If you’ve already read the “Put Together a PC Toolkit” thread:
http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=11821
then the following can be considered Part II, and looks more toward items to have around for troubleshooting, doing repairs and upgrading.
Since you never really know what may be brought to you when a computer needs work (troubleshooting, repairs, upgrades) it’s always nice to have a variety of items handy and available. There’s software, hardware components, cables, gender changers and many other items that can be useful. Gathering the items can be expensive if you go out and buy everything, so I normally suggest gathering things as you can or they become available. Many you can often pick up for free or next to nothing.
What I’ll start with is a few ideas towards starting a collection of parts. When I build someone a new system I’ll often ask if they have plans for the old one and offer a discount if they trade it in. Same is true if you hear about someone buying a new system, it can’t hurt to ask if they have plans for the old one. You can have friends keep their ears open for others that might have systems they want to discard. I have a couple of people I check with off and on that cruise around Apartment complexes and mobile home parks that look for discarded systems put out for refuse disposal pickup.
It can be hit or miss as to getting any good components, but can be worthwhile as many systems that are replaced are simply considered slow and can contain numerous components that can be used to upgrade/repair other older systems. I’ll check them for cables, extensions, DRAM, Drives (both hard and optical), PSUs, CPUs, Coolers, other daughter (add in) cards, etc. I’ve come across a few systems that have high end components in them, and while some aren’t equal to the hardware being offered up these days, many are good upgrades for others.
It’s easy to go overboard on this approach, so you might want to restrain yourself where tearing down and older system. Years ago, after tearing down a system I took in trade, I discovered I had accumulated about 10 plug in modems, this was when most everyone was moving to cable/DSL for the internet, that got me to looking at other parts and ending up donating a bunch of parts to an organization that refurbs systems for distribution. These days I try to check what I have every couple of months and weed things out – basically to just keep a small supply of older parts.
Another good spot to pick up odds and ends is from components you buy, many cases, mobos, GPUs and even some PSUs come with spare screws, cables, gender changers, etc. It’s not a bad idea to hang on to those.
To start with what I consider basics; it’s nice to have a spare monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers (or at least a mobo speaker for hearing post beep codes) as well as power cables for the monitor and computer. I take this approach as, for me, it’s easier to have someone just bring the actual computer, if the problems or upgrades don’t directly involve the monitor, keyboard or mouse.
Click to enlarge image:
To that end it’s also nice to have a selection of video cables or, at minimum gender changers to accommodate VGA, DVI, and HDMI connections for the monitor and the GPU, whether it is onboard or a discrete add-in card.
Click to enlarge image:
Take the same approach with the keyboard and mouse. If your ‘spare’ keyboard and/or mouse are of the USB variety, it’s a good idea to have gender changers to go to PS3 connections. I keep wireless around also but that will mean the possibility of needing to load drivers and if there are already problems with the system, that might not always be easy.
Since we’ve now mentioned loading drivers, we might as well look at that next. You’ll need a way to get drivers and software onto the system. There are a variety of ways to do so, and they can also become ‘tools’ towards repairing or upgrading a system. First and most popular will probably be USB drives while you only need one of decent size, it’s nice to have a variety available. I normally keep a few 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32GB around.
Click to enlarge image:
If possible it’s nice to have one with a number of software tools (CPU-Z, CoreTemp, PassMark, Prime, MaxxMem, etc), see the info thread ‘Overclocking Tools” for additional possible additions here:
http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=10511
Other ways to load drivers would be via the internet, hard drive or optical drive. The optical drive option are in part based on having an available port and if the system doesn’t already have a working one. For this option you would need an optical drive and possible a cable for it and an open power connection from the PSU (or a splitter you can plug in to get power to the drive). On this option, it’s good to have both an IDE and a SATA based optical drive – many older systems don’t have SATA and few newer systems have IDE connections.
Click to enlarge image:
The hard drive option would seldom ever get used, but would have the same requirements as an optical drive and preferably already have software/virus and malware tools on it. It would be mounted as a secondary drive.
The internet option can be as simple as you like or can be rather expansive. Ideally you’ll have cable/DSl modem for your internet connection (preferably both cabled and wireless) so all you would need to do is plug in an Ethernet cable to the system and modem or borrow the cable to your computer or plug in a USB wireless adapter. With the wireless option, this assumes the system will start and you can load a driver for it. With the cable approach, it assumes the system has an Ethernet port…..since one can’t assume anything or be sure things will be working, it’s not a bad idea to have a few other things available for connecting to a cable/DSL modem: a USB wireless adapter, an ethernet card, and cable.
Click to enlarge image:
The above approach works well for the odd system you might build/repair or troubleshoot, but if you enjoy working with systems or have multiple systems in your home you might look to expand your networking capabilities in house. An easy expansion is to go directly from the Cable/DSL modem to a wireless router with multiple cabled ports. I have my modem feeding into a Wireless N Router that has a single WAN port and 4 Gigabit LAN ports. One of the LAN ports connects to an eight port Gigabit switch (I’m old school, while I use a lot of things wireless, I like cabled hookups for speed and to eliminate the interference wireless often picks up resulting in dropped packets). This makes for easily hooking up multiple cabled or wireless systems, printers, etc. and remains expandable via additional switches or wireless Access points and/or repeaters. A suggestion if taking this approach would be to keep additional Ethernet cards, cables and/or USB wireless adapters around.
While we could go into networking tools and testers here, we will save that for Part III as not all PC techies are into networking or muti-media work. We’ll also look at some more advanced tools.
Now that we have the basics to get the system up and running, we’ll look at other components you might like to have around for testing/troubleshooting.
Since this is Gskill’s forum and DRAM is always a possible problem, it’s nice to have at least a small selection of DRAM available. Depending on how extensively you get into repairs/troubleshooting and/or upgrading, it nice to have a variety of sticks available. Primarily you will be looking at DDR2 or DDR3 (240 Pin), though you might want to consider having older original DDR (184 Pin) or even 168 Pin SDRAM PC 100/133 DIMMS. Some laptop DRAM can also be handy (if you plan to do any laptop work)
Click to enlarge image:
(The above shows SIMMs (upper left), PC100/133 (upper right), DDR (mid-left), DDR2 (mid-right) and Laptop DRAM (bottom)
Click to enlarge image:
(Just some Gskill toys of mine: DRAM packages (left), F3-2133C9Q-32GXH (top-mid-left), Turbulence II memory fan (mid-mid-left), F3-17000CL9Q-16GBSR (bottom-mid-left), F3-2400C10Q-32GTX (bottom-mid-right), Older GSkill SSDs (top-mid-right), Phoenix SATA III 240 SSDs (far right))
Another component to have around is a GPU (video card or two (or three or more). Might want to consider having a PCI-E card as well as a stock PCI, and maybe an AGP card for pre-PCI-E systems.
A spare PSU is also nice to have preferably with a 20/24 pin power connector, a 4/8 ATX/EPS (CPU) connector and a fair number of SATA, PCI-E and peripheral connectors. As a primary one I keep a 600 around as well as some smaller ones for older systems.
For the most part keeping CPUs around is probably not worth it, unless you can lay your hands on them very cheap or better yet free, I do however keep the stock CPU coolers that I don’t use and when I come across a good CPU, I’ll hang on to it. Same can be said for other plug in componets like sound cards, modems, TV tuners, or other add on cards like SATA or USB daughter cards.
And last but not least, you will want to have a variety of cables of all sorts (yes, cables do go bad), you’ll probably want SATA and E-SATA cables, IDE, (possibly even a floppy cable or two), internal power cables (extensions and splitters), USB, and whatever else you may come across like multi-media SPDIF, sound, etc.
In the next part, Part III we’ll look at networking tools, testers and other slightly more advanced tools that you might be interested in or may be wanted/needed for building a computer based Home Entertainment System.
(EDIT: Part 3 has been delayed till (hopefully) about Dec 9th.
Any additions, suggestions, comments, criticisms are welcome.
http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=11821
then the following can be considered Part II, and looks more toward items to have around for troubleshooting, doing repairs and upgrading.
Since you never really know what may be brought to you when a computer needs work (troubleshooting, repairs, upgrades) it’s always nice to have a variety of items handy and available. There’s software, hardware components, cables, gender changers and many other items that can be useful. Gathering the items can be expensive if you go out and buy everything, so I normally suggest gathering things as you can or they become available. Many you can often pick up for free or next to nothing.
What I’ll start with is a few ideas towards starting a collection of parts. When I build someone a new system I’ll often ask if they have plans for the old one and offer a discount if they trade it in. Same is true if you hear about someone buying a new system, it can’t hurt to ask if they have plans for the old one. You can have friends keep their ears open for others that might have systems they want to discard. I have a couple of people I check with off and on that cruise around Apartment complexes and mobile home parks that look for discarded systems put out for refuse disposal pickup.
It can be hit or miss as to getting any good components, but can be worthwhile as many systems that are replaced are simply considered slow and can contain numerous components that can be used to upgrade/repair other older systems. I’ll check them for cables, extensions, DRAM, Drives (both hard and optical), PSUs, CPUs, Coolers, other daughter (add in) cards, etc. I’ve come across a few systems that have high end components in them, and while some aren’t equal to the hardware being offered up these days, many are good upgrades for others.
It’s easy to go overboard on this approach, so you might want to restrain yourself where tearing down and older system. Years ago, after tearing down a system I took in trade, I discovered I had accumulated about 10 plug in modems, this was when most everyone was moving to cable/DSL for the internet, that got me to looking at other parts and ending up donating a bunch of parts to an organization that refurbs systems for distribution. These days I try to check what I have every couple of months and weed things out – basically to just keep a small supply of older parts.
Another good spot to pick up odds and ends is from components you buy, many cases, mobos, GPUs and even some PSUs come with spare screws, cables, gender changers, etc. It’s not a bad idea to hang on to those.
To start with what I consider basics; it’s nice to have a spare monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers (or at least a mobo speaker for hearing post beep codes) as well as power cables for the monitor and computer. I take this approach as, for me, it’s easier to have someone just bring the actual computer, if the problems or upgrades don’t directly involve the monitor, keyboard or mouse.
Click to enlarge image:
To that end it’s also nice to have a selection of video cables or, at minimum gender changers to accommodate VGA, DVI, and HDMI connections for the monitor and the GPU, whether it is onboard or a discrete add-in card.
Click to enlarge image:
Take the same approach with the keyboard and mouse. If your ‘spare’ keyboard and/or mouse are of the USB variety, it’s a good idea to have gender changers to go to PS3 connections. I keep wireless around also but that will mean the possibility of needing to load drivers and if there are already problems with the system, that might not always be easy.
Since we’ve now mentioned loading drivers, we might as well look at that next. You’ll need a way to get drivers and software onto the system. There are a variety of ways to do so, and they can also become ‘tools’ towards repairing or upgrading a system. First and most popular will probably be USB drives while you only need one of decent size, it’s nice to have a variety available. I normally keep a few 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32GB around.
Click to enlarge image:
If possible it’s nice to have one with a number of software tools (CPU-Z, CoreTemp, PassMark, Prime, MaxxMem, etc), see the info thread ‘Overclocking Tools” for additional possible additions here:
http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=10511
Other ways to load drivers would be via the internet, hard drive or optical drive. The optical drive option are in part based on having an available port and if the system doesn’t already have a working one. For this option you would need an optical drive and possible a cable for it and an open power connection from the PSU (or a splitter you can plug in to get power to the drive). On this option, it’s good to have both an IDE and a SATA based optical drive – many older systems don’t have SATA and few newer systems have IDE connections.
Click to enlarge image:
The hard drive option would seldom ever get used, but would have the same requirements as an optical drive and preferably already have software/virus and malware tools on it. It would be mounted as a secondary drive.
The internet option can be as simple as you like or can be rather expansive. Ideally you’ll have cable/DSl modem for your internet connection (preferably both cabled and wireless) so all you would need to do is plug in an Ethernet cable to the system and modem or borrow the cable to your computer or plug in a USB wireless adapter. With the wireless option, this assumes the system will start and you can load a driver for it. With the cable approach, it assumes the system has an Ethernet port…..since one can’t assume anything or be sure things will be working, it’s not a bad idea to have a few other things available for connecting to a cable/DSL modem: a USB wireless adapter, an ethernet card, and cable.
Click to enlarge image:
The above approach works well for the odd system you might build/repair or troubleshoot, but if you enjoy working with systems or have multiple systems in your home you might look to expand your networking capabilities in house. An easy expansion is to go directly from the Cable/DSL modem to a wireless router with multiple cabled ports. I have my modem feeding into a Wireless N Router that has a single WAN port and 4 Gigabit LAN ports. One of the LAN ports connects to an eight port Gigabit switch (I’m old school, while I use a lot of things wireless, I like cabled hookups for speed and to eliminate the interference wireless often picks up resulting in dropped packets). This makes for easily hooking up multiple cabled or wireless systems, printers, etc. and remains expandable via additional switches or wireless Access points and/or repeaters. A suggestion if taking this approach would be to keep additional Ethernet cards, cables and/or USB wireless adapters around.
While we could go into networking tools and testers here, we will save that for Part III as not all PC techies are into networking or muti-media work. We’ll also look at some more advanced tools.
Now that we have the basics to get the system up and running, we’ll look at other components you might like to have around for testing/troubleshooting.
Since this is Gskill’s forum and DRAM is always a possible problem, it’s nice to have at least a small selection of DRAM available. Depending on how extensively you get into repairs/troubleshooting and/or upgrading, it nice to have a variety of sticks available. Primarily you will be looking at DDR2 or DDR3 (240 Pin), though you might want to consider having older original DDR (184 Pin) or even 168 Pin SDRAM PC 100/133 DIMMS. Some laptop DRAM can also be handy (if you plan to do any laptop work)
Click to enlarge image:
(The above shows SIMMs (upper left), PC100/133 (upper right), DDR (mid-left), DDR2 (mid-right) and Laptop DRAM (bottom)
Click to enlarge image:
(Just some Gskill toys of mine: DRAM packages (left), F3-2133C9Q-32GXH (top-mid-left), Turbulence II memory fan (mid-mid-left), F3-17000CL9Q-16GBSR (bottom-mid-left), F3-2400C10Q-32GTX (bottom-mid-right), Older GSkill SSDs (top-mid-right), Phoenix SATA III 240 SSDs (far right))
Another component to have around is a GPU (video card or two (or three or more). Might want to consider having a PCI-E card as well as a stock PCI, and maybe an AGP card for pre-PCI-E systems.
A spare PSU is also nice to have preferably with a 20/24 pin power connector, a 4/8 ATX/EPS (CPU) connector and a fair number of SATA, PCI-E and peripheral connectors. As a primary one I keep a 600 around as well as some smaller ones for older systems.
For the most part keeping CPUs around is probably not worth it, unless you can lay your hands on them very cheap or better yet free, I do however keep the stock CPU coolers that I don’t use and when I come across a good CPU, I’ll hang on to it. Same can be said for other plug in componets like sound cards, modems, TV tuners, or other add on cards like SATA or USB daughter cards.
And last but not least, you will want to have a variety of cables of all sorts (yes, cables do go bad), you’ll probably want SATA and E-SATA cables, IDE, (possibly even a floppy cable or two), internal power cables (extensions and splitters), USB, and whatever else you may come across like multi-media SPDIF, sound, etc.
In the next part, Part III we’ll look at networking tools, testers and other slightly more advanced tools that you might be interested in or may be wanted/needed for building a computer based Home Entertainment System.
(EDIT: Part 3 has been delayed till (hopefully) about Dec 9th.
Any additions, suggestions, comments, criticisms are welcome.
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