HP Compaq dc7600 Small Form Factor PC

Author: LOLZpersonok
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This is an HP Compaq dc7600 (despite being labelled dc7700) small form factor PC that I got for $20 on August 25, 2014. In the classified ad, two others were being offered, one having a 250GB hard drive and a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 and the other having a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo. This one had no hard drive, which is why the seller sold it for $20. The HP Compaq dc7600 is a business-oriented machine which would explain its quiet operation (though BIOS options enable the machine to essentially turn into a leaf blower), case locking design, tool free design, reliable hardware and a built-in speaker. HP also sold a CMT (convertible mini tower) version and an ultra small form factor version. Companies would've been given deals when buying these machines in lots. Because it is a business-oriented machine, it's designed to be running for long periods of time. This machine has a hyperthreaded 3.0GHz Prescott Pentium 4, which is known to run quite warm, but because of the smart case design, it does have good cooling capacity. Because it is hyperthreaded, it allows the CPU core to process two threads, which makes it appear as a dual core under Windows Task Manager and other software and it can speed up the operation of certain applications, making it more efficient and a better choice than non-hyperthreaded Pentium 4 CPUs. This does NOT, however, make it as fast as a true dual core processor. Although processor upgrades are possible, the newest processor that can be installed is the Pentium D 950, a 3.4GHz dual core processor. While the chipset and motherboard support the Core Duo, Core 2 Duo and I believe the Core 2 Quad, an intentional manufacturer limitation prevents these processors from working on the motherboard. It came with 512MB of DDR2-5300 memory, but it has been upgraded to 3GB of the same type of memory, though it is upgradeable to 4GB. I initially attempted to install a 250GB SATA hard disk (as this computer has a SATA controller and two SATA connectors) however the 250GB hard disk was dead, so I instead installed an 80GB IDE drive. Due to the computer's internal cable design, I had to swap out the optical drive for a SATA optical drive I bought for $5 at Value Village so I could use the IDE hard drive. I then installed Windows XP Professional on it using its Windows XP Professional COA stickers. Because the machine is designed to utilize SATA hard disks, upgrading the machine with an SSD would not be difficult or require any special adapters. Drivers were not hard to find; a simple Google search yielded all drivers and software that would've come pre-installed on the system. It's a very snappy machine and Internet browsing is not a problem for this machine. If a dedicated GPU was installed (it'd have to be a low-profile GPU) it'd make well for a very inexpensive, minor gaming machine. As cool as it'd be, you certainly cannot fit any GeForce GTX 980 GPUs or any card of the sort in it. It simply wouldn't fit because of the case's small size. Plus, such a powerful GPU would place too much load on the power supply and even if that wasn't a limitation, the GPU would be bottlenecked because of the Pentium 4 processor and the motherboard's bus. For technical specifications, they are as follows: Capable of running 64-bit Windows (This one runs Windows XP Professional and 64-bit Elementary OS) 3.2GHz Prescott Pentium 4 640 with Hyperthreading Technology (previously 3.0GHz Prescott Pentium 4 630 with Hyperthreading Technology) 4GB DDR2-5300 RAM (previously 3GB DDR2-5300 RAM) (Expandable to 4GB with 4x1GB modules. It can use 2x2GB modules. If 32-bit Windows is installed, it will only pick up on 3.24GB of RAM.) A 250GB Seagate SATA hard disk (previously an 80GB Western Digital IDE hard disk) (the machine is designed for SATA hard disks; and as such, SSD drives would not require a special adapter to operate in this machine, but the motherboard will not be able to take full advantage of an SSD.) Three fans; one front, one heatsink and one PSU 240W PSU 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive DVD-RW/DL optical drive (originally a white CD-ROM drive, not original to the machine) 800MHz FSB speed AMD Radeon HD 6450 1GB graphics (previously Intel i945G integrated graphics; 128MB shared video memory) 8 USB 2.0 ports 2 PCI expansion slots, 2 PCI-e slots; one x1 and one x16, so a half-way new GPU upgrade is possible. I have no doubt in my mind that this machine would be very capable of running Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 if one decided to install said operating systems on this machine. All in all, even for 2015, this is still a very functional and usable machine. It doesn't have mind-blowing speed or graphics, but it gets the job done.

Comments

  1. Can i change the fan speed at current bios
  2. hp compaq are wankers, they limit the bios so you cannot upgrade or overclock
  3. my computer shows that (diskette drives:none)
    how can I solve it..plz....
  4. great video, thanks
  5. xuine
  6. Hi, get this PC from my friend yesterday. From you video I understand that the maximum supportable memory is 4GB. Can I install windows 10 in this PC? Boz i don't find any drivers for windows 10 in HP website under drivers. Please help.
  7. I had like 3 of these 4 or so years ago that i bought for 10 euros each they had pentium 4 3ghz cpus with 2gb ram and a 80Gb hdd.

    Kept one sold the others to buy a core quad and more ram. Did a FSB mod on the C2Q put the memory in and bam a nice media computer.

    I miss it though. It was a nice machine. I might buy one again just for the fun.
  8. bought one for 50 quid with 2x3.4ghz and a 4 ram and a 500gb hard drive, not great specs but cheap
  9. when I switch on my hp desktop dc7600, it starts reading my ram of 2 GB which takes a lot time, I want to disable this reading/testing. how is it possible please guide me dear admin.
  10. I just brought one of these yesterday in 2016 I paid £29 but £36 with delivery. I am going to use this for my jukebox software and the ELO et3200l 32 inch touch screen monitor. I hope that it will perform ok, if not then shall see what it is like just for surfing the internet and running Kodi and then use my i3 for the jukebox, I just brought an SSD drive as well, so if need be then I might try that in there to see if it speeds up things. I got 4 gigs with mine and 2 x 160 hard drives but looking at the insides of yours they must be doing a balancing act as it did not look big enough for two. I am going to attempt some emulation as well as I am putting my monitor in a vertical mount so any game that is vertical then I want to try out. The bad thing about this will be the power consumption will be high I imagine.
  11. can this go to windows vista
  12. please help I have a dc700 compact sff and it says media disk failure I need help. I don't know what to do
  13. To this day i still have one, too bad my asus video card seems to have failed somehow, and unless i find another one which has composite output alongside vga, it will gather some dust before i'll bring him out to flash firmware updates with the serial/parallel port.
  14. Thanks man!!
  15. Man, can you tell me what kind of gpu should I put in it, I mean ddr2 or ddr3? How can I understand which one I need?
  16. how do I put a gpu in this case ?
  17. The better CPU for this PC I think it would be the the pentium D 950 3.4GHZ, but I'm not sure about the graphic card.
    The Pc case is kinda tricky. Very small and the Pc has a limited power suply, since u can'y even plug the grapfic card directly to the power suply.
    Wha't the best graphic card do you recommend for that pc with a pentium D 950 3.4Ghz?
  18. nice pc
  19. I have a HP DC 7600, and the integrated LAN is out. Can I put a PCI lan card in it?
  20. I have the same one and it can run windows 10