Just a few questions

[youngy101]

Hi all, I've been using my current rig for a while now, and am thinking of upgrading her. But I've got a few questions about the deal. So -

- Can you just change parts at will? So say I get a new graphics card, can i just swap them, install the new drivers, and away i go? Or is there more intricate stuff? Same with motherboards and Processors.

- Is there a way to get more cables to my motherboard, (To connect HDD's, CD Drives ect) my current has two. Is there just a cable adapter kind of thing?

- How difficult is it to have a Water Cooled machine? And how much upkeep does it need?

- On my motherboard (Asus Sabretooth) there are 4 memory slots, two white and two black/blue. Is there any difference between the two?

Thanks in advance.

-Conner

 

[Outlander_04]

Most add in cards you can just swap in and out .
For a graphics card its best to completely uninstall old drivers and all old software before swapping hardware and installing new drivers .

A cpu can be swapped without issue [ assuming it has the same socket and is on the motherboards cpu support list ] . Occasionally a BIOS update may be required .

Motherboards are trickier . Most windows licenses lock your copy to your motherboard . You cant just swap a hard drive to a new mb without reinstalling windows either , and then you wont be able to activate it .

Your mb will have 6 [or more] SATA connectors and you can use those to connect more hard drives . Just buy a hard drive and the cable and plug the SATA data cable in and connect the power to the drive from your power supply . The pc will detect it when it restarts and you can use windows disk management to format it .

Water cooling . Not difficult , just not worth it for most people

The memory slots indicate the channels . If you have two RAM sticks they will be in dual channel if they are both in the white slots . Or single channel if theyre in a white and a blue . Dual channel is faster