98 DECEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 382
HOWTO FITAGRAPHICSCARD
I
fyou want to play games oryouhavea
CPU that doesn’t haveintegrated
graphics,you’ll needto fit agraphicscard.
If youstood your case upto fit your PSU,you
should lay it flat againto fit agraphicscard.
REMOVEBLANKINGPLATES
Locate the top-most PCI-E x16 slot(the long
one), and unscrew and remove the rear
blanking plates,rememberingto keep the
screws. If youhaveasingle-heightcard, you
need onlyremove the one blanking plate
that’sinl ine with the slot. Ifyouhavea
dual-heightcard, you’ll also needto remove
the blanking platebelow. 1
INSERTCARDINTOTHESLOT
Line up the PCI-E x16connector onyour
graphicscard with the slotonyour
motherboard. Providing equal pressure
along the lengthof the card,firmly push
the card into placeuntil it clicksintoposition.
Acorrect fit should see theretaining clip at
the endof the PCI-E x16 slotclick in to place.
If youcan still see someof the graphics
card’s connector,push down again.
Take the screwsthat youkeptfrom
before and put them through the graphics
card’s retaining bracket and back into the
case. Youmay havetopush the graphics
card up andtoward sthe case slightlyto
do this.Once the screwsare in place,
the card should notwobble and the
graphicscard outputs should be clearly
visible at therear of the case. 2
CONNECTPCI-EPOWER
From your PSU,you needto connect the
powertothe graphicscard,although a
minorityof budgetcards don’t need this.
Check the numberof poweradaptors on
the backof the card.Thereare twotypes
of PCI-Econnector: six-pin and eight-pin.
Most PSU six-pin PCI powerconnectorscan
be converted to eight-pinby pushing in the
spare, dangling two-pinconnector.PCI-E
connectorscanonly go in onewayand
havearetaining clipto hold them in place.
When this clip clicksintoplace, youknow
you’vedone the job properly. 3
TOPTIP
Notquite lining up the card
properlyist he biggest
problemtoavoid as your
PC will turn on, but you won’t ge
picture. ta
Some cards arefiddlytof it,
but someextra pressure along their
length canpush themintoplace.
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