PC 101

heres a few examples of what NOT to do when working on a pc

By HG_Eliminator on April 20, 2005 2:27:00 PM from

As i sit here looking at the charred remains of what was once my wifes work pc ( i had to bring it home to work
on) I realize that maybe i would share a few of the "no no's" ive seen in pc building. Since this IS a manufactured pc by a big Co. I will state that these no no's apply to all pc builders not just "joe blow" down the lane...

#1. No rubberbands... the pc im currently at task of trying to see if is worth stripping for parts, has been the culprit of these little stretchy "PC killers". As i open the case and let the baked circuit board fumes dissipate i see 2 broken rubberbands. 1 wraped around the P4 CPU fan, the other strangleing the Power supplys fan...rubber bands are oil based and the heat of a pc will dry them out, the weakest section of the rubber band will break causeing it to shoot off on to whatever's near by.(most likely a fan)...spend the 10 cents and get a zip tie.....

#2. NO tape....I have found on many occasions that people tend to think take is a good alternative to zip ties,or that electrical tape is useable in a pc enviroment. WRONG...tape is held on by a type of glue.. in a pc the temperatures will make that tapes glue soften to the point of releasing its hold. thus allowing the tape to unwravel. typically it will get sucked up in to the nearest fan and jam the fan up...if you for any reason actually need to repair a wire in the pc use shrink tubing , its a tubing that when heated will shrink around the wires. The shrink tubing does a better job on insulating the wires as well...you can find various lengths and thicknesses to fit the many types of wire guages.....

#3. NO shocking the PC...This refers to touching the pc in a ungrounded manor.... Pcs are very shock sensitive.. When working on a PC (after unpluging it) make sure to ground yourself to it. I took 2 aligator clips and a coil wire. I soldered 1 clip to each end of the wire. I then clip 1 end to a shirt sleve or other part of clothing. The other clip gets clamped directly to the case of the pc i am currently working on. This allows no static electricity to build up on me as i move around getting tools and stuff...

#4. NO washing the PC...This refers to the inner mechanisms and hardware...often people try to wash the dirty insides of their pcs .. use canned air to remove dust and built up hair etc...never get water near the pc (expecially if its pluged in)...

I will add more to the list as i get time

+332 Karma | 20 Replies

Geez, you've seen the ugly. I haven't seen any computer with rubberbands. And after I read that, I was like who the heck was stupid enough to put it around a CPU? Didn't they realize the CPU normally get extremely hot unless it's well ventalated with several fans? At least I've managed to get my processor very cold with fans

they actually had the rubber bands tieing the floppy cable extra length cables together... but when the rubber bands broke they found their way in to the fans ...

My Case if you're wondering about the cooling -> http://www.thermaltake.com/xasercase/Damier/v5000a.htm

O' IC.. Still, Zip Ties work nice, especially UV ones

or there are velcro(sp maybe) straps that work too. But zip ties work best inside and the velcro outside for the wires.

my case http://www.aerocool.us/case/jetmaster/jetmaster%20bk-photo.htm this one dropped my cpu 15 degrees from my thermal take case and thats just with the 2 included fans theres holes for 2 more

oh and i had all 8 fans running in my TT case ...

Wow, that's a interesting case. Looks cool

For #3, I found a wrist band with curly (phone type) cord and clip on the end, at Radio Shack for about $3.00

cool .. good sugestion ama02...

http://www.angelfire.com/dragon2/double_zero/My_Little_Green_Dragon.html
My Little Green Dragon

Since this seems to be the thread for it..::laughs:: heres the "Mod" that I built.. CPU max'd at 100% 24/7 runs at 42c's I used Artic silver during installation on it and am running the stock heatsink and fan.. I only am running 4 case fans, all are UV blue LED's ... As you can see in the pic I did have a thermaltake fan and heatsink on it but the thing was much to noisy..it lasted perhaps 10 mins before I ripped it out of there and put the Intel in there, LoL.

Zero.

cool..

Looks nice. It looks like you got one of those kits where you put the pieces together to make the case.

I was thinking about coming up with several ideas for Mods and build them. Just getting the time and money is the problem. We'll see....

ack... who would put rubber-bands in their PC???? It's a bit silly, considering the core temparature the CPU runs at, and the low melting point of rubber....

Tape is a tricky thing, and yes you can use tape in your PC's, but not the insulating tape at yer loacl Bob's Hardware... u need a gud quality electrical tape with high thermal resistivty. As HG mentioned, it's better to get zip ties.

A cooling system is absolutely crucial to your system, especially if you have a processor with high clock speed etc. If you want to invest some quality money, I'd suggest you try out liquid nitrogen cooling pipes... really good. You can even overclock, say a P4 2.8 Ghz to apporximatley 5.3 Ghz without frying your chips. Plus, they cut down noise level if your PC sounds like a dying prehistoric beast

I saw this cooling system on Thermaltake's site -> http://www.thermaltake.com/watercooling/cl-w0011rocket/cl-w0011.htm

I thought it was interesting

here's what not to do to your computer!

Link

here's what not to do to your computer!

Well now that really depends on what exactly you want to do to the computer doesnt it?

I guess so

Sorry I didnt answer this sooner Sid, this week has been quite hectic at work and I havent had alot of spare time..

I did buy a case "kit"..The acrylic case's are cool but I actually would not recommend them to everyone. It takes a bit of effort to add or remove drives for one reason, the case practically has to come completely apart to do it. Then there is the constant "cleaning"..with UV lights within a UV reactive clear case, dust, fingerprints, virtually anything and everything stands out, I am forever cleaning the case so that it looks "cool"..LoL.. It takes a bit more maintenence than a normal case, or at lease a case with a single window.

As for the "Time & Money" What I did was purchased each part one at a time basically..One paycheck I bought the case, the next the Motherboard, next the PSU..ect,ect. Some of the cheaper items like the fans and grilles, lights, wire sleeving I bought altogether, but the more expesive parts I bought one at a time from paycheck to paycheck..
All in All it took about 6 months to collect everything. Putting it together only took a few hours, I did it on a sunday when I had nothing else going on, the most time I spent putting it together revolved around sleeving all the wires coming out of the PSU, I definitely recommend a "Molex" tool if you ever decide to sleeve wires..LoL! I didnt have one and I fought the sleeving every inch of the way over the connectors..
Other than that it was a snap! and ALOT of fun, well, for those of us that actually have fun doing that sort of thing, LoL..to some people I guess it's just work..

Anyway, thats how I did it, it was pretty easy as far as the "expense" aspect of it, and as I say, it really doesnt take all that long to put one together once you have all the "goodies".

Zero.

Hmm no water only canned air. Does this mean I need to quit using my leaf blower?

LoL..Water cooling is just a bit overdoing it in my opinion..unless your a gamer running one of the AMD's "OC'd" to the max ya may just need Water... Of course I would not be opposed to the idea if there was just no other way to keep the chip cool..some do run hot and I'll be interested to see how warm the Dual Core chips run..If it's going to take a water system to keep it cool then it looks like I'll be investing in one..At the moment though my CPU with 100% load on it runs pretty "chilly" and thats with the stock Intel heatsink and fan..no need for water...

Time will tell,
Zero.

LoL..Water cooling is just a bit overdoing it in my opinion

Not if you want a very quiet system. I wouldn't know this, but I have read a site about reasons of having a water-cooled system, and this is one of reasons.

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PC 101

heres a few examples of what NOT to do when working on a pc