I just got my first G3 running last week. I have no SATA drive and my fan runs all the time the best I can tell. The secondary fan in mine makes noise. I'm not really sure if it's just got some trash in it I missed or the bearings are going bad. It's just noticeable if the world is quiet long enough I can detect it. The CPU fan is silent. I confirmed that the noise is the secondary fan by running it with the cover off. If I stop the fan with my finger the noise stops. I put an i7-7700 and 16gig ram into my G3 and it is snappy and responsive. OH BTW I used a 2230 NVMe drive in the main slot I had to get creative because I the only screw to hold it securely had a small screw head. I cut a small square of clear plastic and drilled a small hole so it had enough surface area to hold the NVME down. Really enjoying the series comparing the different hardware.
Why not just unplug the fan altogether? If I recall right, the warning it's not present can be disabled in the BIOS? I would question the need for a fan there in the first place... Maybe for an old mechanical HD and an M.2 below it without a heat sink? But certainly if you don't have a drive in the cage probably it's unnecessary. I have 4 of these minis, with SSD and M.2 populated, none of them even came with a fan.
The noise got progressively worse so I did remove it. I haven't looked at BIOS yes though so I still press F-key which is fine for now. I only have an NVME over there for now. I'll be getting more 800's later. I might replace it then. @@Zactivist
I purchased a replacement motherboard to rescue my fried 65W. I transferred all components to the new motherboard and am happy to say I'm back online. But, as it turns out, the board came from a 35W. As far as I can tell, everything is operational, even with two drives are installed. Is there anything I should be aware of? Is flashing the 65W bios worth it?
I would hazard a guess that if you looked at the part number. Close to where the ram and heatsink meet. That they are identical. Always good to get the latest BIOS for the mb though.
@@handmedowntech the whole caddy will flip out without disconnecting the fan but the connection is at the front of the board so pulling the connector isn't too awkward. Either way there's no need to remove the fan from the caddy.
Hey thanks - I went back and opened up the 65w and there was a quarter inch pad sitting on the mobo to the left of the fan. I'll have a future video where I get that unit up and running and I'll look for any other pads sitting around. Keen eye you have :)
The only thing that stinks about the 65watt models is you can’t really stack them. I know they’re faster but they lose their appeal as a mini PC when you have to be more concerned with airflow. I have the 65watt G4 but haven’t found a good use case for it yet. Can you imagine running the i9 9900 in one of these 65watt models?! I wonder if it would even work? They’re the same socket and 65watt TDP.
Serve the home STH said much the same thing about the 65w and how you couldn't stack them. I actually put mine vertical. I have a 65w G2 and I'm doing a video soon on the G3 65w. But all and all the 35w generally make the most sense.
Ideally you do not want a TIM covered cooler on a bare CPU. There is too much chance of some of the TIM getting into the socket. Clean it or cover your socket.
@@handmedowntech Too much time reading server manuals over the years. It’s great for winding up new people. Tell them to go find TIM. Wo betide anyone called Timothy in the area 🤣
Im curious have you done a CPU replacement in one of these? I ask because Ive been curious to max one of mine out with an i7. But what threw me for a loop: I was watching an official HP video on these and they showed some Intel CPU alighment tool being used. In my decades of building and workkng on PCs Ive never even heard of such a thing! I'm still scratching my head over it. Isnt it just a socket you drop a CPU into, lining up the arrow? That video using such a ridiculous contraption (to me anyway) has me scratching my head now about doing a CPU upgrade. At any rate I'll be glad to see your video when you get the CPU and install it.
@@handmedowntech ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D5DIs3i2tjw.htmlsi=CdksHhVaT-EmhOeQ this video, around 12:50 in the CPU section. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen! I'm baffled why they would present it as if that contraption was mandatory to swap a CPU in one of these. It seriously gave me pause thinking maybe these were some special kind of socket.
It's just a tool to set the cpu into the socket. i guess it insures that you don't drop the cpu and potentially destroy your motherboard by bending the pins in the socket. You don't need to use it, just be careful installing the cpu.
I just bought a G3 without CPU. I bought an i7-7700 and just plopped it in the socket turned the right way and closed the CPU bracket. I also put new heat grease on it and tada!
I played with this one time because I thought 2.5 and 3.5 don't seem to be that much bigger. But they are. The size refers to the platter and not the drive. So the 3.5 inch are actually pretty big and there isn't room in the case for them. Even the 2.5 just fits inside the drive cage. Did you have need to access some 3.5 inch drives?
I dont know if uou see the same as me but i can buy a lenovo m720q with an intel 9400t cpu for less than an hp 800 g4 thst has sn older cpu in it thsts on ebay
Do you know of any resource that shows what the various Lenovo units are comparable to the EliteDesk 800s? My brain can deal with G1, G3 but the various Lenovo models are all over the map.
@@handmedowntech I have no clue all I know is we use the Lenovo m720q mini pc in work and they are very good for what we use them for so I'm looking to buy one just for my works account I think the m710q is the older one
i do love the hp for the ports and upgrades you can do like the WiFi antenna to i think the lenovo has a little less going for it but for the cost as its like i think 1 year newer if im right it has to be good@@handmedowntech
I'm pretty sure that should work. Let me try that this weekend. Are you thinking of getting the drive fan for your 35w? Are you having heat issues? It does make it louder if course.
@handmedowntech Yeah, I'm running 2 NVMe's and a HDD. I can never get the temps below 63/65c on idle. I've just bought some 1.5mm copper heat sinks for the NVMe's to try, and I've removed the bottom of the HDD caddy to create a bit more space. However, I would love to add the HDD fan to try and disperse the heat even more if possible. I'm reluctant to change the HDD for an SSD de caddy at this point due to the price. I'm tempted to try and source a 65w top cover too. 🔥 🥵 I want to try and keep the look stock rather then drilling vent holes and adding fans etc.
Good question. I did a video comparing the two and picked the G2. But since then I've been using the G3s quite a bit and really like them. I'd recommend going with a 7th Gen CPU otherwise they're just like the G3s. I also now use a G3 for my day to day computer.
You'd think that at a minimum it should give you 3 monitors for those 3 display ports. I want to see if I can use those and add 2 more via the docking station I use via the USB C port. Give me a couple days to test.
Oh man. I haven't thought of that in quite a while. I'm assuming you mean something like the wrist straps folks use to guard against zapping their poor memory with static?
Good question. Because of their size it's easy to have several of them linked together in a proxmos cluster for high availability of virtual machines. But before I ever did a cluster I just installed proxmox so I could play with VMs. I then replaced my laptop with one of the units as my main working PC. I had been using the laptop as a stationary PC. Since these are corporate units they are built tough and you can't beat the price. Also great for experimenting with hardware.
@@handmedowntech Thanks for your response. I've got a refurbished one and upgraded ram and m2. I'm planning to use it as my home desktop, but there's a challenge in using a dual HDMI USB docking station with it. It always shows a black screen on windows signin, and I have to connect vga or dp to be able see the signin page. After sign in I have to disconnect the vga or dp so that it won't conflict with HDMI because I have only two monitors. Have you had this kinda challenge?
I have tried different things but I failed to make it work without the vga connection, and since one of my monitors is connected to both vga and HDMI, the OS acts strange. Would you please share the brand/model of your usb c docking station?
Plugable USB 3.0 and USB-C Universal Laptop Docking Station with 2 HDMI Ports for Windows, Mac, and ChromeOS (Gigabit Ethernet, Audio, 6 USB Ports) a.co/d/7ch2GtJ I've even connected my phone to it using a display link driver
