Are Open-Air Test Benches Worth It?

[lindsay24]

I do a great deal of work with computers. Building, repairing and troubleshooting a desktop is a regular thing for me and I always find it's a hassle to open up the side panel and deal with the tangled mass of wires and all the screws etc. I have been toying with the idea of buying an open-air test bench to make my life a little easier to quickly diagnose hardware problems.

Long story short, what I want to ask is if it is worth the money for a test bench or should I just save my money? Also, if I were to buy a test bench, I have seen good reviews on the "High Speed PC Top Deck Tech Station", however it is just shy of $200 on Newegg and just slightly less than that if I order from the US (I live in Canada). Would I be better off with a different model or brand? Or is it worthwhile to just build my own all together?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Something like this is all you really need. I have two similar to these but often I just use a piece of fiber board to lay the motherboard on and connect everything in the open on my laminate workbench. The test case is good when it will be connected that way for a while during diagnosis or testing of different configurations though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353001

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I do a great deal of work with computers. Building, repairing and troubleshooting a desktop is a regular thing for me and I always find it's a hassle to open up the side panel and deal with the tangled mass of wires and all the screws etc. .....

Building, repairing and troubleshooting a series of computers .... or ... Building, repairing and troubleshooting the same computer over and over again.

If the first, I don't see it.... the 2nd makes perfect sense for example if yu are testing video cards for web site publications.

If someone brings in a bad PC.... I test it by sticking my spare parts in not taking there's out and putting in something else.

Now if you had a sto9re and peeps bringing in stuff that don't work, here again makes perfect sense.

They do get dusty

 

[lindsay24]

I do a great deal of work with computers. Building, repairing and troubleshooting a desktop is a regular thing for me and I always find it's a hassle to open up the side panel and deal with the tangled mass of wires and all the screws etc. .....

Building, repairing and troubleshooting a series of computers .... or ... Building, repairing and troubleshooting the same computer over and over again.

If the first, I don't see it.... the 2nd makes perfect sense for example if yu are testing video cards for web site publications.

If someone brings in a bad PC.... I test it by sticking my spare parts in not taking there's out and putting in something else.

Now if you had a sto9re and peeps bringing in stuff that don't work, here again makes perfect sense.

They do get dusty

I'm do repairs and custom builds as a hobby, so yeah. Computers come and go from my house very frequently, however I may spend several days troubleshooting the same PC before moving on to the next.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I have certainly been there, tho with the kids doing most of the builds now, I get to have less fun

Tho I must say, I have never felt the need to disassemble a whole PC, reinstall in in another case, and then take it all out again and put it back into original.