How To Assemble The Ultimate Toolbox

A Look Inside The Top, Continued

One additional very useful tool, to address all of the power supply problems that most technicians encounter, is the Antec Power Supply tester. This little gem of a device is able to tell you if the power supply you are using is good or bad, as indicated by the little green light on the ATX power supply connector located on the end of the device. While this does not supply voltage readings, it does indicate whether or not the power supply is working in the system on which you are working.

Below the tray resides the area where I keep more of my heavy tools. This includes a selection of pliers and screwdrivers and a variety of other tools that I find helpful in many situations.

The bottom compartment below the top tray is home to an assortment of tools. These tools include pliers, wire strippers, RoboGrips, cable clips, an interchangeable small bit mini Torx screwdriver set, a variety of flat head and Philips head screwdrivers, as well as a 14-piece precision screwdriver set and drill bits. The assortment of pliers that is contained in this area of the toolbox may seem puzzling to those who don’t use pliers often for the building or repair of computers. I find that it is necessary to have needle nose and regular pliers in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit every possible situation. Pliers can often be helpful in a variety of situations where large hands can’t fit in between the compressed spaces of today’s typical computers.

These tools are at the heart of the mainstream repair requirements for most situations. In addition to all of these tools, also located in this area are both an AMD Socket A and Socket 478 P4 heat sink. These heat sinks are perhaps two of the most important items that a computer technician will replace on a regular basis. Fan failures on today’s heat sinks are commonplace, and there is nothing worse than being unable to run to the computer store to purchase a heat sink in the wee hours of the morning when the store is closed. In most cases, in a pinch, any high quality heat sink will do. Currently, I use the Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu+ and the P4 Volcano 478. These heat sinks are relatively inexpensive and provide a reasonable amount of performance for their cost. No toolbox is complete without having spare heat sinks on hand. These are one of the most high priority replacement items that you should stock on a regular basis.

The realatively inexpensive Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu+ and P4 Volcano 478 are two examples of heat sinks that make good road replacements. While they might not be the most high performance heat sinks, they do work well enough for most normal situations, and if you have to give them to a computer in need, you are not out a lot of money, so they are cost effective to keep stocked in your toolbox. Of course, if you can, you can always bill the customer for the cost of the replacement heat sink.