Upgrading PC as a whole

Question

Hello everyone!
I am writing this to speak about upgrading my PC, a HP ENVY Phoenix 810-230qe, as a whole. I originally purchased a PC with an FX-8320 and a sad little graphics card back in 2013, and purchased a carepack with it. After the graphics card failed and was replaced three times in a single year, I called HP support and a nice case manager (Thanks Lorraine!) hooked me up with this one - a 4770k, 12GB RAM, and a nice r9 270. However, I am not comfortable with the PC's temperatures under load as there is only one fan for the entire PC and it's blocked by a 92mm Asetek water cooling block for the CPU.  Thus, I was looking to upgrade the PC as a whole around my birthday later this year. I planned on keeping the CPU, RAM, GPU, and 2TB HDD, but that left me confused - the PC came with a 16GB mSATA "Cache", and I don't know whether or not the 2TB HDD or the mSATA drive has my Windows OS on it - if the latter holds Windows, I'm going to have some problems. A picture of the two devices can be found here. Besides this, I'm not sure how the CPU is in. I was wondering if anyone knew whether or not the CPU was mounted normally or if it was soldered on - the motherboard was made by MSI and the model name is "MS-7826".
If anyone wants to see my upgrade list and/or make suggestions, it can be found here. I hope I can get some advice about the PC as well as some help with my questions!
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Answer 1

Adam, welcome to the forum.
I will add my comments in a space next to your questions.
AdamF wrote:
Hello everyone!
I am writing this to speak about upgrading my PC, a HP ENVY Phoenix 810-230qe, as a whole. I originally purchased a PC with an FX-8320 and a sad little graphics card back in 2013, and purchased a carepack with it. After the graphics card failed and was replaced three times in a single year, I called HP support and a nice case manager (Thanks Lorraine!) hooked me up with this one - a 4770k, 12GB RAM, and a nice r9 270. However, I am not comfortable with the PC's temperatures under load as there is only one fan for the entire PC and it's blocked by a 92mm Asetek water cooling block for the CPU.  Thus, I was looking to upgrade the PC as a whole around my birthday later this year. I planned on keeping the CPU, RAM, GPU, and 2TB HDD, but that left me confused - the PC came with a 16GB mSATA "Cache", and I don't know whether or not the 2TB HDD (This hard drive will have the Windows OS installed on it.) or the mSATA drive (This drive is used as a cache and does not hold any programs.) has my Windows OS on it - if the latter holds Windows, I'm going to have some problems. A picture of the two devices can be found here. (The "Recovery Image  D: " partition in your photo is actually on the 2 TB HDD.  The mSATA drive is not listed since it isn't used as storage.) Besides this, I'm not sure how the CPU is in. I was wondering if anyone knew whether or not the CPU was mounted normally (Here are the motherboard specifications.  The CPU has a standard socket and can easily be upgraded.) or if it was soldered on - the motherboard was made by MSI and the model name is "MS-7826".
If anyone wants to see my upgrade list and/or make suggestions, it can be found here. I hope I can get some advice about the PC as well as some help with my questions!
What you are wanting to do may work.  However, anytime you have high-end components in a smaller mid-size case, you are going to have problems with HEAT.  You are correct to be concerned.  Heat will cause all of the components to fail prematurely.  If you try to move the motherboard to another case, you have to assure that the holes in the motherboard match the stand-offs in the case.  Also, some of the connectors may not be the same as in a HP case.  HP has their motherboards made specifically for them.
Please click the "Thumbs up + button" if I have helped you and click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.
Signature:
HP TouchPad - 1.2 GHz; 1 GB memory; 32 GB storage; WebOS/CyanogenMod 11(Kit Kat)
HP 10 Plus; Android-Kit Kat; 1.0 GHz Allwinner A31 ARM Cortex A7 Quad Core Processor ; 2GB RAM Memory Long: 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (1600MHz); 16GB disable eMMC 16GB v4.51
HP Omen; i7-4710QH; 8 GB memory; 256 GB San Disk SSD; Win 8.1
HP Photosmart 7520 AIO
++++++++++++++++++
**Click the Thumbs Up+ to say 'Thanks' and the 'Accept as Solution' if I have solved your problem.**
Intelligence is God given; Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!
I am not an HP employee.