It did not come with an HDD, for company security reasons they took it out. So I bought a 120GB SSD and now I am looking at getting a video card.
What is the best video card I can get that won’t bottle neck this four year old CPU.
The PSU is only good for 320 watts so I will likely need to upgrade the PSU as well. I have heard that you can get a PSU larger than needed and then the fan won’t kick on unless under extreme loads or on boot-up. What is the cheapest good PSU I can get that the fan won’t kick on?
I will be using this as a HTPC / gaming console
Also if you have any other recommended upgrades feel free to throw them out there. I don’t want to spend too much money but I was thinking about replacing the two case fans with newer quieter fans like some noctua fans.
There's not a GPU you can get currently that'll be bottlenecked terribly by an i5-2500... I still use my i5-2500k with an EVGA 780 Classified...
However, the motherboard is pretty terrible... I'd get a nice H77 chipset and R9 290 or GTX 970... and a better case, cause HP's cases are awful to work in... you're lucky if you don't cut yourself on all the sheet metal... that and I doubt the case will handle a good sized gaming GPU to begin with...
Come to think of it, you'll have to replace the PSU as well...
I realize this is an old question, I found the site while looking for the answers to this exact question however and I just can’t believe the only answer that is available is from someone that does not have all the info to actually know.
This is a complete list of the expansion slots for the 8200 Elite i5 2500 TOWER, not the silly sff that is next to impossible to upgrade without cutting and making some horrible Frankenstein.
This board can use up to 32gb of ram, so it’s not that much of a dino. and the full height slots for the VC has GOT to have some fairly adequate cards and i am sure that more experienced builders have found the good answers to this question.
so the question is what card is best, what combo cards are best or are those impossible? the power supply that would work best would be super helpful as well. To more than me really, i mean these things are all over and there are plenty of low budget dudes out here wanting something that can do the job for SOME of the games you rich guys get to play, or even that you played years ago LOL>
I don’t actually have mine in yet, it is on the way though. i wonder also if i will be able to disable the on board graphics , seems like a waste of memory if not right? anyone have one of these set up or know of anyone that does or even seen one? how bout searches, i am doing as many as i can think of. i am kinda stuck on this one so far.
so people get a little weird, people saying oh you dont need a 700 watt psu it will cost too much, i am not worried about that since I look for 20. and 30. dollar stuff that someone already got rid of all the time, i’m not buying brand new memory, lol I am buying dirt cheap used stuff, why not? it has a lifetime warranty right? the case, OS, 8gb memory, sata II HD, 320w psu, ready to plug in and do your taxes on is coming in for a grand total of 132.67 < – see the appeal that has? LOL that is less than a good video card. so just a couple a bumps up from a helpful person or more would be pretty awesome. Thanks,