An RTX 3050 GPU seems like the ideal video card for a small form factor desktop like the HP Elitedesk 800 G4. In this blog post, I’ll explain the obstacles that stand in the way of this pairing and options for overcoming them.
When low profile isn’t low profile
On paper, the RTX 3050 seems ideal. It is a reasonably modern GPU, comes in a small form factor low profile version, and doesn’t require any additional power besides the power it gets from the PCI Express bus.
The problem is even though the low profile version fits vertically in the case, it doesn’t quite fit horizontally.
It’s a minor inconvenience in the case of one make of 3050 card, and a much bigger inconvenience with another.
If you haven’t made a purchase yet, buy MSI
If you haven’t bought a low profile RTX 3050 yacht, I strongly recommend you buy an MSI card. Its heatsink and fan assembly are considerably shorter than the Gigabyte card I was able to source locally.
To make the MSI card fit, you simply have to pry off the clip on the rightmost 3.5-inch drive bay. This clip locks the drive in that bay in place, so if you want to use that drive bay, you will have to come up with another way to secure a drive in that bay. But it is a fairly minor inconvenience to allow use of a modern video card. You can simply remove the clip by prying with a flat bladed screwdriver
Installing a Gigabyte RTX 3050 in an HP Elitedesk 800 G4 SFF
The Gigabyte RTX 3050 doesn’t fit in the HP Elitedesk 800 without turning it into a hack job. You will have to cut into the drive bays. The bays still retain a sufficient amount of structural integrity, because you don’t have to cut more than about a cubic inch of material from it. But at the same time, it’s difficult to remove that much material from the interior of a computer case and still have it look like it was always made that way.
Wear your safety glasses!
I found one YouTube video where someone said they were able to cut the case with a small set of handheld nippers. I don’t recommend trying that. The metal looked way too thick for that, but I gave it a try. That wasn’t my finest moment. When I tried, the tool broke on the first cut and sent shrapnel flying at me at high speeds. It didn’t hit my face, fortunately. The shrapnel hit my leg. It didn’t draw blood, it only scared me. It also reinforced my belief in safety glasses. Yes, I was wearing them.
Marking your cut
What I recommend doing is installing the card, then closing the drive bays as much as you can, and then tracing the outline of the card into the drive base to help you guide your cut. The opening I cut is about 30mm wide, 25mm high, and 10mm deep. Measure against your card to get the position right. Note that you will have to cut higher and deeper than it appears from measuring against the card, but the horizontal width will be about right.
Rotary tool time (No 8-Bit Guy jokes please)
Given the tight quarters, I wasn’t going to try cutting it with hand tools. If I still had my nibbler tool, I probably would have given it a try.
Instead, I used a rotary tool with one and a half inch cut off wheels. Harbor Freight sells a cheap assortment of rotary tool supplies, but don’t bother with the cutoff wheels in that assortment. One of those wheels last barely long enough to make one of the four cuts you need to make. They are also too short to reach easily, which causes you to come in at an angle and make the wheel more likely to break. Use the larger, 1.5-inch cutoff wheels, which are fiber reinforced so they last long enough to make four cuts.
If you don’t remove the motherboard from the case entirely, make sure you cut a piece of cardboard to place over the motherboard while you work. You don’t want that metal dust landing on your motherboard.
After you roughly mark your cut, try to straighten it out and square it up before you start cutting. It may be a bit easier to cut some pieces of tape and apply them to get a nice, straight, and square set of lines to follow.
Once you are happy with your guide lines, start cutting. Wear safety glasses, and work slowly. The cutting disc will make a lot of sparks, so taking frequent breaks and letting everything cool down is a very good idea.
I also recommend that you square up the cut and double check twice with the power off before starting the cut, and maybe even try at low speed to make sure you are hitting your mark. Once you get a groove in the metal, the tool will want to continue to follow that groove, so if you get it wrong, it can be difficult to correct.
Cleaning up along the way
I also recommend removing the cardboard and brushing off the debris in between cuts. Be sure to replace the cardboard before continuing.
Testing the fit and finishing up
When you think you have the area clear, test fit with the 3050 installed. Close the drive bays very slowly and stop as soon as you feel any resistance. If you run into any resistance, look on all sides for where the card is hitting, make some marks, and shave off a bit more metal so it fits.
After you get a good fit, I recommend applying some vinyl or aluminum tape over the edges that you cut. If you were able to come in straight, the edges will be fairly safe. But if you had to cut at an angle at all, they will be sharp. A bit of tape along those edges will make the case a lot safer the next time you or someone else have to work on it.
If you have a rotary tool in good working order and two or three of the one and a half inch cut off wheels, and you are used to working with metal, cutting the drive bay isn’t a huge obstacle. The fewer supplies you have and the lower your confidence, the more difficult and time-consuming this project becomes. If you aren’t used to working with metal, I am strongly inclined to recommend going to whatever lengths are necessary to procure the MSI version of the 3050.
In my case, once I cleared the obstacles and installed the Gigabyte RTX 3050, the combination worked well together. It’s just it was a bit of a shotgun wedding to make it happen.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.