Do you install your own upgrades?

I just bought a second hard drive (Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 320 GB Hard Drive OEM HDD 320 GB 7200 RPM SATA II 8MB)

and a new Graphics Card (512 MB PNY GeForce 7600 GS DDR2 AGP Video Card)

and RAM (Kingston 1GB DDR Module)

and a new power supply, to accommodate the video card.

I bought these because I wanted to upgrade so I could play Silent Hunter 2: Wolves of the Pacific, Lord of the Rings Online, Marvel Trading Card Game, and Sid Meier's Pirates. I'm terrible at figuring out system requirements but I THINK I can play these games with these upgrades - and hopefully these upgrades will work on my pc!

I just found out that to take it somewhere local and have all of these installed it will cost $160. I am afraid to touch these items as I imagine they are fragile and too expensive to break! Is having all of them installed professionally the correct thing to do or is any of these so easy and not fragile I should figure out how to do it myself? And do you install your own upgrades or have a professional do it? My other concern is I'm not 100% certain all of these will work in this pc...

My other question is for you to rate these upgrades as far as whether they can run a lot of the games out (including the ones I mentioned above) and how good of an upgrade they are. I hope I will be happy with these.

Thanks for the help!

Sounds good but you might want to get some more memory soon especially if you have or are planning to get Visa.

As for installation you can do that yourself with a Philips screwdriver. You can go o the store and get a PC toolkit and grounding strap but all you rally need is the screwdriver. Just make sure to touch the computer case before installing the memory in order to neutralize any static charge that has built up in your body unplug the machine before opening it too.

I fit my own upgrades, always have but then again i've been working in IT for over ten years.

If you're unsure or not confident about doing it yourself then get a professional to do it for you.

Yeah, I've done two major upgrades in which the first time I had someone over my shoulder, and the second time (about a month ago) I did it myself. Just read the manuals if you get a little lost...requires a bit of thinking (I built the whole computer though...I didn't just simply install a card).

I'll also be getting another RAM chip in a few days, so I'll be installing that too. RAM sure is hard to install, also. :p

Like others have said, you should try to upgrade by yourself, it will be cheaper. And about the upgrades, I think that both memory and the Graphic's Card are a bit lower.

I would advice you getting 2 GB RAM at 667Mhz or the higher that your motherboard can have, and for the Graphic's card, I advice you getting a GT edition, instead of the GS one. The GS is the lowest edition of the nVidia series card, and therefore is the least powerfull overall series.

The Hard Disk is perfect and awesome, and the power supply, well I don't know which one did you have before, but the graphic's card isn't a powerleach...

Hope this helps.

I install every new upgrade on my computer, Ill never let any company take it and install it! Not after last time!

Took it to some store (forget what, Maybe Future shop) and they were installing a new DVD drive in one of my computers, First it took 2 days, (when now I can do it in 1/2 hour) and second they BROKE 1GB RAM DDR MEMORY! (HOW THE.....how do they break that??

Well they replaced it, But I was mad!

Thank you for the responses. I realize I didn't get the most high end stuff but I really just want to tide my system over for a while until I can afford to replace the computer all together. It's been kind of a headache figuring out what this system can take for upgrades - if I had to do it again I'd probably just wait until I could buy a new pc. The hard drive isn't compatibleso I have to send it back. According to HP the graphics card and the RAM I bought will work. I just need another hard drive and to cross my fingers that the power supply is compatible.

Thanks again for the help. I really never tried to learn about the components of a pc before - was content to enjoy the games, but now I realize that understanding how the computer works is part of getting the most out of your games because you can get the best components to suit your priority (gaming) and save yourself a lot of headache when it comes time to upgrade so you can play the newest games. I'm trying to soak up all the information I can now.

I'm looking into the videos available on the internet for installing these things so that I can install some or all of them myself. $40 a piece I don't think is that bad to have something installed but $160 for 4 I don't think is fair - I think they should give someone a break installing multiple components. They will already have the pc opened and examined. It might be reasonable if they were going to come to my house and do it but they want several hundred dollars for that! If I could afford that I'd buy a whole new computer!

If you are as nervous and uncertain as you seem to be, I'd reccomend you get a professional to do it. . Just make sure you get someone who is actually good at it. Also, 160$ seems WAY out of line for installing those parts. I would have thought it would cost around 60$ tops. Or better yet, find a technically capable friend who you trust, as they wouldn't have much of a problem installing those partsPuRe_CaNaDiaN_

I think that's the best idea...

I do all my upgrades and build my computers from the ground up. It's actually quite easy to do. The parts are quite versitile. If you want to do it yourself, since 160 is quite crazy, just make sure you line the parts up and don't force it if it doesn't want to go in. Ram is usually a little stiff to get in. Take your time and make sure the notches line up and you'll be fine.

Looks more daunting if it's your first time but once you see how to do it it's actually very easy

i builded up all my pc and my bro's pc

if you are noob at it, just find some help for placing the motherboard and the cpu in place ... for the rest you have to find the right slots on the motherboard and put things in

seriousy its easier than goign to bed and would take less than ten mins to install those. just look up how to do it.

Yes i service and upgrade my pc myself always.