HP Pavilion Desktop: Ryzen 7 3700X, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, RX 550 2GB Expired

The long threads on this have answers to all of these questions, but since we're off and running on the wild assumptions kick, here's some starters.

Initially I expected a hot running loud machine. In stock form, its actually pretty quiet and cool running, even when driven to 100% cpu/gpu. It appears to have HP's million year old heat sink and fan that's been in every HP desktop I've ever owned. Someone said the cooler is pinned for mounting an intel style cooler, and the one in there looks just like the one on my HP i7-6700 cpu. Don't bother with fancy aftermarket coolers, this appears to do almost as well as the AMD Wraith. As in at 100% for extended times, the cpu will get pretty hot but remain well within specs. You will quickly find that enthusiast type tweaking to this system really won't get you much, so if you're that type...build something.

This can take 2x16GB of 2133, 2600 or 3200 ram at 1.2v. Not 1.3, not 1.35, not 1.35 labeled as 1.2 when it isn't, not ram that doesn't really run right at 1.2v/3200 because its overclocked and overvolted with xmp. There are about 2 sources of non overvolted, non overclocked 1.2v ram @ 3200. Crucial is one. Good luck finding them in stock. Good news! It really doesn't matter as the 2666 1.2v samsung ram it comes with is cheap, widely available and a second 8GB enables dual channel, which is a huge, almost free, performance boost. What isn't that big? 3200 ram. Runs memory benchmarks a bit faster. Unless you run memory benchmarks most of the time, add the second 8GB samsung 2666 for ~$30 and enjoy more cpu performance than most people can actually use. If your apps demand 32GB, get two 16GB sticks of the same 2666 samsung 1.2v ram and sell the OEM 8GB to someone who wants to add the 2nd 8GB.

Power supply is a 310w proprietary HP part that CAN be replaced with an ATX supply but its not plug and play. There are two 12v square "cpu" type four pin connectors, a 4+2 pin gpu connector and a six pin proprietary signalling cable between PS and mobo that gives PS on/fan on/ fan speed signals. HP has had these for some time now, but they enjoy swapping the wires around on every model just to mess with you. There is a proprietary HP ~400W supply for around $100-120. You can also buy adapter cables that allow a regular ATX supply to be used. In the longest thread about the system, I laid out an amazon 3rd party adapter cable, the mobo pinout, and which color wires to attach to which pin on the connector.

However the flat out wattage from this (with a 50w RX 550 in it) at the wall is about 125W. Since its a gold 80+ supply, toss ~10% of that as PS losss and 50w for the gpu, leaving about 210W for a replacement gpu. Which means any gpu that is powered by the slot alone (so a gtx 1650) or the slot + a 4 or 6 pin connector totalling <150W max will work. So a 5500 xt with a 6 pin connector would also work. Many <150w cards with an 8 pin connector may also work with a 6 to 8 pin connector that carries the 12v and GND to the 7th and 8th pins. A few folks said they were going to put a 1650 or 1660 in, but I don't remember anyone coming back to say how it worked. You may have to add a case fan mod with a bigger gpu.

The RX 550 runs about 60% of common games, some with lower settings. A 1650 will run about 75% of games at higher settings and almost anything non hard core at lower settings.

There is room for two 2.5/3.5" drives to be added in, and there is a sata cable and sata power already run to the drive bay, with more sata ports under the bay. So adding a huge SSD or HDD is a piece of cake. Take out two screws, pull off the panel, mount drive, plug in cables, replace side. Adding 2 drives may involve removing the drive cage, but folks have put two 3.5's in and said it was fine. There are no spare nvme/m.2 slots.

Bios updates: So far there have been 5-6 of them since last thursday. I received HP bios updates for an old HP 6700 machine for about 3 years, including updates to the IME regarding the management engine being taken over by malware, and that was almost 4 years after the products release. I have third party motherboard companies that have given up bios updates after a year or so. Note that the bios has limited CPU support (read the release notes) so the "I'll just stick a xxxx cheap AMD cpu in there and harvest the 3700x" idea may not work out. There was a problem between logitech and some other usb wireless keyboard items and some usb hubs causing interference with other usb devices, leading to skipping mouse/keyboard glitches and low usb drive speed. That seems to have been resolved in the newer bios.

I used retailmenot and they actually paid me the cash back twice. Not sure why.

OfficeDepot on the other hand fought tooth and nail to not pay me the $11 in OD cash rewards. First it didn't post to the account, I called twice a month apart and they said they'd make it available in a week, nothing. Finally they told me the CB had been used in store - 1800 miles away from where I live. They eventually gave it to me, but its the hardest $11 I ever had to work for.

So if you want a machine that can have max everything, don't buy this. Its not for you. If you can't stand the idea of not having the very fastest ram and you want to dink around with software overclocks only to get higher numbers in memory benchmarks, dont buy this. If you want an 800W power supply and a dual SLI gpu, don't buy this.

If you want a crazy fast cpu, to be able to run workstation type loads, transcode until your eyes bleed, and run a lot of games as the machine comes, toss in 8GB ram for $30ish and whatever big SSD/HDD you have lying around into it and have at it. This is your machine. Awesome "My parents/grandparents need a new machine that I never have to replace, ever" system. Great for design/drawing/cad/cam stuff, but replacing the RX 550 with a low power "workstation" card might give a boost with some apps.

I keep thinking about a 1650, but I run about 100 steam games at good quality settings, including Doom, right on the RX 550. Its just fine.

My total was $50 off for the box not having the advertised 1TB HDD refunded by OD, some folks got 15% or more. $50 retailmenot cash back + another $50 retailmenot cash back, $11 cash back from OD and $11 cash back from my credit card on an original sales price of $549. So I basically paid for the cpu and stick of ram and got the rest of the machine for free. One of my best slickdeals save the ones where the company shipped me two of something expensive and wouldn't take the second one back because according to their records, they only shipped one. M'kay.

This desktop come with great CPU (MSRP $300 by iteself) with relatively ok GPU. I am not a gamer, so just replace the M.2 SSD to be 1TB and changed to 32GB DDR4.
It runs very quiet as CPU only consume 65w and small GPU.

Useful info
Update BIOS
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comm...gesa_1004/

Spec from HP site
https://support.hp.com/us-en/docu...Slickdeals

PC World Review
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3...phics.html

No, it's a proprietary design.

This system is completely impractical for gaming. The included graphics are fine for casual gaming (old games or new games at the lowest settings), but putting a better graphics card in this would be more complicated and more expensive than building a gaming computer from parts.