Guide: Choosing a Video Card (GPU)

Warning: due to recent demands for AMD cards for non gaming purposes, they are hard to find at normal prices.

Choosing a GPU is fairly simple compared to other parts, while they are the hardest to understand when it comes to knowing why they perform well compared to each other. The gaming oriented lines from each company is the Nvidia Geforce GTX series, and the AMD Radeon HD series.

1) Performance

The primary cards worth purchasing from either Nvidia or AMD are generally going to be priced at $100 and above. As prices drop below $100 the performance tends do drop of exponentially so we will be ignoring that category all together. Within each brand the numbering shows performance levels, For example an HD R9-270x is better than a R9-280x and a Geforce 770 is better than a Geforce 760. Between brands comparing performance is difficult without checking benchmarks. The good news is that competition quickly insures that pricing is appropriate so you will generally get what you pay for. If two card's are priced at 200 dollars they may not perform the same, but they will perform somewhat close.

Note: In addition to numbering Nvidia uses "ti" and "ti boost" suffixes, unlike manufacturer upgrades (such as OC or Superclocked) these suffixes denote completely different models and represent a significant performance change

VRAM is another important feature of a video card, however for the most part you don't need to worry about this.  1GB of VRAM is enough for most lower end cards and 2GB of VRAM wont offer as much of a performance upgrade as just choosing a higher end model will.

Note: Avoid cards with DDR3 VRAM, it should be GDDR5.

2) Other features

When you start looking for your video card you will probably quickly notice that for any given model (such as a GTX 760) that a large number of variants exist, with many different prices. The primary difference between these comes down to their clock speed and their cooling method. the more expensive variants will generally employ a better cooler, and as such ship with a higher speed. This speed change is very little compared to the speed change from going up a model however. The other change is that the better cooling units will generally be quieter than the cheap versions of the same model of the card.

3) Choosing the video card

Actually choosing what you get is going to depend on your budget and your expectations

Cards in the low 100's range such as the R7-260x, and the GTX 650ti will be able to run most games at acceptable settings, but won't be enough to max many newer high demand games

Cards in the upper 100's such as the R9-270x and GTX 650ti boost will be better able to run more games on high and max.

Cards 250 and above such as the GTX 760 and R9-280x will be even more powerful, maxing almost all games even with higher levels of MSAA

Cards 350 and above such as the R9-290 and the GTX 770 are often more powerful than what is needed for standard 1080p gameplay, these are ideal for larger resolutions such as 1440p, Multi monitor gameplay, and 3d monitors

Guide: Power Supply Features

Power supplies are simple to understand but play the primary role in determine what parts and features you can use, as well as effecting general reliability. There are only a few things that you need to look at when choosing your power supply, but it is important to check them to ensure that the power supply will meet your needs.

Wattage: Ensure that the power supply's rated wattage meets the power needs of your computer. It's okay to purchase a power supply rated higher than what you need as well. This would give you more upgrade options in the future.

12v Amperage (And other amperages): The rail amperages are the maximum amperages any given rail can deliver. In some cases the amperage may be split between multiple rails for a single voltage. This shouldn't be an issue so long as you choose a reputable brand. Because the main power hungry components of a PC are 12v dependent, it is important to ensure that the power supply is capable of delivering most of it's wattage as 12v.

For example a Corsair CX 430 is rated for 32A on it's 12v line. This works out to 384w and is a fairly good ratio (about 90%).

On the other hand a Logisys PS550 is only rated for 25A on it's 12v line. This is only 300w (ratio is about 55%), which is less than the CX430.

Because the PS550 delivers less 12v wattage it is functionally worse than the CX430 despite being rated at 550w

Efficiency: Some power supplies are more efficient at converting AC power to the DC power your computer uses. more efficient power supplies generally are marked with the "80 plus" certification. This does two things for your computer. First and the most obvious is that it reduces your power bill. The second is that it reduces waste heat. In general "80 plus" and "80 plus bronze" are adequate for most builds, with the savings from a "80 plus gold" PSU often never being able to pay off their much higher price point.

Brand quality: This generally ties in with 12v amperage ratio and efficiency, but also effects reliablity and build quality as well. If you choose a reputable brand and product line, you generally don't even need to look at the amperage because you can  reply on them to be sufficient. Reputable brands include Corsair, NZXT, OCZ, Seasonic, and Antec. Brands that have some less than stellar product lines mixed in with good product lines include Cooler Master, Rosewill, and others. Pay attention to reviews to get an idea how reputable a brand or product line is.

Troubleshooting: PC not showing new hard drive / 2nd hard drive in new build

1) If you just installed a second hard drive and it isn't showing up in windows it likely because you have not yet initialized and formated the drive. Read Guide: Initializing and formatting a second hard drive for more information

2) If you cannot initialize and format the drive double check your connections, ensure that the hard drive is both getting power and is connected to the motherboard.

3) Check BIOS. If the drive doesn't show up under BIOS either, it may be a sign that the hard drive is faulty, or that there is some form of compatibility issue between the drive and your motherboard.

Guide: Initializing and formatting a second hard drive

This guide will cover how to initialize and format your secondary hard drive or new hard drive in Windows 7. This guide should also function for Windows 8, although the steps may be slightly different.

I've just installed a third hard drive into this computer, as you can see only two hard drives and my camera show up under Computer. I will be preparing the new hard drive for use.

First, hit the Start button and search "Disk Management"
One of the results should be "Create and format disk partitions". That is the result that you will use.

As soon as you launch Disk Management it should prompt you to initialize the hard drive. Choose MBR for a hard drive with a capacity of 2TB of less, otherwise select GPT, then hit OK

With the hard drive initialized it will appear in the bottom half of the Disk Management window as an unallocated disk as shown.
Right click the unallocated drive and select "New Simple Volume".

The Wizard will launch. Follow the prompts to complete the formatting.
It will prompt you to select the drive volume size (default is all, you will probably use default), select a drive letter, and select a file system (you should probably use default)

The drive should now show up under Computer and is ready for use.

Guide: Upgrading a Video Card (GPU)

This guide will cover upgrading a video card in a typical consumer PC.

This guide assumes that you have already upgraded your power supply if needed. See Guide: Upgrading a Power Supply (PSU)and Guide: Choosing a Power Supply (PSU)for more information.

Some low wattage cards such as the HD 7750 see so little wattage that running them on a 300w original power supply is acceptable.

Some computers ship with a higher wattage power supply and can safely skip to this guide as well.

This guide will be using a HP pavilion desktop

We have already upgraded the power supply in the previous guide.
Guide: Upgrading a Power Supply (PSU)

Locate the mechanism that holds the PCI slot covers in place, they may be held in place with an external clamp, or by internal screws.

Remove the PCI slot covers occupying spaces that will be used by the video card.
Some may be easy to remove replaceable covers and some may be weak metal that has to be removed.

Insert the video card into the appropriate slot and ensure that you pay attention to anything that may get in the way such as cables or the PCIe slot latch
If you want to remove a card you will need to use find this latch to unhook the card before removing it.

Most gaming grade video cards will need power directly from the power supply, the plug coming from the power supply will either be a 6 pin PCIe power cord, or a 6+2 pin PCIe power cord as shown

Some cards may need more than one PCIe power cord. This example needed two 6 pin cables, the +2 cable is not connected.
Also used was a 2x molex to PCIe adapter as the PSU only sported a single PCIe power cable.
Many video cards will include one or more of these adapters but it is recommended that you double check your wattages should you need to use it.

The video card is now installed, replace the side panel, start your computer, and install drivers either off the included CD, or off of AMD or Nvidia's website.

Guide: Upgrading a Power Supply (PSU)

This guide will cover how to replace or upgrade the power supply in a typical consumer PC.

PC being used as an example is an HP pavilion with a 300w power supply

First, remove the side panel

Highlighted are the four locations that this power supply connects to items in the case.
1) sata power cable to the hard drive
2) sata power cable to the DVD drive
3) 24pin ATX to the motherboard
4) 4pin ATX12v to the motherboard

All power connections discontected

Remove the screws fastening the current power supply.
Keep these as you will use them to mount the new power supply.

There may be an additional latch inside the case that will need to be depressed to free the power supply.
It may take a little wiggling to free the power supply.

You are half way done, set your old power supply aside

The new power supply will be a Corsair CX430

Mount the new power supply ensuring the fan is pointing into the case (or out of the case in the event the case has venting for the power supply)
Fasten the power supply using the screws that held in the previous power supply

Your current motherboard may have a 4pin ATX12v socket.
Your new power supply will probably have an 8 pin EPS/ATX12v cable

This cable will either be 2 independent 4 pin cables, or it will latch together using hooks as shown here.

Plug this in as shown. The right hand set of four (with the latch on top) is used.
You can also identify which set of four is correct by examining the peg shapes. The correct side will have a combination of square pegs and curved pegs.

Plug in all power cables that you removed earlier (2 mobo, 1 hard drive, 1 dvd drive in this case) and replace the side panel
Congratulations, you have upgraded your power supply.

Troubleshooting: PC turns on but nothing is displayed

Follow these steps to fix and diagnose a PC that starts, but fails to display anything on screen

NOTE: For each step that requires working inside your computer, you should turn your power supply off until you're finished working, then turn it back on when you go to test.

1. If your computer power supply has a 115/230v switch on the back ensure that the voltage is set to the appropriate voltage for your country
2. Ensure that if you are using a video card that your monitor is plugged into your video card, and not the motherboard.
3. Open your computer if it wasn't already and check over the 24 pin ATX cable and 8 pin ATX12v (may be a 4 pin on some motherboards) and ensure both are plugged in firmly.
4. Ensure that your video card is plugged in. Many video cards require power from a 6 pin PCIe power connector.
5. Ensure that the RAM is fully seated. If you have more than one module attempt to boot with the first removed, then try again with the first installed and all others removed. If booting works with a specific stick removed that stick can be assumed to be the issue.
6. Ensure that the standoffs are correctly installed and there are no extra standoffs under the motherboard that do not correlate with screw holes on the motherboard.
7. Unplug the hard drive and disk drives and if your PC has integrated video remove the video card as well. attempt to boot again, if boot up is successful reconnect parts one at a time to determine the problem part. If the problem part is the video card the issue might be power supply related or video card related.

If you were unable to diagnose the possibilities are.

• motherboard
• RAM (unlikely if you had 2 sticks and could test individually)
• CPU (fairly unlikely, these don't show up dead often)
• Video card (if you had integrated graphics this can be ignored)
• PSU (this is very unlikely, especially if you had integrated graphics)