Can i make this work ? Power supply

steelth

Posts: 132   +2
I bought a 2012 hp 8200 elite ,intel i5 3.10 ghz , 4g ram, 232g hd,without seeing it . I figured I would throw my gpu in it and it would make a budget gamer, but it's a slim form factor. So I'll have to use another power supply but the connectors on the mobo that are connected are different then any I have used before . I'm not sure where to connect anything to now. :( Not sure what to do . Could I possibly and a secondary psu for just the card to make it work? Any help would be great thx.
p.s. my gpu is AMD Radeon R7 200 series
 
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These specific computers from these companies usually have their own power supply, not a generic, recognized form factor PSU like ATX. This is the down-side of those - they are inexpensive and good at what they do, but they are difficult to monkey with.

You can do a search for replacement power supply for that exact model. They may be found on Ebay. Or, you could buy yet another entire computer of that same type, if someone is selling one cheap somewhere like Ebay, and pull the power supply out.

To possibly add your GPU. It has to have the same connection, like pci-e. If you have a separate GPU from another system, there is a good chance it is not even compatible.

Many of these specific computers have very basic GPUs / graphics cards - these are for office workers, not gamers. Or, the graphics are built into the MB. In which case, they would not have a slot for a good GPU.

But if there was a slot, and it was compatible - correct, there will be no power line for the graphics card. What might you do? Well, to dare any possible fixes, you would have to be very knowledgeable about computers and power supplies and electrical wiring generally - no offense but if you are asking this question, you are probably not safe to attempt anything unusual.

The answer is that you could divide/split one of the power lines coming out of the PSU, and attach the right connector. the line would most likely be a 12 volt line. But if you do not know which line is how much voltage, and you do not know how to use a voltage meter, you are definitely risking your life and limb, as well as starting a fire, or at least frying the motherboard.

If the GPU tries to pull more wattage than the wire can handle - a good possibility - it will get too hot, and start a fire. The best outcome would be the entire thing malfunctioning and shutting down before that fire begins. Maybe a fuse blows on the PSU.

Now, you could take yet another power supply and hook the vid card line to the vid card, but then you have two power supplies going into your computer. Some power supplies will not work unless there is a sufficient load on them - the GPU might not be enough. Also, this second PSU wold have to be mounted somehow to be grounded, and to not be flopping around and to not be dangerous, such as having hot parts touching some papers on whatever desk you have this on.

Sorry to paint such a lousy picture, but those proprietary computers are just hard to modify.
 
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