This is probably one of the most common things for PC owners to do, along with RAM upgrades and adding additional hard disks, yet can be one of the most fiddly and time-consuming. Whereas RAM and HDDs come in standard physical sizes, video card come in a range of heights, widths, and depths. Some are “low profile”, designed for slimmer cases; some take up two or more slots on the motherboard (or at least the space above them); some are short at around 24cm, and some are long and can be up to 30cm or more. As such, you can never be sure whether they’ll fit in your PC case without taking some measurements and eventually trying it for size.

3D Blu-Ray

The PC I’ll be installing this new card in is my HTPC. It’s currently using a fairly low-end Intel Core i3-540 CPU, using the integrated video functionalities. It copes fine with all my DVDs and Blu-Rays, but cannot output native 3D from new 3D Blu-Ray discs, and having just bought a 3D TV I like to have the choice of 3D or 2D.

The Radeon HD 6750 supports AMD’s “HD3D” technology, meaning this thing will play 3D Blu-Rays as they were meant to be played – good news for me. This card also happens to be a reasonably good card for gaming, so I might use this PC for one or two games now.

The Installation

First things first: RTFM. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are, there could always be something different waiting for you to miss out, which could end up badly for your new card. In the case of the 6750, it’s a slightly beefed-up card, so it needs extra power. This is supplied by a cable direct from the PC’s power supply – forget this, and it won’t work.

Once you’ve given the manual a read over, make sure you’ve got everything you need for the procedure. I suppose it doesn’t really matter if you don’t, as you can fetch it mid-process, but it’s always nice to have things at hand. Some good tips: leave the card inside its anti-static bag until you’re ready to install it, and try to get hold of an anti-static wrist strap to ground any electrical charge you have on you. You don’t want to fry your card before it’s even been turned on!

Now we’re ready to open up the PC. Every case is different, so you’ll have to work out how to open your own case. They usually have 2 or 3 screws on the back to hold one side on – undo these and the panel they were holding should slide or lift off.

While I had the case open, I took the opportunity to give everything a quick clean. Use a can of compressed air to blow off the loose dust from heat sinks and fans – build-up of dust leads to higher temperatures, meaning higher fan speeds, leading to more noise which, for a HTPC, we don’t want.

Take the card out of the wrapper now if you haven’t already. Give it a test run over or in the case to check it will fit. You’ll probably need to move some cables and maybe even some other hardware to get the card in. In my case, I had to remove the power supply to get the card in to place. Feel free to unplug some devices if their cables are in the way; just remember to connect them back up afterwards!

You will probably also need to remove one or more of the space-filler slides (I’m sure they have a proper name…) from the back of the case – you’ll see when you try putting the card in that these are clearly in the way. Once there’s enough room for the card, try slotting it into place gently then press down on it until you hear a click (assuming your PCIe x16 slot has a lock on it – most do).

Attach any required power cables to the back of the card as detailed in the card’s manual (hopefully). For this 6750, there was just the one 6-pin PCIe power connector needed.

Before putting the case back together, make sure everything is still connected as it should and that there aren’t any cables touching any of the fans. If you can, try to avoid any cables touching heat sinks, too, as these can become quite hot.

This photo I’m sticking on here just for fun because I thought it looked cool.

Put the case back together by doing the same thing you did to take it apart, only in reverse. No prizes given out for that one, I’m afraid.

Plug it all back in to your TV or monitor and hit the on switch! Get ready on those F2 buttons, though, as you might need to change a BIOS setting to use the new card instead of on-board graphics. In my case, it worked it out for itself. It’s easy to tell if it didn’t – a blank screen will welcome you.

Finally, it’s time to install drivers. My top tip here: don’t use the CD that came with the card – yes, they’re the right drivers, but they’ll more than likely be out of date. Your best bet is to head to the card manufacturer’s website and search for the latest driver download from there. These are usually simple enough to install, but, again, they’re all different, so I can’t give a detailed walkthrough. If you’re using Windows, chances are the installer is just a “next, next, next” wizard; Linux, on the other hand, well… best get comfy. (Zing!)

Wrap-up

Once the drivers are installed and all the necessary (if any) reboots are finished, job’s a good’n! Mine’s working nicely, as I found by testing out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt.2 in 3D …which works. I do need to play around with some settings on the TV to get it perfect, though – I’m fussy like that.