How quickly can one disassemble/assemble a computer?

[Sense of Duty (Kittens)]

I was thinking about a hacker's version of Armorer's Gift, but no one around here seems to have an idea as to how quickly one could realistically build or dismantle a computer with diligent practice. Does anyone here have an idea?

[Maximumpain]

A normal desktop PC or wintel server could be done in an hour by a skilled person if there were no problems. Ill bet you could get it down to 45 min or even a half hour if you were really good and had well known components. Thats only the hardware installing the OS can add hours to the process depending on what it is. Then you need the rest of your applications installed as well.

[Nymdok]

Of course it depends on TL. Building Eniac is a big job, but the Desktops that have been around since the 90s are really easy to slap together (especially now!).

Ask your self what it means to have an 'assembled' computer.

All it really requires is mobo, processor, memmory, power supply, vidoe card.

That you can throw together in 15 minutes if you already have the parts.

Adding a hard drive, CD-Rom (Assuming you dont have to go back to the ATAPI drivers) is pretty trivial time wise.

INstalling an OS seems to consistenlt take about an hour.*

SO to build a computer - 15 minutes.
If there is an OS on the hard drive alredy your done.
If not, add one hour.

Nymdok

*The BSD people believe that an OS is a lifestyle choice and therefore, to install one truly takes a lifetime. Those people have deeper issues and normally cant be bothered to stop recompiling their kernal long enough for a Role PLaying game session. Feel free to disregard tehm. :)

[Christian]

A (not that) small computer shop closeby where I live is hiring students to assemble computers. They are required to assemble a computer in 45 minutes including preinstalling windows*. It is possible to improve this, with standardization, though single item configuration and testing just takes time.

Disassembling a computer is MUCH quicker, and can be done in as little as 5 minutes, given a spacious tower. Cramped towers or even smaller configurations will significantly increase time required.

Even a not overly competent computer user with limited experience in hardware (like me) can assemble a computer in less then 1 hour, adding software requires another hour+ for windows, and 30 mins or less for many linus systems.

Disassembling my old computers would take me 10 minutes, given that I usually know fairly well which parts will end up in the recycling bin and which one will be reused.

*preinstalling form a specially prepared CD, much quicker then standard installation

[tanniynim]

Assembling:

Hardware:
2-3 hours (with Research materials) to build a computer if you are unfamiliar with the parts, have to find and/or purchase these parts (time can increase drastically if these have to be special ordered or if a store like Fry's Electronics is not close), and then assemble it.
1 hour to build a computer if you are unfamiliar with the parts, but have all of them on hand and someone has planned ahead to insure they work together properly
15-30 minutes if you are familiar with the parts and have them on hand (you have built this specific computer or computers very similar to it before.)

Software:
30 minutes to 2 hours for operating system (depending on choice, I've installed Ubuntu and Kubuntu in half an hour, but have seen other installs take "forever.")
30 minutes to 10 hours for software (again, depending on what you're installing.)

Disassembling:
I've take one apart in less than 5 minutes with an electric screwdriver. If you're unfamiliar with the computer, it could take up to half an hour.

[Anaraxes]

Case design has a strong effect. Sleek, small, "designer" cases (such as were popular in the early-mid 90s) tend to be much harder to work on than boring beige tower boxes. The more upscale cases usually have features that make it even easier (plastic clips rather than sets of screws to hold things in place; swing-out drive bays). They also usually have a couple of features that are a minor annoyance for this task -- headphone jacks and USB connectors in useful places high on the middle or front of the case usually require extra interior cables to get back to the motherboard.

I'm wondering why the hacker would find the ability useful, though. You don't usually disassemble a computer even to clean it, and it would be actively harmful for transporting it. If you want to make off with the data, just take the hard drive.

[Kiyote]

Since people are talking about the OS install time, I thought I would throw in a thought. Depending on what the purpose of the computer that is being assembled, in the real world, you can reduce the software install/setup time to near zero with a bootable CD/DVD/pendrive. Many computers today merely require a quick change to the BIOS to boot off a medium other than the installed hard drive. This would seem easy to emulate in GURPS, just ignore the OS install time for the computer.

You would install the OS and the needed software to the bootable medium, and this only needs to be done once and can be done whenever you have plenty of spare time. Then you can carry the bootable medium around and use it whenever you need it.

Of course, using a bootable medium has its own set of advantages and disadvantages as compared to using the traditional installed OS.

[Ego Archive]

Another component to this is whether your talking about a desktop or laptop computer (or a blade, mainframe, or rack mount). These will all impact the time to work on the various components. I can "image" a workstation (or whatever) in as little as 5 minutes, then add 10-20 minute for post configuration, and have it out the door. this assumes you have done a bunch of front loaded work, but if your doing something repetative it's worthwhile.

Other hardware configurations will change how long it takes to work on them, both for the hardware, and for the software components. A laptop might only add a couple minutes of configuration for the software, but can take 3-10X more time to swap out the motherboard.

[ciaran_skye]

Originally Posted by Christian

Even a not overly competent computer user with limited experience in hardware (like me) can assemble a computer in less then 1 hour, adding software requires another hour+ for windows, and 30 mins or less for many linus systems.

I've seen Linux take nearly 2 hours and Windows take less than 30 minutes (Vista on a fast machine, which legitimately has a fast install, and both not including updating) and Windows take 45 minutes and Linux 15. I've never honestly seen Windows take an hour, even on slow systems (and I installed XP on a slow system a few days ago and it took almost 45 minutes on the dot.) Now I've done upgrade installs that took almost 9 hours on Windows (and failed bricking the computer) and 2 hours on Linux and worked flawlessly.

Now updating after the install is a crap shoot, if you force the issue by directly downloading Service Packs, tc. Windows can take about 45-1 hour to totally update, if you don't force it buy a six pack, a few sandwiches and be ready for an all day affair.

Linux typically updates painlessly (compared to Windows) but it can also take 45-1+ hour, on the trailing edge of a distro's life cycle.

Macintosh I haven't used recently enough to know, but my understanding is it's probably fairly painless (Apple knows what they're doing on idiot proofing stuff) and and quick enough to make their users snarky about it.

[ciaran_skye]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

*The BSD people believe that an OS is a lifestyle choice and therefore, to install one truly takes a lifetime. Those people have deeper issues and normally cant be bothered to stop recompiling their kernal long enough for a Role PLaying game session. Feel free to disregard tehm. :)

I believe that quote and a vast majority of BSD users today (Macintosh) view their OS more as a evangelical shove-it-in-your-face religion. Linux users view their OS more like a political affiliation (Some form of Socialism). Most Windows users either don't care, hate their OS but don't want to learn/can't afford anything new or actually, honestly like Windows. (On the idea of it being a religious or political view I see Windows as mainstream Protestantism or Catholicism or someone who votes their country's Conservative party, even if they don't believe in it anymore.)

For the record, I've used and like all three, and despite not fitting either of my joking political/religious views on it, I use Windows almost exclusively because it does what I want without overdue hassle and I can't afford paying $1,500 for an entry level laptop to use MacOS.