[SOLVED] GPU upgrade for HP Z400 - advice please

[EggsOnLegs]

Hello,
My son has asked for a better graphics card for his HP Z400 computer. It currently has an NVidia Quadro 3800. I wanted to get him one for Xmas, but have no idea which cards will be compatible with his machine. It has a 450w power supply and all the components are standard that came with the machine, no upgrades apart from the 12gb of Ram. Can anyone advise me? I've no idea where to start and have googled for days but can't make sense of it . Thanks in advance.

 

[siaan312]

hey! sorry for the late reply.
a 450w psu isnt alot so at max a gtx 1660 super and i would suggest going lower
an rx 580/gtx 1060/1650 super (rx 5500/5500 xt would be swell, if they come out in time)

problem is, that whole system is quite dated.
and i dont know which cpu it has. it can support everything from a measly w3503, which a machine running isnt any good even with a new gpu and should swapped with a whole board, cpu and ram
to a w3570 which is, a meh cpu, and a gpu upgrade would help it significantly.

please tell me which cpu it has in it. if it has been unaltered, then youre looking at
a w3540 or w3570, if its one of those 2 youre fine for a gpu upgrade
if its another, slower one.. sorry but you will have to pony up for a new machine.

 

[EggsOnLegs]

Many thanks for the reply, Siaan312.

I'll Google those cards you suggested and see how much they are. I've only got a £150 budget for my son so i'll do some shopping around. The whole machine is original parts apart from the ram, so i'm guessing the CPU is the factory default one, i'll look when i get home and see if i can find out what CPU it is. I've no idea how to do it though but it'll have a try. Sincere thanks for you help.

 

[siaan312]

Many thanks for the reply, Siaan312.

I'll Google those cards you suggested and see how much they are. I've only got a £150 budget for my son so i'll do some shopping around. The whole machine is original parts apart from the ram, so i'm guessing the CPU is the factory default one, i'll look when i get home and see if i can find out what CPU it is. I've no idea how to do it though but it'll have a try. Sincere thanks for you help.

oh 150 pounds is around how much an rx 580 or 1650 super are right now im pretty sure

and to check what cpu it is, you just check in task manager>more details>performance and it should be there on the upper right corner. can attach a picture if needed.

and there is no "factory default"
when you bought the pc, you could configuire it with different cpus and ram options, which would increase, or lower the price.

Intel Xeon W3503
Intel Xeon W3505
Intel Xeon W3520
Intel Xeon W3540
Intel Xeon W3570
thats the list of cpus that might be in there.
the top 2 are "fine" and will be a nice pair to a lower end or older gpu.
like the ones i listed earlier

but for any further/future upgrade a new pc would have to be built.

EDIT
by top, i meant the w3570 and w3540, they are the fastest, and the only ones that wont bottleneck a new gpu so much that it wont be much of an upgrade, as those are for 1. quad cores and 2. "fast" cores, by todays standards theyre molasis slow, but theyll be almost as good as core new core i3 or so.
the w3520 is also a quad core, but the cores are quite slow which really matters, especially for gaming.