I went and did an upgrade to my G20 today, adding 16GB memory, a 128GB SSD, and replacing my GeForce GTX 750 w/a GeForce GTX 670.

I took some photos, but sadly, my cell phone went dead, but will post what I have later.


First thing, you will need a jewelers Philips head screw driver set, a small regular Philips screw driver, and a small straight screw driver, a small jar or old prescription bottle, for the screws to be kept. Be careful, they are small. Both power supplies, the 180W and 230W, and depending on what video card you have, as much as two video card power supply wires, one six pin and one eight pin, which came in the shipping box. The eight pin can be used as both a six or eight pin.

The system w/the Nvidia GTX 750 comes w/two wires, but for anything better, most likely just one, unless it came w/a 780 or 980, where there is most likely none, because they are already on the video card in the system.

NOTE: Before powering down your system, go into the BIOS and set it to the Basic Optimal Settings, and save.

Before I go any further, I'm not responsible for any damages to your system, nor mistakes done. I'm just explaining, as best I can, the process that I did, as accurately as I can. With that said, let's begin.


First thing first, disconnect everything from the computer, including the power supply(s).

Remove the top grill, the one w/the heat sink under it. This can be easily done from the back, where there is a small slot, where you can stick your finger nail into and easily ply the grill off carefully.

Next, there are two small screws holding the cover on, one on the top and one on the bottom, but before we get going here, on the bottom there is a special sticker or seal that if ripped shows that the case has been opened. This can be easily lifted off the cover end, w/o damage, and add some wax paper behind it, if you want to preserve it, or if you don't care, then simply break the seal.

Remove the screws, using the appropriate size screwdriver to fit the screw head, , and "CAREFULLY" slide the cover towards the front of the case. Once done, "CAREFULLY" lift the cover off, because underneath are some small thin wires for the case lights. Carefully, disconnect the two wires at the plugs. The wires are numbered, wire 1 connects to wire 1, and wire 2 connects to wire 2. Once disconnected, lay the cover off to the side. As for the wires coming out of the case, carefully move them out of the way so that they will not be damaged.

VIDEO CARD:

The video card is probably the easiest to attack. So first remove the rear red back panel by removing three screws, one on the bottom, one in the middle, and one at the top. Once done, carefully lift the back off and place off to the side.

Next there are three screws holding the video card support bracket in, two towards the front of the case, and one in the back at the bottom. Remove them. Next unlock the video card inside at the PCIE slot on the motherboard, by carefully pushing down on the yellow lock or latch, towards the front of end the slot. Once done, carefully pry the card out. If you have the GTX 750 Card, there are no wires attached to the card, but w/any other, like a GTX 760, they will most likely have one or two wire sets attached, so be careful pulling the card out. Disconnect the wire(s) from the video card, by pressing the locks on the attached wire plug(s), and pulling the plug(s) out of the video card.

Remove the Black Plastic Support from the back of the video card, if it came w/one. The GTX 750 doesn't have one. Next, using the small regular Philips screw driver, remove the screw(s) from the back of the card, disconnect the video card from the support bracket.

With the new video card, do the reverse, and reassemble. There's a PCIE 90 degree adapter attached to the old video card, press the lock piece and pull from video card and attach to the new card.

If the card that was pulled had two power cable attached to it, reattach them to the new card the same as the other was. Of course they could be either two six pin plugs or one six pin and one eight.

If the card came w/only one wire attach, chances are, it was a six pin plug, and you should of gotten another wire for your system in the shipping box, most likely an eight pin socket one. The eight pin can be used as either an eight or six. Attach one end to the open plug on the bottom of the motherboard next to the other one, it'll most like be the eight pin one, and connect the other end to the video card.

The video cards come w/no plugs, a single six pin plug, two six pin plugs, or one six pin and one eight pin plug.

Note: If the system came w/only one power supply, there's a jumper on the motherboard which will need to be changed, right next to the power supply plugs. Move the Jumper from the back to the middle pin, to the middle to front one.

Install the new card into the system, it's going to be tight, and not too easy, but make sure that you get the PCIE Male Plug inserted into the female on the motherboard. Once in, and the mounting screw support holes are lined up, reinstall the screws. Be sure to relock the latch on the PCIE slot by lifting it up w/a small screw driver.

Now reassemble everything, reattach, carefully, the two light wires, 1 to 1, and 2 to 2. Attach the cover, and hook back up your keyboard and such, including the two power supplies. Connect the video to the built in video connector, rather than your new video card for now, and power up.

The system should boot up using the built in display. Once in Windows, go into your Device Manager and see if the new card is seen there. If so, go to Windows Update, and Check for Updates, at which time, the Nvidia driver will show. Download and run. One the drive is installed, right click on the screen to see if the Nvidia Control Panel shows. If it does, shut the system down, and connect the video display to the new video card. Turn back on, and the display will be running on the new graphics card.

If anyone sees any mistakes, or wish to edit, please do.


I hope this helps people.

I'll do a write up on the memory and SSD upgrade over the weekend.


UPDATE: Here's some things I forgot to mention. You will also need a pair of pliers. Reason, the screws are all held in w/Loctite. Take the screw driver, place it in the screw, and pressing on it firmly, use the pliers and grip the screw driver, and turn it. It doesn't take much force. You should feel it break, at which point, it should come out w/o any trouble. Be careful, you don't want to strip the screw head.

Next, if your system came w/the Geforce GTX 750, possibly on some others as well, on the inside of the case cover, where the vents or cutouts for the cooling fans line up with, the one for the video card has a grill over the opening. You will need to remove that by removing one screw, and pulling the grill. This is to allow the maximum amount of air flow for the video card.

By the way, the longest screws lengths go to the case cover, there are two of them, so don't use them elsewhere. Keep them separated. The rest appear to be all the same size. Again, they are ALL small, so keep them in a container, like an old prescription bottle.