all 16 comments

[–]VantaFount 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Connect components? Sure.
Make a motherboard, no.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

No custom PCBs or breadboard circuits even?

[–]noice 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

That is different from a motherboard

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Well, "motherboard" technically only means a board into which you plug other components. We are used to thinking of PC ATX (and mATX, uITX, EATX, XL-ATX and so on, and so forth) as motherboards, and of course that is the proper term, but it has a wider meaning.

A custom PCB or breadboard could be made into motherboards. Likely not into PC motherboards of course.

[–]noice 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Wasn't aware of the wider meaning. Thanks

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Yes, yes, and sure, somewhat.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

I've seen your posts before and I always suspected you weren't an idiot

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've put you on my friends list, so I can keep up with the interesting or astute stuff you post.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Yes. Yes. Yes, but it would be huge, inefficient, take weeks to solder together ( I can't make PCBs) and run hot as hell.

I mean, you can solder together all the components to make a simple CPU, but again it would be huge, hot, and horribly slow. I wouldn't want to try even as a DIY LimitBreaker.

Q's for you: Can you run an OS on a PC with no hardrive?

A 100uf capacitor has blown on your motherboard, but you only have a 20 pack of 10uf capacitors on hand. What do you do?

Will your computer work with 2 8gb ram sticks at 2400mhz and 2 8gb sticks at 4200mhz?

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Can you run an OS on a PC with no hardrive?

Does an SD card or thumb drive count as a harddrive? If not, I got this

A 100uf capacitor has blown on your motherboard, but you only have a 20 pack of 10uf capacitors on hand. What do you do?

EDIT: I think I got this. You either have to connect them in series or parallel

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Ya got it. You can boot from a live usb/cd, and you can also load an OS into your RAM over the net, via Pre execution environment or an equivalent.
You'll need to run 10 10uf capacitors in parallel to replicate a 100uf cap. In series, the total capacitance will be less than the sum of the smaller caps together; in parallel they effectively become one big 100uf cap.

Good OP man, this has been kinda fun.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Good OP man, this has been kinda fun.

Good response man, this was totally fun ahaha

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Your computer can't use RAM at different speeds. It needs to get its data at a somewhat even rate: if you get one byte in 30ns and the other takes you 42ns, then your CPU can only process the data after its got the whole thing, that is, after 42ns. So... You can USE 4200mhz RAM along with 2400mhz RAM, but you have to run it at the lowest speed and highest latency settings supported by any of the sticks.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Correct, and most modern PCs will detect the difference and default to the lowest usable speed.

[–]Mle 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I know what a motherboard is.

I cannot connect components to a motherboard, but I do feel like I could be talked through the process and possibly be successful at it.

Making a motherboard is way, way, ridiculously above my paygrade.

I've never been the most tech-savvy person, and I actually feel like I've gotten worse at it over the years. Before tablets, I knew how to at least figure out how to fix issues with hardware or software. I didn't have to outsource all my tech support. But once I got an iPad, that all changed. I practically feel computer illiterate now. If something goes wrong with my tablet, I have no idea where to start. For a long time I only had a tablet and eventually I got a regular laptop again, but I still feel pretty clueless about it. What little tech skills I had have totally atrophied.

[–]Raavan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes yes no

Putting together a computer is laughable easy these days (except for choosing parts). Slightly complicated jigsaw puzzle, that's all. I learnt how to connect monitor and peripherals to a computer at something like 7? 8? just by looking at the colour of the connector and hole. The story inside the cabinet is not very different either.

Making a motherboard, though, that's a different story.