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

[HackaShaq]

@HackaShaq thanks for the update and the photos are good. What do you do for wifi / bluetooth? Thats the slot I have used for a card in my tower version. I was using wired ethernet and USB bluetooth but then wanted handoff..

This machine won't need WiFI, so I just use ethernet and then for bluetooth, I got one of those cheap Ultra-Mini USB Broadcom BCM20702 Class 2 Bluetooth V4.0 Dual Mode Dongles. Works perfectly!

 

[phrozenpenguin]

Hey guys, I made sure to go back several pages to see if this question had already been addressed so please forgive me if it has and I just didn't go back far enough.

Has anyone successfully updated to 10.13.4? If so, what challenges did you face on your machine that you needed to overcome, if any?

My machine:
HP 8300 full size tower
i7-3770
HD4000
Kingston 250GB SSD

I have pretty much the same machine as you and my 10.13.4 upgrade was very smooth.

 

[HackaShaq]

Looking to purchase the highest end graphics card I can for my HP 8300 Small Form Factor model.
(I don't game, but definitely want highest resolution display for photo/video editing)

I saw the direct link to Newegg on page 1 of this guide with the MSI AMD RX560 LP 4GB, and since it's Low Profile, that looks like the top of the line at a reasonable price.

Is this Amazon link essentially the same card or one that will also work?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072J422CZ/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

I'd rather buy from Amazon (have some credits) and I searched the customer reviews and it said that it comes with a standard bracket (attached) and an optional low profile bracket in the box.

Was about the pull the trigger on this, but wanted to confirm it will work with macOS Sierra (not High Sierra).
Any info is appreciated, thanks.

 

[trs96]

@HackaShaq the one you linked from Amazon is not LP so don't buy that. You can only get the RX560 fully supported in 10.13.4 It may work with Sierra 10.12.6 but it would be best to have 10.13.4 instead.

Either wait till AMZ carries the LP version or buy it from Newegg and update to High Sierra if you want it to work OOB with a few kexts like Lilu installed.

 

[HackaShaq]

@HackaShaq the one you linked from Amazon is not LP so don't buy that. You can only get the RX560 fully supported in 10.13.4 It may work with Sierra 10.12.6 but it would be best to have 10.13.4 instead.

Good info especially about Sierra/High Sierra. I wasn't aware of that, thank you!

 

[emericuh]

@HackaShaq the one you linked from Amazon is not LP so don't buy that. You can only get the RX560 fully supported in 10.13.4 It may work with Sierra 10.12.6 but it would be best to have 10.13.4 instead.

Either wait till AMZ carries the LP version or buy it from Newegg and update to High Sierra if you want it to work OOB with a few kexts like Lilu installed.

Amazon does carry the LP RX560.

MSI RX 560 4GT LP OC https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B7YMBFC/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

 

[Islay]

Looking to purchase the highest end graphics card I can for my HP 8300 Small Form Factor model.

The GTX 1050 Ti is faster than the RX560. Even the regular 1050 is slightly faster.
https://www.techspot.com/review/1430-radeon-rx-560-vs-geforce-gtx-1050/

 

[pastrychef]

The GTX 1050 Ti is faster than the RX560. Even the regular 1050 is slightly faster.
https://www.techspot.com/review/1430-radeon-rx-560-vs-geforce-gtx-1050/

Yes, generally speaking, Nvidia cards outperform AMD cards while consuming less power and running cooler. However, in macOS, the Nvidia web drivers have been increasingly problematic and Nvidia cards often don't perform as well as they do in Windows.

On the other hand, AMD support has seen huge improvements since Apple began working on eGPU support. There are now some AMD cards that truly work OOB. Just plug it in and go. No need for special kexts or edits to configurations.

Recently, I switched from a GTX 1080 to Vega 56 on my Z370 build. It's difficult to quantify how much of an improvement I experienced but everything is much, much smoother. It's like sliding warm butter over a piece of glass vs sliding a piece of sand paper over wood.

 

[trs96]

The GTX 1050 Ti is faster than the RX560. Even the regular 1050 is slightly faster.
https://www.techspot.com/review/1430-radeon-rx-560-vs-geforce-gtx-1050/

I believe that @HackaShaq wants to edit video in FCP X. If so, then the RX560 is the better choice for that. That software is optimized by Apple to work with AMD gfx cards.

 

[HackaShaq]

All great info, guys.

Yes, I plan on editing video in FCP X down the road, but it's mostly for editing photos in Photoshop/Lightroom. I don't do any gaming.

I just updated my SFF to High Sierra last night and it worked like a charm. Followed these instructions here. I actually opted to not convert the SSD to APFS and stuck with HFS+. But I now have the latest version of High Sierra on my SFF and it's completely smooth.

I just ordered the LP RX560 about 15 mins ago, and it has free same-day shipping via Amazon. Gotta love that. So since I have High Sierra, I'm assuming I just pop in the card and it should hopefully work out of the box. I'll check it out late late tonight.

As always, thanks for the info from everyone.