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

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trs96 said:
Most people use the Silverstone cards from Amazon. Cost is about 17 or 18 dollars. Yes x4 is enough lanes for NVMe drives.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01798WOJ0/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
Remember that the NVMe upgrade is only useful if you work with very large video and/or photo files or use the machine for pro audio production. For a general use CustoMac they are overkill. Sure your boot times will speed up but it's really a waste of money if you already have a Sata 3 SSD for a boot drive.
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i also use mine for a Plex media server so video files are always being transferred and i'm using a 7200rpm HD now as the main storage drive, it would be nice to move my boot to a NVM and use my 1tb SSD for "serving" video files, it would cut down the transfer time between the 2 drives. ( i also has an older NAS for long term storage but it seems to choke on even 1080p files but that for a different thread)
 
andwhy81 said:
nice to move my boot to a NVM and use my 1tb SSD for "serving" video files, it would cut down the transfer time between the 2 drives.
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You would need to install Clover to your Sata SSD if it isn't already, and then it could work. That's a good use scenario that I hadn't thought of. At 50 dollars for a 256GB NVMe the choice is a no-brainer when you compare the speeds to 500 MB/s sata SSDs that aren't much less expensive. Read speeds on the EX920 drive are 6x faster. You have to figure in the cost of the SilverStone adapter too though.
 
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So to put all of this into one post. Here are the Amazon and Newegg links to the adapter and NVMe SSD. Cost: $67.98 + tax.

HP EX920 256GB NVMe drive (smallest size they make)
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820326777

ECM20 Adapter card at Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01798WOJ0/?tag=tonymacx86com-20
The EX920 gets installed into the M.2 NVMe part of the adapter.

Screen Shot 5.jpg

The SS adapter goes into your PCIe x4 slot. That's the one that is white colored, x16 in length wired x4, next to the x1 slot. If you are not using your x16 slot for a graphics card you can install it there too. Boot from a Sata SSD with Clover on it, then choose the NVMe drive at the Clover boot menu screen. Read speeds should be anywhere from 2.5 to 3.0 GB/s with the EX920. This also requires the Clover NvmExpress driver be installed.

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To re-emphasize:
For a general use CustoMac they are overkill. Your boot times will speed up but you won't see much difference surfing the net, watching videos, checking email etc. It's really a waste of money if you already have a 2.5" Sata 3 SSD for a boot drive and don't work with very large video and photo files or move a lot of data on a regular basis.
 
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I am planning to upgrade my storage from HDD to NVMe. I will be using this NVME drive and this adapter. Would I be able to install macOS with just this drive, or would I have to install Clover on another drive. Do you have any recommendations for other NVMe drives.
 
HP Elite 8300 SFF GT 710
Q77 Board |  i5 3470 |  GeForce Other
HP Elite 8200 SFF GT 710
Other |  i5 2400 |  GeForce Other
rubikcar89 said:
Would I be able to install macOS with just this drive, or would I have to install Clover on another drive.
Click to expand...
Boot from a Sata SSD with Clover on it, then choose the NVMe drive at the Clover boot menu screen. Can't boot directly from an NVMe SSD. You could even put Clover on an HDD if you wanted to.
 
HP Elite 8300 SFF GT 710
Q77 Board |  i5 3470 |  GeForce Other
HP Elite 8200 SFF GT 710
Other |  i5 2400 |  GeForce Other
The HP Elite 8300 is a very good system for a hackintosh. Mostly everything works in this system, even better than it worked on my 8 and 9 series. That is why I replaced them with the 8300. The only problem with it is that the power supply is limited to the stock 320W one.
 
HP Elite 8300 SFF GT 710
Q77 Board |  i5 3470 |  GeForce Other
HP Elite 8200 SFF GT 710
Other |  i5 2400 |  GeForce Other
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