HEXUS Cheapo Tips and Tricks

[Stoo]

Okay folks, this little beauty was sparked off in my head following a post in Hexus Bargain Hunt, the basic premise is this:

Post your Hardware Related tips and tricks, a bit like that short-lived tv program using house hold bits and bobs (using orange zest as a de-greaser, or getting red wine stains out with white wine etc etc), whith the following conditions:

• One idea/tip/trick per post.
• Must be Cheap (~£10 or so kinda cheap).
• Nothing pointless or too silly (must be genuinely useful).

Here's one to start you off (Ta Flibster for an excellent tip!):

If you're after a dirt cheap and very good mousemat - go to sainsburys.

Yes..the supermarket.

Go to the isle which has all the tin foil and stuff on - amongst that stuff should be a teflon baking sheet for £2.99

As it's something like 40x30cm you can make at least 2 mats from it.

Just tape it to your desk or a bit of card or something and voila..a mat that imho outperforms icemats/ratpads etc.

As it's got a nice subtle texture and some sparkley bits in it it works a treat with optical mice

[Nick]

Here's mine:

Again, troll along to the supermarket and buy yourself a few of those green scouring pads, get them as big as you can.

Open up your case and cut a pad down to the right size to fit over a case fan and hey presto! One dust filter! Unscrew the fan from the case, or remove the fan cage, then refit with the scourer in-between... job done and less messing around de-furring everything every couple of months.

When you want to clean them up, just rinse under the tap, dry well and re-fit.

[Zak33]

tidying of inner cabling for good airflow is essential in a modern case.

Get a length of rubber pipe, it can be garden hose, or the pipes found in car engine bays (that you can buy per foot from most motor factors)

Use a sharp stannley knife and cut it along its length and DONT go too straight....just start at one end, pull the rubber apart as you cut and slide it along.

Now, holding it open push the cabling into it....plugs and stuff can pop out of any part of the length, and you can add cables int it later.

The pipe comes in different thicknesses so its totally flexible. Once all dont and its sorted and your happy with it, you can tape it up to keep it tidy.

You can fold ribbon cables to fit in it too.

Its ace stuff
Do the PSU lead to the mobo too. Get that air flow better, tidy you cables, get a cooler PC< a quiter PC...and its CHEAP

[Stoo]

oh yeah, another good use for garden hose while I remember, is for cheap weatherproofing on external cables (useful for all those uni-students networking the halls up ), after all, it's designed to keep water in, so it should be pretty decent at keeping rain out

[Lee H]

For nice Stealth fan filters the following can be applied.

Trundle up to your local Adsa or Tesco or local supermarket and slowly browse the ladies "hoisery" department. Get a pair of tights (black are best) and you can use these to cover the air inlets on the PC to filter out the dust. Not only that but if you have LED fans then the fans get a sort of trippy strobe effect as well. If you combine this with Deckards scouring pads you will have a 2 stage filtration system even your hoover would be proud of

[Zak33]

always keep a CHOP STICK handy.

Dont throw them away.....they are ACE for putting the nasty Heatsink Clip from most AMD motherboards on...and IF you slip the wooden chopstick is 100% less likely to scratch your mobo than a screw driver

[Rave]

I often find old computers ditched by the side of the road. Usually they're stripped of any useful parts....or are they? Help yourself to the motherboard standoffs, jumper connectors, and cables, because in my experience you can never have too many spares.

If you see a skip in a non-residential area, then have a quick look inside. They're an excellent source of all sorts of cable offcuts, especially Cat5e which I've found loads of, both terminated and unterminated. You can use mains cable for speaker wire etc.

Rich :¬)

[Zak33]

jumpers...the little screws that hold PCI cards in..case fans....al worth keeping. Its the CASE that is valueless

[Rave]

It helps to have a penknife with a little screwdriver on. I should make a habit of taking mine with me, really.

Rich :¬)

[Lee H]

Always have some of that PTFE tape in your kit as well. The reason, its great for placing on the metal standoffs in a case if your scared of shorting it out.

[mr_anderson187]

OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!

what you saiid abbout the teflon mousemat is the bomb stoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just took a nip down to my siansburies, picked this up to £1.89

unfortunatly only enuff to make one mouse mat though, just duck taped it to my mouse tray wooden thingy now, its much more free flowing!!!!

teh pwnage!!!!!

[Stoo]

It helps to have a penknife with a little screwdriver on. I should make a habit of taking mine with me, really.

Rich :¬)

Victorinox actually do a very handy Swiss Army penknife specifically for us Computer geeks (linky)

It's not exactly cheap though..

[Stoo]

OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!

what you saiid abbout the teflon mousemat is the bomb stoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just took a nip down to my siansburies, picked this up to £1.89

unfortunatly only enuff to make one mouse mat though, just duck taped it to my mouse tray wooden thingy now, its much more free flowing!!!!

teh pwnage!!!!!

Well, it's not my tip, but Flibster's initially, you can get quite large sheets of it from some places, I'll have a look in a bit, but a google for "teflon sheeting" might pop up something in the meantime

[Zak33]

that IS good isnt it..../goes to Sainsbury's

[mr_anderson187]

it IS good!!!! verrrrrry good,



p.s. excuse my terrible typing in that first post, i was jsut trying to get out the feeling of joy from mynew mouse mat.

p.p.s. polish your teflon for even slidier results

[Zak33]

p.s. excuse my terrible typing in that first post, i was jsut trying to get out the feeling of joy from mynew mouse mat.

no excuses needed....I love exhuberance its rare as hell on-line...real excitement shows