I've been pushing people towards these for a while now. They're just such a better option over the Optiplex. You can also find a 400 watt power supply that has an 8-pin PCIe power connection if you wanted to push a 4060 LP in one of these, which is what I have in mine. I think there's an HP Pavilion power supply that's in the 300 watt range that also has PCIe power too. I've found that the Z2 G4 is super conservative on the fan curves. I had similar issue with one of the tower systems, even after replacing the thermal paste, and even after delidding the 8700. They helped, as it was hitting 100 degrees in some games after a long period of time. I solved this by going into the BIOS and increasing the idle fan speed to about 30% and it really helped the CPU temp.
@TheGameBench I'm really happy with this set up. I still like the Optiplex for really budget options but this HP is much better like you said. Just gotta fix the CPU temp. When you increased the fan speed did it make the PC louder?
@@basicdadtech A little bit. I just started out at 60%, which was VERY loud, and kept adjusting it down while testing it in Cinebench until I was happy with the thermals versus noise. Only problem is that you have to keep restarting the system as it won't register the change until after save the BIOS and restart. I found that it didn't really increase the noise profile at idle at 20%. Also, you could swap out the cooler as well. In my SFF Z2, I swapped in the ID Cooling IS-55, swapped the fan with a slim Noctua 120mm and added a 60mm Noctua at the rear, and it's keeping the i7 9700 and 4060 LP pretty cool and the Nocta fans are pretty quiet.
Heh, before I clicked "Read more" I was thinking you might swap some fans out for Noctua's... they're kind of ugly brown but there's no denying that they're quiet. @@TheGameBench
Kind of unrelated? but just a quick thank you for your Optiplex series! Was inspired by it and just recently upgraded my 9020 MT with the same modifications you made years ago. Glad to see you're still enjoying and active in the PC scene 😊
About 6 months ago I was choosing between one of these and an HP Elitedesk 800 G4 with an i7-8700. Went with the later cause it seemed more compacted and still has 4x pcie slots but can hold two 3.5 HDDs. Downside was the PSUs aren't as beefy but I use mine as an always on Proxmox setup so it's probably fine. Went A380 low profile as the gpu. Yours looks sweet though.
@@ytnimal TrueNAS to have my large HDDs mirrored and a sata ssd that caches to them. I run a win10 OS for OBS (because I have been struggling to get it all to work on my linux OS's), UE5 and Bluestacks. And I have Kali and Fedora Core, I mostly use Fedora because I know more people who us it and it's easier to get help with. In my dockers it mostly handles bitwarden, jellyfin, mattermost and I have a 1U 8x2.5gbps router that handle pfsense, ad guard and network stuff.
got the tower version of this running a RTX 2060 super.. had the SSF version you have, running a RTX A2000 low profile.. ran great.. but got a free 2060.. so bought the bigger case.. $149 out the door with 16GB ram and a Intel i5 8500.. cant beat that.. good low cost PC's
@@DarkKnight-lh4gr it was included.. it's the 500 watt gold PSU that comes with the tower.. if your planning on getting one make sure you ask what PSU it has.. some have a 280 watt version.. that don't work because it doesn't have the 8 pin connector to power the video card..
You can squeeze in GTX 4060 low profile from Gigabyte into it, if you make sure the CPU is 65w TDP or lower. There are OE HP power supplies that goes up to 400w on some models with higher power CPUs.
I did a follow up video on this PC and talk about the temps. When I capped out the FPS it helped with the temps. I do plan on getting a new cooler but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I removed the HDD/OD carriage from mine (don't need it as it's only for gaming) and you can fit 1-2 80mm fans in the front inside the case where the caddy's used to be. I haven't had any temp issues.
As you need to paste it up maybe worth getting a Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut Thermal Pad as I do wonder how good they are as once fitted should never need to change it.
These things are really cool but the issue is price here in my country, the cheapest I can get one for is $500 plus $50 shipping plus the cost of a low profile 4060 would set you back $600 shipped. $1150 is allot of moola for something like this considering I can build a second hand system with Intel 8700k, z370 board, 500gb NVME, 2tb SSD and a 6800XT for the same price. An 8700k/z370 board actually popped up yesterday on a site here for $150 which would allow you to go for a new case, cooler and new drives. If you can get them cheap then yea its a great idea and makes for an interesting video but for majority of people this solution would make zero sense given the price and limited GPU support. Fun and interesting video though mate.
@@TheGameBench I looked on Ebay for this exact model HP Z2 G4 its $500 plus $50 shipping here in my country. In France $499 EURO, Germany $350EURO all minus shipping and VAT. UK $199 pound plus $97 pound for shipping. As I said the hardware specifications are ok but they are overpriced unless you can get a bunch of them cheap on sale. I can get an 8700k/z370 board for $150 here second hand, for the money I would spend on that I could build a really good much more powerful system.
@@TheGameBench Usa are really in they own world when it come to cheap used pc. Here in europe, i am in France, the price for those hp/dell oem pc are like quadruple the price in usa
Bro 2 things pls upgrade your capture card gameplay footage looks bad smeared and also can you put text overlay at what game resolution and quality you are playing and if you do change the settings example like you did in fortnite from high to medium show that too
maybe he only has a 1080p monitor. Never fear, DSR to the rescue - you can enable DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution) in NVIDIA Control Panel, select 2560x1440 (1.78x) and maybe a few others if you like (2715x1527, 4K), and BOOM you're effectively running at 1440p even though your monitor doesn't support it. It's rendering the image at a higher resolution then downscaling, literally the opposite of what most people do, upscaling. Bonus feature, it kind of forces (effectively) supersampled AA into the image as well as turning on (optional) edge sharpening, so the image looks hella crispy. It's not as nice as getting an actual new monitor, but it should help you out a little if you find yourself CPU-bound and unable to let your GPU really stretch its legs after an asymmetrical upgrade.
I've been pushing people towards these for a while now. They're just such a better option over the Optiplex. You can also find a 400 watt power supply that has an 8-pin PCIe power connection if you wanted to push a 4060 LP in one of these, which is what I have in mine. I think there's an HP Pavilion power supply that's in the 300 watt range that also has PCIe power too.
I've found that the Z2 G4 is super conservative on the fan curves. I had similar issue with one of the tower systems, even after replacing the thermal paste, and even after delidding the 8700. They helped, as it was hitting 100 degrees in some games after a long period of time. I solved this by going into the BIOS and increasing the idle fan speed to about 30% and it really helped the CPU temp.
@TheGameBench I'm really happy with this set up. I still like the Optiplex for really budget options but this HP is much better like you said. Just gotta fix the CPU temp. When you increased the fan speed did it make the PC louder?
@@basicdadtech A little bit. I just started out at 60%, which was VERY loud, and kept adjusting it down while testing it in Cinebench until I was happy with the thermals versus noise. Only problem is that you have to keep restarting the system as it won't register the change until after save the BIOS and restart. I found that it didn't really increase the noise profile at idle at 20%.
Also, you could swap out the cooler as well. In my SFF Z2, I swapped in the ID Cooling IS-55, swapped the fan with a slim Noctua 120mm and added a 60mm Noctua at the rear, and it's keeping the i7 9700 and 4060 LP pretty cool and the Nocta fans are pretty quiet.
Heh, before I clicked "Read more" I was thinking you might swap some fans out for Noctua's... they're kind of ugly brown but there's no denying that they're quiet. @@TheGameBench
Kind of unrelated? but just a quick thank you for your Optiplex series! Was inspired by it and just recently upgraded my 9020 MT with the same modifications you made years ago. Glad to see you're still enjoying and active in the PC scene 😊
what about GPU compatibility, i bought a 6400lp for my z2g4 but couldn't get it to work .
nice! I like this :)
These OEM systems look so much better than they used too! The 3050 is perfect for these systems.
Gah! Yeah those optiplex sff boxes with their PCIe lanes right up against the PSU make no sense. Great find here :)
My guess is they don't want you upgrading it into a gaming pc
About 6 months ago I was choosing between one of these and an HP Elitedesk 800 G4 with an i7-8700. Went with the later cause it seemed more compacted and still has 4x pcie slots but can hold two 3.5 HDDs. Downside was the PSUs aren't as beefy but I use mine as an always on Proxmox setup so it's probably fine. Went A380 low profile as the gpu. Yours looks sweet though.
What are you running on the proxmox?
@@ytnimal TrueNAS to have my large HDDs mirrored and a sata ssd that caches to them. I run a win10 OS for OBS (because I have been struggling to get it all to work on my linux OS's), UE5 and Bluestacks. And I have Kali and Fedora Core, I mostly use Fedora because I know more people who us it and it's easier to get help with. In my dockers it mostly handles bitwarden, jellyfin, mattermost and I have a 1U 8x2.5gbps router that handle pfsense, ad guard and network stuff.
The HPs and many Lenovos having space for twin slot gpus makes a htpc a lot easier.
Looks like the type of computer you'd see in a school computer lab or your local public library. I like it!
got the tower version of this running a RTX 2060 super.. had the SSF version you have, running a RTX A2000 low profile.. ran great.. but got a free 2060.. so bought the bigger case.. $149 out the door with 16GB ram and a Intel i5 8500.. cant beat that.. good low cost PC's
whats the psu
you use
@@DarkKnight-lh4gr it was included.. it's the 500 watt gold PSU that comes with the tower.. if your planning on getting one make sure you ask what PSU it has.. some have a 280 watt version.. that don't work because it doesn't have the 8 pin connector to power the video card..
HP SFF PCs are better than Dell Optiplex SFF PCs for cheap PC gaming they offer more space to work with
HP elitedesk too but then the optiplex 70 series has enough space if that's what you want
Nice pokes with ryu!
nice vid
You can squeeze in GTX 4060 low profile from Gigabyte into it, if you make sure the CPU is 65w TDP or lower. There are OE HP power supplies that goes up to 400w on some models with higher power CPUs.
CPU temperatures aren't looking too great, would highly advise repasting and/or consider a better cooling solution
Yep. I talk about the high temps in another video I made about this PC.
Definitely Go Try Out Old School RuneScape On The 117 hd plug-in I would really love to see a video on that !!
also: maybe check BIOS settings for CPU fan speed control? might be a way to turn up the default speed, I've seen some older HP's have that option.
hi @basicdatatech! great video. How many 3.5" HDD bays does it have? can it fit two 3.5" drives?
Only 1 3.5” HDD
Any options to increase airflow in the case? Forza had both the temps of the GPU and CPU up near 90 degrees
I did a follow up video on this PC and talk about the temps. When I capped out the FPS it helped with the temps. I do plan on getting a new cooler but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I removed the HDD/OD carriage from mine (don't need it as it's only for gaming) and you can fit 1-2 80mm fans in the front inside the case where the caddy's used to be. I haven't had any temp issues.
As you need to paste it up maybe worth getting a Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut Thermal Pad as I do wonder how good they are as once fitted should never need to change it.
These things are really cool but the issue is price here in my country, the cheapest I can get one for is $500 plus $50 shipping plus the cost of a low profile 4060 would set you back $600 shipped. $1150 is allot of moola for something like this considering I can build a second hand system with Intel 8700k, z370 board, 500gb NVME, 2tb SSD and a 6800XT for the same price. An 8700k/z370 board actually popped up yesterday on a site here for $150 which would allow you to go for a new case, cooler and new drives.
If you can get them cheap then yea its a great idea and makes for an interesting video but for majority of people this solution would make zero sense given the price and limited GPU support. Fun and interesting video though mate.
I really doubt the accuracy of saying that these systems are absurdly expensive for the majority of people.
@@TheGameBench Majority of people do not live in Murica just like majority of people don't live near a Micro center.
@@pituguli5816 I never implied that they do. It's crazy, I know, but you can find HP office systems all over the world, not just in America.
@@TheGameBench I looked on Ebay for this exact model HP Z2 G4 its $500 plus $50 shipping here in my country. In France $499 EURO, Germany $350EURO all minus shipping and VAT. UK $199 pound plus $97 pound for shipping.
As I said the hardware specifications are ok but they are overpriced unless you can get a bunch of them cheap on sale. I can get an 8700k/z370 board for $150 here second hand, for the money I would spend on that I could build a really good much more powerful system.
@@TheGameBench Usa are really in they own world when it come to cheap used pc. Here in europe, i am in France, the price for those hp/dell oem pc are like quadruple the price in usa
Hey , can this gpu work on a HP ProDesk 400 G5 SFF?
So you spent $350 to get ps4 equivalent graphics?
Why were all the games after fortnite very obviously locked at 60fps?
On a benchmark you don't traditionally lock the FPS.
I have a HP Z2 G4 with i5-8500, would it work well?
Yep 👍
@@basicdadtech Thanks!
Bro 2 things pls upgrade your capture card gameplay footage looks bad smeared and also can you put text overlay at what game resolution and quality you are playing and if you do change the settings example like you did in fortnite from high to medium show that too
CS2 would be a nice benchmark and its free
is that 3050 fit on the optiplex??
Depends on the model
Should try Shadow Of The Tomb Raider.
Can I use this gpu on my hp z2 g4 250 watt psu with 1tb hard drive 20 gigs of ram and i7 8700
Yes I have 2 P2000 and 32Gb ram in my Z2G4, 5 ssd, wifi Bluetooth card, front fan and all usb port used with my 250W psu
try running all those games @1440p you will get better results as the i7 8700 is too weak for the rtx 3050 @1080p
maybe he only has a 1080p monitor. Never fear, DSR to the rescue - you can enable DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution) in NVIDIA Control Panel, select 2560x1440 (1.78x) and maybe a few others if you like (2715x1527, 4K), and BOOM you're effectively running at 1440p even though your monitor doesn't support it. It's rendering the image at a higher resolution then downscaling, literally the opposite of what most people do, upscaling. Bonus feature, it kind of forces (effectively) supersampled AA into the image as well as turning on (optional) edge sharpening, so the image looks hella crispy. It's not as nice as getting an actual new monitor, but it should help you out a little if you find yourself CPU-bound and unable to let your GPU really stretch its legs after an asymmetrical upgrade.
Where can I buy
eBay
Are you selling it?
Sorry. I’m not.
finally a video of old office pc with rtx 3050 6gb lp
anyways can you try overclock the gpu
You had me until you said HP.
LOL
roblox