless you are going to be doing more than web surfing and some coding i don't think it has much bearing.

- - - Updated - - -

spapakons said:

They won't miss anything. They will be the same secure as when running Windows 10 with the same configuration and the same applications. There is a misconception that running Windows 11 on unsupported systems makes them more vulnerable than running 10. Absolutely not. Nothing changes, as long as you have identical configuration.

They miss out on TPM and memory integrity on a legacy system, The latter being the more inportant but if you have an AV in place then you are still fine. It just means that the core system processes are not protected with the integrity features where this is how it is currently with w10.

So as long as they have an AV then they will be ok for the most part and their computing will not really change much from what it is currently we have been computing on the consumer side like this since forever so nothing is really changed its just you miss out on this new feature.

All my legacy systems will be going over to 11 when 10 finishes and i don't really care about it.

That's exactly what I said. They will have the same level of security they had with Windows 10, no more, no less. So if they feel safe using Windows 10 now, they should also feel safe to use Windows 11.

Malneb said:

You never actually specified the chassis of your computer so we are still assuming, you won't be able to fit a full size card in this if it is SFF system so i would be careful...

Yeah, I was wondering about this because it is a SFF.
Okay, so I'll get the CPU and call it a day, until time to replace this box.....Thanks

I have an hp 8300 sff lying around.

I can't stand the fans. Partly becuase they are noisy ( though they can be replaced) mainly because of the design which blows a nasty draft through the front of the machine.

I replaced the front fan assembly/cpu cooler with the cpu cooler/fan from hp z240. It helps a bit by reducing the noise and draft somewhat. Easy to do because it screws straight in.

I will post a picture in a mo.

If the draft doesn't bother you, there are lots of things that can be done with these machines - depending if you think it is worth it.

One free upgrade is to add nvme boot capabilty to the bios and then can boot cheap nvme disk from cheap pcie>nvme adapter.

Adding nvme boot is a bit fiddly with these kind of oem machines ( it is less fiddly on consumer motherboards ) but it doesn't cost anything to do.

I added nvme support to a 3rd gen gigabyte motherboard. That was easy because gigabyte did the bios apparently in response to a customer request. Works perfectly.

Phil did a video showing some things that can be done with hp8200/8300
Improve your HP Elite Small Form Factor PC - YouTube

and here are instructions for nvme boot
https://www.tachytelic.net/2022/01/hp-compaq-8300-nvme/


On oem machines you have to do it yourself.

The other issue with OEM is the chassis parts are proprietary i have a few elite models and some Z models and power supply has gone in a few of them, Cannot really use of the shelf power supplies because they are a proprietary format.

You can engineer them but you have to either use an adapter or make one yourself. I agree the fans are loud at max but you don't need them on max either you can have them at around 45% and it will be adequate cooling with no noise pollution.

- - - Updated - - -

Nice to know about the z240 parts i always assumed stuff like this is possible being in similar generations and retrofitting something is always cool when it works.

They are loud on min. On half it sounds like a jet taking off.

What if you put some WD-40 and let it a few minutes to remove dirt and lubricate the fans? Maybe they are not so noisy then.