By Vahe Mushegyan, Enterprise Administrator, Net-Sectors Elite I.T. Group, www.NetSectors.com

That's a great question Shawn! There are few factors to look at when upgrading hardware in your PC. First we want to look at the power supply and determine if it has enough "available" power plugs to connect another Hard Drive unit in this case.

Because we're adding another Hard Disk, the chances of the computer overheating increase exponentially... therefore in this scenario we also need to add a fan or two to balance this temperature change. So here comes the tricky part.

If your computer has let say has 1 "available" plug, you will use that for the Hard Drive itself. Now to add an additional fan, you will need another plug. If you do not have an additional plug available directly from the Power Supply itself, then you can "Piggy Back" one from another unit, just like the "Christmas Three" power plugs. Once you plug everything in, fire up the PC and you do not get any errors or problems loading up the Operating System, the upgrade is successful!

However, if you come across a situation which the computer fails to boot, then you need to take a note of the wattage of all the HDs you have connected in your PC including the fans and other components, add them up and see where you stand with your current supply. Then when you have that figure in hand, you can drop by a computer store and purchase a new Power Supply to fit your wattage requirements.

Hope this helps... Good luck with your upgrade! Sincerely, V.M.