Upgrading my old HP m8120n - video card/psu/memory - Please double check me!

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twizzle21

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Jun 22, 2013
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I'm upgrading my HP m8120n.

Specs - Newegg

I'm going with the following:
500w psu Amazon link
GTX 550 ti 1gb video card Amazon link
4GB of DDR2 PC2-6400 memory Amazon link

Does everything look fine to give this old system a kick start?

My main concern is the memory upgrade. I have 4x1GB of this memory laying around. I've read that even though the motherboard will only read 5300, using 6400 is fine.

In the future, I would like to max out at 6gb (3x2gb). The specs say 8gb is max but from what I've read, 6GB is the most this board can handle.

So can you please confirm that this memory upgrade is ok for the time being? And also what type of memory would you suggest for me to get in the future?

Thanks!
 
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das_stig

das_stig

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Jul 24, 2009
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1. PC6400 memory will run fine at PC5300, timings will adjust, although your motherboard supports PC6400, not worth going past 4GB.
2. Motherboard Asus P5BW-LA Basswood3G, 8GB supported on x64 OS.
3. PSU, Antec seem popular, seen a few post on HP saying they are size compatible. - 3.4" (H) x 5.9" (W) x 5.5" (D) - 86mm (H) x 150mm (W) x 140mm (D)
 
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twizzle21

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Jun 22, 2013
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Thank you so much for clarifying.

Can you address my video card I already purchased? (gtx 550 ti)

Is it over kill for my cpu? Will my cpu/memory be bottle necking it? I plan on trying out some light gaming. Would this be enough to run.. say.. Battlefield on medium settings?
 
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twizzle21

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Jun 22, 2013
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Need some more help please... I upgraded my PSU as you suggested to a corsair 500watt. I also upgraded my video card since there was an amazing deal on it. I got a HIS Radeon 7790.

My HP now won't boot up. It powers up but just beeps. The fan the card does not spin.


It works fine with another cheapo card I pulled from another machine. I also exchanged the video card because I thought I got a bad one. But I'm still not able to get my computer to boot, even with a new card.

Thanks

 
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Legohouse

Legohouse

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May 13, 2013
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Whoever told you that your motherboard reads only upto PC2-5300 is probably wrong and you're right using PC2-6400 is fine as HP recommends the same. Click here to check the specs so as to confirm the highest memory speed.
No, your motherboard supports upto 8GB and it will recognize the whole memory if you are using the 64Bit OS (x64). Yes, 4GB is fine for now if you are not running any memory intensive tasks. You can go with PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHz Non-ECC DIMM. If you need memory in the future just visit any of the site mentioned below:
http://www.memorystock.com/memory/HewlettPackardPavilionMediaCenterm8120n.html
http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/HP+-+Compaq-memory/Media+Center+PC/Media+Center+m8120n-upgrades.html

Cheers, mate!!
 
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twizzle21

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Jun 22, 2013
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Thank you for this info! My computer is now up and running with an HIS 7790 video card and 4gb of memory. I'll be upgrading the memory if I find myself bogging down again. For now, it suits my purposes just fine.

Thank you everybody.
 
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Legohouse

Legohouse

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May 13, 2013
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:welcome:
 
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