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

[andwhy81]

I made the upgrade from a HP 8300 USDT (i5-3570K, HD4000) to a HP 800 G1 USDT (i5-4570S). It was a very easy move. SSD out of the 8300 in the 800G1 and working. The only adjustment was the graphical reference for the HD4600 in the config.plist. The reason for this upgrade was my Dell U3415W. The HD4000 supported 3440x1440 at only 50Hz. The HD4600 does it at 60Hz.

just curious of you geekbench score for that CPU, i always wandered if going to the i5-4xxx would make any difference

 

[andwhy81]

You don't boot directly from the NVMe drive. Boot first from a Sata SSD with Clover installed. Then at the CBM you choose your NVMe drive. You don't have to use the x16 slot your 8300 has a x4 slot which works too with a PCIe adapter card installed to it.

and the 4x is enough bandwidth for a NVM? what adapter card is recommended?

 

[trs96]

and the 4x is enough bandwidth for a NVM? what adapter card is recommended?

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 2.5" Sata 3 SSD for a boot drive. Big numbers in Black Magic Disk Speed Test are impressive but in your everyday experience on the 8300 they don't matter much. Only when working with reading and writing large files when using Pro level video and photo editing programs like Adobe Suite and FCP X.

 

[andwhy81]

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.

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)

 

[trs96]

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.

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.

 

[trs96]

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.



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.

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.

 

[rubikcar89]

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.

 

[trs96]

Would I be able to install macOS with just this drive, or would I have to install Clover on another drive.

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.

 

[rubikcar89]

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.

Is it possible to boot Clover from an m.2 SSD, such as this one:

Western Digital Blue M.2 Solid State Drive, SATA III, 250GB - M.2 Solid State Drives - Memory Express Inc.

www.memoryexpress.com

 

[trs96]

Is it possible to boot Clover from an m.2 SSD

As long as its Sata based and not NVMe yes.