How to Install RAM and Hard Drives

How to Install RAM & Hard Drives...

If you are building or upgrading your PC for the first time, then it may seem a little confusing at first on how you actually install certain components. Once you understand which port is for which component, and learn what they look like, then it all becomes so much simpler.
In this article I will show you how to install two, standard DDR2 RAM cards and a SATA connectivity hard drive.

Step 1: Know Your Motherboard

Knowing what's what on your motherboard before you start to install new components is a very useful piece of knowledge to have beforehand. Knowing where things like the RAM* ports, SATA* and IDE* connectors, PCIE* ports etc. will aid you a lot when installing new components.

Here is an example of useful components on a motherboard that you should know:

In ORANGE is the IDE connector. This is what you would use to connect your old IDE hard drives to. 

In GREEN are the PCI slots. These are used for components such as graphics card that use PCI connectivity. They are the older version but are still used.

In RED is the PCIe x16 slot. This is the newer, faster version of PCI which most new graphics cards use.

In PINK are the SATA connectors. This is what we will be focusing on when installing our hard drive.

In YELLOW we have the DDR2 RAM slots. We will also be focusing on these when installing our RAM cards.

Step 2: Choosing the Right Components

When upgrading or building your PC, you need to consider if the components you are using are compatible with your motherboard. For example, our motherboard supports DDR2 RAM which obviously means we need some DDR2 RAM cards. How do we know which is which? Simple. The little notch on the bottom of the RAM card will tell you. The diagram below will explain:

Top: DDR Middle: DDR2 Bottom: DDR3

Now that we know which type of RAM we are using, what type of hard drive do we need? This question can also be easily answered. Our motherboard supports IDE and SATA hard drives so the drive you choose will most likely be compatible with any motherboard in terms of connection type. Knowing the difference between the two is simple. Take a look at the diagram below:

Connections for a SATA drive ¬ They are shaped like that

IDE cable and drive connection

You should consider a SATA drive over an IDE one as these are becoming less widely used. SATA provides much faster drive performance when accessing the drive, reading and writing data.

Step 3: Installing the Components

So now that we know where the ports and connectors are on the motherboard and the difference between DDR, DDR2, DDR3, IDE and SATA, we can finally move on to the fun part. Installing the components!

Here are a few videos that give you a tutorial on how to install the components we have talked about:

Installing the RAM:

Installing the Hard Drive: