Hi, Guys
First a note to the Mods: I faithfully promise not to create any more threads touching on this topic, and my apologies for creating more than one.
And while I am apologizing: a note to my readers....if any: I have spent a career writing and so I have kinda fallen in love with my own text....so this may turn out to be rather wordy!
The Back Story (or how I came to be doing this) (TL😀R)
In January, three things occurred at just about the same time: I turned 80<!>, the last of my Program Management support contracts timed out and I chose not to renew them, and by sheer happenstance I serendipitiously found this video on YouTube:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRjSSglEKL8&t=60s
Take a few minutes and go watch....it is a bit of a spoiler, but it will show you why I am bothering.
In my forty years in the defense and aerospace business I have always been on the losing end of the battle between the need for useful desk space and the the need to have a computer on my desk! Indeed, in my first job out of B school I was recruited by General Dynamics and I was not given a desk at all, but rather my very own Hollerith Machine! A Hollerith Machine for all you youngun's out there is a key punch machine about the size of an executive desk and used to punch the cards used to input data into a Data Center mainframe. The only flat space was about the size of a legal pad. And so I have yearned for deskspace for a very long time! Finally I discovered the HP series of EliteDesk 800 Mini computers, acquired one off lease on EBay and fell in love! I now have three active in he house: one for me, one for my wife and one as TVPC/network server combination.....Oh, and a fourth to be the subject of this build!
Project Objective
To competently play most AAA titles at 3440 x 1440p, while maintaining, so far as feasible, the existing footprint.
Constraints
Use of Commercial Off the Shelf parts (COTS): Lets have only one development project at a time, thank you very much!
Use of HP EliteDesk 800 G5 as the basis for implementation. This leads to CPUs with 1151 pin sockets since the MB is not a standard size.
Use of ac/dc module power supplies (see footprint requirement).
Parts sourcing via Ebay (I have had nothing but good luck with Ebay), and Amazon if at all possible.
Preliminary Parts Selection
Base Unit
As mentioned earlier the HP EliteDesk 800 G5 was one of the constraints. The one I purchased from Ebay came with Win10Pro and a 256 GB M.2 NVME for $235 delivered
CPU
If you watched the video I linked to above, you will recall constant mention of the "Bottle Neck" caused by a low power processor., even though they were using the relatively weak 1650 GPU.
This led me to look for the most powerful CPU consistent with the 1151 socket. My research led me to the Core I9-9900k. In the past, Tom's rated it as the top gaming CPU. Further research indicated that HP had actually installed the Core I9-9900k in the HP EliteDesk 800 series....or at least claimed to since I have never seen one on the wilds of EBay. I guess they really did install them since they sell a custom heatsink/fan assembly (pn L31403-001) for 95w tdp processors. So far, this is the only part I sourced other than from Ebay and Amazon. The heatsink is quite a nice part: all copper, 4 tubes, and large enough to consume nearly the whole of the interior volume of the 800 G5 and only cost about $80 delivered.
Core I9-9900k should have plenty of power for any RTX 30 series GPU I can afford (I surely cannot manage an RTX 40 series) since in turbo mode it operates with two cores at 5 GHz, 6 cores at 3.6GHz, and hyperthreading on all cores. Sourced on Ebay from a vendor I have used before, with 90 Day warranty, for $350.
GPU
Given the performance requirements (3440 x 1440p) it appears that the lowest (read that as cheapest) 30 series GPU that will work is the RTX 3060. Maintaining the footprint requires it be an ITX version with a single fan. I found an open box PNY 3060 XLR8 for $325 and snatched it up!
End of Part 1, Next time, if there is any interest, Bring the Heat (power requirements and supplies) and Dumping the Heat!
Best regards to all with the perserverance to get this far and I really do solicit your opinions, recommendations (so long as they do not involve different MBs), and advice.
Larry
First a note to the Mods: I faithfully promise not to create any more threads touching on this topic, and my apologies for creating more than one.
And while I am apologizing: a note to my readers....if any: I have spent a career writing and so I have kinda fallen in love with my own text....so this may turn out to be rather wordy!
The Back Story (or how I came to be doing this) (TL😀R)
In January, three things occurred at just about the same time: I turned 80<!>, the last of my Program Management support contracts timed out and I chose not to renew them, and by sheer happenstance I serendipitiously found this video on YouTube:
Take a few minutes and go watch....it is a bit of a spoiler, but it will show you why I am bothering.
In my forty years in the defense and aerospace business I have always been on the losing end of the battle between the need for useful desk space and the the need to have a computer on my desk! Indeed, in my first job out of B school I was recruited by General Dynamics and I was not given a desk at all, but rather my very own Hollerith Machine! A Hollerith Machine for all you youngun's out there is a key punch machine about the size of an executive desk and used to punch the cards used to input data into a Data Center mainframe. The only flat space was about the size of a legal pad. And so I have yearned for deskspace for a very long time! Finally I discovered the HP series of EliteDesk 800 Mini computers, acquired one off lease on EBay and fell in love! I now have three active in he house: one for me, one for my wife and one as TVPC/network server combination.....Oh, and a fourth to be the subject of this build!
Project Objective
To competently play most AAA titles at 3440 x 1440p, while maintaining, so far as feasible, the existing footprint.
Constraints
Use of Commercial Off the Shelf parts (COTS): Lets have only one development project at a time, thank you very much!
Use of HP EliteDesk 800 G5 as the basis for implementation. This leads to CPUs with 1151 pin sockets since the MB is not a standard size.
Use of ac/dc module power supplies (see footprint requirement).
Parts sourcing via Ebay (I have had nothing but good luck with Ebay), and Amazon if at all possible.
Preliminary Parts Selection
Base Unit
As mentioned earlier the HP EliteDesk 800 G5 was one of the constraints. The one I purchased from Ebay came with Win10Pro and a 256 GB M.2 NVME for $235 delivered
CPU
If you watched the video I linked to above, you will recall constant mention of the "Bottle Neck" caused by a low power processor., even though they were using the relatively weak 1650 GPU.
This led me to look for the most powerful CPU consistent with the 1151 socket. My research led me to the Core I9-9900k. In the past, Tom's rated it as the top gaming CPU. Further research indicated that HP had actually installed the Core I9-9900k in the HP EliteDesk 800 series....or at least claimed to since I have never seen one on the wilds of EBay. I guess they really did install them since they sell a custom heatsink/fan assembly (pn L31403-001) for 95w tdp processors. So far, this is the only part I sourced other than from Ebay and Amazon. The heatsink is quite a nice part: all copper, 4 tubes, and large enough to consume nearly the whole of the interior volume of the 800 G5 and only cost about $80 delivered.
Core I9-9900k should have plenty of power for any RTX 30 series GPU I can afford (I surely cannot manage an RTX 40 series) since in turbo mode it operates with two cores at 5 GHz, 6 cores at 3.6GHz, and hyperthreading on all cores. Sourced on Ebay from a vendor I have used before, with 90 Day warranty, for $350.
GPU
Given the performance requirements (3440 x 1440p) it appears that the lowest (read that as cheapest) 30 series GPU that will work is the RTX 3060. Maintaining the footprint requires it be an ITX version with a single fan. I found an open box PNY 3060 XLR8 for $325 and snatched it up!
End of Part 1, Next time, if there is any interest, Bring the Heat (power requirements and supplies) and Dumping the Heat!
Best regards to all with the perserverance to get this far and I really do solicit your opinions, recommendations (so long as they do not involve different MBs), and advice.
Larry
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