Newly released games are requiring more and more powerful graphics cards every day and installing a new card can make your gameplay much smoother and faster. Finding the cheapest and best performing card might be a problem, but physically installing them definatly shouldn’t.

Today we’re going to be installing a nvidia 8500GT PCI-E, this is a relatively old card that I had lying around but still handles games such as Call Of Duty Modern Warfare quite well on medium settings. Please excuse the dust gathered in the heatsink, for a quick guide on unclogging heatsinks I highly recommend our guide on How To Clean Your PC.

After removing the side panel of my PC, you can now see my Foxconn motherboard. The PCI-E slot where the new graphics card will be housed is the longest yellow slot. PCI-E slots are typically yellow or white and will almost always look the same shape as the one pictured below. The black and yellow cable running over the slot is a 4 pin connector supplying power to my CPU, it gets in the way a bit, but until I purchase a new power supply it is going to have to stay put.

You can roughly see 4 screws on the left hand side of the picture, these keep the card slot covers in place which purely act as a barrier between the innards of your PC and the outside world. You may have noticed that I have already removed the top slot opposite the PCI-E connector in order to make room for the new graphics card, you should do the same.

Now you will need to physically insert the new graphics card into the yellow PCI-E slot. All that’s needed is common sense to figure out which way it fits. When inserting the card, keep an eye out for the metal slot on the left hand side (where the ports are) to make sure it is correctly aligned, the same applies for the connecting pins which fit into the yellow slot on the motherboard. Also, try not to be too forceful if it doesn’t slot in straight away as you might damage the connecting pins. When it is properly inserted you should hear a click, letting you know that is secured. However, the card will still wobble about, and this is where you need to screw the card to the case.

On the top left of the picture below you can see that I have screwed the graphics card to the case using a thumbscrew. I highly recommend these for almost every part of your PC which requires a screw as they are so quick and easy to use. Now your card is firmly secured, make sure there are no wires in contact, or close to the heatsink on the card, as this can cause the wire to melt or for the heatsinks to stop functioning properly (thus causing dangerous overheating problems).

Your new graphics card is now successfully installed! All that is needed now is to refit your cases side panel and to connect the graphics card to your monitor. Here’s what my graphics card looks like from the rear of the case:

As you can see, this card has HDMI (pink), VGA (blue) and TV-Out (black) ports. Make sure you connect the PC to your monitor using one of these ports, NOT your onboard adaptors that you have used previously as this will not work. This is because the new graphics card automatically overrides onboard ports.

Now, boot up your PC and enjoy your newly enhanced graphics!

GHz

GHz is the speed that your Processor (the brains of your PC) runs at. Having a slower Processor will limit your overall PC speeds massively. Nearly all new PC’s nowadays come with at least 2GHz, this is more than enough for basic tasks such as word processing, browsing the web and even casual gaming.

RAM

Random Access Memory is often referred to as ‘memory’. This is NOT a measure of how many files you can put on your PC. As your Processor can only handle 1 process at a time, your RAM is there to queue the processes up. Therefore, the more RAM you have, the less your Processor has to scramble around looking for processes to carry out.

RAM is measured in GB’s To run most programs smoothly, you will need at least 1.5GB’s of RAM. You Will be looking at 3GB’s and up for a decent gaming PC.

Hard Drive

Your Hard Drive is the amount of space you have on your PC to store any type of file, from a movie to a word document. Hard Drives are becoming cheaper and cheaper, you can pick up a 30GB hard drive for £10 nowadays. That will fit 1000 albums and practically infinite amounts of word documents. Most PC’’s sold today should have at least 100GB as a market standard. We reccomend either the 500GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS or something very similar.

Graphics Card

To quickly render high-detail images such as this, your PC will need a decent graphics card. Graphics cards are usualy used by gamers to make high-end games run smoothly. They help your Processor convert binary code into viewable and realistic images. Generally, if you are looking for a decent graphics card, go with either ATI, or NVIDIA as reliable brands.

Operating System

The Operating System is what you see when you are using a PC. Think of the Processor as the engine of a car, and the Operating System as the interior. I would strongly reccomend avoiding Windows Vista and looking for a PC that runs Windows 7. This Operating System is quick, easy to use and much more reliable than its ancestors.