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Taking apart an old tower for parts and components, to learn how it works, etc. Any tips and suggestions? Don't want to fuck it up.

Use a static electricity dissipating band, don't force anything, handle all wires with care...

Those are the three big ones. Just a stray touch can fry a motherboard, and a bit more than normal pressure can irreparably damage some silicon components. Wires is self-explanatory.

The exact order you take things out depends on the specific model, but generally you want to unhook everything, starting with the PSU cabling, and then work your way down to things like SATA cords etc before attempting to remove PCI cards or the motherboard.

Hit it with a hammer.

Mercury Steam wrote:Hit it with a hammer.

oh shit you're not being a productive member time for perma ban

For gods sake keep all the screws together, somewhere where you won't accidentally knock them flying to lose for seemingly forever.

Then several months later discover buried in your foot. Not pleasant at all.

The grounding strip is a bit too much but yeah static electricity can fry up stuff. So long you dont rub yourself all over it you should be fine, Discharge yourself before working on the delicate components by touching the case while the cable is in (we are interested in the grounding wire in our case rather than the power). OFC dont WORK on it with the power on, the grounding wire is independent from the power ones and it will work even when the power is turned off. A grounding strip will require you to have the case plugged in anyway so it doesn't offer anything extra over simply touching the case once in a while.

Also if you dunno what you do, dont touch it, google it. Finally keep in mind that is some delicate parts you work with, don't try to vacuum the mother out of the motherboard with a vacuum cleaner or something ...