Yesterday, I had occasion to put the hardware in computer hardware. It started when I needed to purchase a new video card for company use in our internet training studio.
Such a thing normally wouldn't be problematic in the least, but this upgrade needed to be performed on a slim desktop tower PC, which I've always had trouble upgrading because they require cards with special dimensions. Thankfully, I found a superb card at a reasonable price that included a mounting bracket made to fit slim tower PCs.
On bottom is the normal bracket, a skinny one that's far too wide for the slim tower. On top is the special bracket; much less wide, but taller to compensate. I went about swapping the brackets and looking ahead to the PC.
However...
The thick bracket made for this kind of PC was too tall vertically to fit. And...
The skinny traditional bracket was much too wide to fit. This is where other hardware had to be brought into play.
Namely, a hacksaw.
The hacked-off skinny bracket was exactly as wide as the card itself, and thus also the same width as the specialized slim tower bracket.
I found that I also needed to modify the case a slight bit as well, in order to have room for the VGA connector to attach. I made a cut with the hacksaw to create a thin slot...
Then folded the tab outward so that I could still utilize the screw to attach the cover to the computer case. Lastly, I put it all back together and attached the VGA cable.
Everything turned out fine in the end, even though it's not really ideal. The real lesson here is that I'll make sure we never again purchase another slim tower, they're just too much hassle unless you take the time to move them over to a traditional case (and upgrade the power supply while you're at it...) or are able to find the specialized upgrade parts that actually fit.
Thanks for reading!
Such a thing normally wouldn't be problematic in the least, but this upgrade needed to be performed on a slim desktop tower PC, which I've always had trouble upgrading because they require cards with special dimensions. Thankfully, I found a superb card at a reasonable price that included a mounting bracket made to fit slim tower PCs.
On bottom is the normal bracket, a skinny one that's far too wide for the slim tower. On top is the special bracket; much less wide, but taller to compensate. I went about swapping the brackets and looking ahead to the PC.
However...
The thick bracket made for this kind of PC was too tall vertically to fit. And...
The skinny traditional bracket was much too wide to fit. This is where other hardware had to be brought into play.
Namely, a hacksaw.
The hacked-off skinny bracket was exactly as wide as the card itself, and thus also the same width as the specialized slim tower bracket.
I found that I also needed to modify the case a slight bit as well, in order to have room for the VGA connector to attach. I made a cut with the hacksaw to create a thin slot...
Then folded the tab outward so that I could still utilize the screw to attach the cover to the computer case. Lastly, I put it all back together and attached the VGA cable.
Everything turned out fine in the end, even though it's not really ideal. The real lesson here is that I'll make sure we never again purchase another slim tower, they're just too much hassle unless you take the time to move them over to a traditional case (and upgrade the power supply while you're at it...) or are able to find the specialized upgrade parts that actually fit.Thanks for reading!
