How many computers have you built?

Hundreds. I used to be a computer technician at a university and I have lost count long ago.

Over the course of my life, several thousand. For a few years I worked as a shop tech at a network services company. We sold machines by the hundreds to schools, universities, businesses, etc. So we'd get an order for 500 machines on a particular month, and I built pretty much all of them.

It was fun, easy work - but the pay wasn't enough to stick around forever. It sure gave me more than my lion's share of experience in properly assembling machines. I don't do it anymore, maybe only once every 2-3 years when getting a new machine for myself, but I can assemble a complete PC from boxed parts in about 25 minutes.

Completely agree. I simply don't have the time or the care anymore to spend hours tinkering with a machine to find out why it doesn't work. I don't mess around with broken parts either - it gets one chance, and after that it either gets RMA'ed or recycled.

This is exactly why I don't build many computers anymore. I built my first in '85, a fast 8MHz XT clone using an 80186-2 chip and a full 640 KB of fast 120ns RAM IIRC, because I couldn't afford to buy one pre-built ($700-$800 for parts versus $1100-$1200 for the same parts assembled.) Over the years I've built a few dozen for friends and relatives and work for the same reason, but PCs are so dead simple nowadays that literally anyone can build them and there's really no price premium for a pre-built PC anymore. Now I'm paid too much to build them for work, but I still build my own just because I like controlling what goes in it and even more so, because I can easily upgrade in stages.

7 total. My three desktops, 1 htpc and 3 others for friends...

ive built quite a few let me see probably 9 or more 3 were nice top end systems the rest were low to mid end but i loved every minute of building them all even when stuff went wrong. the most expensive one i built was an old fx 57 system cost me more than 3k god that was a beast back in the day.

so your saying i could give you all the parts to a brand new computer right now and you could have an after market hsf and all the audio and case wires and everything hooked up in 25min that sounds hard to believe. maybe the same computer over and over with the exact same parts. but i guess it might be possible its hard for me even after reading all the instructions on some of these newer hsf to get it all together in less than an hour.

Parts aren't too hard, maybe an hour at most, but getting them in the right places and your computer to work is the though one for me .

Doesn't seem too hard to believe to me. Computers are dead simple anymore. Most of those connectors are labeled at motherboard and at the connector, both for function and for polarity, HSFs really don't vary that much in mounting, and the cables and their connectors are visually differentiated enough that checking manuals is not required. I spend more than 25 minutes to be sure, but I seldom hurry (leads to cut hands/arms from sharp sheet metal!) I have assembled computers from strange parts in under half an hour when needed, and I've assembled many fewer computers in my life.

I agree with you werepossum

Gone are the days where it took half an hour (or more !) to replace a Hard Drive, deep down under plates of metal, with a millimeter of space

To assemble a computer these days takes really close to zero knowledge (ie online guides and manuals have improved as well (just a tad )

If we are talking about putting in posts, and easily placing the Motherboard; CPU; HeatSink; all the little wires and plugging in the Power Supply connectors ! Um I could do it under candle light.

How many computers? 10 million I give up, too many to think of
I still replace Motherboards every few days. It's simple
(Note: Confirming all parts are compatible is the only issue)

Yes, I could, can, did and will. When you have 600 of the exact same part for the exact same machines all boxed up next to you, muscle memory alone does 95% of the work.

Assembling modern computers is not difficult nor time consuming. If you handed my a box of OEM parts for a random desktop rig, I could have it assembled and booted in under 25 minutes.

i think my biggest problem is i try to route all wires and make the case look nice before i boot maybe why it takes so long.

hi there

i used to be a tech for Packard Bell NEC and our target was 65 in an 8 hour shift although i probably managed around the 50 mark


regards

i have built let me think.......

oh yeah 0 hahahahaha.....

i want to build one though, just getting into computers.

A SOME WOULD SAY NOOB.