# HP Compaq dc7100 USDT for retro gaming.



## PotatoVonEpicus

Not too long ago I bought dc7100 USDT machine, I bought it for the case and PSU with hopes to fit my low TDP server. However by the strand of hair I am unable to fit Micro ATX board in it. Not without cutting some metal anyway, but also it seems that HP PSU has some "mini" 12v connector which would need adapter to work properly with more mainstream board ( no other PSU will fit the case ).

So I decided to keep this machine as retro gaming machine, although I don't really play retro games all that much. But that aside I think it is still a fun project to revive and make this old machine somewhat useful. To my surprise PC itself is very clean, as in having no wear and tear signs and doesn't even have that many scratches on the outside.

So far I just cleaned dust, fully taking it apart and did some cable management as it was fairly messy ( not that there is much space to manage cables ). Added 320 GB HDD, since it had no HDD and installed windows XP ( and all drivers ).

Now there are some more things to do, adding some GPU ( best is likely GT 630 ) which also is one slot card due to how tight everything is. Another important thing is adding more RAM, it won't go far with 512 MB. I was wondering maybe even CPU can be upgraded from Pentium 4 to core duo, likely not. Certainly not without BIOS mods.

Suggestions, ideas or even past experiences with such machines are welcome.


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## The Pook

you're stuck with Pentium 4s on that board, afaik the Pentium 4 670 is the best you'd get working in it.

but looking at the case, you need a *half height *or low profile GPU, not just a single slot GPU, and it only has AGP so low profile cards are limited. Off the top of my head the best you're gonna get is a HD3450.


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## PotatoVonEpicus

Due to it's weird position I didn't realize that it was AGP slot. Machine in picture is not the same though, mine has side GPU mount with included adapter. This - HP Compaq dc7100 Ultra-slim Desktop PC Manuals | HP® Customer Support also it seems I can't find many pictures of this thing online. Considering that HP have few more products named almost the same I am not surprised. 

Also these AGP connectors are a little bit confusing, I assume they are different due general shift in hardware. I mean fast growth and improvement time, when performance difference each generation was significant. It seems I need to educate myself on AGP GPUs a little bit more though.


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## kapten

PotatoVonEpicus said:


> Not too long ago I bought dc7100 USDT machine, I bought it for the case and PSU with hopes to fit my low TDP server. However by the strand of hair I am unable to fit Micro ATX board in it. Not without cutting some metal anyway, but also it seems that HP PSU has some "mini" 12v connector which would need adapter to work properly with more mainstream board ( no other PSU will fit the case ).
> 
> So I decided to keep this machine as retro gaming machine, although I don't really play retro games all that much. But that aside I think it is still a fun project to revive and make this old machine somewhat useful. To my surprise PC itself is very clean, as in having no wear and tear signs and doesn't even have that many scratches on the outside.
> 
> So far I just cleaned dust, fully taking it apart and did some cable management as it was fairly messy ( not that there is much space to manage cables ). Added 320 GB HDD, since it had no HDD and installed windows XP ( and all drivers ).
> 
> Now there are some more things to do, adding some GPU ( best is likely GT 630 ) which also is one slot card due to how tight everything is. Another important thing is adding more RAM, it won't go far with 512 MB. I was wondering maybe even CPU can be upgraded from Pentium 4 to core duo, likely not. Certainly not without BIOS mods.
> 
> Suggestions, ideas or even past experiences with such machines are welcome.



I purchased a machine like that a while ago (the price was exceptionally good,so i bought it "as a novelty item" more or less).And i have exactly the same idea as you.With a little more "rock´n roll oriented" (3D ?) graphic card,and a CPU with at least 2 cores,this would´nt be a bad,-late Windows 98/early Windows XP-,game rig at all ! (it´s a little sad though in one sense.Couse,if i had have this single core,3200 mhz Pentium 4 processor in the early/mid ´00:s ,i´d have **** in my pants of pure happiness !.But now,i´m just looking for something to replace it with..).And,just like you,i´m searching high and low for useful information regarding what actual options there to consider when it comes to hardware upgrades.

Now,i can´t look for upgrade options/CPU´s/graphic cards until i have the relevant status of my current machine´s requirements ("The motherboard" seems to be the most urgent subject here as it seems.But the physical size of the case itself,not to be forgotten),so i start from there. 

HP´s decision to dedicate this COMPLETE RANGE of models WITH THE SAME NAME,really pisses me off !.Because of that,info about "Compaq dc7100" on one website is rarely/never consistent with the info on another one.My computer common knowledge isn´t the best either,so just giving up on it begins to feel adequate soon.Anyway,these are my conclusions so far.

¤ The best match in spec´s that i found so far with my own machine,is this link:









HP Compaq Business Desktop dc7100 Specs


View full HP Compaq Business Desktop dc7100 specs on CNET.




www.cnet.com





"Pentium 4" and its "3,2 Ghz",both matches with mine.Also,The "40Gb hdd" and "Windows XP pro" is the same.What NOT matches is the Ram amount (mine is 3 GB instead of 512 MB),and the Graphic card (Mine is "ATI Radeon HD 5450",instead of "Intel GMA 900 Dynamic video memory technology 3.0").From other websites,i have come to the conclusion that the name of my machine would be: "Compaq dc7100 Ultra-slim".The other one though seems rather be "HP Compaq business desktop dc7100".

The hunt/quest for better graphic cards/dual cord CPU´s THAT FITS,goes on..

Hope you found anything of this useful

/Mike from Sweden


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## PotatoVonEpicus

kapten said:


> I purchased a machine like that a while ago (the price was exceptionally good,so i bought it "as a novelty item" more or less).And i have exactly the same idea as you.With a little more "rock´n roll oriented" (3D ?) graphic card,and a CPU with at least 2 cores,this would´nt be a bad,-late Windows 98/early Windows XP-,game rig at all ! (it´s a little sad though in one sense.Couse,if i had have this single core,3200 mhz Pentium 4 processor in the early/mid ´00:s ,i´d have **** in my pants of pure happiness !.But now,i´m just looking for something to replace it with..).And,just like you,i´m searching high and low for useful information regarding what actual options there to consider when it comes to hardware upgrades.
> 
> Now,i can´t look for upgrade options/CPU´s/graphic cards until i have the relevant status of my current machine´s requirements ("The motherboard" seems to be the most urgent subject here as it seems.But the physical size of the case itself,not to be forgotten),so i start from there.
> 
> HP´s decision to dedicate this COMPLETE RANGE of models WITH THE SAME NAME,really pisses me off !.Because of that,info about "Compaq dc7100" on one website is rarely/never consistent with the info on another one.My computer common knowledge isn´t the best either,so just giving up on it begins to feel adequate soon.Anyway,these are my conclusions so far.
> 
> ¤ The best match in spec´s that i found so far with my own machine,is this link:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> HP Compaq Business Desktop dc7100 Specs
> 
> 
> View full HP Compaq Business Desktop dc7100 specs on CNET.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.cnet.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "Pentium 4" and its "3,2 Ghz",both matches with mine.Also,The "40Gb hdd" and "Windows XP pro" is the same.What NOT matches is the Ram amount (mine is 3 GB instead of 512 MB),and the Graphic card (Mine is "ATI Radeon HD 5450",instead of "Intel GMA 900 Dynamic video memory technology 3.0").From other websites,i have come to the conclusion that the name of my machine would be: "Compaq dc7100 Ultra-slim".The other one though seems rather be "HP Compaq business desktop dc7100".
> 
> The hunt/quest for better graphic cards/dual cord CPU´s THAT FITS,goes on..
> 
> Hope you found anything of this useful
> 
> /Mike from Sweden


I am a bit late with my reply, but it's better than never I suppose. I didn't have a good experience with Win98 on this machine and most of what I did consists of putting dedicated PCI graphics card in it and upgrading RAM. I installed Win XP on it and pretty much left it there. I didn't really do much else to it other than running few old game demos, from like 2005 to 2010. Said demos did run although I am not so sure that games would have been playable at such performance level. 

That aside I am pretty sure it should run game emulators quite well, for Win98 games, Gameboy and maybe even PSP games. 

I don't remember what PCI GPU I put in there, I had to cut off some aluminum pins to fit it in there. Some small factor dedicated AMD GPU, I think it does have performance increase over integrated GPU. But probably not very huge performance increase.


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