Want to play the latest PC games? It's probably not as straight forward as buying the latest graphics card.

I'd love to say that all of the below was done on purpose in order to illustrate what can go wrong when upgrading your PC. But the simple fact is, the more confident you are, the more likely you will be to charge into doing it without proper planning and you'll make things very difficult for yourself. Virtually everything that could go wrong, went wrong here. Hopefully, people can learn from it.

I wanted to play the latest games and see them at their best. For me it was Battlefield 4 that tipped me over the edge but what follows is true for all high-graphics games - especially ones which play online.

I thought I'd only need to replace the graphics card but ended up replacing virtually every component, installing a new Operating System from scratch and losing enormous amounts of data which had to be replaced from an online backup. Please learn from what I did. I can assure you that you won't want to do similar.

Here's a highly-distilled version of this article with key points:

Anytime you open your computer you can break something. You may juggle PC components at work for a living - this only makes it more likely that yours will break when you are extra careful with your own unit. Backup first! No really, even if it's just the settings to your favourite programs, back them up. You might not ever see them again. Power supplies are central to everything. Make sure you have a good one that offers stable power and the correct power connectors before you do anything. Don't expect the latest graphics card to just slot in and work. Just because you have a new Core i7 processor, doesn't mean it will fit in your old motherboard's Core i7 socket. Operating System installation crashes are nearly always RAM related. Avoid Windows 8 for desktop PCs. Windows 7 is less likely to cause problems.

First issue - Graphics cards

All I thought I needed to do was replace the graphics card.

Originally I had two Nvidia GTX 560s plugged into a Gigabyte EX58 motherboard. However, the motherboard heatpipes below the second card overheated when the second card was used. The intermittent heat-related fault that ensued was very hard to pin down - the clue was that it crashed at regular time intervals after the system had started and warmed up. Overheating is usually a sign that a fan has failed, it's full of dust or that you have moved your computer somewhere with less air flow. On-screen aberrations can point to the graphics card being the problem.

Once isolated, no amount of extra fans could keep things cool enough so I had to settle for single card operation. But a single GTX 560 struggles to play Battlefield at 1280 x 800 resolution on Medium settings (it's fine for Call of Duty Ghosts on High settings - but that's rubbish). It was time for some more oomph so I got in an AMD Radeon R9 290.

The first thing to note is that all of the latest beast cards require a minimum 600 Watt Power Supply - the peak power draw can be over 300 Watts! My Cooler Master unit seemed to fit the bill. However, the first installation problem quickly occurred: it requires both an eight-pin and a six-pin power connector and my power supply didn't have any spare.

So for the first time in years I was phoning up local computer shops until I found a nearby one which sold me a Molex power connector adapter which converted a few old disc-drive power connectors into what I needed. First crisis averted. Or so I thought...

After booting, whenever the card fired-up properly the system died - a clear sign that there was not enough power flowing to the card. If this happens to you, stop trying to start the system and hope it gets better - it's extremely unhealthy for a PC to shut down in this way as something can break.

Issue 2 - the Power Supply

Quite simply, the cheap Cooler Master PSU (Power Supply Unit) was not capable of delivering STABLE power to the card. When gamers and geeks express the importance of 'CLEAN POWER' from an expensive, high-quality power supply, believe them. There's a great guide to buying on Whirlpool, here.

So I obtained an Antec 1000W High Current Pro Platinum Edition (1000W is overkill, but I need this to support future iterations of multiple graphics cards). With a ,modular unit like this, you only use the cables you need (no more dealing with robotic, mutant-octopus-like power supplies in your PC's case) and you just know that it's going to power anything you stick in your computer.



Old versus new. One power supply almost killed the computer and swamped it with octopus like tentacular-cables. The other didn't.

Turned everything on. It worked. I should probably have stopped at this point. I recommend you do too unless you have noticeable issues with the following...

Issue 3 - The CPU

It's worth noting that some of the latest games also need fast CPUs. So while all this was happening I sent out for a new Core i7 processor to replace my old Core i7 processor.

First things first - check the socket type of your processor. Not all Intel Core processors have the same socket - even if they are both i7s! At the same time - never ever do this without backing up your hard disk properly. There's more about this and the catastrophic consequences, below.

I discovered that the new chip wouldn't fit, only after dismantling the computer and removing the heatsink (which keeps the processor cool) - one of the worst jobs known to man.

But then a second problem hit me. The fiddling with the processor and heatsink (which usually involves literally stabbing at the motherboard with a screwdriver and cutting your hand to ribbons) had done something. Something terrible. And with the old processor replaced and the heatsink manipulated back into place (ugh), the computer wouldn't boot at all. This can be because there's not enough pressure on the CPU from the heatsink. But after excessive fiddling here and reseating every other component which might have come loose, I had a dead PC.

This all meant that I needed a new motherboard. And because it would be daft to buy an old model for the old CPU, I chose one that would use the latest CPU socket. That also meant getting a new heatsink and fan. Suddenly things were looking very expensive.

Issue 4 - The heatsink

This time, when obtaining a heatsink I plumped for Corsair's excellent H75. While this is technically a liquid-cooled system it's not too complicated to fit (you don't have to do your own plumbing as with other liquid coolers). A base unit screws onto the motherboard while a fan-chilled radiator is bolted onto the case's rear. Screwing the fans and radiator on all at once is a tricky business, but this may well be the first time I've replaced the CPU cooler without slicing my hands apart. Recommended!



You don't have to know much about heatsinks to know that it's easier to handle the one on the right than the traditional unit on the left.

Issue 5 - The Motherboard again

I sent out for a new motherboard and Intel-itself delivered one of its own. However, the problem with old motherboard review stock is that it's been used before - usually by overclockers - and the board wasn't in the best condition. But I only found that out down the line.

The Intel board wouldn't boot, but it would beep and the beeps indicated a memory problem. (I think we should have a rule that whenever you do a PC upgrade or fix, be sure to have another device that can still access the internet while your PC is in bits. Finding old manuals online and learning about similar issues that others have suffered is invaluable.)

After a great deal of trial and error, I established that only two of the memory slots on the board worked. This meant that the performance boost of having triple-channel memory was lost on me. It also meant that I had just two 2GB sticks of memory to work with. But there was another problem. A big one.

Issue 6 - The hard disk and Operating System

The old Intel X58 chipset is very different to current chipsets. Sometimes you can get away with attaching a hard disk to a new computer and it still boots. That's what I planned to do this time - and then install all the latest drivers (software which makes the hardware work).

Computer said 'No.'

It wouldn't get into Windows Safe Mode or anything. And I hadn't (knowingly) backed anything up.

Mercifully, the hard disk wasn't corrupt, so I hit F8 when starting up and chose the Command Prompt option. Here I was able to use the xcopy command to transfer all information onto a separate portable hard disk. Phew! Or so I thought.

When doing this, FOR PITY'S SAKE REMEMBER TO USE THE /H COMMAND TO ENSURE YOU COPY ALL THE HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS. The number of important things I lost here was enormous and it was only blind luck that got them back. You could lose settings for all of your important programs and huge databases like those used with Outlook and Picasa. Trust me. You don't want to lose them. There is more about xcopy commands here.

Issue 7 - Installing the Operating System

Working in a PC Lab for many years made one thing abundantly clear: if your OS Blue Screens during installation, it's virtually always the RAM. Once the OS is installed, you can use the same RAM and enjoy a stable environment. But if it starts Blue Screening when installing, only use one stick to install with. If that still fails, use one of the other sticks. Doing that really should work. And this fixed things for me.

As it was, now that I was confident of having all of my main hard disk (an Intel SSD) backed up, I opted for a clean install of Windows 8.

I've installed Windows 8 a few times before - as an upgrade. In each instance I've eventually got sick of its lag and stability issues and reverted back to Windows 7 - which has never given me a problem. However, I figured that a new computer meant it was time for a clean install of Windows 8 and that's what I did.

I will note at this point that I've tried upgrading operating systems since Windows 95. I don't think it's ever gone well. Microsoft happily sells upgrade packs but ALWAYS use them to perform a clean install. I've inevitably ended up swearing at my computer and wishing I'd never done it. Clean or nothing is a good rule to follow.

The Windows 8 installation is straight forward but, frankly, I still wish I hadn't bothered. Especially considering that there are many programs, drivers and apps which still struggle with the subsequent Windows 8.1 update. Everything on Windows 7 works and it will do for a long time to come. Plus, the determination of Microsoft to build the likes of Skype and OneDrive into the operating system makes life a problem if multiple people hop on to the one computer (as in my house) and want to use different Skype and OneDrive accounts but can't - unless you unlink your OS log-in with your online Microsoft account log-in - which suddenly stops other things working. The insistence of Windows 8 to use special apps instead of normal desktop programs is still a bane for me. I've found it works quite well on tablets. But if you've got a normal Desktop PC, I strongly recommend sticking with Windows 7. I miss it all the time.

Issue 8 - Motherboards again

So I needed more than 4GB of RAM to actually work and a new Gigabyte X79-UP4 was requisitioned - at this point I wanted something which was likely to be reliable above all. There have been no problems yet and it's been running for months. The layout and power supply has also meant that running two Radeon R9 290s in CrossFire has been possible with no overheating.



Gigabyte's X79-UP4 has been very reliable so far.

That said, somewhere on this earth is a person who will make it simple to install and uninstall the backplane cover to the motherboard I/O ports on a PC case. Wherever you are, please hurry up and invent the new standard as the existing one has sucked since forever.

Issue 9 - RAM

This wasn't an essential upgrade, but when you're updating an old PC to a cutting-edge behemoth, there shouldn't be any potential bottlenecks.

In my case the 6GB of 1600MHz Corsair RAM that I had might have contributed to poor gaming performance at high-settings. Much later down the line, after abundant testing, I established that it didn't. Nonetheless, the new latest 12GB version of the same Corsair RAM has never caused any issues and I know that there's headroom for the future.

Issue 10 - Hard Disk

When Battlefield first launched it could take some people, but not all, more than a minute to connect to a server. While this has likely been fixed to some degree by now, I can verify that installing the game file onto your boot SSD fixes this issue. If you're playing a beefy game regularly - especially if it's online - you really don't want to be using a mechanical hard disk. Even then, I've used some cheap and cheerful SSDs in my time which have usually suffered from major stability issues. But, for what it's worth, neither of my Intel models have ever had a problem. I recommend those.

Issue 11 - CrossFire

Using two graphics cards at once can make games faster. But don't expect double the performance - the difference can be very small. However, as I've learned over the years, using two cards can also make a game go slower. If a game is new and the graphics drivers aren't optimised for a certain game, that game can run horrendously. Turning off CrossFire (or SLI with Nvidia cards) usually provides an instant fix - assuming you're already using the latest drivers.

12, 13, 14 and many more issues - Software

Not backing up Steam or Origin files beforehand was a major headache. Even if your Steam files are secured on a different hard disk, you can't re-use them. Not preparing properly for the transferral of Outlook, Adobe Creative Suite, Filezilla, Picasa, Firefox and many other programs also caused big problems. We'll cover the software issues that I had to deal with, plus how to avoid them, in the follow-up article.

Hopefully, the above is helpful and you can avoid what I did off the back of it! Let us know if you have any tips or tricks to add.