[SOLVED] HP 200 G1 MT Business PC - graphic card recommendations

[Nate Dogg]

So my wife just inherited a HP 200 G1 MT business pc from her old job.
What recommendations do you guys have for this?

I assume we should go for a PCI video card and not the PCIe slot?

 

[hang-the-9]

^ I had this same response typed up. However, the second (third?) time I clicked the link, it rerouted to a 3400MT board with a PCIe x16 slot, an i5-2300, and 4GB RAM included(?) Not sure what the OP even got.

I agree the PSU and GPU were a raw deal though.

It's because the item ended, and eBay popped up a "you may be interested in this" item, not the one that was purchased. For $55 for a motherboard, RAM and an i5 is not too bad, but not the right thing to spend money on in this case.

 

[Nate Dogg]

I found a 2GB nVidia GT530 DVI / HDMI PCI-E GDDR3 for $80 that instantly worked.
The 2 GB Ati Radeon HD 7570 PCIe x 16 had a slight scratch on the board.

The machine is up and running with the new motherboard (HP 3400 MT, i5 quad core at 2.66 ghz), 300 watt power supply and the 2GB nVidia GT530.

Oh well, I understand everyone was trying to tell me to not bother by upgrading, but the spouse got a MT for cheap at work and I wanted to tweek it a bit and it was a fun challenge. Plus I didn't want her to feel that she got ripped off because we both didn't know its limitations as a bare bones machine. But swapping out the motherboard I wanted to tackle the cheapest options and I was able to motify for what it could handle.

 

[tennis2]

I forgot, are you in the US?

In summary, the total spent was...$190?
Used HP 300W OEM PSU = $55
Did you end up getting the i5-2300+mobo+4GB Ram for $55?
GT530 = $80
Did you return the used $87 HD7570 for a full refund? Did it not work? Shipping for return?
All these prices include shipping?

Did windows reactivate for you after the mobo and CPU swap?

Not sure why your wife would've felt irked. She got the [original] PC for free.