Sorry for the double post, but before I was able to build myself, I used to get my mum to build systems for me and she never broke a CPU. If someone like her (VI and with very little hardware knolige) is able to do it, I really don't see why so many fully sighted people find it hard. On 11/1/12, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

Hi,

It's very subjective really. I know that's not helpfull at all but I feel it really does depend on how often you've done it; I've done both and I wouldn't really say that ones harder than the other. If as you say we assume that the people who are saying it's hard are sighted, I have to wonder just how good they are at building computers for it to be a problem for them. I'm pretty sure one corner of the cpu is color coded or different visually in such a way that it's obvious which way round it's meant to go, so I really find it hard to understand why lining up a cpu with a socket and gentely placing it in is so hard for them. When you secure the cpu in place with the leaver you do hear a bit of a crunch sound which can be a bit worrying, but theres a cover that flips down around the edges of the socket before you do this and if you've installed it incorrectly (Which you can't do), the cover just won't sit smooth with the rest of the board.

My gut feeling is that which ever cpu you buy there are going to be pins involved so theres always going to be a chance that something gets bent. I'd probably look at what you want to do on the system and then buy the CPU that suits your intended uses best.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/1/12, John G. Heim wrote:

...

The last time I built a PC, I got an AMD CPU partially because I had read lots of messages from people (presumably sighted people) talking about how they damaged their mobo trying to install an Intel CPU. Apparently, the pins are on the mobo. You close the lever and the pins are inserted into the CPU. But apparently, its easy to mess that up. That scared me considerably. Its pretty easy to bend the pins on an AMD CPU but that can be fairly easily fixed. Although you'd probably need someone who can see to do it.

Comments?

I am currently shopping for a mobo and CPU. I just built a PC about a year ago but I gave it to my wife when hers crashed. I came pretty close to buying a quad-core Intel CPU and Asus mobo. I kind of chickened out at the last minute. Also, with 16Gb of RaM it would have been $350. I don't know if I need to spend that much. I'm thinking I might end up going with components similar to what I bought a year ago, quad-core AMD CPU, Asus mobo, 8Gb RAM.

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Hi, 1: Some cases actually have these preinstalled so it won't always be an issue. Even if they don't come installed, there are holes that have been added to the motherboard tray for you to screw them in to, so it's not like you're having to make them yourself and just guess where abouts they should be. I usually count the number of holes that the motherboard has (Usually 6 or 9 but this will vary depending on size) and then try and map their locations to the holes on the motherboard tray. To make sure the board is aligned correctly, I put it roughly in place with both hands and then whilst keeping it in place with one hand feel if the ports are lined up with their holes on the backplate of the case. If they do line up then the board will be lined up enough that you can start to screw it in place and any slight missalignment will sort itsself out as the board is secured in place. Some tips about screwing motherboards down: I usually make sure the first 2 screws I install are diagonal to each other - E.G. one top left and another bottom right. This way if they both go in without any problems, you can be fairly sure the board is aligned correctly. If you have had to install the standoffs yourself, don't screw any of the screws completely in place until you've made sure that you've installed the standoffs correctly. If there is a stand off where there isn't a screw hole this could cause a short. Motherboards should never be screwed in overly tightly; obviously you're going to want to tighten the screws enough that they won't come loose and short something out, but don't over do it. Once you can't turn your screwdriver without making an effort the screw is tight enough. If you find that you're screwing a screw in and it's not getting any tighter, you are either using too smaller screw, screwing into empty space - E.G. no standoff or the standoff is moving with the screw which shouldn't be happening. In this situation, you'll need to remove the board from the case, hold the standoff in place with some pliers or something and then unscrew the screw which should free the standoff. 2: People get really fussy about how to apply compound; heres a fairly easy way to do it that works really well: Clean any existing compound off the CPU. You're meant to use rubbing alcohol but I find that any spirit such as Jack Daniels works well enough if you're willing to waste some on cleaning a CPU. Install the CPU in the socket and secure it in place. Take yourcompound and make sure the plundger is ready - E.G. it should be extended as much as possible and posician it just above and in the center of the CPU. Start to push down on the plundger. Don't push it all the way down unless there is only a small amount of compound left. This next bit can get a bit messy, but you need to confirm that compound has actually come out of the serindge. After you've done a few builds you'll be able to tell by gentley touching the surface of the CPU with the end of the serindge, but to start off with you'll have to use a finger. Only touch the compound very lightly; you don't want to get it dirty and idealy you don't want to get your fingers / equipment sticky although this is somewhat inevitable. Try to just skim the top of the compound with your finger if possible; you only need a couple of grains of rice worth if you know what I mean. Next install the CPU cooler. Something that blind people and some sighted people have trouble with is spreading the compound out evenly. The great thing about my method is that you're not worrying about that; you're relying on the cooler to spread it for you. Because a correctly installed cooler will apply an equal amount of pressure to every part of the CPU, the little drop of compound that we've installed in the middle will be squashed so much that it will be distributed perfectly evenly over the CPU by the cooler. I can confirm 100% that this works; I've removed coolers in the past after a day or 2 to make sure everythings ok and the results have been perfect. 3: I posted about this earlier today; let me know if theres anything I haven't covered. Cheers, Ben. On 11/1/12, Zameer Mahomed wrote:

Hello,

Concerning this topic, I'd like to ask the following 2 questions please: 1. For those of you building these pc's are you successful in applying thermal compound? and if so how do you do it? I know that for brand-new processors with heatsyncs the compound is pre-applied but have anyone of you applied the compound by yourselves before? 2. When inserting the motherboard in to a case for the first time, stand-off

screws have to be screwed in to the case first. How do you do this, and still ensure that the motherboard will align perfectly with the stand-off screws before putting the motherboard, and then screwing the motherboard to

the case?

Sorry for all the questions, but these are some of the problems I face when

building a pc, so I have to get sighted help for the following: 1. installing the stand-off's and the motherboard 2. If re-applying compound to the processor otherwise if brand-new then its

ok. 3. Connecting the led's as well as the power and reset cables.

thanks much people, I'd really like to hear your answers.

Kind Regards, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Mustill-Rose" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 12:06 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Intel CPUs easier or harder?

...

Sorry for the double post, but before I was able to build myself, I used to get my mum to build systems for me and she never broke a CPU. If someone like her (VI and with very little hardware knolige) is able to do it, I really don't see why so many fully sighted people find it hard.

On 11/1/12, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

Hi,

It's very subjective really. I know that's not helpfull at all but I feel it really does depend on how often you've done it; I've done both and I wouldn't really say that ones harder than the other. If as you say we assume that the people who are saying it's hard are sighted, I have to wonder just how good they are at building computers for it to be a problem for them. I'm pretty sure one corner of the cpu is color coded or different visually in such a way that it's obvious which way round it's meant to go, so I really find it hard to understand why lining up a cpu with a socket and gentely placing it in is so hard for them. When you secure the cpu in place with the leaver you do hear a bit of a crunch sound which can be a bit worrying, but theres a cover that flips down around the edges of the socket before you do this and if you've installed it incorrectly (Which you can't do), the cover just won't sit smooth with the rest of the board.

My gut feeling is that which ever cpu you buy there are going to be pins involved so theres always going to be a chance that something gets bent. I'd probably look at what you want to do on the system and then buy the CPU that suits your intended uses best.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/1/12, John G. Heim wrote:

...

The last time I built a PC, I got an AMD CPU partially because I had read lots of messages from people (presumably sighted people) talking about how they damaged their mobo trying to install an Intel CPU. Apparently, the pins are on the mobo. You close the lever and the pins are inserted into the CPU. But apparently, its easy to mess that up. That scared me considerably. Its pretty easy to bend the pins on an AMD CPU but that can be fairly easily fixed. Although you'd probably need someone who can see to do it.

Comments?

I am currently shopping for a mobo and CPU. I just built a PC about a year ago but I gave it to my wife when hers crashed. I came pretty close to buying a quad-core Intel CPU and Asus mobo. I kind of chickened out at the last minute. Also, with 16Gb of RaM it would have been $350. I don't know if I need to spend that much. I'm thinking I might end up going with components similar to what I bought a year ago, quad-core AMD CPU, Asus mobo, 8Gb RAM.

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Hello Ben, Thanks much for your e-mail. I have a spair pc lying around to test with so I shall definitely try your advice. And ask questions if the need arises. Again thanks for the mail. Regards, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Mustill-Rose" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 1:21 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Intel CPUs easier or harder?

Hi,

1: Some cases actually have these preinstalled so it won't always be an issue. Even if they don't come installed, there are holes that have been added to the motherboard tray for you to screw them in to, so it's not like you're having to make them yourself and just guess where abouts they should be. I usually count the number of holes that the motherboard has (Usually 6 or 9 but this will vary depending on size) and then try and map their locations to the holes on the motherboard tray. To make sure the board is aligned correctly, I put it roughly in place with both hands and then whilst keeping it in place with one hand feel if the ports are lined up with their holes on the backplate of the case. If they do line up then the board will be lined up enough that you can start to screw it in place and any slight missalignment will sort itsself out as the board is secured in place. Some tips about screwing motherboards down:

I usually make sure the first 2 screws I install are diagonal to each other - E.G. one top left and another bottom right. This way if they both go in without any problems, you can be fairly sure the board is aligned correctly. If you have had to install the standoffs yourself, don't screw any of the screws completely in place until you've made sure that you've installed the standoffs correctly. If there is a stand off where there isn't a screw hole this could cause a short. Motherboards should never be screwed in overly tightly; obviously you're going to want to tighten the screws enough that they won't come loose and short something out, but don't over do it. Once you can't turn your screwdriver without making an effort the screw is tight enough. If you find that you're screwing a screw in and it's not getting any tighter, you are either using too smaller screw, screwing into empty space - E.G. no standoff or the standoff is moving with the screw which shouldn't be happening. In this situation, you'll need to remove the board from the case, hold the standoff in place with some pliers or something and then unscrew the screw which should free the standoff.

2: People get really fussy about how to apply compound; heres a fairly easy way to do it that works really well:

Clean any existing compound off the CPU. You're meant to use rubbing alcohol but I find that any spirit such as Jack Daniels works well enough if you're willing to waste some on cleaning a CPU. Install the CPU in the socket and secure it in place. Take yourcompound and make sure the plundger is ready - E.G. it should be extended as much as possible and posician it just above and in the center of the CPU. Start to push down on the plundger. Don't push it all the way down unless there is only a small amount of compound left. This next bit can get a bit messy, but you need to confirm that compound has actually come out of the serindge. After you've done a few builds you'll be able to tell by gentley touching the surface of the CPU with the end of the serindge, but to start off with you'll have to use a finger. Only touch the compound very lightly; you don't want to get it dirty and idealy you don't want to get your fingers / equipment sticky although this is somewhat inevitable. Try to just skim the top of the compound with your finger if possible; you only need a couple of grains of rice worth if you know what I mean. Next install the CPU cooler.

Something that blind people and some sighted people have trouble with is spreading the compound out evenly. The great thing about my method is that you're not worrying about that; you're relying on the cooler to spread it for you. Because a correctly installed cooler will apply an equal amount of pressure to every part of the CPU, the little drop of compound that we've installed in the middle will be squashed so much that it will be distributed perfectly evenly over the CPU by the cooler. I can confirm 100% that this works; I've removed coolers in the past after a day or 2 to make sure everythings ok and the results have been perfect.

3:

I posted about this earlier today; let me know if theres anything I haven't covered.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/1/12, Zameer Mahomed wrote:

...

Hello,

Concerning this topic, I'd like to ask the following 2 questions please: 1. For those of you building these pc's are you successful in applying thermal compound? and if so how do you do it? I know that for brand-new processors with heatsyncs the compound is pre-applied but have anyone of you applied the compound by yourselves before? 2. When inserting the motherboard in to a case for the first time, stand-off

screws have to be screwed in to the case first. How do you do this, and still ensure that the motherboard will align perfectly with the stand-off screws before putting the motherboard, and then screwing the motherboard to

the case?

Sorry for all the questions, but these are some of the problems I face when

building a pc, so I have to get sighted help for the following: 1. installing the stand-off's and the motherboard 2. If re-applying compound to the processor otherwise if brand-new then its

ok. 3. Connecting the led's as well as the power and reset cables.

thanks much people, I'd really like to hear your answers.

Kind Regards, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Mustill-Rose" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 12:06 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Intel CPUs easier or harder?

...

Sorry for the double post, but before I was able to build myself, I used to get my mum to build systems for me and she never broke a CPU. If someone like her (VI and with very little hardware knolige) is able to do it, I really don't see why so many fully sighted people find it hard.

On 11/1/12, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

Hi,

It's very subjective really. I know that's not helpfull at all but I feel it really does depend on how often you've done it; I've done both and I wouldn't really say that ones harder than the other. If as you say we assume that the people who are saying it's hard are sighted, I have to wonder just how good they are at building computers for it to be a problem for them. I'm pretty sure one corner of the cpu is color coded or different visually in such a way that it's obvious which way round it's meant to go, so I really find it hard to understand why lining up a cpu with a socket and gentely placing it in is so hard for them. When you secure the cpu in place with the leaver you do hear a bit of a crunch sound which can be a bit worrying, but theres a cover that flips down around the edges of the socket before you do this and if you've installed it incorrectly (Which you can't do), the cover just won't sit smooth with the rest of the board.

My gut feeling is that which ever cpu you buy there are going to be pins involved so theres always going to be a chance that something gets bent. I'd probably look at what you want to do on the system and then buy the CPU that suits your intended uses best.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/1/12, John G. Heim wrote:

...

The last time I built a PC, I got an AMD CPU partially because I had read lots of messages from people (presumably sighted people) talking about how they damaged their mobo trying to install an Intel CPU. Apparently, the pins are on the mobo. You close the lever and the pins are inserted into the CPU. But apparently, its easy to mess that up. That scared me considerably. Its pretty easy to bend the pins on an AMD CPU but that can be fairly easily fixed. Although you'd probably need someone who can see to do it.

Comments?

I am currently shopping for a mobo and CPU. I just built a PC about a year ago but I gave it to my wife when hers crashed. I came pretty close to buying a quad-core Intel CPU and Asus mobo. I kind of chickened out at the last minute. Also, with 16Gb of RaM it would have been $350. I don't know if I need to spend that much. I'm thinking I might end up going with components similar to what I bought a year ago, quad-core AMD CPU, Asus mobo, 8Gb RAM.

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Hi, Do you thihnk its any more of a problem than installing an Intel though? Pins are involved in both situations, their just in different places. Intel and AMD CPU's are keyed; if it doesn't just drop into the socket then you're not installing it correctly; you can't put it in the wrong way. Heatsyncs are easy once you've done a few; I've broken systems when I've installed heatsyncs before, but in hindsight, this was because of a lack of experience as opposed to the installation being overly hard. Jmo. Ben. On 11/5/12, John G. Heim wrote:

I think its easy enough to bend the pins on an AMD processor that its worth worrying about. The pins on an AMD processor are so fine that you cant experiment or make any mistake. If you do, you will most likely bend the pins. Furthermore, I don't think a blind person can tell which way to orient the CPU in the socket. There is a mark on the CPU that lines up with a mark on the mobo but I don't believe you can feel the mark. But I would agree that it doesn't take someone with knowledge of computer hardware to help you with that. You might even be able to do it with a cell phone camera and a OCR program.

I do woodworking and when I use a table saw, I always practice what I'm going to do before I make a cut. I practice the motion I'm going to make with the saw turned off, turn it on, and then do exactly the same motion. It would probably be worth while doing something like that when installing a CPU. All you'd have to do to damage a CPU is to drop it by bumping your elbow as you reached out to install the CPU.

Then there's attaching the fan & heat sync. I don't think that's always easy either. I can see how even sighted people could make a mistake doing this stuff.

----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 5:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Intel CPUs easier or harder?

Sorry for the double post, but before I was able to build myself, I used to get my mum to build systems for me and she never broke a CPU. If someone like her (VI and with very little hardware knolige) is able to do it, I really don't see why so many fully sighted people find it hard.

On 11/1/12, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

Hi,

It's very subjective really. I know that's not helpfull at all but I feel it really does depend on how often you've done it; I've done both and I wouldn't really say that ones harder than the other. If as you say we assume that the people who are saying it's hard are sighted, I have to wonder just how good they are at building computers for it to be a problem for them. I'm pretty sure one corner of the cpu is color coded or different visually in such a way that it's obvious which way round it's meant to go, so I really find it hard to understand why lining up a cpu with a socket and gentely placing it in is so hard for them. When you secure the cpu in place with the leaver you do hear a bit of a crunch sound which can be a bit worrying, but theres a cover that flips down around the edges of the socket before you do this and if you've installed it incorrectly (Which you can't do), the cover just won't sit smooth with the rest of the board.

My gut feeling is that which ever cpu you buy there are going to be pins involved so theres always going to be a chance that something gets bent. I'd probably look at what you want to do on the system and then buy the CPU that suits your intended uses best.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/1/12, John G. Heim wrote:

...

The last time I built a PC, I got an AMD CPU partially because I had read lots of messages from people (presumably sighted people) talking about how they damaged their mobo trying to install an Intel CPU. Apparently, the pins are on the mobo. You close the lever and the pins are inserted into the CPU. But apparently, its easy to mess that up. That scared me considerably. Its pretty easy to bend the pins on an AMD CPU but that can be fairly easily fixed. Although you'd probably need someone who can see to do it.

Comments?

I am currently shopping for a mobo and CPU. I just built a PC about a year ago but I gave it to my wife when hers crashed. I came pretty close to buying a quad-core Intel CPU and Asus mobo. I kind of chickened out at the last minute. Also, with 16Gb of RaM it would have been $350. I don't know if I need to spend that much. I'm thinking I might end up going with components similar to what I bought a year ago, quad-core AMD CPU, Asus mobo, 8Gb RAM.

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I'm pretty sure that you cannot tell how to orient an AMD processor without sight. I can't say for sure because I don't build machines every day. Could be I am missing something. I'm not sure what it means that Intel processors are keyed. Does that mean you can tell how to orient them by feel? If so, they are ahead of AMD processors in that regard. I don't want to be too negative here. After all, I build all my own machines. But I don't think its much of a consolation to say that you haven't broken any systems while installing the heat sync once you learned how to do it. That can be a kind of expensive learning curve. My experience has been that the processor and heat sync combination change often enough for your knowledge on how to do one might not help much the next time. It seems like I have to figure it out again each time. But as I said, typically, I build myself a new machine only about once every 3 years. My recommendation is if anyone is considering building their own machine, definitely go for it. You might consider getting help installing the processor and heat sync. The rest just takes some thought and carefulness. You really can't screw it up if you study up a little first and take your time. One good thing is that there is about a million UTube videos on installing the processor and heat sync. Some of them have pretty good audio descriptions. Some don't. But if you listen to enough of them, you can probably figure it out. On Nov 5, 2012, at 11:48 AM, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

Hi,

Do you thihnk its any more of a problem than installing an Intel though? Pins are involved in both situations, their just in different places. Intel and AMD CPU's are keyed; if it doesn't just drop into the socket then you're not installing it correctly; you can't put it in the wrong way. Heatsyncs are easy once you've done a few; I've broken systems when I've installed heatsyncs before, but in hindsight, this was because of a lack of experience as opposed to the installation being overly hard.

Jmo.

Ben.

On 11/5/12, John G. Heim wrote:

...

I think its easy enough to bend the pins on an AMD processor that its worth worrying about. The pins on an AMD processor are so fine that you cant experiment or make any mistake. If you do, you will most likely bend the pins. Furthermore, I don't think a blind person can tell which way to orient the CPU in the socket. There is a mark on the CPU that lines up with a mark on the mobo but I don't believe you can feel the mark. But I would agree that it doesn't take someone with knowledge of computer hardware to help you with that. You might even be able to do it with a cell phone camera and a OCR program.

I do woodworking and when I use a table saw, I always practice what I'm going to do before I make a cut. I practice the motion I'm going to make with the saw turned off, turn it on, and then do exactly the same motion. It would probably be worth while doing something like that when installing a CPU. All you'd have to do to damage a CPU is to drop it by bumping your elbow as you reached out to install the CPU.

Then there's attaching the fan & heat sync. I don't think that's always easy either. I can see how even sighted people could make a mistake doing this stuff.

----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2012 5:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Intel CPUs easier or harder?

Sorry for the double post, but before I was able to build myself, I used to get my mum to build systems for me and she never broke a CPU. If someone like her (VI and with very little hardware knolige) is able to do it, I really don't see why so many fully sighted people find it hard.

On 11/1/12, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

...

Hi,

It's very subjective really. I know that's not helpfull at all but I feel it really does depend on how often you've done it; I've done both and I wouldn't really say that ones harder than the other. If as you say we assume that the people who are saying it's hard are sighted, I have to wonder just how good they are at building computers for it to be a problem for them. I'm pretty sure one corner of the cpu is color coded or different visually in such a way that it's obvious which way round it's meant to go, so I really find it hard to understand why lining up a cpu with a socket and gentely placing it in is so hard for them. When you secure the cpu in place with the leaver you do hear a bit of a crunch sound which can be a bit worrying, but theres a cover that flips down around the edges of the socket before you do this and if you've installed it incorrectly (Which you can't do), the cover just won't sit smooth with the rest of the board.

My gut feeling is that which ever cpu you buy there are going to be pins involved so theres always going to be a chance that something gets bent. I'd probably look at what you want to do on the system and then buy the CPU that suits your intended uses best.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/1/12, John G. Heim wrote:

...

The last time I built a PC, I got an AMD CPU partially because I had read lots of messages from people (presumably sighted people) talking about how they damaged their mobo trying to install an Intel CPU. Apparently, the pins are on the mobo. You close the lever and the pins are inserted into the CPU. But apparently, its easy to mess that up. That scared me considerably. Its pretty easy to bend the pins on an AMD CPU but that can be fairly easily fixed. Although you'd probably need someone who can see to do it.

Comments?

I am currently shopping for a mobo and CPU. I just built a PC about a year ago but I gave it to my wife when hers crashed. I came pretty close to buying a quad-core Intel CPU and Asus mobo. I kind of chickened out at the last minute. Also, with 16Gb of RaM it would have been $350. I don't know if I need to spend that much. I'm thinking I might end up going with components similar to what I bought a year ago, quad-core AMD CPU, Asus mobo, 8Gb RAM.

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Hi, On 11/5/12, John G Heim wrote:

I'm pretty sure that you cannot tell how to orient an AMD processor without sight. I can't say for sure because I don't build machines every day. Could be I am missing something. I'm not sure what it means that Intel processors are keyed. Does that mean you can tell how to orient them by feel? If so, they are ahead of AMD processors in that regard.

I don't want to be too negative here. After all, I build all my own machines. But I don't think its much of a consolation to say that you haven't broken any systems while installing the heat sync once you learned how to do it. That can be a kind of expensive learning curve. My experience has been that the processor and heat sync combination change often enough for your knowledge on how to do one might not help much the next time. It seems like I have to figure it out again each time. But as I said, typically, I build myself a new machine only about once every 3 years. You're right really. I wouldn't ever suggest anyone go out and buy a lode of expensive parts and try to put them together without

You can't orientate them so that you know that they will fit in the socket, but you'll be able to tell if you've put it in the wrong way because it just won't fall into place. Intels are possible to tell by feel, 2 sides of the CPU will have a little hole in them and assuming the clip is on the left hand side of the socket, the holes should be near the clip - one should be on the side nearest you and the other will be oppersit that. I know that was a pretty poor explanation; I'll try to get a podcast out over christmas where I will (hopefully) explain it a bit better. practicing first on older hardware. Back when I first started learning (2006 2007) there wasn't really anything accessible that related to PC building so I largely taught myself. Perhaps if I had made more use of sites like Youtube I wouldn't have made as many mistakes as I did but ultimately I hope I've learnt from them all. I have a feeling that a sighted person would probably be able to get away with it if they used a stock heatsync; there are some great tutorial videos around these days and you can get more or less a step by step using a combination of the case and motherboard manuals. You can get some very cheap second hand computers off eBay or a free one off Freecycle to practice with if you want; you need to spend a small enough amount of money that you'll feel comfortable chalking the investment up as a lesson learnt if you were to break the system. What you need to try and teach yourself is the ability to look at a system regardless of the components in it and say ok, so I'm pretty sure this massive aftermarket heatsync is secured like this; the hard drive's mounted in a bit of a nonstandard way but I'm pretty sure it'll come out if I unscrew this etc etc. Don't take apart a system and say ok, now I know how to remove a motherboard from an Optiplex GX270 and how to remove a socket 478 heatsync - that stuff will help, but concentrate on getting good at using a screwdriver and try to develop an instinct about how things work and how they should be taken apart that you can then apply to any system that you look at. I practiced on some very old systems; socket 370 (P3) and socket A/462 (Old AMD's like the Duran and Athlon) The heatsyncs on both of these sockets are a real pain to remove; there is a tiny clip that you need to push down & forwards at the same time and I found that the best way to do this was with a flathead. Unfortunately, on the systems that I broke, the flathead would slip and then scrape across the board which I'm assuming damaged some of the traces which made the system not post. This was extremely frustrating to me; at the time, I had a few parcially sighted friends who had started building but I was always the "computer person" in our group and it upset me that my friends who had a comparitively small amount of computer related knolige were able to build a system quicker than I could and without breaking it. My understanding is that a lot of the build process is common sense if you are sighted; these people didn't really understand what each part did, but they'd scene enough computers to know how it should be installed. Again, all old hardware, so we didn't really mind if we messed something up. The installation methods for stock Intel and Amd heatsyncs have stayed fairly standard for a while; Intel introduced socket 775 in 2005? and whilst the pin count on their CPU's has changed, their heatsyncs haven't that much. In fact, in a pinch, you can (But really shouldn't) force an old socket 775 heatsync to be installed on a new socket 1155 motherboard. It should be capable of cooling any 1155 CPU the TDP's of some of the older 775 CPU's like the Q6600 were pretty high so it shouldn't be a problem, but the distance between the holes that the flimsy plastic pins go into has changed slightly. AMD's have (As far as I'm aware) been fairly alike for around the same amount of time. I guess it depends on what you do really. I more or less know my away around server 2003 and Ubuntu server but I wouldn't say I'm good at it at all; most of the people on this list will know far more about it than I do but on the other hand, most people on the list won't be able to replace a laptops motherboard.

My recommendation is if anyone is considering building their own machine, definitely go for it. You might consider getting help installing the processor and heat sync. The rest just takes some thought and carefulness. You really can't screw it up if you study up a little first and take your time.

One good thing is that there is about a million UTube videos on installing the processor and heat sync. Some of them have pretty good audio descriptions. Some don't. But if you listen to enough of them, you can probably figure it out.

Completely agree. Without meaning to turn this into your typical amazing blind person story, I think the main reason why I got so into it was because of the amount of people that told me that I wouldn't be able to build or that I would but it would take me a month or so to build a system. It took time - lots of time, but I've advised quite a few of the skeptics about hardware problems now and as far as I know none of them are able to do anything with laptops other than your usual hard drive & ram replacements. Keep at it and if anyone has any questions, feel free to write on or off list. Hopefully I'll put something out over christmas to help everyone. Cheers, Ben.

Sorry for the double post, but before I was able to build myself, I used to get my mum to build systems for me and she never broke a CPU. If someone like her (VI and with very little hardware knolige) is able to do it, I really don't see why so many fully sighted people find it hard. On 11/1/12, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:

Hi,

It's very subjective really. I know that's not helpfull at all but I feel it really does depend on how often you've done it; I've done both and I wouldn't really say that ones harder than the other. If as you say we assume that the people who are saying it's hard are sighted, I have to wonder just how good they are at building computers for it to be a problem for them. I'm pretty sure one corner of the cpu is color coded or different visually in such a way that it's obvious which way round it's meant to go, so I really find it hard to understand why lining up a cpu with a socket and gentely placing it in is so hard for them. When you secure the cpu in place with the leaver you do hear a bit of a crunch sound which can be a bit worrying, but theres a cover that flips down around the edges of the socket before you do this and if you've installed it incorrectly (Which you can't do), the cover just won't sit smooth with the rest of the board.

My gut feeling is that which ever cpu you buy there are going to be pins involved so theres always going to be a chance that something gets bent. I'd probably look at what you want to do on the system and then buy the CPU that suits your intended uses best.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/1/12, John G. Heim wrote:

...

The last time I built a PC, I got an AMD CPU partially because I had read lots of messages from people (presumably sighted people) talking about how they damaged their mobo trying to install an Intel CPU. Apparently, the pins are on the mobo. You close the lever and the pins are inserted into the CPU. But apparently, its easy to mess that up. That scared me considerably. Its pretty easy to bend the pins on an AMD CPU but that can be fairly easily fixed. Although you'd probably need someone who can see to do it.

Comments?

I am currently shopping for a mobo and CPU. I just built a PC about a year ago but I gave it to my wife when hers crashed. I came pretty close to buying a quad-core Intel CPU and Asus mobo. I kind of chickened out at the last minute. Also, with 16Gb of RaM it would have been $350. I don't know if I need to spend that much. I'm thinking I might end up going with components similar to what I bought a year ago, quad-core AMD CPU, Asus mobo, 8Gb RAM.

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