Toolkit - Looking to purchase

[Dareos]

Doing a fair bit of PC stripping and rebuilding at college at the moment. Built a fair few PC's in my time and repaired more but have been shown a few tools and techniques that I have never used before (being self taught isnt always the best).

So, looking for a toolkit. I need the basics, nothing too fancy so lets leave soldering irons etc out of it I have crimps, punch and an RJ45 tester, so its really just the tools for rebuilding PC's I require.

Torx, Hex Socketdriver, and all the other bits and pieces that are really useful. The College have a range of tools, and a couple of minikits that are useful, but would rather use my own, so i'm not raking through boxes every time.

Any recommendations are welcome.

[dacads]

Just what you're looking for:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=CA-012-OP

And I'm intrigued about the "techniques" you have been taught, how to build a PC under 1 hour?

[DDY]

I think the most important bit of gear is a set of drivers with slim handles and reasonably sized shanks, a set including torx may come in handy, I find with most PC tasks these are the only tools I need.

On the subject of screw drivers, I find those snubby ratcheting multi-bit hex drivers which come in many 'PC tool kits' aren't as useful as they are sold to be, for example they're useless for installing some heatsinks and are difficult to get in between tight areas such as between cables to access screws. But, they're generally useful to have around and they're great for driving case fan and stubborn case panel screws.

[Dareos]

Not a bad kit Dacads, but would rather have individual tools rather than one driver with several heads, more to drop out and get stuck under the motherboard etc.

I completely agree DDY, was hoping some of our more experienced Hexites would point me in the direction of a well respected tool manufacturer with ready made kits available.

And Dacads, any more than 20 mins for a standard tower or desktop and I would be embarrassed, Not that speed is my goal in buildng a PC, but repetition does help.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Make sure you get screwdrivers which have a magnetised head which is toughened. Good companies to look at include Gedore and Wera and the higher end Draper ranges are meant to be decent.

[dankellys]

Great advice from both DDY and CAT. I recenlty bought a Belkin set for around £50, and it is a nightmare. Very similar to the 1 dacads posted earlier, with a few extra bits and pieces in. The driver handle is massive and the changable heads are tiny, making it difficult to get into small spaces and inbetween wiring. However, the torx heads have came in handy a few times.

[Biscuit]

Quite often in these 'kits' what you get is copper tools that are plated in... something else. In general they are pretty much as bad as you could ask for really. Sometimes they come with quite useful stuff like a screw grabber (dunno what its really called but they are dead handy!) but all in all, not worth more than a few quid, especially if they are going to get a lot of use as they will all just bend, twist and strip. The most useful part of the one i got was the faux leather pouch that came with it with loads of elastic straps to hold the tools.

In all honestly, i would buy decent quality tools seperately and build up your own little kit over time, filling it up as you realize what you need.

Roebuck and Lindstrum are two brands that are used quite heavily by a lot of the wiremen and engineers at my work, myself included. Bare in mind these are tools used for thousands of usages every day, so they are priced highly for a reason!

Edit: Im also intreaged by how well the cables are managed on a PC build in under an hour

[shaithis]

Look for secure torque. They have a hole in the end and can be used on non-secure torque screws.

While you hardly ever use them, the day you need them you will be very relived

[dacads]

Edit: Im also intreaged by how well the cables are managed on a PC build in under an hour

Haha, no it was under 20 minutes

[Dareos]

Been advised to avoid magnetised heads Cat, never had a problem using them in a PC myself, but lecturer wont let magnetised tools near her PC's.

Dacads, these machines are pretty much used for stripping down and rebuilding, not messing about with graphics cards or fancy heatsinks or any extras, basically we strip them, rebuild them, straightening any pins or replacing missing bits and bobs and test them. Theres really nothing to it atm. Having built machines before and knowing the components, I dont really learn a great deal in this class, but its only a 10 week block and its needed for the Cisco qualification, cable management consists largely of making sure its not interfering iwth the processor fan.

I'll try those manufacturer websites, see if I can see anything I like, and Shaithis, Biscuit, great advice, thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I didn't think my advice was that bad,looking at your response to it, especially how long Gedore and Wera have been around.

You are not building something so sensitive which is being sent into space, which needs magnetic shielding. Standard components will be fine, and you are more likely to do more damage fiddling around with screws in tight spaces. It seems your lecturer has some fear of them. Maybe they think the hard drive will be affected or something like that.

[Biscuit]

Been advised to avoid magnetised heads Cat, never had a problem using them in a PC myself, but lecturer wont let magnetised tools near her PC's.

You have to be pretty unlucky to do any damage with a magnetised screwdriver on a modern motherboard... like get pushed and ram the thing through the PCB

[Dareos]

Never said your advice was bad Cat, only stating that lecturer wont allow magnetized tools in our test PC's. I did say I had never had a problem using them before.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You sorted of indicated it.

Anyway,I have used cheap torx wrench sets at a push and the tools have actually snapped in half. The Wera set I have has a fully hardened body and not even the thinnest bits have had an issue. It is similar to this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wera-02433...item564b8750a6

I find it very useful in tight spaces.

The hardened heads are useful,as you are less likely to strip the screwdriver head or the screw threads.

[Dareos]

Not my intention at all bud, first sites i checked were the 3 you mentioned, as always your advice is well received

I did thank Biscuit and Shaithis in particular because I didnt know about the secure Torx driver and the cheaper tools being copper and then coated.

Most of the kits I can find appear to of this type, or the type Dacads linked to at the top, both of which I am trying to avoid, and the more serious kits all appear to be for electrical work rather than electronic work ie: with heavy duty insulated screwdrivers and drillbits and so on.

All I really want are a few well made, single piece slim screwdrivers with appropriate heads, a grabber, tweezers, long nose pliers and preferrably a case of some kind.

I think though, that i may have to pay a visit to some hardware stores and pick out individual tools as the kits im finding are cheap like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hama-PC-Tool...001181&sr=1-24

or full of small fiddly bits like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piece-Comput...d_sim_sbs_ce_4

and this kit has a few of the tools I already have (not a biggie), but I have no idea of the quality as have never heard of them

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Network-Tele..._sim_sbs_ce_55

[Agent]

Been advised to avoid magnetised heads Cat, never had a problem using them in a PC myself, but lecturer wont let magnetised tools near her PC's.

You've been advised wrong I'm afraid. It's an old perpetual myth with PC building.

Magnetic drivers could potentially have caused issues with floppy disks if you were extremely uncareful, but there is nothing in PC that can be damaged by them.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/116572/article.html

It ranks up there with "The eye can only see 30 fps". It's fud