Disassembly for learning/cleaning purposes of a Dell Optiplex 745

This instructable is intended for people beginning out that are interested in learning about internal parts of a PC. While all desktop computers are not set up exactly the same, many are very similar.

*DISCLAIMER*
Because all computer set-ups are not the same and this is not an official instuctable/tutorial of disassembly (this is how I would disassemble a machine on my terms), you assume all liability and possible outcomes as a result if you follow this instructable. You are held responsible for whatever happens with your computer.

Materials Required:
- Phillips Head screw driver
- Patience
- Elbow grease
- Compressed Air
- OptiPlex 745 Desktop
- Vacuum
- Antistatic wrist strap (optional)

Step 1 Interior of Desktop

The parts that we will be removing will be:

(Not in order)

-Power supply
-Hard drive
-Optical Drive (CD/DVD Drive)
- Heat-sink with housing
-RAM (Random access memory)
-Motherboard

Comments

[Computothought]

Dell has traditionally had good documentation of their equipment on their web site. I still have a few old gx1 and gx110's.They run Linux great. Having been a tech for a few years, Dell internals are like no other system. You have to be real careful about swapping out parts on them. A "white box" is more standard.

[Dp04952]

I had to do this for a class project so I thought I would tear apart one of my old desktops for a instructable. I began to notice that as I went along, you have to take the heat-sink off the CPU to completely clean it, which puzzles me. I work with a lot of HP's and they are so much easier to take apart than these ones.

[Computothought]

Your project was good. A few years back, Dell's reliability was at it's wane. As a tech I and others had to change out hundreds if not thousands of Dell motherboards, cpu's, hard drive's and etc. I love Texas companies, but now we call Dell computers, the New Dheli computers (for multiple reasons). I would not own a black box desktop Dell. I will say that traditionally HP built things like a tank. My first choice for computers used to be Gateway before they were sold out..