[SOLVED] Advice on chosen upgrades to old PC

[Gappa5604]

Hello,

Im looking for advice on if 3 parts ive chosen will work on a older HP desktop. Im mainly concerned about power issues, but im grateful if you spot anything at all. There may be some glaring issues that I overlooked.

Its a 3 year old PC out of my mom's house that im trying to upgrade for my nieces as a gift. I do have experience building myself a high end gaming PC every 4-5 years - as recent as the first 3080 launch I built a I9 / 3080 system, but I feel less comfortable inside these older janky PCs. And if someone sees that something I ordered wont work, I can return it before opening the box, which would be great.

HP Compaq 8200 Elite SFF PC (SFF = Small Form Factor)

• x64 based
• I5 2400 CPU @3.10GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
• 8192MB RAM
• WIN 10 PRO

-240W active PFC
- 2TB HDD

Here is a link to the PC on HPs site:

HP Compaq 8200 Elite Small Form Factor PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

Specifications document for HP Compaq 8200 Elite Small Form Factor PC.

support.hp.com

More detail on the hardware:

HP Compaq 8200 Elite Small Form Factor PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

Specifications document for HP Compaq 8200 Elite Small Form Factor PC.

support.hp.com

I want to upgrade the HDD to a SDD, add a video card, and maybe double the RAM.

I purchased these 3 items:

VisionTek Radeon 5450 2GB DDR3 (DVI-I, HDMI, VGA) Graphics Card - 900861,Black/Red
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CN1F1ZM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

Kingston 480GB A400 SATA 3 2.5" Internal SSD SA400S37/480G - HDD Replacement for Increase Performance
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0TQPQB?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

SSD Mounting Bracket 2.5 to 3.5 Adapter 2 Pack,Ruaeoda SSD Bracket SSD Tray Adapter 2.5" to 3.5" HDD SSD Hard Disk Drive Bays Holder Metal Mounting Bracket Adapter for PC SSD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078BGLCS8?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

I didn't order any RAM yet. Would upgrading to 16MB from the current 8MB make much difference for gaming on this thing? Looks like it will cost about $60 to do it, but I didnt think it would affect performance much on the low tech games they will be playing on it like Minecraft and Rocksmith 2014.

For the video card - I'm fairly sure it has the correct type of PCI port even though its an older one im not too familiar with anymore and its not labeled exactly how I was hoping. The card says it needs a 250W PSU and the system has a 240W, but I assume it will still work right? The card is low form factor to fit the SFF case and it doesnt have a power hookup - i guess it just pulls from the PCI slot.

And for the HDD to SDD: The current HDD has SATA power and SATA interface, so I assumed I could just plug and play/reload windows without issue on the SDD.

Does any of this sound wrong? lol

Ill reply with more info if needed. 2 days until the parts arrive, so I thats my window for answers or ill probably open them all and attempt to install.

Thanks!

Here is a imgur link to 5 pictures of the internals:

https://imgur.com/a/OpeXBwI

View: https://imgur.com/a/OpeXBwI

 

[JWNoctis]

If this is the same machine as the one you are working on, then it doesn't have a standard PCIe slot.

Return the graphic card.

EDIT - Think I might be wrong here, but definitely check the fitting.

 

[Gappa5604]

Hello,

I think thats a different machine. This one is the 8200 elite SFF.

I put some pictures of the slots on the imgur link if you can tell from that. Might have to open it - the thumbnails only show 3 pictures of the 5 for me for some reason.

The HP link above says it has:

1 low-profile PCI 1 low-profile PCIe x1 2 low-profile PCIe x16

Pretty sure thats what I see, but they arent labeled exactly that way, so I wasnt 100%.

 

[JWNoctis]

Hello,

I think thats a different machine. This one is the 8200 elite SFF.

I put some pictures of the slots on the imgur link if you can tell from that. Might have to open it - the thumbnails only show 3 pictures of the 5 for me for some reason.

Whoops, sorry about that - I've missed the images(cannot see them on my network).

The Radeon HD 5450 is even older than the machine you are upgrading, and I'm not sure what they are doing with 2GB of VRAM. You may still want a better card, if available - But look out for UEFI requirements on newer cards. Even minecraft can be hungry for resources on higher settings, especially with render distance.

I don't think 16GB of memory is going to do much more than what 8GB is already doing for this use case, either.

That SSD is definitely going to help, though, and it was really as simple as you described.