The highly rated HP Pavilion Slimline PC thread

I just got a new slimline s3220n last week and I have been monitoring the CPU temps using Core Temp. I noticed (and not thats it's bad) but my CPU temps are very low. Even right now, Core 1 is hovering around 60F-70F and Core 2 is hovering around 80F-90F. I have never once seen it jump over 130F (or even 125F), even when just after playing a game or while I'm converting a video. Is this right for the stock heat sync and whatever paste might be in there? Or is Core Temp just giving me false numbers?

I'm a bit surprised myself honestly. I just installed a PNY Nvidia GeForce 8400GS (I got a REALLY good deal or I wouldn't have gotten it.) in it also and it seems to have had no effect on the internal temp. I think I might even upgrade it even further with such low numbers since my main concern initially was overheating the thing.

But does that sound right?
 
I can’t speak to the accuracy of Core Temp although I use it too. My temps, even after giving effect to my anti-heat jihad efforts, are about 70-80F no load, 80-90F, medium load, and sometimes brushing 110F while decoding movies.

I will say that my Core 0 (1?) is typically a tad higher than my Core 1 (2?). Also, the difference is never as much as 10F and more like 3-5F.

Just some observations.
 
I just ordered a 4850e from amazon (vendor Antonline) for $100 shipped. It was claimed to be in stock.
 
wow, didnt realize there was a huge thread on this computer. we actually bought one of these for my mom a few months ago. really nice but it was really tough to get xp to work on it. there is almost no xp driver support for this pc.
 
JVOBIKER, I got XP Pro working on my s3223w with no problem and in no time. I would check the HP support forums and every other post will be about downgrading to XP and each thread will have the same links to the drivers. Or just google "hp slimline hp driver".
 
Pc 91,

I have the Intel version of the computer and I replaced the stock heatsink/fan with a Coolermaster Vortex 752.
Its bigger but a perfect fit. It is also a lot quieter than the stock fan probably due to slower speeds (although I am not sure what the speed for the stock fan is) but it lowered the idle temperature of the CPU from about 49-50c stock to 45-46c

For my intel version I had to remove the whole motherboard to replace the bracket behind it. The stock rear brack I had to replace was held on very tightly to the motherboard by double sided tape.

http://www.coolermaster.com/products/product.php?language=en&act=detail&tbcate=1&id=2546
 
Pc91, What is your PSU power output? I'm looking into that card too but I may have to upgrade to that other higher power PSU that was talked about in an earlier post. (Can't remember the name off hand.) Currently I have the stock 160W in now and I can't believe my 8400GS actually works with it considering it wants a 300W minimum PCI Express slot. (How exactly does that work? lol)
 
360Spider.

Nvidia overstates their requirements. They say 300watt PSU because there are so many variances in the amount of components in a computer and even in the PSU's themselves. Each hard-drive uses about 10 watts on the 12 volt rail, so does each CD-ROM. Amount of RAM uses different amounts of power. Case lighting, Case fans, Different CPU's use VASTLY different amounts of power. 300 is just a generic safe recommendation for the entire PSU power supply rating -- it is NOT for the PCI-E slot alone.

Your slimline uses all low power components which allows the 160 watt PSU to run. My exp. with my slimline was that a 65 watt processor (x2 5200+) and a 8400GS and 2GB of RAM failed to run at full power draw (full performance mode) the machine would just reboot because the power supply couldn't muster that much for any length of time. From what I've seen the 8600GT with 256MB DDR3 might actually use less power than the 8400GS with 512MB of DDR2.

xs725 -

49-50*C is well within spec of that CPU. I hate to say this, but I wonder if you didn't gain much by "upgrading" your heat-sink and fan. In fact you may have hurt the situation because the HP stock heatsink exhausts through the back...I'd keep careful watch at first to ensure your entire computer isn't getting much hotter now that you have no real heat exhuasting method. Your new cpu cooler exhausts down and doesn't pull air through the case. I would expect that under a load your overall case, and internal components get much hotter with your new CPU cooling setup. I would strongly recommend others not "upgrade their cpu fan" unless you can find a fan that cleanly exhausts air out the rear of the slimline as the stock setup does. The stock fan will "ramp up" via RPM increase as the temp rises which helps push more air out the rear of the case.

It's also worth noting that your CPU in this slimline, or most any case for that matter will never see a temperature that damages the CPU unless you put it in a sealed cubbard -- and even then -- all new CPUs "throttle down" to avoid damaging themselves when they get too hot. Heck, you can even take the heatsink off most any modern CPU and it'll just piddle along at such a low mhz rating that it'll be usesless but it WON'T burn up. They have too many controls on them now. Tom's hardare has done several reviews on this. This throttling technology started in the P3 days if I remember correctly. For this reasoning the CPU is probably the single most heat resistant component of your slimline and the fact that the stock CPU cooler exhausts towards the rear helps cool the other more fragile components in the case by creating the only air movement. Unfortunately, since you swapped your cooler to one that exhausts down your motherboard and PSU have no way of ridding themselves of that excessive heat buid up through any kind of throttle down process.

I see a lot of "noobie's" in this thread, which if fine, and of course everyone's welcome to provide input--- that's what makes these types of threads great!!!! But you never really know what someone's exp. is with computers and so I'm just trying to give a sound warning. I know It's exciting to first start modding in the PC world but be careful with what you do. In your instance you saved your CPU 3 or 4* at idle (which doesn't matter much) but I bet it's at the expense of increasing the internal case temps by 15* making your RAM, Hard-Drive, PSU, Motherboard, and Video card all much hotter (which does matter). Not only that but under load I'd venture your new CPU cooling setup is actually hotter than the stock HP cooling setup. I hope I'm wrong so you don't create problems for yourself - but I'd wager my money that I'm correct - - - There is a reason, in these little cases with very little airflow, that HP designed the CPU fan to exhaust out of the rear of the case...That rear exhaust pulls a tiny bit of cool air in from the front and sides which helps with cooling all the rest of the components as well as the CPU.
 
Ok guys, I'm back up and running on Vista Home Premium sans all the HP doodoo which is quite nice.

As an aside, my "score" is processor 4.9, ram 5.9, graphics 4.1, gaming 5.0, primary hd 5.7.

Anyway, I got the Xbox talking to my PC in no time ... pretty sweet. Of course now I'm just finding out you can't stream a movie by playing a DVD from the slimline and having it go through the media center. This kind of chaps my hyde since I was hoping to install an LG BR player and stream some HD goodness. So now my anti-heat jihad is taking a back seat to the recently initiated BR streaming media center OTA initifada. Wish me luck.
 
If anyone's interested in a refurbished slimline, uBid is selling them now (just search for s3200t or s3200z - searching for slimline doesn't work since it's not in the title). Just picked up a s3200t with Intel duo core E4500 for less than $200 including shipping'
 
I havnt opened it up in ages, but is there room for another harddrive in it? If so, sata?
 
Archaea said:
only room for one hard-drive in the slimlines, but it does have the bay on the front for the pocket media drives for a second smaller drive.
Click to expand...

Funny you mention ... I just upgraded the stock 300GB HD that came with my s3223w to a 500GB. Both are WD Caviar HDs. The transition was seamless - and that's coming from a total computer noob, mind you. I used Acronis to setup the new drive and restore a backup I had on a WD 100GB. Wow, I just realized I'm a big fan of WD it seems. Anyway, I threw the 300GB into a case and now I've got mad storage capacity to make full use of WMC.

Happy days. :D
 
Just finished watching The Waterhorse with the kids. After the movie, I quickly ran to Everest. Both cores were maxed out at 55C and the GPU was at 85C. Going to see if the g98 card I just ordreed (if that it what it is) will handle the VC1 to reduce the CPU stress, and I can't imagine the card being any hotter than 85C. Maybe this setup was never intended to play 1080p. The movie played flawlessly, though.
 
mcnallm said:
Just finished watching The Waterhorse with the kids. After the movie, I quickly ran to Everest. Both cores were maxed out at 55C and the GPU was at 85C. Going to see if the g98 card I just ordreed (if that it what it is) will handle the VC1 to reduce the CPU stress, and I can't imagine the card being any hotter than 85C. Maybe this setup was never intended to play 1080p. The movie played flawlessly, though.
Click to expand...


Video card cores throttle down at MUCH higher tempartures than CPU. 85*C isn't anywhere near throttle down temps. A quick search online reveals the lowest Nvidia card I found throttles at 105*C, quite a few differnet models at 120*C and the highest I saw 8800GT card based on the standard setting in the newest Nvidia drivers actually throttles down at 190*C. :eek: Care to cook a ham anyone?

If you go through random forums - yet again--- this is one of those issues where people say all kinds of things like "don't let your video card get over 65*C" but if you look at their other posts they are not technical people, and don't know much about what they are saying - they've no idea that CPU temps and GPU temp maximums are quite different and haven't done the research to know otherwise. 85*C won't hurt your graphics card by any means --- BUT if your new 8400GS runs cooler it still will be bonus because it will help lower the ambient temp in your case - which may relate to letting your CPU run cooler, northbridge, southbridge, hard-drives, etc. ---- The only way that 85*C GPU will hurt you is if you locked that chasis up in a cabinet with no air flow - than the interal case temp on your whole system warms up to > 85*C = no good!..... But no issue would ever come of your GPU temp if your CPU sits on a desk or whatever with normal ambient air temperatures surrounding it. As far as 8400GS not meant to play 1080p??? Yes it is! :p Nvidia designed it to do exactly that! --- as evidenced primarily by their website spec page for the 8400GS and then verfified by your flawless playback!!! ;)
 
luddite said:
If anyone's interested in a refurbished slimline, uBid is selling them now (just search for s3200t or s3200z - searching for slimline doesn't work since it's not in the title). Just picked up a s3200t with Intel duo core E4500 for less than $200 including shipping'
Click to expand...

ROTTEN...I won two and figured I wouldn't win either. :eek::D:p:eek: I didn't get as good a price as you...but I got the fully decked out options.

I had bid on two seperate auctions at 300 dollar pricepoint for the s3200t - 500GB hd, 8500GT, e4500 CPU, 2GB RAM, one has a TV tuner card, the other does not.

I won one at 276 and one at 297 + 30 shipping on each. Ha.... um....didn't mean to do that...

That means I'll have three slimlines now and about $1000 in debt on my Sony card from my slimline purchases in the last month!!!

I'll probably end up keeping the Intel model over the AMD model that I currently have if I just keep the one ---- even though I had spent that $110 on the AMD BE-2400 processor months ago for my very first slimline, the s3020n. The intel units are just faster though.

Now I guess I'll have to decide if I want to sell off my Q6600 quadcore system and keep two slimlines. One for my basement media center maybe keep the AMD s3200n for that because it will use less power and doesn't need extra processor power for being a media center.....and the other for my desk system - the s3200t to get as much firepower from the little machine as possible and then couple it with an 8600GT from NCIX.

I don't know if I can stand to get rid of the quad core though -- It's such an amazing PC! Overclocked right now to 3,150Mhz at stock voltages and 100% stable with an 8800GT graphics card on an ABIT IP35-e motherboard, 4GB of RAM...

I literally stared laughing out loud when I realized I'd won two - I'm like okay - now what! If anybody wants a slimline and can't catch an auction - pm me and I'll just sell them to you at my cost.
 
Archaea said:
ROTTEN...I won two and figured I wouldn't win either. :eek::D:p:eek: I didn't get as good a price as you...but I got the fully decked out options.
Click to expand...

Now I'm feeling quilty:eek: You're right the auction I won was for a stripped down version (E4500 with 1GB ram, TV tuner, and 250GB drive) but the price was $163 plus $30 shipping. I now have 2 HP Slimlines myself (first one is the s3020n).

So I guess I shouldn't mention to you (but will to everyone else) that uBid also has the HP Pavilion s3300z AMD Athlon 64 X2 BE2300 1.9GHz 2GB 500GB up for auction right now. Yesterday this same setup but with the 250GB HD went for $216 plus shipping.
 
^ - I'm not mad at ya!

:)


These computers at anywhere near $300 are a steal! At your pricepoint you purchased at you could part it out on ebay and double - prolly almost tripple your money! But even my $300 dollar price point makes me smile!

Generic Price estimates for parts if I was going to build an equivalent system myself!
Windows Vista Home Premium = $100
Motherboard = $50
2GB RAM = $40
DVDRW/CDRW = $30
500GB HD = $100
Card Reader = $15
Power Supply = $30
Case = $60
8500GT = $60
Processor E4500 = $70
Modem = $20
TV Tuner = $75

Total = $660 -- plus you wouldn't have as cool of a little case to go along with it! I really think these slimlines are the cat's meow! :)
 
Sorry my last post got away from me and was sent incomplete.I had a s3220n which had a bad pocket media drive slot. It wouldn't align with the pocket drive.♥ My DH♥ worked on aligning it but it was all out of wack and we sent it back for repair.♥ We got it returned with the pocket media drive still out of alignment with the internal connections for the drive. HP also broke the DVD drive.♥ After two tries they sent me a new slimline only this time it was a s3320f.♥ They said it has a slightly faster processor 5200+ vs 5000+ and a second front usb port.Does anyone know anything else about this model?♥ I want to add a new video card and possibly hp's or other's blue ray dvd drive in the future.♥ Like the rest of you I am burned that we cannot stream our dvd's. What a bummer.♥ May change the tuner card externally.♥ Sony has an external digital tuner card which takes a cable card.♥ (This external card goes against the rules as they are only supposed to put cable card slots now only on whole computers.)♥ The Sony site is the only place which sells this ext. tuner and cable card holder- expensive now, I think $299, but if you could get HD cable with it for no fee, it might be worth the price.♥♥ I would like to use this computer for my kitchen/great room♥ HTPC.♥ Hubby does gaming upstairs on his big powerhouse Gateway which is behind my little hp powerhouse in a few areas!♥ Any suggestions other than those posted for a video card that might play Blue ray that wouldn't overly heat it up or overwhelm the power supply?♥ Thanks... and guys, do get a pocket drive and try it out before your warrantly goes.♥
 
i have been following this thread for sometime. but has anyone tried to swap out the PSU for something with more beef then the 160W?
 
First, I want to say thanks to everyone here specially to the.ronin. I recently purchase an HP s3320n and found myself unable to play Halo 2 (vista) and other games on my machine. I purchased a CHAINTECH GSV86GT 8600GT based on your suggestions (should be delivered to my house today), because the other videocard was unavailable for purchase.
I do have another question though (I've never upgraded a PC): When I install this video card, do I need to remove the one in the system (Nvidia 6150 SE)? Or do I just add the new card to the PC?
Another question: my system currently has 2GB of ram (expandable to 4GB). Where can I buy the best/cheapest ram to upgrade (I know that Vista only recognizes 3GB of ram, so I'm only looking for 1GB)?.

Thanks again for all the information you have provided in this thread.

Vic
 
vizruy said:
First, I want to say thanks to everyone here specially to the.ronin. I recently purchase an HP s3320n and found myself unable to play Halo 2 (vista) and other games on my machine. I purchased a CHAINTECH GSV86GT 8600GT based on your suggestions (should be delivered to my house today), because the other videocard was unavailable for purchase.
I do have another question though (I've never upgraded a PC): When I install this video card, do I need to remove the one in the system (Nvidia 6150 SE)? Or do I just add the new card to the PC?
Another question: my system currently has 2GB of ram (expandable to 4GB). Where can I buy the best/cheapest ram to upgrade (I know that Vista only recognizes 3GB of ram, so I'm only looking for 1GB)?.

Thanks again for all the information you have provided in this thread.

Vic
Click to expand...

Vic, you 6150 is built into the motherboard. You can't remove it. The only thing you have to do to install your new video card (should do) is in the BIOS/CMOS settings you should switch the video device to PCI-E...If you need help with that process just respond back.

2nd question. Your PC has 2GB of ram..most likely in the configuration of 2 sticks of 1GB. You only have two memory slots in your machine. So you'll have to buy a 4GB setup made of two 2GB sticks (2x2GB) They do not make anything between 1GB sticks and 2GB sticks - so if you want the 3.2 GB of RAM max that 32 windows allows then you are looking at 2 two GB sticks.
 
Thank you very much Archaea. I am really new at hardware upgrades, so I will follow your advice religiously. By any chance, do you have a link to a specific ram I should buy? I know that I will buy the wrong kind if I go around searching for one.
Again, thank you very much for your advice.
 
vizruy said:
First, I want to say thanks to everyone here specially to the.ronin. I recently purchase an HP s3320n and found myself unable to play Halo 2 (vista) and other games on my machine. I purchased a CHAINTECH GSV86GT 8600GT based on your suggestions (should be delivered to my house today), because the other videocard was unavailable for purchase.
I do have another question though (I've never upgraded a PC): When I install this video card, do I need to remove the one in the system (Nvidia 6150 SE)? Or do I just add the new card to the PC?
Another question: my system currently has 2GB of ram (expandable to 4GB). Where can I buy the best/cheapest ram to upgrade (I know that Vista only recognizes 3GB of ram, so I'm only looking for 1GB)?.

Thanks again for all the information you have provided in this thread.

Vic
Click to expand...

Don’t thank me – thank the gurus in the prior 20-some pages. I simply copy and pasted key words into Google and crossed my fingers. I am also a complete computer dolt and wouldn’t know a motherboard from a surfboard if it hit me on the head.

Regarding the video card and in addition to what was said above, be sure to get low profile brackets. I got the XFX set and it worked perfectly. Just note that the VGA plug will take up the modem PCI slot. I was hoping there was a way to weave the video card VGA plug to the stock one so I can still use the PCI slot – anybody know?

Regarding the Bios, once I installed the card and drivers, it automatically recognized it and changed the video to PCI.

Regarding the RAM, as mentioned in the thread, the slimline can handle PC6400 (vs PC5300 in the spec sheet). I also run Vista (32bit) and have a 2x2GB setup and 3.5GB is being recognized by Vista. I don’t believe you can mix-and-match RAM to get 3.5GB exactly and 64bit (i.e., be able to fully use the 4GB) just doesn’t seem worth it right now.

Just to bring everybody up to speed, my wife now hates me for spending so much time “optimizing” (that’s what I call it) the slimline. But once she sees how we can effortlessly stream media through the Xbox 360 and sync her lame music to her mobile, I think she will come around.

My next project will be to find a way to *optimize* video streaming from the slimline to the Xbox. I just upgraded to a 500GB HD and put the stock 300GB into a slick Jazz external enclosure so I’ve got mad space for media. Once I’ve figured out the best way to get movies into Xbox friendly terms, I’ll upgrade our wireless network so it can handle the bandwidth.
 
Thanks! I really appreciate the help. I just got the card but forgot about the brackets... Now I need to request a shipment of those.

Good luck on your next project!
 
I hooked up my s3200n to my Monster Power HTS MK2 5100 Power conditioner with an LCD that shows power usage in amps for each device plugged into it.

The HP slimline with my upgraded low power BE-2400 processor (45 watt max) is hooked up and it just idles between 1.0ghz and 1.8ghz when doing most anything HTPC related according to a utility called cpu-z

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

In this state it uses .1 amp

-- that's right .1 amp. That's awesome!

.1 amp on 120 volt = somwhere less than .15 amp most likely because it is reasonable to assume the Monster power unit would round up at .15 amp draw to display .2

SO at 120 volt power ---- .1 amp = 12 watts and .2 amp = 24 watts - - - It's far to guestimate that my HP slimline with the BE-2400 processor uses about 12-18 watts in "balanced power" mode while doing minor activity. Even if my HTS MK2 5000 doesn't round up and i'm just below .2 amp I'm still using less than 24 watts!

I can watch a movie on the slimline and it jumps to 1800mhz which is still using .1 amp during most any normal HTPC activity. -- For the record I do not have the TV tuner card in this s3200n slimline, nor do I have any upgraded video card - Both would probably make the power draw go up... Currently it is only using the onboard 6150 --- But in this configuration with 2GB of corsair XPS RAM - the power draw rivals some of Via's chipsets and processors and this BE-2400 processor is going to be exceptionally faster than anything VIA has availalble.

Just another reason to love the HP Slimlines - energy savings!


**********
I just measured this morning ----compare ^ to the PS3 that uses .9 amp at idle and the xbox 360 + HD-DVD addon that uses 1.0 amp at idle. --- ~10 times less power at idle than the 360 or PS3...
 
Update: I hooked up the Chaintech 8600Gt to the S3220n last night (found the lp brackets at a local store). At first I was bummed because I needed to remove the tv tuner card. After installing the video card I updated the rating of my Pc (which went down from 3 to 1). I was really upset and did not know what to do for a while...
I decided to do a google search and found that I needed to configure the new card on the Bios. I had no idea of what the bios was and much less how to change it. My best friend google came to my rescue by advising me to press F10 at start-up.
On the Bios, I switched PCI to PCI-E but I found myself with the same problem again... after a few tries, a couple of google searches and a visit to Nvidia's website, I decided that I needed to download the drivers for the 8600GT, and voilà! My rating went from 1 to 5!
Halo 2 and Half Life 2 went from a snail race to an F1 tournament.


Probably the dumbest question on this board, but can I play Crysis with this set up now? :p
 
Thanks! I'll run the test when I get home. Has anyone over-clocked the chaintech yet?
 
Hey I had noticed that newegg was supposed to get some 8600s in today. I went there however and it doesn't say they are suppose to arrive anymore. It just says they are sold out. I haven't been on a computer since about 10 this morning and its about 12:30 now. (At 10 it still said they were due in today.) Does anyone know if they were even being sold or did they really get pick over that fast? If so thats unbelievable. :mad:

Does anyone know where I might be able to get one of these?
 
Guys, do you think it’s worth ReadyBoosting my s3223w with a 4GB CF? A 2GB?

I’ve got 2x2GB AData sticks in there already. Vista is recognizing 3.5 of it. I do plan on doing a lot of post production photo editing with Adobe Photoshop (CS3). Some gaming but it won’t be the end of the world if I can’t play Crysis.

For reference, I came across this list of *manufacturer indicated* ReadyBoost compatible flash media. (I asterisk that claim since I’ve read reports of such flash media still not being recognized ... but I’ll let you google the details.)
 
^ readyboost is realistically not worth much if you have 4GB of RAM. It's primarily intended for those with 1GB or less.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/windows-vista-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed,1532-5.html


*******************

edit - and here's another one from Microsoft themselves explaining more about the process. They admit with 4GB of RAM, the readyboost improvements won't be readily apparent. I guess if you have a small CF card laying around you could try to use it. It shouldn't "hurt" your performance most of the time but the increases will likely be impercievable. IE if you have a memory stick sitting around - throw it in, if you don't - It's probably not worth buying with 4GB of RAM - I have read about a few situations where ready boost will actually make things run slower on machines with a lot of RAM.

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/03/29/windows-vista-superfetch-readyboost.aspx
 
That’s a great link, Archaea!

So at, best, it would appear to be negligable change in performance. I guess I just figured since I never use CF cards anyway, might as well put that slot to use.
 
probably a silly question, but the bios update posted earlier for the s3100n series should work with any of the amd slimlines, correct? I have an s3220, and just found a new home for it's current Ax2 5000+ 65w, was looking for any reason to get a 45w cpu, so ordered a 4850e :)
 
I'm subscribing to this thread and will try to catch up on the more recent discussions. Archaea, thanks for the link.
 
Hi everyone,

I just want to say that this thread is very useful for people new to computer modding like I am. The information in it is incredible.

I have a 3300f and I've just ordered a Galaxy 8600GT card, the XFX bracket, and 4Gb of RAM from Patriot. My total cost after all this including the PC itself will be less than $500. Hopefully the installation will proceed smoothly. I'll post an update with the outcome.

Thanks to all the posters in this thread for sharing their knowledge and wealth of experience.
 
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