Do-It-Yourself Personal Computer (PC) Repairing, Upgrading and Modding

How to Upgrade, Repair, Disassemble a Personal Computer (PC)

Here is a (still beta) collection of free take apart instructions, disassembly pictures, upgrade and repair manuals, as well as do-it-yourself (DIY) tips and tricks for Personal Computers - PCs. If you have written a report yourself (or if you know of a tutorial not linked here), please submit a new entry.

AOpen HX08 Full Tower Case	How to mod a full tower case: Dremel mayhem, drilling fan holes and building a homemade HDD cooler.
Apple eMac	An illustrated Hard Disk Drive - HDD replacement and upgrade guide.
Apple iMac (Original Flat Panel Model)	A completely and carefully illustrated and explained disassembly tour.
Apple iMac (2000/2001 models)	This page covers disassembly of the later CRT iMacs. The model used here was a Summer 2001 iMac DV. Access to the motherboard & drives (easy) and further disassembly into the guts of the thing (the PSU, CRT and Analogue Board).
Apple iMac (revision A)	Need to get to the motherboard of one of these things? If you want to change the P-RAM Battery or memory then you do. It's not too difficult. If you're not sure what type of iMac you have then here's a few pointers.
Apple Mac mini	How to take apart the computer, disassembly video.
Apple Mac mini	How to disassemble the mini PC and upgrade the eSATA hard disk drive.
Apple Mac mini	A step-by-step dissection video [video].
Apple Mac mini A1170	A complete step-by-step take apart guide with pictures.
Apple Macintosh Performa 6200	Why going through the challenge of taking one of these apart? You either need to access the motherboard, storage drives or power supply.
Apple Quadra 800/840AV	How to take apart the PC to get access to the motherboard.
Apple MacBook 13.3''	How to convert a almost dead Apple MacBook to a Mac Pro Ultra Mini by putting the motherboard into a Macally G-S350SUA Aluminum External Enclosure. The enclosure lookes like a Mac Pro, front mounted power button, & all aluminum case.
DELL Vostro 200 Slim Tower	A peek inside the slim tower PC.
GateWay N.N.	How to remove a CPU which sticks to a heatsink.
Winbook Jiv Mini	How to open the computer case: a short guide with some pictures.
N.N.	An aircraft carrier PC modding.
N.N.	How to add RAM to a computer. This short video explains all the tips and tricks you need to get the memory upgrade done.
Project: Hard Drive PC	How to build a custom Personal Computer case made of some dead hard drives.
Selfmade Watercooling System	This selfmade watercooling system consists of three copper cooling blocks for the CPU, Northbridge and Graphics Card. The warm water is cooled down with a big passive selfmade copper radiator. The water is circled with a silent Eheim water pump.
Selfmade Cheap BT8xx PCI GPIO-Card	A generic digital 24-port PCI GPIO card can be built out of an ordinary Brooktree bt848, bt849, bt878 or bt879 based analog TV tuner card. The Brooktree chip is used in old analog Hauppauge WinTV PCI cards. You can easily find them used for low prices on the net.
RTC CMOS Clock Chip	Ever had a computer that 'forgot' its date and time settings? Normally this information is retained by a battery or a capacitor on the motherboard but some boards used a Real Time Clock chip (RTC). If you have a motherboard with amnesia and there's no obvious battery to change on it, look for a large rectangular chip such, which may well be marked 'REAL TIME'. This guide explains how to substitute the battery inside this electronic component.
MyCPU	The MyCPU is a "Central Processing Unit" that is completely built with discrete logic gates.