There are a lot of reviews and answered questions saying this PC can't be used for gaming, but that's simply not true. This HP Elite 8300 arrived in like-new condition with a brand new hard drive, new RAM, and an unused Windows 10 key, and I was able to slot in a low profile GeForce 1050 video card that's so far been able to run every game I've thrown at it in 1080p with max settings, including Skyrim, GTAV, The Witness, Counter-Strike Global Offensive, and others.
It's a perfectly zippy computer on its own, but dropping in a decent graphics card (it appears the 1050 Ti is the most this system can handle, particularly with regard to its proprietary 240-watt power supply) has given me a system that well exceeds my expectations and runs video games better than any other device I've owned, including my past computers and home consoles.
I did have one minor issue with the system when it arrived: the fan on the power supply made a curious grinding noise that sounded like it was going out. To fix it, I slid a screwdriver into the back of the power supply to stop the fan from spinning, then started the computer. After a few moments, I pulled the screwdriver out, and the fan sped up to its max speed, likely in an attempt to rapidly cool the system. After spinning at such high speed, the fan stopped making the noise at lower speeds, and I haven't heard the grinding noise nor heard the fan spin up to its highest speed since. It's been over five months since then, and I haven't had a single issue to report otherwise.
It's also worth noting that the computer shipped in a box indicating that it was a Microsoft Certified Refurbished system. This isn't (or wasn't) listed in the product description, but for some users, this certification is added peace of mind.
Edit: ten months have passed since I first started using this PC, and nearly everything is still working perfectly. I say "nearly" because after months of ignoring the system's front-facing headset port, I finally plugged one in only to find that the port doesn't carry microphone audio as indicated. For me, this is no big deal. Otherwise, the system has been a treat. I installed a PCI wireless network adapter and an LG-branded Blu-ray burner, both of which have been working flawlessly. My 1050 has been also running smoothly with absolutely no problems. To be honest, I've had fewer problems with this system than any other PC I've ever owned; granted, most of my others were built from the ground up. My experience has been such a success that I even convinced a buddy of mine to buy his own 8300 several months back, and from what I've heard, his system has been functioning perfectly as well.
After reading many of the reviews, I had a flash of regret having ordered the refurbished desktop. After 2 days of eager waiting, this was delivered and it left me beaming with satisfaction and relief to find a sealed (that's right sealed) desktop looking barely used and unrecognizable microscopic scratches and strangely smelling new. It was packed with a pretty cool balloon pack. The sellers name is "Microbee" and they are Microsoft certified refurbished. They also added in a brand new keyboard and mouse (although I plan to use my existing Logitech keyboard which I'm so used to). I plugged it in and Windows 10 professional setup almost instantly after I keyed in the product key. To my surprise Microsoft office was pre-Installed, I already have an Office 365 account and I could login and access all my old files from the cloud account. The only things I had to purchase extra were an USB WiFi adapter (5Ghz works on USB 3.0) and a DisplayPort to HDMI cable. Now it's all set and I'm so happy I bought a refurbished desktop. I'm proud that I did my bit to the environment.
So, I was in the market for a "new" PC that was modern, but old enough to be have hardware designed for Windows 7. Been looking at tons of these slightly older business machines and decided I wanted an HP Elite 8300. It's a model that is old enough to be compatible with Windows 7 without any fuss of finding drivers, but modern enough to be equipped with lots of fast RAM, a fast bus, and a fast Intel I5 processor with decent graphics.
These HP Elite machines are well-built, FAST business grade machines that are perfect for home users that know what they want in a slightly older machine. Much better quality hardware than the retail consumer PCs at Walmart, Best Buy etc. It's not a gaming rig...period. And not designed to take a super powered graphics card. But with a clean copy of Windows 7 installed, these machines FLY and will effortlessly handle ANY home/office/browsing tasks you throw at it. And if you enjoy Windows 10, these machines will run it smoothly as well. I just don't agree with the way Windows 10 works - I wanted a machine specifically to run Windows 7.
It came with a clean copy of Windows 10 installed, along with a COA, but I immediately formatted the hard drive and installed Windows 7. Windows 10 was NOT a selling point for me. I bought this PC specifically because it was a high end business grade machine from the Windows 7 era. I am a home user and I am sticking with Windows 7 until no longer practical to do so. I absolutely hate Windows 10 and refuse to ever use it.
I nearly cancelled my order after reading reviews about bad packaging, or machines with major damage, but I decided to roll the dice. I'm glad I did. The PC was packaged very well and professionally. It is clean inside with only minimal dust build up on the fans and heatsinks. Nothing nasty, just light dust. All the USB ports and Display Port are tight and not worn out. The case is in very good shape with only minor scuffs and scratches on the top where a monitor would sit. The front is clean as new. It was shipped with the usual brand new iMicro brand cheapy keyboard and mouse that most refurbished systems come with, along with a power cord. These are not top quality keyboards and mice, but they will work just fine if you're not particular like I am. I already have a nice keyboard and mouse, so no big deal there.
These are used machines, so I think it's natural to expect some with hardware issues to occasionally slip through quality control, but generally these are a very good bargain for users that know what they are looking for. The one I ended up getting turned out to be a gem. I can't say that your luck will be the same, but mine arrived with 4 matched sticks of 2 GB RAM (for a total of 8 gigs as advertised) and a Western Digital Enterprise grade 500 GB hard drive that surprisingly has lower power-on hours according to the SMART data.
Glad I bought it. I'm thrilled.
No damage or issues with any of the hardware. The inside was clean as a whistle. Popped a gtx 1050 ti lp in it and now I'm downloading games and updating the os with the insider builds. Web browsing seems fine. Haven't found any issues to speak of so far. Anything bad comes up and I will update my review but so far so good.
Edit: I just so happened to have 8gbs of ram from my old pc to ad to the 8gbs in this machine so now I have 16 gbs of ram and man does it make this thing a gaming beast! Some games today do need 16gbs of ram or they stutter. Such as Cod WwII. Able to just about max that out at 1080p 60fps without it ever dipping below that. I tried MKX and came close to max 1080p 60 fps as well. If I maxxed it it would stutter though. It doesn't look any different to me anyways though. This thing is flying and stays cool too!
Edit: 2 just so you know the ethernet has slow speeds so you wanna look into getting a usb to ethernet adapter with speeds that exceed your upload and download speeds. I just so happen to have one laying around and it made download and upload speeds way better! Even if you don't have one they're fairly cheap.
Edit 3: Got it running vr with a mixed reality headset. Works great while recording at 1080p 30fps using obs! Only one issue is that I have to restart the machine if it's been turned off and swap the usb cable into another port on boot or it won't work with the mixed reality portal. I ordered a usb 3.0 pci card. Hopefully that fixes the issue. Either way I got the headset for $250. and I have a perfect vr machine on a budget!!! Take your $1,000. Pcs, and $600. headsets and shove em! =D
Amazon lumps reviews for multiple vendors/refurbishers under the same product listing, so unless the review mentions the vendor, the comments regarding condition are not very useful. My unit was an HP 8300 Elite with Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core, 8GB RAM, and 500GB hard drive. The vendor in my case was Microbee. I could not be more satisfied with the condition of the unit. It was covered in a skin-tight shrink-wrap plastic and protected by a molded bubble wrap shell. The condition beneath the shrink covering looked perfect. No dents or any case scratches were evident at all. Popping the cover, the interior was almost dust-free, including the fans. It appeared to be brand new. The unit powered up quietly with an activated copy of Windows 10 Pro. The license was not an electronic license, but a volume license with an activation key (which was not provided). I linked the license to my Microsoft account, so hopefully will not have reactivation issues if I move to an SSD in the future. I called Microbee and and a very knowledgeable young lady stated they had recently gone to the volume licensing scheme so as to provide the OS pre-activated. She was unable to provide the activation key.
I checked the run time on the 500Gb hard drive. It worked out to 2.5 years of continuous run time. That's high-mileage, but nowhere near as bad as the 5 year numbers I have seen in other reviews. The only other issue is that the optical drive was DVD-ROM only, not Read-Write as advertised. Microbee offered a partial-refund to address the issue. Part of the fault here is with Amazon for aggregating the same product with multiple vendors offering slightly different product specs. I was so pleased with the overall condition of the unit, I did not bother to pursue the refund as a new RW DVD drive is only 12.00 or so if I decide I can't live without it. I haven't burned a DVD in years.
The 8Gb of memory was split across two of the four memory slots, leaving space for future upgrades, which was very nice. The oddball HP "DisplayPort" is a weird beast. It is essentially an HDMI port in a proprietary HP form factor. It does carry digital audio, like an HDMI port. An adapter is needed to use the port with a standard HDMI cable. Fortunately, I had an adapter in my parts box from a work HP laptop, so I was able to connect it to an older DVI monitor with the DisplayPort adapter and an HDMI to DVI cable. I also used the the VGA analog display port for a second monitor running extended desktops. The integrated video on the motherboard/processor worked just fine with the arrangement.
The BIOS in my unit had NEVER been updated. I downloaded the most recent versions from HP. It is necessary to upgrade first to version v02.99 Rev.A before upgrading to the latest 00.03.06 Rev.A. If you don't first upgrade to the intermediate version, the upgrade to the latest rev. will fail. The latest BIOS seems to trigger several behind-the-scenes Windows 10 updatess and does update the Intel microcode for the processor, so performing the BIOS updates is a must.
All-in-all, the unit represents an exceptional value for a second or compact computer system. I use mine for an amateur radio station machine, where the large number of USB ports and the single RS-232 serial port are perfect for interfacing to radios and other accessories. There is plenty of horsepower to run DSP software used to decode various digital radio modes. I also run a spectrum analyzer/panadapter software package that requires a powerful processor. The unit handles it easily, idling at 27% utilization.
Feature Product
- HP 8300 Intel I5 Quad-Core 3.2 GHz Processor
- What's Inside: 8GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, DVD Optical Drive
- Operating System: Windows 10 Professional
- Includes: USB Keyboard and Mouse
Description
This HP 8300 SFF Desktop features an i5 Quad-Core Processor with speeds up to 3.2 GHz, an 8GB SDRAM DDR3, and integrated Intel HD Graphics 2500. This desktop unit has 500GB SATA hard drive for all your storage needs. Windows 10 Professional is installed. Comes with keyboard and mouse.
I can't be happier for the price. The pc arrived clean, with Win 10 loaded and activated, as well as some quite useful apps (VLC, Open Office, 7 zip). Although not advertised with one, mine came with a nano Wi-Fi adapter plugged in the back. First thing I did was swap the hard drive with a new 240GB SSD, so I shouldn't have any HD issues anytime soon. PC is running smooth and snappy.
The only con I see is that if the power supply ever goes out, I might have trouble replacing it. It is a snug, case fan/power supply combo "L" shaped, and if you DID find one that fit, you would also need to buy a 20 to 4 adapter for it. The power supply is weird, and definitely one of a kind.
Definitely the way to go for either a work or home pc if you don't want to break the bank. 8GB memory, quad core i5....a new machine would be twice as much with same specs.
I recommend this unit highly.
This computer has lived up to expectations and was equipped as advertised with the bonus of a new keyboard and mouse. It was packed with a form-fitting envelope of large bubbles and the package said what it was, which, I feel, causes the shipping folks to be more appropriately careful. This computer has only slight cosmetic wear.
A couple of small issues though. At first it wouldn't boot up because it couldn't find the bootmgr file, which the machine indicated was a usb device and no such device was shipped. I had to borrow a laptop to lookup the correct F key to bring up the boot menu and then hope the OS was on the C drive, which it was. Someone unfamiliar with computers would be looking for outside help; time-consuming and/or expensive. The quick start guide included the W10 serial number, but there was some confusing explanation about the status of the OS due to being a refurbished unit and not a new one. Still, was able to register the OS with no problem. So a star is taken from the rating.
I'm new to Win10 and was a bit apprehensive due to other reviews....I didn't even download it when it was offered as a free upgrade to Win7 users. However, I'm giving it a try and so far I'm pleased with it especially after loading my old familiar programs, which were all compatible and cut down on learning such things as mail and writing docs and spreadsheets. A lot of these I had previously installed on a separate hard drive, which I installed into this computer, making it possible to set things up simply by hitting the various *.exe files. I do have more memory and CPU power than with the W7 machine and I'm sure it's faster, even though we're all impressed with a new computers speed until we bog it down over time with additional software, games, etc.
Overall and in view of new prices, I would recommend buying refurbished for more bang for the buck, so long as one uses Amazon fulfillment to have your back with most problems.
UPDATE: In this case, and in hindsight, I also recommend the extended coverage because the power supply failed today, 6 months after purchase and 3 months past warranty. Extended Warranty about 20.00, Power supply about 40.00.
Purchased two for my home. Have one running and have not tested the second one yet. Am writing this review on the one. Case had a few signs of use, but nothing bad, light scratches where a monitor was most likely placed. Don't do any serious gaming. Have played Railroad Tycoon 3 at max setting with no lag, but that is about it. Also use my machine for streaming, no issues there either. Good machine for the price. Would like an HDMI port, so I am going to try one of the recommended video cards from other reviews. If you are looking to change power supplies for larger cards, looks to be a bit of a task. The power supply is an odd shape and would recommend checking it out if that is your plan. Could not find a larger replacement. Otherwise the factory setup works well and is very quiet.
Very happy with the computer so far (HP 8300 w/ 8gb ram 500 gb hd) Unboxing the system I found the pc packaged well with the accessories packaged around and on top of the pc. The only issue I had was the mouse was broken in transit. The box was crushed and the mouse took the hit. No big deal for me since I had an extra mouse laying around. The pc was in good condition with minor dents and scratches from prior use. Nothing unexpected and no smell issue like someone else posted. I checked the hours on the hard drive with seagate's utility and it has 18,000 hours or around 700 days of use on it. Not bad for an older computer. I am using the computer for ham radio programs and haven't had an issue. Mine has both VGA and Display port video outputs and both work great. It also has a small speaker built in so I didn't need to buy an external speaker
Computer came with a fresh install of Windows 10, keyboard, broken mouse, printed Windows activation instructions and a usb wifi dongle. As I said above no issue with any of that except the mouse. the Keyboard and mouse are cheap micro brand peripherals but that isn't an issue for me. Hooked everything up and booted the computer, no issues it activated windows and installed updates.
The PC is quiet, sitting on the desk in front of me I can hardly hear it running even under load. The USB ports on the rear are well used and a bit loose but still function. There is a small dent in the case and a few scratches. I feel this was a good purchase and feel like I wasted a lot of time looking at all of the refurbished PC's available before buying this one. For general usage it is a fine machine. It's not going to be a great gaming computer or do heavy video editing but for web browsing, ham radio programs / radio interfacing, light gaming (it runs counter strike at 100fps), video streaming and whatever else you do daily online or on a pc it is great.
For any ham's out there, I run WSJT-X, Ham radio deluxe, and JT-Alert on this machine with a signalink USB sound card and have no issues with the onboard sound card conflicting or with serial port conflicts. I can run the radio and watch youtube videos at the same time using the built in sound card and speaker while the signalink USB runs the radio sound this is the reason I bought this PC.
Wow! This is an amazing deal. Not sure how they can even offer this price with an authenticate version of Windows 10 Pro. Great all purpose computer as long as you don't expect to play modern, graphics intensive games for an unbeatable price.
I bought this to replace my basement computer that runs two monitors including my 110' projector screen, surround sound and outdoor patio speakers. The computer is not used often, but when it is I am usually having guests over and streaming a webcast concert, playing movies or just playing music on it. My old computer was taking too long to boot into Windows and load apps even off standby or just being left on. It started to take 5+ minutes to become usable which was embarrassing in front of guests.
I bought this computer and swapped out the HDD for a 500GB SSD and it kicks butt! The boot time to the Windows desktop is literally about 6 seconds and I can immediately load spotify or a browser to YouTube. I run a normal monitor to the desk on vga and another display port to vga to my projector screen. I am not gaming, but full hd video looks great. I have a USB audio device which pushes digital optical surround to a Sony receiver for the movie room or stereo to another Sony receiver to power my outdoor patio and deck speakers. Everything runs smooth and fast and looks and sounds great. Still can't believe i got this computer for $200 or $365 with upgraded SSD. Really great deal!
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