Upgrading Your Mass Market System, Part 2 - Installing the New Video Card
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And now, our final component for today's upgrade: the new video card. You may or may not have noticed the fact that our old motherboard only had three PCI slots (one was occupied by the modem). On our new motherboard and almost every single motherboard available today you will find not only at least three PCI slots, but also another slot above those that looks a bit different, known as an AGP (accelerated graphics port) slot. Most video cards you can get now are AGP type or PCI type. These two types refer to the type of slot on your mother board that it utilize. You'll probably want AGP.
This card will go in much the same way that the PCI card came out earlier. You will most likely have to remove one screw first which is holding on a metal slot cover, slide the card in, and if necessary use the locking mechanism present on some motherboards, put the screw back in and you're all set.
Also you can see that the fan I found didn't fit perfectly so I used a bit of ingenuity (and some cardboard) to get it the way I wanted it.
And there you go! All done, that wasn't so bad now was it?
All that hard work hidden by wires and a vent but at least you know what goes on behind that mess now. Lastly I want to touch on getting yourself up and running again. It is recommended that you reinstall Windows after doing such an extensive upgrade, especially when upgrading your motherboard. You can probably still go into Windows as of right now and save what files you might need but I would get that out of the way before beginning the upgrade to be on the safe side.
Next: Reinstalling XP >>
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