cheap pci 2.0 graphics card??

jayo26

Hi guys just quick bit of advice I have just picked up a little hp desktop for 50 quid its a hp pro 3400 it has the 2nd gen i5 processor socket 1155 I thought the CPU alone was worth the 50 quid if all else failed.

Anyway I'm planning on using it as a htpc for the a bedroom ill put kodi and few things like that on it but in short term I was going to put a cheapish graphics card in it and try run a few games on it until I get my own proper rig built, it only has a 300w psu I'm nearly sure its an atx size psu in it, so I don't mind upgrading this to to a better one for 40 or 50 quid if possible or needed but was wondering if anyone knows what would be the best kind of gpu to throw into it would I get something that's 2gb memory and would be compatible with the standard motherboard?
I'm not looking to run anything too major just maybe a few games that are a couple years old or maybe iracing and asseto corsa if I could get that far with it.
What do ye think would it be possible or would I be better leaving it as it is, I don't mind puting maybe 150 into it and get 8gb of ddr3 ram on top ofnthat as I can use that on my newer build when I do it.

TerrorFirmer

I had a 3400 with a 2nd gen i3 and no recent cards would work in it, for some reason the motherboard was locked down and only cards available to when they discontinued bios updates were supported. Very annoying.

I could technically get new cards to work, but they required painfully annoying workarounds every time the machine booted up - hitting random keys and combinations every time, found the solution on the HP forums. So if you don't mind doing this every time your PC is turned on, a GTX750 would be the ideal graphics card.

The only cards I could get to work normally were AMD HD6 series, which dates back to about the GT/GTX 4 or 5 series, so those cards should work as well hopefully.

You could get a new PSU for 40 euro, and get a 2nd hand GTX560 for about 60 euro second hand.

If you do a bit of googling you'll probably get an exact list of what cards work normally as there's quite a lot of posts about the issue.

jayo26

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I had a 3400 with a 2nd gen i3 and no recent cards would work in it, for some reason the motherboard was locked down and only cards available to when they discontinued bios updates were supported. Very annoying.

I could technically get new cards to work, but they required painfully annoying workarounds every time the machine booted up - hitting random keys and combinations every time, found the solution on the HP forums. So if you don't mind doing this every time your PC is turned on, a GTX750 would be the ideal graphics card.

The only cards I could get to work normally were AMD HD6 series, which dates back to about the GT/GTX 4 or 5 series, so those cards should work as well hopefully.

You could get a new PSU for 40 euro, and get a 2nd hand GTX560 for about 60 euro second hand.

If you do a bit of googling you'll probably get an exact list of what cards work normally as there's quite a lot of posts about the issue.

Yes I've been doing a bit of reading on them and I seen that too just couldn't find anywhere with a solution, I haven't examined the case in detail yet so I wonder would a very cheap socket 1155 mobo do the job it looks fairly standard mini atx if I'm right. Just swap over the ram and cpu ect.

TerrorFirmer

Well to be fair if you got the system for 50 euro, a new motherboard and case isn't the end of the world.

You can get a cheap case like the Zalman T4 for 25, motherboard for about 50, then add a GTX750 for 110 or so and you have a very nice little machine for under €250 including what you spend on the 3400.

jayo26

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Well to be fair if you got the system for 50 euro, a new motherboard and case isn't the end of the world.

You can get a cheap case like the Zalman T4 for 25, motherboard for about 50, then add a GTX750 for 110 or so and you have a very nice little machine for under €250 including what you spend on the 3400.

Yeh thatsbwhat i was thinking myself mate the i5 surely has a few years left in it yet

jayo26

Did a bit of research and as a temporary fix i got a asus hd 6670 2gb ddr3 for 55 euro in cex It works a threat i wont be playing any modern games on ultra settings or anything but there is alot of games from a few year ago i want to try like far cry 3 and a few things from around that generation so far im getting about 30fps on far cry on high settings which for about 120 quid investment i cant complain with
next week ill get a new psu and 8gb of ram then after that ill get a new mobo and sell the gpu and get a new generation one then all ill need is a ssd and case.