Anyone have experience with HP pcs? Can they be OCd?

[Arkitech]

Wondering if its worth the money to buy a refurbed HP and upgrading it with a 8800. I'm just not certain if I can OC the CPU and memory and I also don't know what kind of PSUs they come with.

Anyone out there familiar with HPs?

 

[robmurphy]

If you want to overclock stear clear of HP. I have several HP machines and overclocking is not an option. Even when I installed the original motherboard maker's BIOS (MSI in my case) there were still no overclocking options. If you want to overclock then do not get a stock HP or Dell.

I have upgraded the CPUs in the HP machines and have not had any problems with PSUs. I have not tried adding any graphics cards that need additional power though. Again if thats what your looking at doing then do not get HP or Dell.

Why by a machine that is designed NOT to allow you to do what you want? (i.e overclock and add power hungry graphics cards)

I buy HP because I get good service from HP. I can fix them easily if something goes wrong. HP will ship the part needed for me to fit. Add to that the HP desktops I've bought have cost much less than buying the equivelant hardware let alone the OS. I do not play any 3D games so on board or low level graphics are fine with me.

I've added additional disk drives, network cards (gigabit), TV tuner cards, and upgraded the CPUs. The only problem I've had so far is that the case gets a little crowded so often the new CPU ends up with the old CPU's HSF.

 

[JackMDS]

Brand names do not design and manufacture basic components. They buy, or request specific Motherboards from OEM. From an enthusiast perspective there is motherboard X on model number Y and the general name Dell, HP, etc. is meaningless.

In order to reduce cost the Motherboards in use can do well what the Brand want the PC to do, but are not flexible and rich with features to play with.

However HP and others use a lot of different Models, so if you have in mind a specific model log to HP?s support, look for the manual and other technical information and find out what the Motherboard can do.

 

[robmurphy]

Links to HP/Compaq desktop PC motherboards for Europe.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...=482527&dlc=en&lang=en

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...59&dlc=en&lang=en#N551

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...&jumpid=reg_R1002_UKEN

You may be able to find equivelant to these in the US.