[Guide] HP 6300 Pro / HP 8300 Elite - A 100 percent Working and Easily Affordable CustoMac

[markintosh13]

At the moment I just have a HDD attached, so I doubt the SATA card would be the bottleneck. I'm getting 95 MB/sec read and write from the 2 1/2" drive connected to the motherboard (WD Blue) according to Blackmagic, and 105 MB/sec from the 3 1/2" drive that came with the computer connected to the card. I can run some tests with a SSD if you'd like. Just let me know.

If you have a speedy SSD, it would be nice to know what you get with the card, and how that compares with onboard.

I'm getting a drop (like from 350 to 225) going from the single 3 port to a 2.

 

[markintosh13]

Buy the adapter and WIFI/BT card separately then you can be sure to get a low profile bracket with the adapter.
Try Ebay. It doesn't have to be a Fenvi branded card. Just make sure to get a genuine BCM94360CD. I don't think
you can use all 4 antennas though with a low profile bracket. Just won't fit with all 4 antennas. You'll have to be
creative to find a solution.

Hmm. I have a parts 2012 Macbook Air somewhere... should be a Broadcom BCM943224 inside that.

Hmm. Maybe I can find an adapter...

 

[Micalllee]

If you have a speedy SSD, it would be nice to know what you get with the card, and how that compares with onboard.

I'm getting a drop (like from 350 to 225) going from the single 3 port to a 2.

I've got an ADATA Ultimate SU800 128 GB that gets 240/260 in a USB 3 enclosure. That would be the easier one for me to test on the motherboard vs. PCI card.

I've got a SanDisk SSD Plus 480 GB that gets 300/440 as SATA0. That's my boot drive, so it would be a little trickier to test; but I'm trying to verify that my clone is bootable, so it could be done.

I'm using Blackmagic because that's what I have handy. Let me know if you have any specific tests you'd like done given those options, and if there's any other testing software you'd want used.

 

[pbarham]

@trs96 Have you considered a compact / narrow CPU cooler over power restrictions?

I was looking at the following as an alternative to the stock cooler with the full size GTX1050, but unclear if they will fit:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099&ignorebbr=1
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186058
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233082

Thanks!

Determine your Graphics card clearance Before Buying
​

I just received a Gigabyte GTX 1050 (full height) card in the mail today. I made the incorrect assumption that it would fit without any modifications. The 6300 Pro uses an older BTX style motherboard instead of micro ATX as many new PCs do these days. So any graphics card over 7.0 inches in length may not fit. (This Gigabyte card is about 7.6 inches long) I was able to turn the CPU heatsink 90 degrees and then install it. There is enough clearance but I'd rather not have to make this modification.

This is not an ideal solution as it may affect the CPU cooler's airflow from the front fan. So moral of the story is. Always measure twice before buying a new GPU for the HP 6300 Pro.

View attachment 263775 View attachment 263776

There is a few mm between the heatsink and GPU. The plastic shroud over the heatskink does not fit correctly. CPU heatsink is rotated 90 degrees.

View attachment 263777
​

Here's a dual fan GTX 1050 Ti 4GB model from Zotac that will fit in the HP 6300 Pro Mini-Tower. It's one of the few dual fan versions that will not force you to re-mount the CPU cooler to make it fit. Best of all it's single slot, saves one of your PCI-e x1.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M27X994/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

View attachment 264214 View attachment 264215

View attachment 266407
Great choice for either HP 6300 or 8300 Mini-Tower
These are hard to find as they often go out of stock.​

 

[trs96]

Haven't tried any of those. Like the PSU, HP doesn't want you using anything but OEM products in these. The cooler which comes with it works perfectly well because you can't overclock these anyway. Just turn it 90 degrees if your GPU is too long. It's working well for me. Have had no problems. The screws built in to the cooler, when tightened as suggested, give it the perfect amount of pressure against the CPU. You can't really over tighten them and do any damage. That won't be possible with an aftermarket cooler. Will be hard to get it tight enough at all.

You might be able to put one of these Elite 8300 MT coolers in.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-577795-0...745095&hash=item4b0fba6cba:g:7m0AAOSw5cNYdUl~
I'm not sure the holes would line up exactly but you could give it a try and report back.

 

[markintosh13]

I've got an ADATA Ultimate SU800 128 GB that gets 240/260 in a USB 3 enclosure. That would be the easier one for me to test on the motherboard vs. PCI card.

I've got a SanDisk SSD Plus 480 GB that gets 300/440 as SATA0. That's my boot drive, so it would be a little trickier to test; but I'm trying to verify that my clone is bootable, so it could be done.

I'm using Blackmagic because that's what I have handy. Let me know if you have any specific tests you'd like done given those options, and if there's any other testing software you'd want used.

Think I'm good. There's probably not a real world benefit for me to have an extra 50MB/sec write time over and above the existing USB3 or SATA 2 throughput when writing a 24MB photo, the gain will be a so small.

Will still probably pick up a SATA 3 PCI-E card at some point, to enable a two drive Raid 0 at some time in the future.

 

[atlfmv7]

Has anyone else had trouble with sleep/wake since using the ssdt.aml? My sleep/wake worked great before but I put the ssdt.aml on the EFI partition yesterday and woke up this morning and the PC was lit like it was turned back on, but the monitor and everything else were still asleep and I had to do a hard shut down on the computer to get it to come back, and just had to do the same thing again after getting home from work. I removed the ssdt.aml and will see if it's able to wake again like normal tomorrow morning.

 

[tab0reqq]

Well i got banned for wrong signature (linking your tutorial ).

I got it working. Booting "blind" until login screen. Then all works.

Here are my results:
HP 8300 i7-3770
MSI RX 460 (normal size, 2GB)

BruceX - 34 s !!!
BruceX with Intel HD4000 (no AMD): 93s

BruceX MBP 13 2015 basic config: 134s

 

[trs96]

I got it working. Booting "blind" until login screen. Then all works.
Here are my results:
MSI RX 460 (normal size, 2GB)
BruceX - 34 s !!!
BruceX with Intel HD4000 (no AMD): 93s

BruceX MBP 13 2015 basic config: 134s

34s that's a BruceX score you can live with. Maybe in High Sierra later this Fall the black login screen will be fixed.

 

[nicksoph]

How does the HDMI sound option described in link below relate to these machines?

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/new-automatic-hdmi-audio-script-released.184867/