$450 Acer Aspire Desktop PC - Part 3 - Upgrade Video - RAM - SSD - GPU - Fan

Upgrading Your Computer with Enhanced Cooling and Performance

When it comes to upgrading your computer, there are several components that can be improved to enhance its performance and cooling capabilities. In this article, we will focus on installing an additional fan to improve airflow around the CPU and graphics card, ensuring optimal performance in hot environments.

The Importance of Proper Airflow

Proper airflow is crucial for maintaining the optimal operating temperature of your computer's components, particularly the CPU and graphics card. These components generate significant heat during operation, which can lead to reduced performance, decreased lifespan, and even damage to the system if not managed properly. By installing an additional fan that blows hot air out of the back of the case, we can improve airflow and reduce temperatures.

The Role of Case Fans in Cooling

While a single fan may be sufficient for some systems, having multiple fans can provide better cooling performance, especially in hot environments. In our case, we are not using a case fan, but instead relying on the motherboard's built-in fan connector to power an additional fan. This fan will blow hot air out of the back of the case, reducing temperatures and improving overall system performance.

Installing the Additional Fan

To install the additional fan, we first need to identify the correct orientation for the fan. The fan comes with four-pin connectors that need to be plugged into the motherboard's fan connector. We can orient the fan in any of the 90-degree orientations, but it's essential to ensure that the fan is aligned properly with the screw holes on the back of the case.

To secure the fan in place, we use standard #2 Phillips screwdrivers, which physically screw into the plastic casing of the computer. This requires more force than you might be used to when working with computers, but it's essential for ensuring the fan remains securely attached.

Connecting the Fan Cable

Once the fan is installed and secured, we need to connect the fan cable to the motherboard. The fan connector has guide notches that make it easy to plug in the fan correctly. We simply align the fan connector with the socket on the motherboard and gently push it in until it clicks into place.

Configuring the Fan Settings

The fan is controlled by the motherboard, which means there's no need for additional configuration. The motherboard will automatically adjust the fan speed based on the system's temperature requirements.

Should I Upgrade My Power Supply?

One of the most common questions when upgrading a computer is whether to replace the power supply unit (PSU). In this case, we're happy to report that the 300W PSU is more than sufficient for our graphics card and other components. There's no need to upgrade the PSU unless you plan on adding additional components that require more power.

The Final Upgrades

In total, we've upgraded four key components of our computer: the RAM, graphics card, solid state drive, and fan. These upgrades have significantly improved the performance and cooling capabilities of our system, making it better suited for demanding tasks and hot environments.

Conclusion

Upgrading your computer with enhanced cooling and performance can be a straightforward process if you know where to start. By installing an additional fan and properly configuring the fan settings, you can improve airflow around the CPU and graphics card, reducing temperatures and enhancing overall system performance. Whether you're looking to upgrade individual components or build a custom gaming PC from scratch, these upgrades are an excellent starting point.

Additional Resources

For those interested in learning more about upgrading their computers, we recommend checking out our other videos on building a custom gaming PC, installing solid state drives, and selecting the right RAM for your system. We also have a range of recommended resources listed in the video description below, including links to purchase these upgrades at Amazon and Newegg.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello and welcome to Tech deals how to guide how to install system Ram a solid state drive a graphics card and a case fan into this $450 Acer Aspire T desktop computer now I've previously done reviews of these computers in the past and there will be more upcoming performance videos however for now we are simply doing a howto video to physically install these four components and here we are looking at the top down view you can see our Acer Aspire T computer here you can see we have two memory sticks I'm actually going to replace the included memory stick for a match set you don't have to do that I'm just doing it because I can we have our 256 GB solid state drive we have our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card and then finally we have our case fan that we'll be installing in the back the first step is to take a screwdriver and to take off the two screws on the back of the case here you want the side of the case with the vent holes facing upward laying on its side on a flat surface and then we simply take the handle here and we slide it back you will see the metal strip right here once it's back this far it simply lifts straight off and we'll set that aside here you can see the inside of the computer case briefly this is our main power supply this is what takes the AC power from the wall and turns it into the various power sources that our computer requires this is the cooling fan on top of our processor underneath that is actually the processor itself here you can see one 8 gig memory stick there is a free slot here for a second 8 gig stick now I'm going to be replacing both of them with my match set however if you use the links in the video description below to order your memory stick you can just buy one 8 gig stick and install it here leaving the existing memory stick in place this here is the back end of the hard drive sticking out it's attached to the side of the case right here with these screws we're not going to be messing with that at all we'll leave that right there this is going to be the mounting point for our solid state Drive these four holes it's going to mount here sticking out to the back now it is worth noting that this computer case only comes with two Serial ATA ports on the motherboard in order to make use of our solid state drive we are going to have to lose the DVD burner the DVD reader and writer which is up here you can't see it it's behind there now I don't care because I don't use these if you do care you have two choices briefly you can install in this small slot right here A Serial ATA uh access card that will give you two additional Serial ATA ports but if you do so then you won't be able to install a graphics card here because it would block it because it uses both slots another option is to install an m.2 SSD you can't see it from here but it's actually right underneath the hard drive on the motherboard I actually did that on the previous Acer Aspire T the problem with doing that is then you can't clone Windows you have to do a clean install I have tried endlessly to get it to clone from a Serial ATA drive it doesn't want to do that so we are installing a 2 1/2 in SSD in order to allow us to use the cloning software and we're just ditching the DVD burner and here you can see the inside of the computer case really briefly this is our main power supply this draws power from the wall and converts it to the 12vt 5vt and 3.3v power that all of our components need now this does not need to be replaced in order to install our GTX 1060 graphics card because we'll be using this included power adapter which came with the graphics card it'll work just fine if you want to put something more powerful in yes you'd need to replace it but this is the wrong computer if you want something faster than that card this right here is the cooling fan for our processor underneath this is actually the processor don't mess with it it's fine but that's what that is we have our single 8 GB memory stick here now I'm going to be replacing this with my matched set of memory just because I can however if you order an 8 GB ddr4 memory stick using my link in the video description you don't have have to do that by 1 18 gig stick it'll work just stick it in and put them together now this is the hard drive that's actually sticking out it's mounted here on these four points the hard drive power and data we're not going to be messing with we will however be copying windows from the hard drive to the SSD retaining our data in programs up here you can't see it but it's screwed in right here is our DVD drive sticking out the front this is our PCI Express graphics card slot this right here is where our GTX 1060 is going to install this pops up here I'll show you that when we get to that part and then finally right here even though you can't see it very well at the moment is where we're going to be installing our fan now the solid state drive is going to go into these four holes right here and mount next to the hard drive they provide us with a place to put it so it'll Mount here and we'll connect the cables when we get there at the bottom of the system this right here is the Wi-Fi adapter if you're curious it actually is replaceable it is module in a slot on the motherboard the two wires connecting to it run up to the top of the case providing you an internal antenna and you can actually see one of them run back here connected to this box on the back so one runs to the front one runs to the back that is your Wi-Fi adapter if you are curious first things first let's do the easy installation our main system Ram now system Ram is very straightforward because there's no configuration and there are these two release tabs that you push out on both sides I just pushed out the white tabs for the open memory slot but to demonstrate how to remove memory I'm going to remove this module by pushing down on this tab and it pops it up and I'll push down on this tab and pop it up no real forces required those are very easy to open once they're down you'll actually physically see the memory come up you just slide it out gently that takes finger pressure and there is our 8 GB ddr4 memory stick you can identify ddr4 because it is uh taller in the middle than it is on on the sides this Notch is not in the middle this Notch is also in a different spot for ddr2 DDR3 and ddr4 you cannot switch between the types if your memory slots are DDR3 you have to use three if they're four you have to use four so we have ddr4 so I'm going to be installing two 8 GB memory sticks ddr4 into this machine I'm going to go ahead and set this aside I'll save it for something else you do not have to use matched memory but I'm going to simply because well I had this kit sitting on the shelf and I don't have a spare single stick of eight so when you take the memory you want to look at the Notch and you want to look at the notch on the motherboard you want to make sure that the shorter end lines up with the shorter end memory goes straight down and straight up it does not tilt like this it does not Tilt at an angle and these edges of the circuit board of the memory slide into these Groove slots right here all you have to do is line it up vertically and insert it gently into those slots and it will rest like so there's a little bit of Wiggle cuz I haven't push down on it I'm not moving it I'm just touching it barely so you want to put your fingers on either end of it and push down at the same time and you'll hear two clicks one two there we go so that memory module is now installed we'll take our next memory module and I'll line it up and I'll insert the notches on either end and it goes in just like that and one two the memory is installed now if all you're interested in doing is upgrading your RAM you would just install your second stick of memory into this one leaving the first I just did this because like I said I had the kit on the shelf and then put the cover back on turn the machine on it will automatically detect that you now have 16 gigs of RAM windows will automatically use it there is nothing left to do are done at this point easiest upgrade ever however if you are still interested in doing any of the other upgrades and stick around we're going to keep doing that the next upgrade is going to be our graphics card now there's our graphics card slot and one of the most common questions I get on my channel is which should I buy a GeForce GTX 1060 or an AMD rx470 or 480 now in terms of performance per dollar the RX 470 and 480 are actually a better deal at the moment than the GTX 1060 however this is an EVGA GTX 1060 super clocked graphics card it's going to install right there take a look at the clearance it fits just fine there's our six pin power connector it is a moderately sized unit that fits perfectly in pre-built machines and I highly highly recommend that card now another card that I have reviewed in the past are cards such as this this is an Asus Republic of Gamers stricks rx470 you can buy these for $50 or less below the cost of the GTX 1060 however take a look at the length that's how it would sit in the slot this drive cage is in the way same thing I will take an MSI here is an MSI armor OC rx470 these also are in the $130 to $150 range and that's where it would install again they're too large and finally we have an XFX rx470 very nice card very good deal take a look at the size it does not fit I have a number of rx470 and rx480 cards none of them fit into these pre-built machines the drive cages are in the way cables are in the way it is nothing but trouble furthermore many of these now this one has a six pin the MSI has an8 pin would require replac in the power supply the GTX 1060 does not and this is an important point because most of these are 150 plus watt cards that is 120 watt card so it's much more compatible with lower wattage power supplies my advice if you are custom building your own machine in a larger case than this the RX 470 and 480 are the deal but if you buy a pre-built such as this in a smaller mini tower case the GTX 1060 is what you want to buy so with that out of the way we have two adapter options this is two Molex adapters to one six pin PCI Express this comes with the EVGA superclocked card not all 1060s will come with a free adapter great card great price now this computer does have the two Molex connectors here's one one's down there that you will need but they're covered by twist ties and so you will need to take Clippers and you will need to cut these with that out of the way and of course make sure you cut the plastic tie and not the power cables with that out of the way we now have two Molex power connectors we can connect to this now I've done this before in other rebuilds this is a 300 W power supply this will work just fine you do not have to replace this to install that graphics card another option if you don't want to use these is you can use the Serial ATA power connector using an adapter such as this now this did not come with that I have these from other situations this takes a Serial ATA power connector and converts it to a six pin connector so it is an alternative option if you have a different pre-built machine or yours whatever reason doesn't have two Molex connectors that's the other way you can get to a six pin PCI Express power cable but since I have these I'm going to use them and the trick is these kind of move around a bit so you just cut a there we go I had that one been pretty easily actually and there we go and now you'll notice we have a mess of cables this is why I use these cable ties these are about $5 for 200 cable ties I'll put a link in the video description below to Amazon if you are doing upgrades spend five bucks and get these now if you already have some by all means you know use them but these are much better than twist ties because these are flat and thus don't bite into the cables over time furthermore they can be adjusted tightened or loosened and they're going to stay Once you pull them tight they're never ever going to come loose again 200 of them for five bucks I use them on all my builds this has lasted me for a year and a half these will last you a long long time so for now I'm just putting that aside to get out of the way we have to prepare the back of the case in order to handle our graphics card now this tab here is toolless and it's very nice take a look at that that just pops open just like so no screws or anything very easy however the back plates are covered you have to remove them in order to install the graphics card what does it look like I have now turned the computer on the front this is the back you can see the power supply is way up here at the top this is where our additional fan for cooling is going to go to make sure that our nice graphics card doesn't get too hot and then here are the slots coming out the back now you can see this blocks the way I just wanted to show you how it opened I'm actually going to go ahead and close it now and you'll see how it covers it up just like so while we're back here this is a convenient time to point out that if you are not adding a graphics card we we have an HDMI out and a VGA outport if you want to use those this supports 1080p at 60 HZ no problem you can plug in a computer monitor there and you'll be rocking and rolling however we are not going to use it so make sure that if you had previously plugged in a monitor to this port you switch it to your graphics card now to do this properly you need a standard Philip screwdriver we need to remove these top two plates they don't screw off they break off they're actually only attached by two notches here and one in the middle do you see these two crosses we take this we stick it in here and we push and then bend and you're going to have to bend it back and forth there we go we pop it out and we pop it down and all you're trying to do here is break the metal very carefully back and forth back and forth now normally you wouldn't do it with it sitting up because when it breaks it's going to fall into the machine but I want to show it to you so that you can see what it looks like do it when it's on its side so that you can catch it when it falls off one of those do as I say not as I do things because I'm trying to do it for the camera and there we go part of it's broken off and now we can just wiggle it back and forth now if you don't have a screw well first of all you need the screwdriver to take the out of the case off and put everything else in but this is how you this is this is how I remove them anyway I'm sure somebody in the comments will say hey there's an easier way to do it actually there probably is you could take a pair of pliers and push them back and forth but hey they provide the the crosses for you and if you only have a screwdriver there you go do make an effort when you're doing this not to bend the case this metal on the case here is very thin there we go I just spent about 20 or 30 seconds working it back and forth you're just weakening these metal notches these just put in recycle they're done you'll never use them again we now have the opening for the graphics card and in a minute you're going to see the ports through those spaces and here we are with the computer back on the side now I don't advise you to turn the machine up just take your screwdriver and come in at the side I'm just doing that for the camera at this point we'll simply make sure that our latch is over we're going to take our graphics card make sure that all of your covers off of the ports make sure that any protective cover on the um golden fingers down here is off and make sure you've also taken a plastic wrap most of these cards come with some type of cellophane or plastic wrap on the heat shroud make sure you take all of that off at this point we're going to line it up but watch your cable do you see this PCI um excuse me watch your cables do you see this Wi-Fi antenna right here you don't want to just push down and knock that off so we are actually going to come down and around that and very carefully line it up with the slot now unfortunately the camera is not going to pick this up very well because you are looking directly overhead I would need a cameraman at an angle I am now lined up with the slot and then it just pushes straight down there we go now I've brought the Wi-Fi cable over it as you can see because I tilted it in went down and went around now considering the confined space in here considering that you have to come down and come over and then move it over this is why the RX 470 and 480 cards simply don't fit in these machines it's not a matter of it fitting by a few millimeters because of the need to move it in and and twist it and get it under the cables and avoid these cables you need more clearance than just a few millimeters that's why this is such a great card now once it's securely down make sure that you've got it lined up on this back plate right here and then all you do is lift that up and close it the only other thing we have to do is to make sure that our six pin PCI Express power cable is plugged in now in doing so you will notice that we have a mess of a cable now everything would actually work right at this moment the graphics card will work uh it'll last for drivers when we get into Windows but this is a mess and so we need to clean this up this is what our zip ties are for I've taken one of the zip ties out of my kit and at this point we're going to consider how we want these cables tied up so that they don't interfere but you see this six pin this uh Serial ATA power cable I'm going to want this for my SSD and the SSD is going to go right here these cables I'm going to tie together and I'll tie up with these cables and this cable so they'll all sit bunched right here behind the hard drive and they're not going to bother anything but how much I can take will depend upon how much I need for the solid uh solid state drive so I'm not going to tie it up just a second cuz I'm going to continue with the installation if you're done if you're not going to install an SSD then go ahead and tie up your cables and I'll show you that here towards the end of the video but for now I'm going to set that aside because we're going to install our solid state drive and then we'll do the fan last now to install a 2 and 1/2 in solid state drive in this machine you're going to need two things the first thing you'll need is a 2 and 1/2 in solid state drive and I have selected the excellent adata su900 256 GB solid state drive this is a new updated model from their su800 3D nand it's latest technology very nice drive I will definitely be doing some performance numbers on this soon very looking forward to trying it out the other thing you will need is a Serial ATA cable why because the way Acer sets this particular machine up is the Serial ATA cable coming off the motherboard that connects to the DVD drive is a hybrid combined cable but also has power attached to it when it plugs into the DVD drive it's all one unit so we have to replace that cable with a different one to plug into our solid state drive and here I've pulled the cable out just so you can see this is what was plugged into the DVD drive this is actually not a standard 5 and a/4 in drive this is actually a laptop DVD drive which is why it uses the mini laptop cable this is the power connector this is the data connector so you can't just disconnect this whole assembly from the DVD drive and plug it into the solid state drive down here because it's physically different the power connector is bigger so we're actually going to discard this completely I'm going to disconnect it from here their adapter and I've already unplugged it from the motherboard and now I've pulled it out of the machine this is what the whole assembly looks like and this is why to install a 2 and 1/2 in Drive of any type here you will have to have your own Serial ATA cable which is not included because this is not useful for anything but the built-in DVD drive again this is all avoidable if you get an m.2 solid state drive such as ad's SX 8,256 GB drive now this is a nice 3D nand nvme faster than the su900 it's not a lot more expensive at the time of this filming this was only $15 more I would be putting this in here except it's going into my ryzen 7 build so I wouldn't furthermore the drive cloning software with the way the Acer systems are set up really doesn't want to clone from the hard drive to an m.2 because you can't reassign the boot order in the Bios um I'm hoping you can with this but you can't with the m.2 slot so we're trying a 2 and 1/2 in Drive instead if you are okay to do a clean install of Windows 10 using a USB thumb drive and just wipe this hard drive and not keep your data so assuming you bought a new machine then this would actually be less trouble because it just installs right onto the motherboard without any trouble or fuss but we're not doing that today instead we're going to be installing this one and here is the actual solid state drive out of the kit it is a 2 and/ 12inch Drive there's a label on one side there's a label on the other it's simply a plastic case with your connectors and some flash memory in it for those of you curious as to what comes inside the box there is a warranty and service guide it does come and I like this it does come with a 2 1/2 to 3 and 1/2 in adapter and it comes with the screws these are going to be very handy because we need to screw it in here and this computer does not come with any spare screws so if you don't have screws this would be a good drive to have because it comes with them now we don't need the actual adapter because we have screw holes here you could if you needed to install this into a standard uh 3 and 1/2 in Drive Bay there are screw holes on the side to do so but we're not going to bother because we have the adapters here but we will use these screws the other thing that's included in here is this a spacer if you bought this as solid state drive to install into a laptop that actually needed the drive to be 9 1 12 mm thick you would take the uh tape strips off of here and actually insert this onto the drive in order to make it the correct thickness that just simply makes it 9 and 1 12 mm thick instead of seven but we're not going to use it because we're not using a laptop computer today now now in order to install our solid state drive here we need to turn the drive over so we see the four screw holes on the bottom make sure the power and data connectors are facing out towards the back now we simply bring it under the metal Drive cage and now we simply line the four screw holes up with the included screw holes on the machine now using a small Philips head screwdriver please note that a standard number two Phillips screwdriver is too large for these screws now we just screwed them in and there we go the last one is in place that is securely screwed and that is not going anywhere now there are four spare screws only because now there are four spare screws save these if you ever need to install another drive if you ever need to use this for anything in the future this is very nice this is coated I don't know if it's powder coated or painted metal but it's a very nice finish this would be great for installing any 2 and a/2 in drive into a 3 and 1/2 in base I'm definitely going to save that and probably use it at some point in the future now now that the solid state drive is in place I'm going to take my Serial ATA data cable I'm going to plug in one end right here like so and then the other end I'm going to run under the bottom through the uh retention clip that they've provided you can't see it it's way Buri back there but you'll see it if you buy one of these through there and then plug it into the motherboard and now you can see the cable is here it bends around there is a retention of a twist thing on the on the bottom of the case there basically it's out of sight out of mind not bothering anything thing side note one of the reasons why I had trouble cloning with an m.2 is there's no way to physically reverse the connectors the bios of the system doesn't provide you the ability to dynamically reverse the boot order it always wants to boot from one drive or the other with physical cables you can switch them when you clone the drives and the Clone is finished you may simply need to switch the cables you can switch them here or you can switch them on the board it has the same effect the ability to physically switch them is what's going to give this a good chance for Success whereas it didn't work with an m.2 now when you hear the phrase good chance of success Don't Panic keep in mind that cloning is never 100% perfect and does not work on all systems it works on most always be prepared for the fact that you might end up having to do a clean Windows reinstall if it doesn't the last thing we need to do is plug in our power connector right here and I'm going to bring this over and simply plug that in just like so now you'll notice that provides some good tension here these aren't moving very much but notice this is moving and it's going to contact your RAM and flop around this is not good we need to fix this that is what we have our zip tie for now I'm simply going to take this cable and I am going to Loop it over I'm now connecting to the same spot that the zip tie was that Acer provided I've basically got the cables pulled moderately tight but not too tight you are pulling against the graphics card so you don't want to pull this too hard you're you know you might break the end of your card but just make it reasonably snug there's a little bit of slack that's not going to go anywhere it won't hit your fan it won't touch anything now this always make sure you trim these off taking our handy pair of Clippers and there we're all done with that so far we have done our system RAM upgrade we've done our graphics card upgrade we've done our solid state drive installation cloning will happen later but we physically installed it finally we have our fan and here is what the fan looks like out of the box please note that the fan blades are twisted to blow in One Direction in this case the fan will turn this way it will bite the air and it is going to blow it in this direction so we want to make sure to install it exhausting out it's going to take the hot air from around the CPU and the graphics card and force it out the back of the system now do you have to install a case fan no I believe this will run just fine even without a case fan but having a case fan will lower temps and ensure that the graphics card runs GPU boost boost otherwise known as nvidia's Auto overclocking to its maximum potential it also ensures that if you live in a hot environment where maybe your room is not air conditioned that gives you additional cooling uh margin my home is air conditioned to 72° I don't really have a cooling issue for my computers if you live in an area where your temperatures are higher than that a fan can come in quite handy and that these are less than $10 now it does come with screws included in the package you don't need any and here here is the four pin connector that plugs into the motherboard this motherboard has a fan connector right here and that's where we're going to plug it in you simply take the fan and you want to align it with the holes in the back I'll pull it up and show you in a minute but you want to think about where this cable is going to run how do you want it to run do you want it to run around the fan and then come down do you want to run it completely clean and tie it off over here what you don't want to do is end up with this big fan cable dangling around the case so you want to give some thought to where the fan cable is going to go this is square you can Orient it in any of the 90° orientations so once you figured out your orientation and how your cable is going to go and what you're going to tie it off to now you can use a zip tie and tie it off either to this CPU power cable or to this bundle of cables get that plugged in and I'll show you how to screw it in in the back in just a second I now have my fan orientation and as you can see here the fan is through the grade and there are four screw holes right here and the fan is lined up with them magnetic screwdrivers are so handy for this sort of things standard number two philli screwdriver is all you need and it actually physically screws into the plastic so this will take a little more Force than you might be used to with a computer because there's no pre-drilled holes now screwing this in while holding it in the computer up is challenging so I'm going to lay it on the flat side and actually screw it in but that's how you do it you put them right there you screw it into the plastic and then you're done our fan is now installed and it's now plugged into the motherboard into the four pin fan connector it only goes one way so be sure to orient it correctly there are guide notches on the socket so just plug it in it should go in very easily and very smoothly that is controlled by the motherboard there's no configuration to do for that fan it's now going to blow the heat out of the back of the case we are now complete with our physical upgrades Ram is installed graphics cards installed solid state drives installed fans installed please note that this solid state drive is not actually usable until we either do a clean installation or move Windows using the provided free cloning software from adata from the hard drive to the SSD I will show you that in a different video I will link to it in the video description below when I post it but this is all about the upgrades one question many people ask is should they go ahead and think about replacing this power supply and the answer is no this power supply is just fine 300 WS it will drive this graphics card just fine there is simply no need to replace it if you think you need more than 300 WTS you probably shouldn't buy a pre-built like this you should buy a custom built or build your own it is just fine these are the only four upgrades I would make to this computer like this video if you like it share it with your friends if you loved it remember to subscribe to my Channel with a big huge red button directly below this video questions and comments in the comment section and as always check out the video description links to buy this computer the solid state drive the graphics card the ram upgrades and the fan will all be down there at Amazon and Newegg as appropriate finally my link to my Twitter account and my Patron account is down there if you want to support me you like my videos and you want to see more of this please by all means consider supporting me anything you can offer is greatly appreciated thank you so much for watching my video I will see you next timehello and welcome to Tech deals how to guide how to install system Ram a solid state drive a graphics card and a case fan into this $450 Acer Aspire T desktop computer now I've previously done reviews of these computers in the past and there will be more upcoming performance videos however for now we are simply doing a howto video to physically install these four components and here we are looking at the top down view you can see our Acer Aspire T computer here you can see we have two memory sticks I'm actually going to replace the included memory stick for a match set you don't have to do that I'm just doing it because I can we have our 256 GB solid state drive we have our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card and then finally we have our case fan that we'll be installing in the back the first step is to take a screwdriver and to take off the two screws on the back of the case here you want the side of the case with the vent holes facing upward laying on its side on a flat surface and then we simply take the handle here and we slide it back you will see the metal strip right here once it's back this far it simply lifts straight off and we'll set that aside here you can see the inside of the computer case briefly this is our main power supply this is what takes the AC power from the wall and turns it into the various power sources that our computer requires this is the cooling fan on top of our processor underneath that is actually the processor itself here you can see one 8 gig memory stick there is a free slot here for a second 8 gig stick now I'm going to be replacing both of them with my match set however if you use the links in the video description below to order your memory stick you can just buy one 8 gig stick and install it here leaving the existing memory stick in place this here is the back end of the hard drive sticking out it's attached to the side of the case right here with these screws we're not going to be messing with that at all we'll leave that right there this is going to be the mounting point for our solid state Drive these four holes it's going to mount here sticking out to the back now it is worth noting that this computer case only comes with two Serial ATA ports on the motherboard in order to make use of our solid state drive we are going to have to lose the DVD burner the DVD reader and writer which is up here you can't see it it's behind there now I don't care because I don't use these if you do care you have two choices briefly you can install in this small slot right here A Serial ATA uh access card that will give you two additional Serial ATA ports but if you do so then you won't be able to install a graphics card here because it would block it because it uses both slots another option is to install an m.2 SSD you can't see it from here but it's actually right underneath the hard drive on the motherboard I actually did that on the previous Acer Aspire T the problem with doing that is then you can't clone Windows you have to do a clean install I have tried endlessly to get it to clone from a Serial ATA drive it doesn't want to do that so we are installing a 2 1/2 in SSD in order to allow us to use the cloning software and we're just ditching the DVD burner and here you can see the inside of the computer case really briefly this is our main power supply this draws power from the wall and converts it to the 12vt 5vt and 3.3v power that all of our components need now this does not need to be replaced in order to install our GTX 1060 graphics card because we'll be using this included power adapter which came with the graphics card it'll work just fine if you want to put something more powerful in yes you'd need to replace it but this is the wrong computer if you want something faster than that card this right here is the cooling fan for our processor underneath this is actually the processor don't mess with it it's fine but that's what that is we have our single 8 GB memory stick here now I'm going to be replacing this with my matched set of memory just because I can however if you order an 8 GB ddr4 memory stick using my link in the video description you don't have have to do that by 1 18 gig stick it'll work just stick it in and put them together now this is the hard drive that's actually sticking out it's mounted here on these four points the hard drive power and data we're not going to be messing with we will however be copying windows from the hard drive to the SSD retaining our data in programs up here you can't see it but it's screwed in right here is our DVD drive sticking out the front this is our PCI Express graphics card slot this right here is where our GTX 1060 is going to install this pops up here I'll show you that when we get to that part and then finally right here even though you can't see it very well at the moment is where we're going to be installing our fan now the solid state drive is going to go into these four holes right here and mount next to the hard drive they provide us with a place to put it so it'll Mount here and we'll connect the cables when we get there at the bottom of the system this right here is the Wi-Fi adapter if you're curious it actually is replaceable it is module in a slot on the motherboard the two wires connecting to it run up to the top of the case providing you an internal antenna and you can actually see one of them run back here connected to this box on the back so one runs to the front one runs to the back that is your Wi-Fi adapter if you are curious first things first let's do the easy installation our main system Ram now system Ram is very straightforward because there's no configuration and there are these two release tabs that you push out on both sides I just pushed out the white tabs for the open memory slot but to demonstrate how to remove memory I'm going to remove this module by pushing down on this tab and it pops it up and I'll push down on this tab and pop it up no real forces required those are very easy to open once they're down you'll actually physically see the memory come up you just slide it out gently that takes finger pressure and there is our 8 GB ddr4 memory stick you can identify ddr4 because it is uh taller in the middle than it is on on the sides this Notch is not in the middle this Notch is also in a different spot for ddr2 DDR3 and ddr4 you cannot switch between the types if your memory slots are DDR3 you have to use three if they're four you have to use four so we have ddr4 so I'm going to be installing two 8 GB memory sticks ddr4 into this machine I'm going to go ahead and set this aside I'll save it for something else you do not have to use matched memory but I'm going to simply because well I had this kit sitting on the shelf and I don't have a spare single stick of eight so when you take the memory you want to look at the Notch and you want to look at the notch on the motherboard you want to make sure that the shorter end lines up with the shorter end memory goes straight down and straight up it does not tilt like this it does not Tilt at an angle and these edges of the circuit board of the memory slide into these Groove slots right here all you have to do is line it up vertically and insert it gently into those slots and it will rest like so there's a little bit of Wiggle cuz I haven't push down on it I'm not moving it I'm just touching it barely so you want to put your fingers on either end of it and push down at the same time and you'll hear two clicks one two there we go so that memory module is now installed we'll take our next memory module and I'll line it up and I'll insert the notches on either end and it goes in just like that and one two the memory is installed now if all you're interested in doing is upgrading your RAM you would just install your second stick of memory into this one leaving the first I just did this because like I said I had the kit on the shelf and then put the cover back on turn the machine on it will automatically detect that you now have 16 gigs of RAM windows will automatically use it there is nothing left to do are done at this point easiest upgrade ever however if you are still interested in doing any of the other upgrades and stick around we're going to keep doing that the next upgrade is going to be our graphics card now there's our graphics card slot and one of the most common questions I get on my channel is which should I buy a GeForce GTX 1060 or an AMD rx470 or 480 now in terms of performance per dollar the RX 470 and 480 are actually a better deal at the moment than the GTX 1060 however this is an EVGA GTX 1060 super clocked graphics card it's going to install right there take a look at the clearance it fits just fine there's our six pin power connector it is a moderately sized unit that fits perfectly in pre-built machines and I highly highly recommend that card now another card that I have reviewed in the past are cards such as this this is an Asus Republic of Gamers stricks rx470 you can buy these for $50 or less below the cost of the GTX 1060 however take a look at the length that's how it would sit in the slot this drive cage is in the way same thing I will take an MSI here is an MSI armor OC rx470 these also are in the $130 to $150 range and that's where it would install again they're too large and finally we have an XFX rx470 very nice card very good deal take a look at the size it does not fit I have a number of rx470 and rx480 cards none of them fit into these pre-built machines the drive cages are in the way cables are in the way it is nothing but trouble furthermore many of these now this one has a six pin the MSI has an8 pin would require replac in the power supply the GTX 1060 does not and this is an important point because most of these are 150 plus watt cards that is 120 watt card so it's much more compatible with lower wattage power supplies my advice if you are custom building your own machine in a larger case than this the RX 470 and 480 are the deal but if you buy a pre-built such as this in a smaller mini tower case the GTX 1060 is what you want to buy so with that out of the way we have two adapter options this is two Molex adapters to one six pin PCI Express this comes with the EVGA superclocked card not all 1060s will come with a free adapter great card great price now this computer does have the two Molex connectors here's one one's down there that you will need but they're covered by twist ties and so you will need to take Clippers and you will need to cut these with that out of the way and of course make sure you cut the plastic tie and not the power cables with that out of the way we now have two Molex power connectors we can connect to this now I've done this before in other rebuilds this is a 300 W power supply this will work just fine you do not have to replace this to install that graphics card another option if you don't want to use these is you can use the Serial ATA power connector using an adapter such as this now this did not come with that I have these from other situations this takes a Serial ATA power connector and converts it to a six pin connector so it is an alternative option if you have a different pre-built machine or yours whatever reason doesn't have two Molex connectors that's the other way you can get to a six pin PCI Express power cable but since I have these I'm going to use them and the trick is these kind of move around a bit so you just cut a there we go I had that one been pretty easily actually and there we go and now you'll notice we have a mess of cables this is why I use these cable ties these are about $5 for 200 cable ties I'll put a link in the video description below to Amazon if you are doing upgrades spend five bucks and get these now if you already have some by all means you know use them but these are much better than twist ties because these are flat and thus don't bite into the cables over time furthermore they can be adjusted tightened or loosened and they're going to stay Once you pull them tight they're never ever going to come loose again 200 of them for five bucks I use them on all my builds this has lasted me for a year and a half these will last you a long long time so for now I'm just putting that aside to get out of the way we have to prepare the back of the case in order to handle our graphics card now this tab here is toolless and it's very nice take a look at that that just pops open just like so no screws or anything very easy however the back plates are covered you have to remove them in order to install the graphics card what does it look like I have now turned the computer on the front this is the back you can see the power supply is way up here at the top this is where our additional fan for cooling is going to go to make sure that our nice graphics card doesn't get too hot and then here are the slots coming out the back now you can see this blocks the way I just wanted to show you how it opened I'm actually going to go ahead and close it now and you'll see how it covers it up just like so while we're back here this is a convenient time to point out that if you are not adding a graphics card we we have an HDMI out and a VGA outport if you want to use those this supports 1080p at 60 HZ no problem you can plug in a computer monitor there and you'll be rocking and rolling however we are not going to use it so make sure that if you had previously plugged in a monitor to this port you switch it to your graphics card now to do this properly you need a standard Philip screwdriver we need to remove these top two plates they don't screw off they break off they're actually only attached by two notches here and one in the middle do you see these two crosses we take this we stick it in here and we push and then bend and you're going to have to bend it back and forth there we go we pop it out and we pop it down and all you're trying to do here is break the metal very carefully back and forth back and forth now normally you wouldn't do it with it sitting up because when it breaks it's going to fall into the machine but I want to show it to you so that you can see what it looks like do it when it's on its side so that you can catch it when it falls off one of those do as I say not as I do things because I'm trying to do it for the camera and there we go part of it's broken off and now we can just wiggle it back and forth now if you don't have a screw well first of all you need the screwdriver to take the out of the case off and put everything else in but this is how you this is this is how I remove them anyway I'm sure somebody in the comments will say hey there's an easier way to do it actually there probably is you could take a pair of pliers and push them back and forth but hey they provide the the crosses for you and if you only have a screwdriver there you go do make an effort when you're doing this not to bend the case this metal on the case here is very thin there we go I just spent about 20 or 30 seconds working it back and forth you're just weakening these metal notches these just put in recycle they're done you'll never use them again we now have the opening for the graphics card and in a minute you're going to see the ports through those spaces and here we are with the computer back on the side now I don't advise you to turn the machine up just take your screwdriver and come in at the side I'm just doing that for the camera at this point we'll simply make sure that our latch is over we're going to take our graphics card make sure that all of your covers off of the ports make sure that any protective cover on the um golden fingers down here is off and make sure you've also taken a plastic wrap most of these cards come with some type of cellophane or plastic wrap on the heat shroud make sure you take all of that off at this point we're going to line it up but watch your cable do you see this PCI um excuse me watch your cables do you see this Wi-Fi antenna right here you don't want to just push down and knock that off so we are actually going to come down and around that and very carefully line it up with the slot now unfortunately the camera is not going to pick this up very well because you are looking directly overhead I would need a cameraman at an angle I am now lined up with the slot and then it just pushes straight down there we go now I've brought the Wi-Fi cable over it as you can see because I tilted it in went down and went around now considering the confined space in here considering that you have to come down and come over and then move it over this is why the RX 470 and 480 cards simply don't fit in these machines it's not a matter of it fitting by a few millimeters because of the need to move it in and and twist it and get it under the cables and avoid these cables you need more clearance than just a few millimeters that's why this is such a great card now once it's securely down make sure that you've got it lined up on this back plate right here and then all you do is lift that up and close it the only other thing we have to do is to make sure that our six pin PCI Express power cable is plugged in now in doing so you will notice that we have a mess of a cable now everything would actually work right at this moment the graphics card will work uh it'll last for drivers when we get into Windows but this is a mess and so we need to clean this up this is what our zip ties are for I've taken one of the zip ties out of my kit and at this point we're going to consider how we want these cables tied up so that they don't interfere but you see this six pin this uh Serial ATA power cable I'm going to want this for my SSD and the SSD is going to go right here these cables I'm going to tie together and I'll tie up with these cables and this cable so they'll all sit bunched right here behind the hard drive and they're not going to bother anything but how much I can take will depend upon how much I need for the solid uh solid state drive so I'm not going to tie it up just a second cuz I'm going to continue with the installation if you're done if you're not going to install an SSD then go ahead and tie up your cables and I'll show you that here towards the end of the video but for now I'm going to set that aside because we're going to install our solid state drive and then we'll do the fan last now to install a 2 and 1/2 in solid state drive in this machine you're going to need two things the first thing you'll need is a 2 and 1/2 in solid state drive and I have selected the excellent adata su900 256 GB solid state drive this is a new updated model from their su800 3D nand it's latest technology very nice drive I will definitely be doing some performance numbers on this soon very looking forward to trying it out the other thing you will need is a Serial ATA cable why because the way Acer sets this particular machine up is the Serial ATA cable coming off the motherboard that connects to the DVD drive is a hybrid combined cable but also has power attached to it when it plugs into the DVD drive it's all one unit so we have to replace that cable with a different one to plug into our solid state drive and here I've pulled the cable out just so you can see this is what was plugged into the DVD drive this is actually not a standard 5 and a/4 in drive this is actually a laptop DVD drive which is why it uses the mini laptop cable this is the power connector this is the data connector so you can't just disconnect this whole assembly from the DVD drive and plug it into the solid state drive down here because it's physically different the power connector is bigger so we're actually going to discard this completely I'm going to disconnect it from here their adapter and I've already unplugged it from the motherboard and now I've pulled it out of the machine this is what the whole assembly looks like and this is why to install a 2 and 1/2 in Drive of any type here you will have to have your own Serial ATA cable which is not included because this is not useful for anything but the built-in DVD drive again this is all avoidable if you get an m.2 solid state drive such as ad's SX 8,256 GB drive now this is a nice 3D nand nvme faster than the su900 it's not a lot more expensive at the time of this filming this was only $15 more I would be putting this in here except it's going into my ryzen 7 build so I wouldn't furthermore the drive cloning software with the way the Acer systems are set up really doesn't want to clone from the hard drive to an m.2 because you can't reassign the boot order in the Bios um I'm hoping you can with this but you can't with the m.2 slot so we're trying a 2 and 1/2 in Drive instead if you are okay to do a clean install of Windows 10 using a USB thumb drive and just wipe this hard drive and not keep your data so assuming you bought a new machine then this would actually be less trouble because it just installs right onto the motherboard without any trouble or fuss but we're not doing that today instead we're going to be installing this one and here is the actual solid state drive out of the kit it is a 2 and/ 12inch Drive there's a label on one side there's a label on the other it's simply a plastic case with your connectors and some flash memory in it for those of you curious as to what comes inside the box there is a warranty and service guide it does come and I like this it does come with a 2 1/2 to 3 and 1/2 in adapter and it comes with the screws these are going to be very handy because we need to screw it in here and this computer does not come with any spare screws so if you don't have screws this would be a good drive to have because it comes with them now we don't need the actual adapter because we have screw holes here you could if you needed to install this into a standard uh 3 and 1/2 in Drive Bay there are screw holes on the side to do so but we're not going to bother because we have the adapters here but we will use these screws the other thing that's included in here is this a spacer if you bought this as solid state drive to install into a laptop that actually needed the drive to be 9 1 12 mm thick you would take the uh tape strips off of here and actually insert this onto the drive in order to make it the correct thickness that just simply makes it 9 and 1 12 mm thick instead of seven but we're not going to use it because we're not using a laptop computer today now now in order to install our solid state drive here we need to turn the drive over so we see the four screw holes on the bottom make sure the power and data connectors are facing out towards the back now we simply bring it under the metal Drive cage and now we simply line the four screw holes up with the included screw holes on the machine now using a small Philips head screwdriver please note that a standard number two Phillips screwdriver is too large for these screws now we just screwed them in and there we go the last one is in place that is securely screwed and that is not going anywhere now there are four spare screws only because now there are four spare screws save these if you ever need to install another drive if you ever need to use this for anything in the future this is very nice this is coated I don't know if it's powder coated or painted metal but it's a very nice finish this would be great for installing any 2 and a/2 in drive into a 3 and 1/2 in base I'm definitely going to save that and probably use it at some point in the future now now that the solid state drive is in place I'm going to take my Serial ATA data cable I'm going to plug in one end right here like so and then the other end I'm going to run under the bottom through the uh retention clip that they've provided you can't see it it's way Buri back there but you'll see it if you buy one of these through there and then plug it into the motherboard and now you can see the cable is here it bends around there is a retention of a twist thing on the on the bottom of the case there basically it's out of sight out of mind not bothering anything thing side note one of the reasons why I had trouble cloning with an m.2 is there's no way to physically reverse the connectors the bios of the system doesn't provide you the ability to dynamically reverse the boot order it always wants to boot from one drive or the other with physical cables you can switch them when you clone the drives and the Clone is finished you may simply need to switch the cables you can switch them here or you can switch them on the board it has the same effect the ability to physically switch them is what's going to give this a good chance for Success whereas it didn't work with an m.2 now when you hear the phrase good chance of success Don't Panic keep in mind that cloning is never 100% perfect and does not work on all systems it works on most always be prepared for the fact that you might end up having to do a clean Windows reinstall if it doesn't the last thing we need to do is plug in our power connector right here and I'm going to bring this over and simply plug that in just like so now you'll notice that provides some good tension here these aren't moving very much but notice this is moving and it's going to contact your RAM and flop around this is not good we need to fix this that is what we have our zip tie for now I'm simply going to take this cable and I am going to Loop it over I'm now connecting to the same spot that the zip tie was that Acer provided I've basically got the cables pulled moderately tight but not too tight you are pulling against the graphics card so you don't want to pull this too hard you're you know you might break the end of your card but just make it reasonably snug there's a little bit of slack that's not going to go anywhere it won't hit your fan it won't touch anything now this always make sure you trim these off taking our handy pair of Clippers and there we're all done with that so far we have done our system RAM upgrade we've done our graphics card upgrade we've done our solid state drive installation cloning will happen later but we physically installed it finally we have our fan and here is what the fan looks like out of the box please note that the fan blades are twisted to blow in One Direction in this case the fan will turn this way it will bite the air and it is going to blow it in this direction so we want to make sure to install it exhausting out it's going to take the hot air from around the CPU and the graphics card and force it out the back of the system now do you have to install a case fan no I believe this will run just fine even without a case fan but having a case fan will lower temps and ensure that the graphics card runs GPU boost boost otherwise known as nvidia's Auto overclocking to its maximum potential it also ensures that if you live in a hot environment where maybe your room is not air conditioned that gives you additional cooling uh margin my home is air conditioned to 72° I don't really have a cooling issue for my computers if you live in an area where your temperatures are higher than that a fan can come in quite handy and that these are less than $10 now it does come with screws included in the package you don't need any and here here is the four pin connector that plugs into the motherboard this motherboard has a fan connector right here and that's where we're going to plug it in you simply take the fan and you want to align it with the holes in the back I'll pull it up and show you in a minute but you want to think about where this cable is going to run how do you want it to run do you want it to run around the fan and then come down do you want to run it completely clean and tie it off over here what you don't want to do is end up with this big fan cable dangling around the case so you want to give some thought to where the fan cable is going to go this is square you can Orient it in any of the 90° orientations so once you figured out your orientation and how your cable is going to go and what you're going to tie it off to now you can use a zip tie and tie it off either to this CPU power cable or to this bundle of cables get that plugged in and I'll show you how to screw it in in the back in just a second I now have my fan orientation and as you can see here the fan is through the grade and there are four screw holes right here and the fan is lined up with them magnetic screwdrivers are so handy for this sort of things standard number two philli screwdriver is all you need and it actually physically screws into the plastic so this will take a little more Force than you might be used to with a computer because there's no pre-drilled holes now screwing this in while holding it in the computer up is challenging so I'm going to lay it on the flat side and actually screw it in but that's how you do it you put them right there you screw it into the plastic and then you're done our fan is now installed and it's now plugged into the motherboard into the four pin fan connector it only goes one way so be sure to orient it correctly there are guide notches on the socket so just plug it in it should go in very easily and very smoothly that is controlled by the motherboard there's no configuration to do for that fan it's now going to blow the heat out of the back of the case we are now complete with our physical upgrades Ram is installed graphics cards installed solid state drives installed fans installed please note that this solid state drive is not actually usable until we either do a clean installation or move Windows using the provided free cloning software from adata from the hard drive to the SSD I will show you that in a different video I will link to it in the video description below when I post it but this is all about the upgrades one question many people ask is should they go ahead and think about replacing this power supply and the answer is no this power supply is just fine 300 WS it will drive this graphics card just fine there is simply no need to replace it if you think you need more than 300 WTS you probably shouldn't buy a pre-built like this you should buy a custom built or build your own it is just fine these are the only four upgrades I would make to this computer like this video if you like it share it with your friends if you loved it remember to subscribe to my Channel with a big huge red button directly below this video questions and comments in the comment section and as always check out the video description links to buy this computer the solid state drive the graphics card the ram upgrades and the fan will all be down there at Amazon and Newegg as appropriate finally my link to my Twitter account and my Patron account is down there if you want to support me you like my videos and you want to see more of this please by all means consider supporting me anything you can offer is greatly appreciated thank you so much for watching my video I will see you next time\n"