Do you Guys dabble with the internal parts of your computer

[Camerashy]

As a newbie, I'm amazed at how many members dabble with the internal parts of their computer.
Which parts do you upgrade, do you need much experience to do this and how can I become more confident in touching the internal mechanisms.
thanks
Dave

 

[Gorman]

I have torn apart my computer more times than i can remember. Theres not a bit of it thats not had some "tweaking". The fan and light controller would be the most complicated thing on it at the moment, 3 ccfl tubes, 15 led's, 6 fans and a pump all wired to a programmable controller. The scariest would be peeling the air cooler off a £400 graphics card

There are two ways to gain confidence and know how. One is to join forums like this and overclockers.net, sift through the opinion and bs and learn a few things on the way coupled with lots of reading up.

The other way, which was my route is to be personally responsible for the death of over a thousand machines in the last 15 years. I dont feel i know about a component until ive broke it.

 

[steveuk87]

the best way to become more confident is by doing!

try buying a cheap old pc and then buying cheap componants fromt he internet, that and read read read! reviews and guides are your best friend!!

hope this helps

Steve

 

[Sweeney47]

One major thing you need to be careful of is static. You really need to make sure you're earthed before touching your components otherwise a slight discharge can cripple it. If you're a little worried you can buy some cheap arm strap things which have a sticky metalic bit which you stick the the base of your tower. This will earth you helping to protect your components. Once you gain confidence you can avoid this safety net but its a good place to start

 

[Zeplini]

^as steve said best to mess with any old pc's you have before piling into your main rig....

 

[LDUK]

Yeah, when I first started learning about PC's, I just took apart my old Dell. After a while I built my own

 

[Xavien]

I think everything comes down to confidence. If you know what your doing and your happy to do it then thats that personally im always bothered about messing up my warranty. Of course now that i have two pcs thanks to my new one i could experiment on my old one but i wouldnt dare do anything to my new one, thats pcspecialist job hehe

 

[Matt]

I'm confident about doing most things, except anything that involves removing the motherboard. Once that is covered in my course then i will probably try it, but until then its just not worth the risk as I'd probably do more harm than good.

 

[Meds]

To be really honest, most components push, click and plus into each other and normally can only be fitted one way to prevent you doing anything majorly wrong. However, as said above it all comes with experience. There are a number of tutorials you can watch on the likes of Youtube to help farmiliarise you with the internals of a PC.

 

[Porthos]

I learnt about PC repairs etc from reading magazines .Now, the maker of my first PC would only recognise the case. Build confidence by using an old PC. Everything is really straight forward , although it took a bit of time to (nervously)upgrade my first CPU. If I can do it, anyone can.

 

[JakAttack]

My way was very good "Dad can I have my own computer", "sure son, here you go" *dumps pile of old components in front of me*.

 

[steveuk87]

hahaha Jak always a good way

Steve

 

[PCS]

The first PC I built I wired the USB +5V into the ground, back in the days when the connectors were individual wires as opposed to a easy block like they are now. Result was a cloud of smoke as the plastic melted...

 

[steveuk87]

hahahahaha i still havnt built one i'm no good with hardware but i'm learning more n more every day!

Steve

 

[PCS]

Nowadays though we can build your ideal system and provide service and warranty for less than the cost of buying the components yourself.