How To Install Graphic Card For Your PC

If you’ve been following along with the series, you have already chosen a case, power supply and hard drive for your PC. Also, you should have successfully installed the CPU, heat sink, RAM memory, and mounted the motherboard. Now that the motherboard is in the case, it’s time to start installing parts such as the graphics card and power supply.

Installing the Graphics Card

The video/graphics card is fairly easy to install. To get started, you will need to locate the expansion slot on the motherboard in which you will connect the graphics card. Most likely, this will be a PCI Express 2.0 or PCI Express 2.1 slot, but it could be another format as well.

Remember, earlier in our series on choosing parts for our PC build, we stressed the importance of purchasing a graphics card that is compatible with your particular brand of motherboard. We also noted that some motherboards, with onboard graphics, may not require the use of a graphics card in order to display video.

If this is the situation for your build, you may be able to skip this step and proceed to mounting the power supply.

Check out some of the most common graphics cards interfaces:

Although the above diagram may be useful, the main thing to take note of is, your graphics card will need to go into an according slot on the motherboard.

Locate the slot, and hover the graphics card over the slot, checking for proper alignment of notches in the card and grooves in the slot. The port end of the graphics card (the end with all of the inputs), should face the rear of the case. For example, here is a PCI Express 2.0 slot.

Once you have learned how to position the graphics card in order to install it, you will need to remove a section on the back of the case, so that the graphics card can be accessed from the outside and you can connect a monitor. Check out the below screen shot for an example.

Be sure to remove the correct section. From lining up your graphics card without installing it, mentioned above, you should know which section needs to be removed.

In some cases, these strips can removed by unscrewing a couple of screws that hold them in place. However, some cases have these strips molded on, which may require you to actually break through and punch out a slot (hole) for your graphics card install.

Once the strip has been removed, go ahead and align and install the graphics card. Be sure to only push down on the card enough to where it’s sitting firmly. Too much pressure could break the PCI Express slot.

Once installed, the port end of the card should be aligned with the open slot that you created. You will need to secure the card using a couple of screws that should have come with the card when you bought it

Every graphics card is a bit different, and higher end cards may require more power than budget graphics cards. Meaning, once you have followed the steps above, on most graphics cards, you will have successfully installed the card.

On higher end cards, you may need to connect the card to a line from the power supply or a spot on the motherboard for more power. Be sure to consult the instructions that came with your specific graphics card for specific steps.

In doing a custom PC build, you may also have chosen the option to do a double graphics card setup, such as crossfire. In most cases, this simply involves repeating the above steps to install the second graphics card, and bridging the two cards together. Again, be sure to consult the instructions that came with your specific card for further details, as most procedures are card specific.

Installing the Power Supply

Installing the power supply is very easy, as it simply requires you to mount the supply to the case. Here are the general steps for installing a power supply.

• Locate the power supply mounting spot on your particular case. Most likely, it will either be located at the very top of the case, or the very bottom. The power supply mounting spot can be identified easily, because there will be a large hole or cut out on the back of the case, where the power supply needs to go.

• With the case on its side, position the power supply into the according spot. If the power supply mounting spot is located near the top of the case for your particular case, there will likely be a ledge or shelf in which it will sit.Once you have dropped the power supply in, go ahead and secure it to the case using the provided screws. 99% of the time, the screws will be inserted from the back of the case, and there will be 4-5 screws that you will need to install.

That’s it for this part in building our custom PC. Next up, we will install the hard drive and CD/DVD drive. At this point, our build is very close to being done, and it’s almost time to power up the computer!