Plywood PC

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New Orleans Novice

Is there such a thing as a PC on Plywood? Used as a teaching tool at my
g-kids elementary school.

Is it feasible or logical to take apart a PC and place all the pieces on
plywood? Will the Mother Board have to set on small blocks?

Then slide the parts all around the Mother Board. Connect all the cables to
the Adapter Cards, Hard Drive, CD Rom, etc. Then connect the power cable to
the Power Supply.

You think the Mother Board CPU will get over heated? Or will the kids be
interesting in watching the guts of the PC as it is on and running while
they click the mouse and keyboard?

Very good or Very bad idea?
 
Should work just fine, most computer repair places have a modified setup to
allow them to test motherboards, as long as you allow for cooling, should be
fine.
you might need to consider extra support for IDE cards, usually they are
screwed into the case so they don't move around.
 
New said:
Is there such a thing as a PC on Plywood? Used as a teaching tool at my
g-kids elementary school.

Is it feasible or logical to take apart a PC and place all the pieces on
plywood? Will the Mother Board have to set on small blocks?

Then slide the parts all around the Mother Board. Connect all the cables to
the Adapter Cards, Hard Drive, CD Rom, etc. Then connect the power cable to
the Power Supply.

You think the Mother Board CPU will get over heated? Or will the kids be
interesting in watching the guts of the PC as it is on and running while
they click the mouse and keyboard?

Very good or Very bad idea?
Click to expand...

Good things for kids, are things that are tactile, that they can touch.
For example, take the top off an old hard drive, and let them see
the actuator and the platters. Let them leave finger prints on the
platters. Or open up a CDROM drive, and show them what is in there.
Bring along an AMD Athlon, and show them the chunk of silicon that
forms the CPU.

With a working computer, there isn't a lot to see.

So while you can nail a motherboard, hard drive, CDROM to a piece of
plywood, and set up a working computer, it would probably be more fun
to open up the component parts, and have something they could touch.

The components of a computer, will function just fine, if littered
across a table top. Before I build a computer, I assemble the whole
thing on my work table, and boot into Windows. So the computer will
run just fine like that. The only tricky bit, is if you use a
separate video card, there is nothing to hold it in place. You
have to be careful not to tug on the monitor cable, because if
you do, the video card could be pulled out of its socket. With
your plywood idea, if you want to build a working computer, you'd
be best off using a motherboard with integrated video, so there
are no plugin cards to dislodge by accident. You can always
bring along a separate dead video card, for the kids to poke
at, if you want to explain what a video card is.

Paul
 
New Orleans Novice said:
Is there such a thing as a PC on Plywood? Used as a teaching tool at my
g-kids elementary school.

Is it feasible or logical to take apart a PC and place all the pieces on
plywood? Will the Mother Board have to set on small blocks?

Then slide the parts all around the Mother Board. Connect all the cables
to the Adapter Cards, Hard Drive, CD Rom, etc. Then connect the power
cable to the Power Supply.

You think the Mother Board CPU will get over heated? Or will the kids be
interesting in watching the guts of the PC as it is on and running while
they click the mouse and keyboard?

Very good or Very bad idea?
Click to expand...

Depends...it's doable, but don't let it be where the kids can touch it. Not
only can they receive a very nasty shock, but they will most certainly
destroy it by touching things while it is running.

FWIW, there are clear acrylic cases and side panels that will allow viewing
of the internal components. You may want to ask about this at your local
computer store.

Honu
 
Thanks to all of your repliers whatever a replier is.
The point is to teach the kids the parts, names and how and why they
connect. It is a working WIndows ME with a monitor.

They can plug and unplug with hands on learning. TJsRoux brought up about
the Power Supply.

Good point.

I will put it in a plywood box against the wall so the power cable cannot be
unplugged and replugged. Safety factor.

It is a smalle elementary private school with no resources. You have some
great ideas. Thanks.
 
Additional thoughts...
Static and power grid grounding, you will likely have to
provide grounding strips;
EMI shielding, a computer running in the open may cause
unwanted and possibly illegal radio frequency interference;
Cooling, wood is a poor insulator but still could require
extra forced air cooling, even on an open board you may need
some ducts and fans to direct cooling air.

You might look for donations of obsolete computers which
could be assembled and disassembled by the students, which
would allow them to learn the construction and physical
layout of towers and desktop boxes without risking the
schools working computers.


in message | Thanks to all of your repliers whatever a replier is.
| The point is to teach the kids the parts, names and how
and why they
| connect. It is a working WIndows ME with a monitor.
|
| They can plug and unplug with hands on learning. TJsRoux
brought up about
| the Power Supply.
|
| Good point.
|
| I will put it in a plywood box against the wall so the
power cable cannot be
| unplugged and replugged. Safety factor.
|
| It is a smalle elementary private school with no
resources. You have some
| great ideas. Thanks.
|
|
 
you can probably get mother board support standoffs from a local computer store that does repairs.
it does need to be supported off the plywood.

(e-mail address removed)@sport.rr.com

Is there such a thing as a PC on Plywood? Used as a teaching tool at my
g-kids elementary school.

Is it feasible or logical to take apart a PC and place all the pieces on
plywood? Will the Mother Board have to set on small blocks?

Then slide the parts all around the Mother Board. Connect all the cables to
the Adapter Cards, Hard Drive, CD Rom, etc. Then connect the power cable to
the Power Supply.

You think the Mother Board CPU will get over heated? Or will the kids be
interesting in watching the guts of the PC as it is on and running while
they click the mouse and keyboard?

Very good or Very bad idea?
 
New said:
Is there such a thing as a PC on Plywood? Used as a teaching tool at
my g-kids elementary school.

Is it feasible or logical to take apart a PC and place all the pieces
on plywood? Will the Mother Board have to set on small blocks?

Then slide the parts all around the Mother Board. Connect all the
cables to the Adapter Cards, Hard Drive, CD Rom, etc. Then connect
the power cable to the Power Supply.

You think the Mother Board CPU will get over heated? Or will the
kids be interesting in watching the guts of the PC as it is on and
running while they click the mouse and keyboard?

Very good or Very bad idea?
Click to expand...


Although you can do that, I'm not sure what you think the kids will watch..
The only moving parts are inside sealed cases, like disk drives. There's
really nothing at all to see.

If you do want to do this, rather than use plywood, why not just take an
ordinary PC and just remove the cover?
 
New Orleans Novice wrote:





Although you can do that, I'm not sure what you think the kids will watch..
The only moving parts are inside sealed cases, like disk drives. There's
really nothing at all to see.

If you do want to do this, rather than use plywood, why not just take an
ordinary PC and just remove the cover?
Click to expand...

We have done this. What fascinates many school kids is the hard drive
spinning and the arms moving. We have had both Seagate and WD provide
plastic covers for their hard drives.
 
If all that interests is the HDD spinning, just remove the side cover and
leave the HDD in full view..


Ghostrider said:
We have done this. What fascinates many school kids is the hard drive
spinning and the arms moving. We have had both Seagate and WD provide
plastic covers for their hard drives.
Click to expand...

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/
 
The other is the plastic type.

Thanks for the tip about mother board support standoffs. I am not familar with them at all. Nothing like a lot of tips and help.

To mount the motherboard, first determine which holes in the motherboard line up with which holes in the case. Then mount the standoffs. There are two types. The first is the brass type. It has threads on one end that allow you to screw it into the case. It has a hole on the other end, that also has threads, so that you can put a screw into it.

Standoffs are important to ground the motherboard to the case, and also to prevent unintended electrical shorts. It also prevents the motherboard from moving around, which can cause damage to the components. Finally, the standoffs give the motherboard support when you are installing other components. For instance, installing an AGP video card takes a significant amount of force. So, it is important that the motherboard has lots of support.

The brass type should be used along the left side of the motherboard (yellow circles indicate where I put brass standoffs). The plastic type should be used along the right side (white circles), as viewed like in the below picture. There is another plastic standoff on the far side of the SDRAM banks that you cannot see in this picture (top right corner of the motherboard).
 
New Orleans Novice said:
Is there such a thing as a PC on Plywood? Used as a teaching tool at my
g-kids elementary school.

Is it feasible or logical to take apart a PC and place all the pieces on
plywood? Will the Mother Board have to set on small blocks?

Then slide the parts all around the Mother Board. Connect all the cables to
the Adapter Cards, Hard Drive, CD Rom, etc. Then connect the power cable to
the Power Supply.

You think the Mother Board CPU will get over heated? Or will the kids be
interesting in watching the guts of the PC as it is on and running while
they click the mouse and keyboard?

Very good or Very bad idea?
Click to expand...

It can be a pretty good idea. If you use an ATX type motherboard
then you will need some sort of a switch to power it on. I use the
tip of screwdriver to momentarily short out the "power on" pins on the
motherboard but that is a bit tricky if you are going to allow kids
near it. Better to get some sort of momentary contact switch or pull
one out of a discarded computer case.

I did the same thing years ago for a computer hardware class for some
electricians whose employer was bringing computers into the plant for
production control. That was before the advent of the ATX
motherboard so the power switch was built into the power supply.

I used a large sheet of styrofoam (about 30 inches square and 2 or 3
inches thick) for my setup. It worked well.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
Where when and which model of Clear Plastic Case should be bought for this
PC? Everything needs to be removed from this case in installed into a new
see through case. Then this PC will be brought to my grandkid's school for
them to view without sticking their hands in there.

Compaq Presario 061 Model PX786AA-ABA SR1500NX NA530

Manufacturer : Compaq Presario 061
Model : PX786AA-ABA SR1500NX NA530
Version : 0n41411RE101KELUT00
Serial Number : CNH5191Q20
ID : 0000000B-00000000-00000000-00000500

System Chassis
Manufacturer : Hewlett-Packard
Type : Desktop

Mainboard
Manufacturer : ASUSTek Computer INC.
MP Support : 1 Processor(s)
MPS Version : 1.40
Model : Kelut
Version : 2.02
Serial Number : MB-1234567890
System BIOS : 06/06/2005-KM400A-8237-6A6LYA0E-00
Chipset : VIA KT400/A, KT600

On-board Devices
Other : Other (Enabled)
Video Adapter : Video Adapter (Disabled)
Ethernet Adapter : Ethernet Adapter (Enabled)
Sound Adapter : Sound Adapter (Disabled)

System Memory Controller
Location : Mainboard
Error Correction Capability : None
Number of Memory Slots : 2
Maximum Installable Memory : 2GB
Bank0/1 - A0 : None None None None DIMM DDR-SDRAM 512MB/64
Bank2/3 - A1 : None None None None DIMM DDR-SDRAM 512MB/64

Chipset 1
Model : ASUSTeK Computer Inc KM400 CPU to PCI Bridge
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 167MHz (334MHz data rate)
Maximum FSB Speed / Max Memory Speed : 2x 166MHz / 2x 200MHz
Width : 64-bit
IO Queue Depth : 4 request(s)
 
New said:
Where when and which model of Clear Plastic Case should be bought
for this PC? Everything needs to be removed from this case in
installed into a new see through case. Then this PC will be brought
to my grandkid's school for them to view without sticking their hands
in there.
Click to expand...


There are lots of cases with see-through sides, but I don't personally know
of any completely see-through cases.

What do these kids expect to see in the computer? There are no visible
moving parts in a computer, except for fans. Fans will quickly get very
boring to watch.
 
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