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

[P1LGRIM]

So I may have kinda jumped the gun trying to follow this build. I found an 8300 USFF on eBay with an I7 for a great deal. What I didn't know, or perhaps someone could enlighten me but is there anyway to fit two hard drives? I want to be able to dual boot between OSX and Windows 10. I'm guessing I would have to either remove the optical drive in favour of a second hdd. Or could I partition the current drive? I wish there was a bit more info in this guide regarding the USFF model.

According to the MSG there is no 8300 USFF.
There is an SFF and a USDT.

The USDT appears to only have one SATA port :

Whereas the SFF appears to have four :

I heartily recommend that you compare ebay listings with the MSG to ensure that the vendor is accurately describing their product.

 

[trs96]

The terms USFF and USDT are interchangeable. They both apply to their smallest form factor HP 8300. You can see in the picture the mSata connector on the motherboard where an mSata SSD will fit for a second hard drive. Make sure to not get an M.2 which is also called NGFF. That doesn't fit in an mSata slot.

 

[Redwingsfan]

I heartily recommend that you compare ebay listings with the MSG to ensure that the vendor is accurately describing their product.[/QUOTE]


Thanks so much for the quick replies. I only referred to it as an USFF because that is what it is called in the original post of the guide by trs96. I meant to buy the USDT model for space saving but was foolish to realize it would have the same flexibility as the SFF.

Thanks for the great guide trs96 and for the pictures of the mob from P1LGRIM. Wish I new what i was looking at before but I will still have fun with my first (basic) hackintosh build. Read, read and read some more I guess. lol.

 

[Redwingsfan]

The terms USFF and USDT are interchangeable. They both apply to their smallest form factor HP 8300. You can see in the picture the mSata connector on the motherboard where an mSata SSD will fit for a second hard drive. Make sure to not get an M.2 which is also called NGFF. That doesn't fit in an mSata slot.

Which would be the optimal way to go as far as optimizing read write speeds, price / storage ? I clearly have a lot of homework to do.

 

[trs96]

Which would be the optimal way to go as far as optimizing read write speeds, price / storage ? I clearly have a lot of homework to do.

I would install macOS on an mSATA SSD like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OJMMDSW/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
or this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07864YNTZ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

The speeds, read/write, are about the same as what you'd get with a 2.5" SSD. You have the option then of putting windows on a mechanical 2.5" "laptop" spinner drive if you need more storage for less money.

 

[P1LGRIM]

The terms USFF and USDT are interchangeable.

This is not the case.
The manufacturer has clearly defined the variants with a specific naming scheme which allows each model to be identified and researched. Calling any of them by a made up name only serves to mislead and confuse.

 

[trs96]

This is not the case.
The manufacturer has clearly defined the variants with a specific naming scheme which allows each model to be identified and researched. Calling any of them by a made up name only serves to mislead and confuse.

Yes it is confusing to the consumer. HP calls it the Ultra Slim PC. The problem is that online sellers call it both the USDT and USFF
as the larger size desktop is called SFF. They then say this is the "Ultra" small form factor or USFF. I guess that HP has no control over how resellers name it. Probably a whole new, less confusing naming system is needed.

 

[andwhy81]

If you were going to spend money on an upgrade for a 8300 would you upgrade to a i7 and use onboard HD4000 or spend that money (~$180) on a dedicated GFX card? Anyone one have benchmarks for both?

 

[trs96]

If you were going to spend money on an upgrade for a 8300 would you upgrade to a i7 and use onboard HD4000 or spend that money (~$180) on a dedicated GFX card? Anyone one have benchmarks for both?

You don't need benchmarks. The HD4000 is fine for general use while you'd only need a 1050 or 1050 Ti if you wanted to game in Windows. The 1050 is perfect for e-sports gaming while the 1050 Ti 4GB is best for playing AAA titles at 1080p. Other than that you'd only need a graphics card for editing video in a program like Premiere Pro. Either the Intel i5 or i7 will work for gaming and video editing. The i7 is slightly faster and offers 4 extra threads that will benefit video work.

In summary the best value proposition is an i5-3470 with a GT 710 dedicated graphics card. If you want better performance for gaming etc. get the i5 or i7 and a GTX 1050 card or better yet the 1050 Ti. Unfortunately crypto mining has even driven up prices of these lower end cards.

 

[andwhy81]

You don't need benchmarks. The HD4000 is fine for general use while you'd only need a 1050 or 1050 Ti if you wanted to game in Windows. The 1050 is perfect for e-sports gaming while the 1050 Ti 4GB is best for playing AAA titles at 1080p. Other than that you'd only need a graphics card for editing video in a program like Premiere Pro. Either the Intel i5 or i7 will work for gaming and video editing. The i7 is slightly faster and offers 4 extra threads that will benefit video work.

In summary the best value proposition is an i5-3470 with a GT 710 dedicated graphics card. If you want better performance for gaming etc. get the i5 or i7 and a GTX 1050 card or better yet the 1050 Ti. Unfortunately crypto mining has even driven up prices of these lower end cards.

so, if i am planning do doing a little video/gfx editing on it, but i plan on using it primarily for PLEX with the ability to transcode, Would it be better to up to the I7 since i have to spend money either way.
in other words: spend $150-$200 on the I7 CPU and use onboard HD4000, or get the 1050LP (~$150) and stick with the i5.
but i may only use the 1050 occasionally as i dont think PLEX can use the CUDA cores for transcoding