Build Your Own PC: Video
and Sound CardsLast updated on 16
December 2009 This
article consists of six pages. You can access the other five pages by clicking
the relevant hyperlink below. The
Expansion Cards and Peripheral
Devices This set of pages is devoted to the following adapter
cards and peripheral devices. Click the relevant heading to go to information
on that subject.
Video/Graphics and Sound
Cards 
Visit
the Video & Graphics section of this site for more detailed
information on video/graphics cards than is provided on this page. You
have to take care to make sure that the video/graphics card of your choice is
fully compatible with your PC's motherboard
and operating system, otherwise it might not function, might only work as an old-style
PCI video card, or might only function in 2D mode, and crash when
working in 3D mode. Sound cards are less problematic
because most of them just need to be installed in a PCI 2.1 compliant
slot, which all ATX motherboards have. If you need to find out what the required system specifications
are for a particular make or model of video/graphics or sound card its manufacturer's
website will provide the information. You can find out in the motherboard's user
manual if your PC's motherboard supports the required specification. For
example, the Sound
Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card has the following requirements:
Windows XP: - Genuine Intel® Pentium®
III 1 GHz, AMD® 1 GHz processor or faster
- Intel, AMD or 100%
compatible motherboard chipset
- Microsoft® Windows®
XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Window XP Pro x64
- 256MB RAM
- 600MB of free hard
disk space
- Available PCI 2.1 slot for the audio card
- CD-ROM/CD-RW or CD/DVD-ROM
required for software installation
- Graphics card with DirectX®
9 and OpenGL® compliant 3D graphics accelerator
- Internet connection
is required to obtain free PowerDVD players with Dolby® Digital
and DTS™ decoding
Windows Vista: - Genuine
Intel® Pentium® III 1 GHz, AMD® 1
GHz processor or faster
- Intel, AMD or 100% compatible motherboard chipset
- Microsoft Windows Vista™ 32-bit or 64-bit
- 512 MB RAM
- 600 MB
of free hard disk space
- Available PCI 2.1 compliant slot (PCI 2.2 and 2.3
also supported)
- Headphones or amplified speakers (available separately)
- CD-ROM
drive installed
- Internet connection is required to obtain free PowerDVD players
with Dolby® Digital and DTS™ decoding
The
system requirements for Windows
7 for the above sound card are the same as those for Windows Vista. To
install an expansion card into a motherboard that has already been installed in
the desktop PC's case, all you have to do is use a Philips screwdriver to remove
the single screw or clip that screws/clips the metal cover (blanking plate) over
the outlet at the back of the case of the PCI or AGP
or PCI Express (PCI-E) slot that you want
to use, and insert the card in the relevant slot so that it fills the space left
by the cover - always taking care not to use too much force.
Note that some PC cases use both a screw and a clip to secure the blanking plate
in place. You must fit an expansion card in its correct
slot. Installing an expansion card in the wrong slot could make the expansion
card or even the computer itself unusable unless the card or motherboard is replaced. The
image below shows the slot arrangement on a typical motherboard.

Note
that new motherboards do not have any ISA slots, because ISA adapter cards are
no longer being manufactured. The vast majority of new motherboards now no longer
have an AGP graphics-card slot; they have PCI Express slots of various sizes instead,
which can be used for graphics cards and other adapter/expansion cards. The next
item deals with the PCI Express x16 slot that is used for graphics cards. Motherboards:
The new x16 PCI Express slotsThe latest video/graphics
standard called PCI Express has almost replaced its forerunner, the AGP
standard. At the time of writing this (July 2008), new AGP graphics cards
were still available. The AGP standard was purely a
graphics standard, so the AGP slot can only be used by a graphics card.
To accommodate the new PCI Express standard, the AGP slot's position
on the motherboard, shown in the diagram above, is replaced
by a PCI Express x16 slot. 
The
image shown above is of an MSI K8N Diamond Plus
Socket 939 motherboard with two x16 SLI PCI
Express graphics slots for dual graphics cards and AMD Athlon 64 and
64 FX processors. There are two standard PCI
slots - the orange slot and the white slot of the same length next to it on the
far top left side of the board. The PCI Express slots are two long x16
slots (the longest slots on the board) for two graphics cards in SLI
mode, one yellow x4 slot and two short white x1 slots for other
PCI Express devices, such as a sound card, joystick,
dial-up modem, etc. The Asus Xonar D2X
PCI Express sound card is an example of a sound card that uses a PCI Express
x1 slot. If the motherboard doesn't have the PCI slots
that you require for adapter cards, you'll have to look for PCI Express
cards. The following diagram shows the PCI Express
x16 and x1 slots, and
the two standard PCI slots on a Gigabyte
GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard. 
If
you see a description of or come across a graphics card that has a X2 in
its model name, it means that the card has two graphics processing units (GPUs),
in effect making it two graphics cards in one. An example is the ATI
Radeon HD 4870 X2. It is possible to install two or even
four graphics cards in a desktop PC using nVidia's
SLI technology or ATI's CrossFire/CrossFireX technology, which the
motherboard must support. No motherboard supports both
types of technology, but power supply units can support one or both types. If
you have a motherboard that uses a dual- or quad-core processor and you want to
install a single graphics card with GPUs (an X2 card), or two or four graphics
cards, the PC's power supply must be recommended by
the graphics card(s) manufacturer, because power is is the utmost importance when
you have such power-hungry components. Installing more than
one graphics card is just a matter of installing them in free motherboard slots
of the correct type, but you may have to use a special hard cable to connect the
cards together. The graphics card(s) will come with everything that is required
for the installation, including instructions. Click
here! to go directly to the information about the new PCI Express standard
on the Video and Graphics section of this site. Use your
browser's Back button to return to this point
on this page.
How To Avoid Getting
The Wrong Graphics Card If
you're building your own computer or upgrading the motherboard
and video/graphics card of an existing computer, you could easily buy a PCI
or an AGP card when the motherboard you have requires a PCI Express
card, or vice versa. The computer's motherboard's manual will tell you all the
information you need to know about the adapter card slots on the motherboard.
If you don't have one, you should be able to download a copy from the manufacturer's
website. To read it, you'll need the free Adobe
Reader PDF reader, or some other PDF-file reader. Note
that you should always match the video/graphics card to the rest of the system.
If you have a computer running on 128MB of RAM (far too
little) and a Pentium 3 processor (not powerful enough),
using it with an nVidia GeForce 6800Ultra (8x, AGP)
video card is a waste of money. In a PC game, the video/graphics card creates
the scene and makes the action take place, but it is the main processor that instructs
the video card what to do. The processor can be likened to the conductor and the
video card to the orchestra, so if you have a slow conductor the orchestra is
going to play the game slow even if it can play it at its full speed. Click
here! to go to information about the latest PCI Express
standard on this site. Use your browser's Back
button to return to this point on this page. | The
User Installation Manual If you purchase
a retail boxed graphics card or sound
card it will come with an user installation manual that shows how all of the
features of the card are used. If you purchased an Original Equipment Manufacturer
- OEM
- video or sound card that is supported by the vendor instead of the manufacturer,
you will probably have to download the manual, and perhaps even the device-driver
executable file from the manufacturer's website. How
to install a video/graphics card or sound card Note
well that you should touch the case to remove any static electricity from
your body before you handle electronic components. The computer should be plugged
into the wall socket with its power turned off so that the case is earthed. Installing
a PCI (redundant technology, but you can still buy PCI graphics
cards that support DirectX 9.0 that, as such,are compatible with Windows
7 - the latest versions of Windows), AGP (outgoing technology - the
cards are also still available), or PCI Express video/graphics card (current
technology) is merely a matter of opening the case and removing the screw/clip
that screws/clips the metal cover (blanking plate over the slot's outlet at the
back of the case, and then inserting the card in its slot so that its face plate
replaces the metal cover and shows at the back of the case. Note that some PC
cases use both a screw and a clip to secure the blanking plate in place.
Just make sure that the card is inserted all the way into
the slot and that it is not touching the motherboard.
Note that there are occasions when screwing the card in too tightly
raises its end out of the slot and causes an error that can render the computer
unbootable. If you installed an AGP graphics card, even if you were
sure that it was properly seated in its slot, it still may not be properly seated.
Remove the AGP card and reinstall it, making sure that it completely seated.
If the motherboard has an AGP
retention mechanism on its AGP slot, which
most motherboard's don't have, it keeps the card in place, so make sure
that the notch on the AGP card fully engages the mechanism. One of the
most common reasons for a loose AGP card is that the screw used to secure
it to the case may lift the card partially out of its slot. This problem is rare
with high-quality cases and AGP cards, but quite common with cheap components.
There are different types of retention mechanism. To remove the card means having
to disengage the mechanism, which can sometimes be difficult to do. The motherboard's
user manual, a copy of which should be available as a PDF document from
its manufacturer's site, should provide illustrated information on how to install
a graphics card if a retention mechanism is employed. A source of well illustrated
motherboard manuals is the MSI website. Just
pick a motherboard and download its user manual. Most motherboard manuals
provide drawings or images showing how to install cards and RAM
memory in the motherboard. There are also hundreds or thousands of websites
that provide that information. If you need to see what is on offer just enter
a phrase like "How to install a video card",
or "Installing a video card", or "Install
a video card", or "Video card installation",
in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button
enabled). When installing components, be patient
at all costs, and never force any component into place. Always use your common
sense to determine the spacing of the components. For example, if you are installing
a graphics card that has its own cooling unit fitted to the main chip, if possible,
don't smother it by installing it near or in between other adapter cards. Give
it space to expel the heat it generates. The build up of heat is one of the most
common causes of system failures. Note
that many motherboards have the AGP slot positioned so closely to the DIMM
memory slots that the RAM modules have to be removed before the video
card can be installed, and the video card has to be removed in order to remove
or add RAM modules. It is not unusual to hear that someone has tried to
install an nVidia GeForce graphics card and the installed RAM modules
have knocked off some of the card's protruding capacitors, thereby rendering it
useless. This situation would not have been a problem if the obvious and necessary
installation procedures were taken. Furthermore, very often the first PCI
slot on the motherboard is positioned too close to the AGP/PCI Express
slot. If an adapter card is installed in that PCI slot, it would deprive
the AGP/PCI Express graphics card of air, and might cause it to function
abnormally, or to be damaged by overheating. Some motherboard reviews provide
useful information of that kind. Personally, I would not purchase a motherboard
until I had read all of the reviews of it on the Internet or in computer magazines. If
you want to see a graphics PCI Express card installed, watch these videos: How
to install a graphics card [video] - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=femSBniUF-k Tiger
How-To: Install a Graphics Card and its device drivers in Your PC -
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5ILrq7lMe-0 How
Much Power Does Your Graphics Card Need? : 3D Performance Requires The Most Electricity
- http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/geforce-radeon-power,review-31495.html The
images that are provided to illustrate the manual installation of a graphics card's
drivers are Windows XP screenshots, but the procedure is much the same
for Windows Vista and Windows
95/98/Me systems. You shouldn't need to install the drivers manually
in Windows 95/98/Me/XP/Vista, or in Windows
7. If PnP OS (plug-and-play operating system) is enabled in the BIOS
setup program, those versions of Windows will automatically detect the card,
and you will have the option to allow it to install the driver it has in its database,
or select to do so from a CD/DVD, or from a download folder containing the latest
downloaded driver file. Note well that most new motherboards
now only provide the device drivers for the versions of Windows that Microsoft
still supports, which, for home users are Windows XP and Windows Vista
and Windows 7). If you install a graphics or sound card in computers running
a version of Windows, such as Windows 98, that the manufacturer does not
provide drivers for, it will use its standard VGA driver that only supports
a screen resolution of 640x480 pixels - the resolution that all versions of Windows
from Windows XP to Windows 7 use in Safe
Mode. **** Dual
video card technologyIt has recently become
possible install two PCI Express video cards on a single motherboard.
nVidia calls its dual-card technology SLI,
which stands for Scalable Link Interface. ATI
calls its dual-card technology CrossFire. The two cards
can have a configuration of 2, 3, or 4 GPUs (graphics processing units). The following
link shows two ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (dual-GPU) graphics cards
installed on an MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard, which gives four
GPUs in AMD/ATI's new CrossFireX platform. AMD's
CrossFireX: Tri & Quad GPU Preview - http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3232 Some
PCI Express video cards require to be connected to the power supply unit (PSU)
via a special PCI Express power connector. If you use two such cards, you need
a power supply unit (PSU) with two such power connectors - one for each card.
An excellent example is the Akasa
Power80+ 500W unit.
(Akasa also make excellent cases). It has "Two CPU 12V connectors" that
combine to make an 8-pin connector (required by some motheboards) or spit in two
to make a 4-pin connector (required by some motherboards) and "PCI-E connectors
for multiple dual GPU". You can visit the company's website at http://www.akasa.com.tw/.
The power supplies are categorised as Ultra Quiet, Efficiency, and
Performance. You can enter the make and model in the
Google search box at the top of this page (with it Web radio button enabled)
to locate reviews and vendors. The user manual for an nVidia-based
or ATI-based graphics card will provide installation instructions. At first, a
dual-card configuration required that the two cards were physically linked by
a bridge, but now the link is created by the the device drivers. Click
here! to go to information on this site on PCI Express and dual-card
technology. The safest way to upgrade RAM memory:
Use the UK and US Crucial
Memory AdvisorsPaul
Mullen, who was the highly-respected computer guru of the Helpfile
at ComputerShopper.co.uk - "I have recently been buying my memory
only from Crucial Technology. I would rather pay the extra cost than waste
time trying to track down the obscure program faults that bad memory can cause." The
best way to choose RAM memory for a brand-name desktop or
laptop computer, or memory for a paricular make/model of PC motherboard
is to make use of the Crucial Memory Advisors (provided under the brief
guideline on the minimum memory requirements for Windws XP, Windows
Vista and Windows
7). If the Crucial memory you receive does not work, you are guaranteed
a refund and standard shipping is free. The
memory requirements of the versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7Most
of the versions of Windows Vista require more RAM memory to run optimally
on a computer that doesn't use memory-hungry applications
than Windows XP. A video-editing application is an example of memory-intensive
software. Only Windows Vista Home Basic has a recommended minimum amount
of memory of 512MB, which is the same amount recommended for Windows XP.
Windows Vista Home Premium, the most popular version, and Windows Vista
Ultimate require a recommended minimum of 1GB (1024MB) of memory, which is
twice the amount of minimum memory recommended to run Windows XP. Note
that if you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, up to 4.0GB, it requires twice
the amount of memory as a 32-bit version, which can only use a maximum of about
3.5GB. For more information on computer memory, read the RAM
pages of this site, which includes information on the lower memory requirements
of Windows
7. |
UK
- Crucial Memory Advisor - UK
|
| USA
- Crucial Memory Advisor - USA
| How to
Use the Crucial Memory Advisor For
example, if your computer has an Asus motherboard,
open the menu, scroll down to ASUS, and click
GO. If, say, you have a Dell
computer, scroll down to DELL, and do
likewise. You will be taken to the relevant information on Crucial's
website. If you don't know the make and model of
the motherboard installed in your computer, here is a good
free utility - Belarc Advisor - that
creates an analysis of the hardware and software on a personal computer. Look
under FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.belarc.com/.
Another utility that also provides detailed information on the memory itself is
CPU-Z.
A
problem installing adapter cards in a Windows XP systemProblem I
have purchased a new motherboard and installed it in my Windows XP system;
successfully for the most part, but whenever I try to install a sound card or
network card, and then boot the system I get the message, "An
error has occurred during the installation of this device. The data is invalid."
For some reason, I have not been able to install an AGP video card, but I have
been able to install an old PCI video card. I have also tried unsuccessfully to
install two different makes of network and sound card. The other measures I have
taken to rectify the problem are: - reflashed the BIOS with the latest update,
and tried replacing Windows XP with its forerunner, Windows 2000. Because the
same error occurs with both versions of Windows, I suspect that the problem has
to be hardware-related. A
possible solution The usual cause of this
problem in Windows 2000 / XP systems is Registry keys that are set
as read-only. From the Start menu, click Run
and enter regedit to run the Registry Editor. Open the following
- Keys => HKey_Local_machine => System => CurrentControlSet
=> Enum => PCI. You will see several
keys in this form - Ven_xxxx - where xxxx represents a string such
as - 1102&Dev_004&Subsys_00011103&Rev_04. In
each of these folders there is another folder that has a long numerical name.
Open each of these folders, and look for the DeviceDesc entry that matches
the type of hardware that you are trying unsuccessfully to install. Use the right
mouse button to click on the Ven_xxxx entry for that device, and click
Permissions. If it is set to read-only, then that is the cause of the problem.
To rectify it, change it to Allow Full Control.
More installation information...Often
the power plugs are a devil to remove from drives, and adapter cards (especially
old ISA cards) can be a devil to install. Sometimes the card will slip
into the slot, most PCI cards do, but sometimes you will have to apply
quite a bit of pressure. If the card won't go in, be patient and keep trying,
but never get angry and try too much force, because you could crack the motherboard
or damage the edge connector on the card. If you feel the motherboard bending,
hold the edge with one hand while doing the inserting with the other hand. If
the motherboard is cracked it will render the computer useless until it is replaced.
An ISA card (redundant technology) will fit in a long black ISA
slot, which most new motherboards no longer have. A PCI card fits into
one of the shorter slots that are usually white. Try not to use the PCI
slot next to the x16 PCI Express slot, or the even shorter brown AGP slot,
which is used for AGP video cards only. (Note that most motherboards only
have PCI Express slots or an AGP slot, not both.) Remember that these slots can
now be of any colour on recent motherboards. If the motherboard
you have chosen or purchased does not have a video/graphics card (graphics accelerator)
and sound card, you will have to choose which cards to buy and then decide where
to buy them. You could ask the advice of the staff at large or small retail computer
vendors, or select from a catalogue in a PC magazine, or use an online store and
buy by mail order. Or you could find out which cards are being used in well-reviewed
PCs of the kind that you want to build. You could also ask the advice of the members
of online computer forums such as http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/categories-list.htm.
When most ISPs provided only dial-up connections, you would also have had
to choose an internal or external modem. However, now that broadband connections
are available to most of the country, you usually only have to decide on an Internet
Service Provider (ISP), such as O2, Virgin
Media, etc. The ISP you choose will then provide you
with an external broadband modem or a router. A wireless router
allows you to share a broadband connection with as many computers with wireless
adapters installed as you want. However, no more than ten other workstations can
connect to your computer at one time if you are using Windows XP Professional.
The limit is five workstations for Windows XP Home Edition. For
more details, see the following MS Knowledge Base Article. Inbound
Connections Limit in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314882 That
situation is unlikely to be different in a wireless Windows Vista
network. At the time of writing (July 2008), I could not find any information
on this on the web. Dial-up connections are still available. If you want
to make use of one, you will have to install an internal 56K modem or use an external
56K modem. The V.92 standard is the latest, so you require a V.92 dial-up modem.
Visit this site for more information on dial-up modems: http://www.modemsite.com/. If
your sound and video requirements only extend to using applications and accessing
the Internet, buying an ATX case and motherboard (that can run your choice
of processor) with inbuilt video and sound chips makes good sense. You will save
money, and when you want to upgrade the system all you have to do is buy another
motherboard with inbuilt sound and video, add a new processor
and RAM, and you will have a new system. In my experience,
the staff at most computer stores are not very knowledgeable or helpful. Working
on a commission basis, they will usually try to sell you the most expensive components.
Or they will sell you exactly what you ask for, even if you could make a better
or more economical purchase. If you want to install a sound card to play
audio CDs, to accompany DVD movies, or MPEG/AVI video files, or to listen to websites
with sound content, etc., almost any new sound card, even ones costing between
£15 and £20 will suffice. But if you want to use the sound card for recording
and editing MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files, etc., and you want
full surround sound for heavy-duty PC gaming, etc., you should purchase an expensive
sound card that will do what you require of it. The video and sound cards,
or motherboard (if the sound and video chips are built into it) will come with
the CDs containing the software device drivers, and
the installation instructions. If your PC's operating system (usually a version
of Windows) has the correct drivers in its library, it will load them automatically.
You can of course download driver updates from the web and install them (usually
just by clicking on an .exe file) any time you like.
Click Monitors to read the information on
LCD/CRT monitors on this site. You will of course have to purchase
a set of speakers in order to be able to hear the
sound. The price of these can vary from £15 for a basic set of speakers that come
with an external power supply, to hundreds of pounds for a full surround-sound
speaker system. On a basic sound card that is connected to two speakers,
they are usually plugged into the sound card's Speakers Out or Line Out socket,
as shown in the motherboard's manual if the sound chip is built into the motherboard,
or as in the sound card's manual for a PCI or PCI Express
sound card. A PCI Express card, such as the Creative
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card, uses a x1
PCI Express slot on a motherboard that provides one or more of
them. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card can
turn downloaded music into a personal concert, allows you to watch DVDs or downloaded
videos with full cinematic surround sound, and provides 3D audio and EAX
effects in PC games. But if you have a fancy sound
card card that is capable of being connected to many speakers to produce
a surround-sound effect, you will have to read its manual to find out how to connect
the different speakers. You don't have to use all of the speaker ports. If you
have purchased a set of two speakers, you can plug them in using the Front
Speakers or Back Speakers port. But if you only want to use two speakers,
you should purchase a basic sound card that has only a Line Out port for
them. Most speakers will have their own power supply unit, but they should
produce sound at a low volume if they are left to draw power from being attached
to the sound card. Most speaker systems require their own power supply unit to
be plugged into the wall for optimal performance, and most of them have to be
turned on by pushing a switch somewhere on one of the speakers. I can remember
helping someone with a sound problem. He had everything connected properly. The
sound card was installed properly, the Windows Device Manager
showed that the drivers had been installed properly under the Sound, video
and game controllers menu item, the sound cable to the CD-ROM drive was properly
connected, the two speakers were plugged into the Line Out socket on the
sound card, but the sound that issued from the speakers was barely audible with
the volume control in the system tray (in the bottom right hand corner of the
screen) set at the maximum. He was threatening to take the system back
to the dealer when I said, "But you haven't switched the speakers on."
I pushed the On button on one of the speakers, and the sound came out full
ball, loud and clear. He had assumed the speakers were like the ones he had on
his stereo music centre that only required to be plugged in. For more information
on setting up a sound system, try using a search phrase such as: computer
+ "sound system" + setup + guide (as is) in the Google
search box provided at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).
Printer reviewsClick
here! to go directly to the printer reviews on Page
4d. Use your browser's Back button to
return to this point on this page. Google
searches If my descriptions are not clear
enough for you, you'll be able to find many sites offering illustrated information
on how to install computer components by entering a phrase such as
"install a xxxx" (where xxxx stands
for the device, such as RAM, hard disk
drive, etc.) in the Google search box at the top of this page (with
its Web radio button enabled). Click
here! to go to Page
4b on the keyboard.
PC Buyer Beware! Copyright ©
Eric Legge 2004-2010. All rights reserved. |