What's Inside? #8: Enormous LG Desktop Computer

Looks like I haven't made a "What's Inside" Instructable for a pretty long time.

Well, Things are about to change with this ENORMOUS desktop computer!

The computer you see in the picture was given to me by a friend who's parents recently upgraded to a better one (Well, duhh :]) I looked everywhere on the computer and there wasn't anything written about the company of this computer or anything else. The only thing I know it that the CD/DISK-ROM/Drive is made by LG.

As Instructables member Crickle321 commented on one of my previous "What's Inside?"*:

"I'm glad you took apart yours so I don't end up taking mine apart." - This should probably work well here too!

Oh, If you're interested in more of these "What's Insides", Make sure to follow my Instructables page, I will be uploading "What's Inside?: 600W ATX Power Supply" soon! You might not want to miss that!

*It was on "What's Inside? #6: Sony Play-Station"

Step 1: Hard-Drive

This is a 60GB - 7,200 RPM HDD, This doesn't really matter because it will be taken apart, I believe I have an 'Ible coming up on that soon.

Step 2: Coolers: Heat-Sinks & Fans

I also salvaged a CPU+Fan Heat-Sink, These can dissipate a lot of heat, I might use it for a future project

The other fan just helped circulate the air that was inside the computer: Blowing the hot air out, And replacing it with colder air (Room Temp)

There was also a small heat-sink on one of the IC's that were on the motherboard

Step 3: ATX Power Supply & ROMs

There was also an awesome ATX Power Supply: It can deliver 16 Amps at 12V! There are many other voltages (Picture #2), But I will probably use this as a regular 12V power supply for projects that need a lot of current

There were also two CD/DISK ROM's that I took apart, I've seen projects that people have turned these into 3D Printers, But I don't think that these motors in these are strong enough...

Step 4: Metal Plates/Board

I don't really know what to call these, But these are part of the outside of the computer

The one on the right in the first picture was in my plans of making SpectrumLED, I wanted to glue* the LED's to the plate, And then glue heat-sinks to the plate to help dissipate the heat, But I decided to use a Heat-Sink that I salvaged from a Stereo Player. I thought it would be better for several different reasons.

*With thermal adhesive

Step 5: Cool PCB's

I keep the PCB's that I think look pretty cool, I am thinking of showing what I do with them in a future Instructable

This also includes CPU's and more

Step 6: Thanks for Watching!

Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this "What's Inside" Instructable!

Don't forget to subscribe to catch more "What's Inside's" and other electronics projects!

Do you like taking apart electronic devices? I've made a collection of all of my "What's Insides" If you're interested: https://www.instructables.com/id/Whats-Inside-Taki...

Comments

[kiD]

I made a small subsonic wind tunnel from one of the salvaged fans! Saved ALL the usefull parts. Parents are annoyed @ the state of my desk... cluttered.

[Yonatan24]

Do you have any pictures?

[kiD]

Hi Yonatan24,
Heres some pics...
NEED TO ORGANIZE!!!
The last pic is the wind tunnel.
First three are random... uhhh... catch alls.
In the first pic you will see at the right a buncha fans and an unopened dvd drive from the computer.
Cool Instructable!

[Yonatan24]

Nice!

[Ohm Volta]

Very cool...

Do you have more???

[The Science Brony]

IN the power supply, you will most likely find:

two large capacitors

several MOSFETS and voltage regulators

large heatsinks

a fan or two

several coils (toroids)

A relay (maybe)

[tjdux]

Giant computer lol. In my day that was a common sized desktop pc. Technical term full size ATX case/motherboard. You can still buy them today.

Check out a guide on how to assemble a desktop pc. It may interest you to know the proper names of all the components you didn't recognize .

[FernandoS30]

There where even bigger ones, with more 5.25" bays (usually for servers). Yonatan24, that's not a LG Computer, is probably what is called a "clone computer" (technically, any computer that's not IBM is a "clone" but that's another story) not made by a big name company, probably a technician or even the owner of the PC build it, using the individual components he buy separately. Usually, you get the cabinet, the power supply (if not included with the cabinet), the motherboard, the memory, the processor, hard disk, and optical unit. Optionally you would get floppy drive and/or card reader (those go into the 3.5" bays above the power button). If not a "gamer" PC, usually the on-board video card was good enough. The same goes for the sound board (if we where talking about an even older computer, you sure will get and SoundBlaster board).

[FloppidyDingo]

I love it when someone gives me a PC for free! My school gave me one not too long ago (I only asked for a small handfull of parts, and instead a teacher takes me to the back room and hands me an entire computer, saying "take it and have fun"). I kept the hard drive intact because I know I'll need it in a future project, but the power supply was dead, so I salvaged as much as I could to make my own little power brick thingy. The CD drive had CD burning capabilities where as my old one didn't, so I swapped those. I used the CPU fan to cool my PC's overheating chipset. And I used the case as a replacement for my old one. I found a video card with a blown capacitor, so I salvaged what I could from that. I still have yet to examine the motherboard for anything useful. But the CPU I know I'll use in a project somewhere, so I put it in my Altoids tin of salvaged CPUs, GPUs, and chipsets. I also cut myself pretty bad trying to pull the Northbridge heatsink off. But all in all, a great harvest of parts.

[Yonatan24]

Love is an under-estimation, The best way to make me happy is to give me some kind of device to take apart!

We probably do almost the same things with these electronic devices, Keep, Salvage, Or keep

These heat-sinks are sometimes pretty scary, They're usually held down with a spring at an extreme amount of force on the CPU, But even if I (sometimes) get cut (hopefully not), They're really high quality and might be worth it :)

[FloppidyDingo]

For me, if what I find is still functional and I have a use for it, then I'll let it live. Otherwise, i take my tools out and see what I can use inside of it. I was given a printer once, and I was rewarded with lots of cool sensors and a REALLY big motor.

The heatsink that cut me was not only held by a spring, but was also GLUED to the chip. But now it's mine.

[Yonatan24]

*Keep, Salvage, And save (the components)