Will a PCI-e 2 x16 graphics card work on a PCI-e x16 board?

A PCIe 2.0 graphics card will work in a PCIe 1.0a slot or a PCIe 1.1 slot. A PCIe 2.1 graphics card will not work in a 1.0a slot, and will only work in a 1.1 slot of the manufacturer has issued a firmware update. PCIe 3.0 cards have full backward compatibility.

You must check to see if your card is 2.0 or 2.1, and if your motherboard is 1.0a or 1.1

This is the computer i have:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en...
With a new graphics card: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gt...

It will work but you will need to buy a new power supply if you want to run that card

What power supply did you buy?

I did buy a new power supply, but for some reason the graphics card randomly hard locks up my computer when im playing games.

An eagle voltas 500 watt power supply
Edit:
I also have the crash report if its needed.

You should return that PSU and buy a good power supply from a reputable manufacturer. PSUs are easy to manufacture but hard to manufacture well, and as a result there are a ton of knockoff units that will cause the symptoms that you are describing.

Get your hands on something like this

http://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-ATX12V-S12II-430-BRONZE/...

It's more expensive, but unlike the one you bought, it will actually work.

So its been the power supply the whole time? How could it have made my computer crash?

More than likely. That power supply is probably worse than the one that you took out of the case. The manufacturer may have slapped a '500 watt' sticker on the box but that doesn't mean that it will deliver it. I would put money on it using a diode bridge which can handle at most 250 watts, the rest is just a "*** you" factor which they pulled out of their asses.

Review sites certainly seem to support that assertion, many people have reported them dying within a week. It's best that you remove it ASAP before it turns your PC into a paperweight

I can turn the computer on and play games for a considerable amount of time before it hard locks though. It doesn't seem to do it at any similar time other then when im playing games.

I agree the eagle voltas is a terrible psu. I bought one for an old build i had and its much lighter than any other psu ive handled, which means they skimped on components.

Gaming is when your PC will be drawing the most power, so it's also when you need your PSU to work best.

It worked two to three hours before it crashed still. i guess it still might be the PSU though..though two or three hours seems like a long time to be running on minimal power with good result

Why would it run for a few hours then quit on me?

^Heat. If it overheated slowly, that would cause the problems.

It would overheat from a lack of power?

The computer stays on after it hard locks and makes a buzzing noise while the screen turns white.

I could write a 10 page article on all the things that could cause this, all related to a crummy PSU. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do that so you're just going to have to take my word for it.

Power supplies can be made in someone's garage, and from time to time they are. Unfortunately these PSUs do not have desirable performance characteristics which are necessary to ensure stable operation. The PSU in question claims to be ATX12v 2.0 compliant but I highly doubt that it is. It's more than likely going out of specification at high loads -- which is typical for a crummy PSU -- and this is causing your crashing problem.

So my graphics card is idling at first, and as it needs more power the PSU fails to deliver what it needs and it crashes, then why didn't it crash when i did a stress test on it?

The current and voltage supplied aren't stable. They will eventually drop too low, or shoot too high, and this will cause a crash. It might take 5 minutes, it might take 2 hours.

I guess you still think it's not the power supply.. then continue to do what you're doing right now and eventually your pc will randomly shut down or not start at all..

Why can a badly wired house be fine for a year, 2 year, 5 years and then all of a sudden short out and burn the whole house down? Because badly wired and overloaded is badly designed and overloaded. It may take 20 years of nothing changing or it may take 2 weeks or it may never happen. You've been given answers on what it could be and it more than likely is, but you don't like it. Try running your stock power supply, try borrowing a good power supply from a friend or keep freezing up. Your choice.

Im just trying to get all the information i can before sinking more money into my computer

Should i just spring and get a 800 watt seasonic or cosair?

800 watts is far more than you need for your PC. A good 430-500 watt SeaSonic would be fine

If you want to then go ahead.. 800 watts is too much.. just get a good 400-500 watt psu. To check whether or not the psu is causing this.. try using a different psu or put your video card in another pc. That's the best way to isolate the problem. Don't buy the new psu yet. The problem could be the power supply, video card or motherboard.. or any combination of them. Before changing something do some basic trouble shooting. I can say that most net cafe/offices uses cheap psu and they seem to be doing okay.. I guess everything changed when you added the videocard in the system..

What if there are no other desktops in my house to check with? The PSU and the graphics card were added at the same time.

Also most net cafe's and/offices dont use their computers for playing video games at higher graphics settings

Don't you have your old psu still?

I do still have my old PSU, and my old graphics card.