A:AnswerYou have to turn on the PCIe slot in the bios for the video card to be recognized. Look up the BIOS name and ID and type it on the address line of your browser to see what instructions are out there from the BIOS manufacturer or are on the HP website. It is VERY important to allow Microsoft to download ALL of its updates before you attempt to make hardware changes to a new computer. Some BIOS can be a maze to activate. You also have to download the video card driver (or run a DVD/CD that was provided with the card). Not unusual to require some assistance to get it working. Hope you chose a card that can run off the PCIe slot which is REQUIRED to supply 75 watts of draw. GTX 750 TI SFF, GTX 1050 or 1050TI or GTX 1650 in ITX size should work. With the exception of AMD 550, their cards appear to be too large and power demanding but I could be wrong.
The Best Buy technical staff is very knowledgeable and can assist you. Stay with lower power demand cards that run off the PCIe slot. Buy the best card that will work and keep your resolution below 1920X1080 (for example 1280X720 works great) to improve frame rates and performance.
A:AnswerThe power supply inhales warm air which rises inside the case and exhausts it out the back. The "grate" that looks like a fan location is actually an air intake. The i7-7700T processor is a mobile processor ordinarily designed for a laptop and specially manufactured to be very efficient. It takes only 36 watts from the 180 watt power supply. I've had a mobile processor as a replacement processor in a computer for many years. Do not think they are weaker. They are very well designed. I doubt the computer will have any overheating problem unless you use it sitting in the sun on a hot day in a 95F room. If ever needed, you can add a 120 MM case fan (they are pretty quiet and move a lot of air) but have it suck air into the case. It would be best if there was a dust catching screen over that large hole.
If you add a video card, the best card would be one that exhausts air out of the computer just like the power supply. Many video cards just circulate air but do not exhaust it.
Be careful: the space is tight for a PCI-e video card. Looks like anything longer than about 7 inches may not fit. Stick with SFF (small form factor) or ITX sized card that are short in length. The PCIe slot is capable of providing up to 75 watts of power to a video card and you should stick with cards that run off the PCIe slot power. Do not be concerned with recommendations to use a 300 watt power supply. The PCI-e technical specification REQUIRES that the slot provide 75 watts of power. The 300 watt suggestion by card manufacturers applies to older less efficient cards and users who abuse their systems by running too high a resolution in difficult games. Its important to reduce resolution from 1920X1080 to 1290X720 or even 1024x768 when playing motion intensive games.
A:AnswerYou will be surprised how capable the Intel 630 video performs. For low spec games like Minecraft and most Fantasy Games that don't have a great deal of motion and multiple players, the Intel 630 on the I7-7700T will do the job very well. Also OK with older versions of Counter Strike run in moderate resolutions like 1024x768 and 1280x720. There are a lot of Low Spec Games to chose from and they are cheaper than the most popular first person shooters with a wider appeal to younger players and less competitive gamers who lack the reflexes to just throw into a battle game. The Intel I7-7700 T is a seventh generation very low power requiring CPU with very low heat production, super fast response. In 2017, it was the top of the food chain in four core and a great gaming CPU.
The 180 Watt power supply is not tasked by the power efficient CPU and the spec for the PCIe slot is for 75 watts draw off the motherboard. That means, without a change in the power supply, there are some decent middle level GPU cards available that do not require a "power dongle" and should work fine in the PCIe slot. Middle range means up to 1080P (1920x1080) with medium settings. 2GB memory will do and running at 1280x720 uses less than half the power of 1920x1080. 4GB video card will work better for a highly detailed game with lot of shading but it will draw more power too. Stick with cards not requiring a power dongle and reduce your resolution a bit for the best experience. 1920x1080 is overkill at 2 ft distance from the monitor. It produces over 2000 pixels per square inch of screen (I'll spare you the calculations). 1280x720 will reduce the pixels to about half. Stick with a 1080P monitor (4K is overkill unless going really big). i.e. NVIDIA GTX 1650, AMD RX 560 by MSI, Gigabyte
A:AnswerNo built in speakers. Headphone jack in the back. Try a monitor with a 3.5 mm headphone jack and plug headphones from there. Much less obtrusive than speakers, better for study, work or gaming. Can add speakers by plugging in at the back of the computer. 5.1 Dolby quality is available from the motherboard.
A:AnswerIs it the whoosh of air noise or is it plastic or metal hitting? Sometimes a few cables will get close to the windstream and act like a reed in the wind. Fans are mass produced and can fail. Try to identify where the noise is coming from. Once software is loaded, UPDATED FULLY, rebooted and everything working again (can take several hours so be patient and familiarize yourself with Geek Squad "Help"), you may see a reduction in noise. The fans will run at max speed until the software takes control. Fan design has a lot to do with noise. Smaller fans at high RPM with steep pitch blades make a lot of noise. They can be replaced with much quieter, larger fans that turn slower, make a lot less noise and actually cool better. Get the softer loaded and you may see the fans reduce their rpm substantially. Computers have heat sensors and software can take control of fans once it is fully loaded and set up properly. My circa 2006 computer reads temperature in nine different places and controls the fans. Its an HP, bought at Best Buy. Suggest you talk to them.
A:AnswerAccording to HP, these are the expansion slots that are available: 1 PCIe x16 and 2 M.2. There is One M.2 socket 1, key A and One M.2 socket 3, key M. Socket 1: Connectivity socket for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, NFC (near-field communication) or Wi-Gig. Socket 3: SSD Drive Socket with SATA or up to four PCIe lanes. Here is more information that has more details on the type of M.2 components. https://www.atpinc.com/blog/what-is-m.2-M-B-BM-key-socket-3 And here is more details on the motherboard for this desktop: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05382582
A:AnswerHere are the expansion slots for this desktop: One PCI Express x16,One M.2 socket 1, key A and One M.2 socket 3, key M. You can upgrade to 16 gigabytes of RAM. Here is more information on the motherboard of this desktop: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05382582
A:AnswerThis desktop comes with 1 HDMI port and 1 VGA port. So, you would need to be sure your 2nd monitor has a VGA port with the VGA cable to connect to this desktop.
