[SOLVED] What should i study if i want to start a PC building/repairs buisiness?

[Vt456]

Hello all!

Over the past year or so I've gone from knowing literally nothing about building PCs to being absolutely fascinated by the design and performance of Motherboards and other components. In particular, I've been binge watching videos from Gamers Nexus and Actually Hardcore Overclocking, and have been focusing on Buildzoids' deep dive of motherboards and how VRMs are designed and how they differ.

What areas of study would this fall under? I'm guesssing I would need at least some fundamental knowledge in areas such as electrical engineering/electronics/computer science/computer engineering? Obviously I would also need first hand experience in each of those specific applications, which so far I am only somewhat familiar with music production.

Let's say I wanted to take this a step further and aimed to gain employment from one of the major motherboard manufacturers and eventually be apart of a team of engineers that designs motherboards... What areas would I have to study to be involved in the hardware design such as vrms, and would I need to commit to an undergraduate degree?

I currently have one semester left in my bachelor of applied science (chemistry). while it is somewhat unrelated and I intend to get a job in the near future involving such qualification, my passion for computer hardware is only growing and I love learning!

Regards,

Vt

 

[USAFRet]

Building/repair is far far away from PCB design.

For your building and repair company....Marketing, local business laws.
Any semi intelligent 12 year old can assemble a PC. You need to make yourself stand out from the already established local pack, and stand out from what is available on Amazon/Facebook/Dell/HP/etc.

 

[Vt456]

@USAFRet That's a given, do you have any answers to the rest of my questions?

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet That's a given, do you have any answers to the rest of my questions?

Its not necessarily a given.
We've seen this same question many many times, from people who do NOT realize this.

Building/fixing is not that extreme.


Creating PCBs?
Electrical engineering degree, just to get your foot in the door as an intern.

 

[Vt456]

I see, well thank you for pointing that out. Apologies for putting the question up before combing through the page for the same question, it would be frustrating having to answer the same question dozens of times...

Do you know of any resources that would help in familiarizing with mobo/vrm designs? Like which power stages/mosfets are better or differences between doublers/voltage controller chips? Is it just the case that I'll have to comb through the spec sheets of those chips and learn them one by one in addition to testing?

Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Do you know of any resources that would help in familiarizing with mobo/vrm designs? Like which power stages/mosfets are better or differences between doublers/voltage controller chips? Is it just the case that I'll have to comb through the spec sheets of those chips and learn them one by one in addition to testing?

An EE degree is the start of that path.

You can't learn motherboard and chip design from publicly available spec sheets.

 

[Vt456]

Thanks heaps,

Do you know what the name of the area of EE which all that sort of stuff falls under?

Edit: that is, if it isn't called motherboard and chip design lol

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks heaps,

Do you know what the name of the area of EE which all that sort of stuff falls under?

Edit: that is, if it isn't called motherboard and chip design lol

I don't know the specifics, and it would almost certainly depend on your particular school and courses.

 

[Vt456]

I see, would you know of any other mods or members of this forum that would know? Even if someone knew of a textbook which covers such content, I would definitely be interested in buying one.

Thank you again

 

[Rogue Leader]

I see, would you know of any other mods or members of this forum that would know? Even if someone knew of a textbook which covers such content, I would definitely be interested in buying one.

Thank you again

There isn't a textbook that covers that particular content. You really need to look into a school for Electrical Engineering. Once you fully understand those concepts then you can take in and understand the intricacies of motherboard design. While you're there you may find yourself pulled into a different direction. I'm not sure what part of the world you are in but if you're in the US NYU Polytech in Brooklyn is one of the top schools in the country for EE. Its a tough school but you will learn what you need to know.

Now not to burst your bubble but all major motherboards are designed and in most cases manufactured in Taiwan, so unless you want to do move and learn another language and so on, that may not be the path you can take. BUT based upon your interest, while gaining your EE degree you will likely find yourself with other options. PC Motherboards are not the only things someone with what you want to learn can do. Besides SoCs are the future, you will learn that in school. Motherboards will become less and less important as the full chip handles everything that the Motherboard had separate chips for.

 

[Vt456]

@Rogue Leader I see, thank you for that explanation! Given I am currently studying an undergraduate degree in chemistry, I definitely would have to weigh this up for a while.

For my curiosity in the short term, would you happen to know any web pages or books which would help in understanding the videos that creators such as Buildzoid makes?

For reference, here is one of his videos, and the vrm analysis he does is 9 mins and 30 seconds in (which Is part of what I'm interested in)

View: https://youtu.be/6J7qnr0YNH8

Edit: I'm unfortunately living in the land down under haha

Thank you!

 

[Rogue Leader]

@Rogue Leader I see, thank you for that explanation! Given I am currently studying an undergraduate degree in chemistry, I definitely would have to weigh this up for a while.

For my curiosity in the short term, would you happen to know any web pages or books which would help in understanding the videos that creators such as Buildzoid makes?

For reference, here is one of his videos, and the vrm analysis he does is 9 mins and 30 seconds in (which Is part of what I'm interested in)

View: https://youtu.be/6J7qnr0YNH8

Edit: I'm unfortunately living in the land down under haha

Thank you!

Thats all basic electrical engineering type stuff. I don't know of any books or sites, again its more understanding the theory.

You can start here

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/electrical-engineering/introduction-to-ee

 

[Ralston18]

And for a good starting book with the basics:

Electronics demystified

Electronics in easy steps by Bill Mantovani

Amazon link and you can use the "Look inside" option to get a sense of the content and presentation.

Very well written, organized, and illustrated.