How to Install a SATA Hard Drive

The main reason for adding or replacing a hard drive is to increase storage capacity and then to increase system performance. SATA drives are faster than the traditional standard drives and with the low prices of storage more people are looking for space to store all of those music or photo files they have been colleting. Or of course looking for a additional drive to use mainly for backup purposes.

Power down your PC and switch it off at the wall. Remove the screws holding the sides of the case on and carefully slide off both panels.

Wearing an anti-static wristband is preferable whenever working with sensitive electrical equipment. Keeping one hand on a metal part of the case will have the same effect, though you may need both hands when installing certain items of hardware.

If you are replacing a current drive, you will need remove the power and data cables, then unscrew the drive from the cage. Carefully slide the drive out backwards - you may need to remove some additional cables and/or expansion cards if space it tight.

Remove your new drive from its anti-static packaging and slide the drive into the cage. Secure it tightly with four screws, with two in each side of the cage.

Locate the drive away from any other drives to allow air to flow as freely as possible.

Whilst not essential, doing this will help keep temperatures down within your case and extend the life of your drive.

Next, you will need to plug in the SATA data and power cables. The data cable needs to be plugged into your motherboard on the first available SATA channel. If you have replaced your primary drive, this would be SATA1, though if it is an additional drive, may be SATA2, for example.

SATA drives have a different power connector to IDE drives, and you will need an additional cable to convert a standard molex power connector to a SATA one. Newer power supply units may have SATA connectors, though the majority don't so you will need a cable similar to the one shown below.

How to Install a PCI-E/AGP Graphics Card

The Graphics Card or Video Card as it is also known allows your Computer to display thousands of colours and images to your display. Some computers have a graphics card built-in to the motherboard this are usually low spec cards and normally use memory from your system (RAM) to run.

The most common reason for a graphics card upgrade is to allow users to run games faster and more smoothly or to add TV/DVI out to your system.

Steps to Install a Graphics Card:
Power down your PC and switch it off at the wall. Remove the screws holding the sides of the case on and carefully slide off both panels.
Wearing an anti-static wristband is preferable whenever working with sensitive electrical equipment. Keeping one hand on a metal part of the case will have the same effect, though you may need both hands when installing certain items of hardware.

If you are replacing an old card, you will need to remove it by loosening the screw holding the backing plate to the case and carefully sliding the card out of the slot. You may also have to undo a clip depending on the design of your motherboard.

Alternatively, you may need to remove the backing plate in front of the AGP or PCI-E slot. Simply remove the screw and slide the backing plate out of the case. For some graphics cards, you may need to remove two adjacent backing plates as the size of the heatsink and fan dictates that the card is double the height of an ordinary expansion card.

Next, remove the new card from its anti-static bag and line the card up with the slot. AGP slots tend to be brown and set back from the PCI slots, whereas PCI-E slots are longer and tend to be black. Push down on the card until it sits firmly within its slot. Push the plastic catch up on the slot to further secure the card.

Secure the backing plate by screwing it firmly to the case. Check that the card cannot move and that the fan on the GPU is clear of obstructions such as floating cables.

Finally, check whether or not your new card requires an additional power source. Some of the more powerful PCI-E cards have a square four-pin power connector slot, so you may need to purchase an additional cable to convert a molex connector if one hasn't been bundled with your graphics card.

Finally, replace the sides of your case and reconnect the cable to your machine.

Boot up your PC and make sure that the POST and Windows splash screens are displayed. This indicates that your card is installed and functioning correctly.

If the display does not show first power down and recheck the card connector as this may of become knocked if yhe system case had been moved.

Once Windows has started, you may be prompted to install drivers for your new card. You may be best cancelling this dialogue and then running the installation program on the driver CD that came with your card. This will install the drivers as well as giving you the option to install other bundled software such as tweaking utilities or DVD playing software.

Once you have installed the new drivers and rebooted, you should be able to reset your desktop resolution by going to the desktop, right clicking, selecting properties and then heading to the Settings tab. You should also visit the manufacturer's website and check for newer drivers, as these will offer optimum performance and iron out glitches with previous driver versions.