Skip to main content

How hard is it to install a new graphics card?

There is a little computer shop close to where I live. It can't compete with internet pricing for major pieces of hardware but it is a useful source of consumables. He does a pretty good deal on printer ink and on several occasions the ability to nip round the corner and buy a patch cable has gotten me out of a hole.

I was in there this morning buying ink. A customer in front of me was inquiring about a video card  upgrade.

"Can that be done on the spot if I drop the computer in" he asked

Unfortunately the young lady behind the counter was not a technician and "the engineer" as she called him would not be back for a while.

"It has to be booked in It could take a few days" was her reply.

The customer asked

"How hard is it to upgrade a video card? Do you think I could do it myself?"

The assistant was honest enough to admit she didn't know and recommended that he leave the computer with them.

Recognising a potential fellow gamer I ached to interject.

"Its easy" I could have shouted "I have changed dozens of video cards"

I could have given him a five minute crash course in swapping video cards. If he lived nearby I could even do it for him.

But then I thought what if ...

What if he card he has bought in ignorance isn't compatible with his machine? What if it has the wrong interface or is too long for the case? What if his power supply doesn't have the six pin adapter needed? What if there isn't a driver available for his obscure operating system?  And will I really be able to prevent myself from blurting out that the Geforce4mx he just paid €150  is not exactly the bee's knees of graphics cards despite the fancy box and that he really should have gotten a BFG9000 for the same money. An what happens the first time he installs a game that doesn't work properly because it is incompatible with Nvidia or ATI cards and the guy assumes its my fault because I installed it wrong.

Regretfully I admitted to myself that I didn't want the hassle. Thats what computer shops charge installation fees for. Plus I didn't really want to do my local shop out of the few euro they would charge him for the install.
Labels:

Comments

Cap'n John said…
Over the years I've upgraded various components of all our PCs, including building one from scratch. I quite literally bought an empty case w/ PSU, a Motherboard, and a CPU, and put it all together, then pulled the old hard drive from my old PC and dropped it in. Amazingly, it all worked, but it was as scary as all hell doing it the first time.

The most recent upgrade was to my son's new PC which was, in fact, a video card upgrade from the onboard GPU to (IIRC) a 9800GT. I was pissed when I went to install it and discovered the cables from his PSU had the new SATA connectors but there was no 4-pin to SATA adaptor in the 9800GT's box. I had to visit my local Fry's, twice, to get one, when they were out of stock the first time. A week or so later they had them in stock and after shoehorning the 9800GT into a microcase into which it barely fit, I booted up the boy's PC and damned if the thing didn't sound like a jet starting up. Once the drivers were installed the roaring whine of the fan died to muted hum and the boy had himself a kick arse PC. Damned if it's not a better rig than mine.
7:36 pm
mbp said…
Hi Cap'n John sadly PCs are not quite as plug and play as we would like. My worst experience was trying to fit a 7900gtx into my Antec Sonata case. The card was extra long and double width. Not only did this require hacksawing a flange off the case to fit it in but it also required me to remove 50% of the cooling fins from the motherboard chipset heatsink. Everything seemed to work OK for several months even with only 50% cooling but then the machine developed an intermittent crashing problem. This turned out to be because the unbalanced heatsink was tilting to one side and lifting off the chip. I managed a crude repair involving a generous dollop of silicon sealant but it wasn't until I replaced the graphics card with something more sensibly dimensioned that I managed to permanently solve the problem. This is not the type of tinkering you want to get into with someone elses PC!
7:58 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Android Tip 3: Sharing a Folder between multiple users of an Android device

Android has allowed multiple user logins for quite a while now. This is can be very useful for tablets which are shared by family members. Normally Android erects strict Chinese walls between users preventing them from using each others apps and viewing each others files. This is a useful security feature and ensures your kids don't mess up your work spreadsheets when screwing around on the tablet and should also prevent them from buying €1,000 worth of Clash of Candy coins on your account. Sometimes however you really do want to share stuff with other users and this can prove surprisingly difficult. For example on a recent holiday I realised that I wanted to share a folder full of travel documents with my wife. Here are some ways to achieve this. 1. If you have guaranteed internet access  then you can create a shared folder on either Dropbox or Google drive. Either of these has the great advantage of being able to access the files on any device and the great disadvantage of bein...
52 comments
Read more

Portal 2 two screen coop on one PC.

I mentioned before that I intended to try Portal 2 in "unofficial split screen co-op mode. Well split screen on a small computer monitor is a recipe for a headache especially when the game defies gravity as much as portal. However a minor bit of extra fiddling allowed us to drive two seperate screens from one PC. The Steam forums describes a complicated method of doing this that I couldn't get working so this simpler method which worked for me might be of use to someone. 1. First I followed the instructions in this post to get split screen multi-player working: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904 A minor issue not mentioned is that you need to enable the console from the keyboard/mouse options menu I am using keyboard and one wired Xbox360 controller as suggested. Getting the controller to switch to channel 2 was tricky at first but as Chameleon8 mentions plugging it out and in again during loading works. The trick for me was to do the plug / p...
1 comment
Read more

Lotro: The Forgotten Treasury

Throg joined a Kinship group for the Forgotten Treasury instance last night. It was an enjoyable change from the solo questing that the now level 55 dwarf champion has been mostly doing so far in Moria. Some members of the group had tried and failed to clear the Treasury before so we knew it would be challenging but we were lucky enough to have a well balanced group with Guardian, Minstrel, Lore Master, Hunter, Burglar and Champion (Throg). Throg (level 55) and the minstrel (53) were both below the 56ish level of the instance but the others were all higher so it more or less balanced out. [SPOILERs ahead] It is a well designed enjoyable instance set in a circular chamber with balcony around. As you enter, a boss absconds to a locked side chamber with his treasure leaving the fellowship to clear trash ringed around the balcony. Once the trash are cleared you have access to a puzzle which must be solved in order to open the locked door. Clearing the (including six mini bosses) also get...
14 comments
Read more