22 replies to this topic

[Jules L]

Hey all, I've been looking into getting an HP Pavilion p7-1235 from Microcenter. All arguments for building from scratch aside (believe me, if you knew me you wouldn't want me messing around more than is necessary), would it be possible to upgrade the power supply to 500W? I asked one of the tech support guys in the store and he said something about HPs having proprietary power supplies... Basically he told me that there's nothing I can buy to replace it. I just wanted to get a second opinion before i move on if at all possible!  I'm on my iPod so I'm having trouble digging up the link, but it should be easily findable!

Edited by Jules L, 11 August 2012 - 07:39 PM.

[jesh]

If you go here, you can see that this PC uses a standard 24 pin power supply connector.
It's also not a small form factor case. I don't see a reason that a standard ATX power supply wouldn't work.

Edited by jesh, 11 August 2012 - 07:48 PM.

[Elder III]

Power Supply
Internal 300W (100V-240V)

• 
  Form factor: Internal ATX
  
• 
  Total wattage: 300W
  
• 
  Nominal input voltage range: 200-240V/3A (50-60Hz)
  
• 
  Dimensions: 150mm x 140mm x 86mm (5.9 x 5.5 x 3.4 inches

It might be a proprietary Power Supply in that only HP uses that exact model, but as long as it's Standard ATX format you should be able to fit any standard PSU in that case.  I would recommend a modular unit if possible since there isn't going to be a ton of space for cable management in there.

[tijo]

I second the recommendation for a modular unit, otherwise, it's gonna look like this:



Needless to say that it was running toasty inside that rig as well. It got a case change too not too long after the PSU and GPU swap.

Edited by tijo, 12 August 2012 - 12:28 AM.

[Jules L]

Hey all, sorry about that, and thanks for all the quick replies! I only saw jesh's post before we went out to grab the power supply, though. Came home with a Corsair GS500, which is actually a tiny bit too long for the latch. However, it fits in the case and screws in tightly enough, so I'll be keeping an eye on it to make sure that it's secure -- that's actually my biggest worry right now. (All of this done mostly by my awesome friend, who sweated blood and tears trying to take everything out and then put everything back in.)

tijo's right, the cables are eeeverywhere at the moment. I really wasn't expecting all of them to spring out at me the way they did when I tried to pull the PSU out of the box, haha. Tomorrow I'm going to open it up again and try to clean it up a little. The video card is just a 6670 and I don't plan to overclock or anything, do you think heat/air flow is going to be a problem?

Edited by Jules L, 12 August 2012 - 02:24 AM.

[XgreatArtist]

as long as you monitor your temperatures, clean the dusts from the PC and dont do serious OCing it should be fine

[SilentCid]

tijo, on 12 August 2012 - 12:26 AM, said:

I second the recommendation for a modular unit, otherwise, it's gonna look like this:



Needless to say that it was running toasty inside that rig as well. It got a case change too not too long after the PSU and GPU swap.

EEK! Should find a case that allows you to tie down cables on the other side of the case.

[tijo]

SilentCid, on 12 August 2012 - 02:26 AM, said:

EEK! Should find a case that allows you to tie down cables on the other side of the case.

First, this is not my rig and if you read my post it no longer looks like that. Now it's more like:

 DSC00792.JPG   214.95K   28 downloads

Didn't have an extender for the 8-pin power connector and since it's my sister's rig and she doesn'te xactly live near me it'll stay that way. total cost of the upgrades: 560Ti, 550W PSU and Case: about 350$ incl shipping.

Edited by tijo, 12 August 2012 - 02:37 AM.

[Jules L]

If you think that looks bad, you should see the way mine looks right now. |D For now I'm just enjoying the fact that everything works (for now) and I can actually do things on the new computer, but tomorrow I think I'm going to have to go in and tie off some cables.

How can I monitor the temperature, specifically?

Edited by Jules L, 12 August 2012 - 02:44 AM.

[SilentCid]

Jules L, on 12 August 2012 - 02:41 AM, said:

If you think that looks bad, you should see the way mine looks right now. |D For now I'm just enjoying the fact that everything works (for now) and I can actually do things on the new computer, but tomorrow I think I'm going to have to go in and tie off some cables.

How can I monitor the temperature, specifically?

I use HWMonitor from CPUID which is able to tell you the temps from hard drives, CPU, GPU, and Motherboard all in one screen. Can find it here:  http://www.cpuid.com.../hwmonitor.html

tijo, on 12 August 2012 - 02:36 AM, said:

First, this is not my rig and if you read my post it no longer looks like that. Now it's more like:

DSC00792.JPG

Didn't have an extender for the 8-pin power connector and since it's my sister's rig and she doesn'te xactly live near me it'll stay that way. total cost of the upgrades: 560Ti, 550W PSU and Case: about 350$ incl shipping.

Hey not bad looks pretty clean.

[tijo]

Other temperature monitoring software (free ones) include HWiNFO, speccy, core temp and speedfan. I'm a fan of HWmonitor and HWiNFO.

[Jules L]

All right! I've got HWmonitor installed...then realized that I have no idea what any of the numbers mean. What sort of stuff should I be looking for?

[Verene]

The important part is the CPU and GPU temperatures. You should be able to find the max temps they can run at without it causing damage in whatever manuals came with the computer and your video card, if not you can look them up online pretty easily. For example, my graphics card can run at a temperature up to 104C, and HWmonitor shows that currently my card is at about 40C. My CPU should stay below 70C, and it's at 36C right now. And so on.

[Jules L]

I'm probably looking in the wrong place because I'm pretty inept at computer terminology, buuuut I'm not seeing a CPU temperature in HWmonitor. I'm a bit baffled, actually. |D

Edit: mobo is MSI, cpu should be AMD I think. I'm looking for max temps for the AMD A8-Series, but no luck so far.

Edited by Jules L, 12 August 2012 - 04:20 AM.

[tijo]

Jules L, on 12 August 2012 - 03:34 AM, said:

All right! I've got HWmonitor installed...then realized that I have no idea what any of the numbers mean. What sort of stuff should I be looking for?

Post a screenshot of the window with every reading and we'll sort it out.

[Jules L]

Thanks, here's what I've got!

http://img209.images...3/hwmonitor.png

[XgreatArtist]

Jules L, on 12 August 2012 - 04:44 AM, said:

Thanks, here's what I've got!

http://img209.images...3/hwmonitor.png

the MSI 2ae0 is your motherboard. So under the MSI tab, you see temperatures which is ur motherboard temperatures. I am jealous since my laptop's motherboard hits 70 degrees(damn laptops)

the Hitachi temperature is your HDD. Remember, if the HDD gets too hot, there is potential problems. But 33deg is alright.

the AMD 6600 is the graphics card.

strange, i didnt see any CPU temps

[tijo]

Yeah, that is strange, try with another monitoring program, there is definitely no CPU reading and one sensor isn't being read properly. No way you got something at -24C in there. HDD and GPU temps seem to be pretty normal though.

[XgreatArtist]

since HWmonitor is giving no CPU temps and ^ said that one reading is wrong
try HWinfo(32 or 64 depending on ur OS)
or...
Speedfan???

[Jules L]

I'll give HWinfo a shot!

Real quick, I just opened it up to check and the original PSU had a fan facing out a vent in the back of the case (not up or down like the Corsair I have now). The new PSU is mounted at the top of the case and the fan is facing down, so I assume it's somewhat drawing air from outside and blowing it down into the case (the name of the PSU is upsidedown). I don't have any experience with these, so I was just checking to see if that sounds okay. With the mess of cables sticking out, I don't think I could flip it over anyway.

Edit: It appears that HWinfo isn't showing CPU temp, either? http://img69.imagesh...8338/hwinfo.png
Now I'm a little nervous -- do you think I'm okay to try a game or two if I can't monitor it?

Edited by Jules L, 12 August 2012 - 01:39 PM.

[crapola]

Are you running the monitoring programs as administrator?

[tijo]

You have to press the sensors button to get the sensor window to show.

 HWiNFO_sensors.png   570.68K   10 downloads

Edited by tijo, 12 August 2012 - 05:29 PM.

[Jules L]

I am running the programs as administrator, but thanks for the reminder -- guess I now know why it hasn't been working on my laptop.

tijo, here are the sensors, but heck if I know what they mean! http://img855.images...infosensors.png

Edited by Jules L, 12 August 2012 - 10:13 PM.