Can I get someone off Gumtree to build a PC for me?

System

Hi

Recycle, beg, borrow or even buy the cheapest desktop you can find.

Dis-assemble Johnny Five, re-assemble Johnny Five.

You are now a computer builder, go buy the pricey kit and achieve excellence in assembly. (You can then upgrade etc without worries.)

Kamran

Thank you all for your advice! :j

You've sufficiently motivated me to do the necessary research and spend a weekend doing this - I shall think of it as a hobby project.

The lazy person in me said to get someone else to do it for me, but I know deep down the right thing to do is to learn a new skill!

I don't have any close friends who have done this themselves, so it'll have to be youtube, me and a cup of tea. If only there was a course I could go to first, where I could get my hands dirty without the expensive parts.

Step 1 - work out what parts I need and verify that they'll all work together... For those interested and for the sake of motivation and completion, I shall post my progress here.

sparkiemalarkie

Kamran wrote: »

Step 1 - work out what parts I need and verify that they'll all work together... For those interested and for the sake of motivation and completion, I shall post my progress here.

Some years ago I posted my list of parts on this board and got excellent advice.


sparky

Andy_L

Kamran wrote: »

Thank you all for your advice! :j

You've sufficiently motivated me to do the necessary research and spend a weekend doing this - I shall think of it as a hobby project.

The lazy person in me said to get someone else to do it for me, but I know deep down the right thing to do is to learn a new skill!

I don't have any close friends who have done this themselves, so it'll have to be youtube, me and a cup of tea. If only there was a course I could go to first, where I could get my hands dirty without the expensive parts.

Step 1 - work out what parts I need and verify that they'll all work together... For those interested and for the sake of motivation and completion, I shall post my progress here.

You local college probably offer something suitable

poppellerant

Something that hasn't been suggested yet, but what about just buying a new SSD drive, putting it in the laptop and install Windows 10 on it? Obviously use the original harddrive for work, then use the SSD for your own tasks.

The above could work, as long as you can boot from a USB device or DVD/CD. I suspect they may have disabled this and possibly even installed a BIOS password. But it's worth trying to access the boot menu or BIOS before buying an SSD.

System

Hi

There are sometimes re-cyclers who need volunteers to refurbish, you could visit/volunteer long enough to learn.

http://itforcharities.co.uk/it-services/recycled-pcs/

You may be able to find a Motherboard with CPU and RAM already in place and soak tested, making your part all the easier.
https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware
https://www.novatech.co.uk/motherboardbundles/

RobTang

poppellerant wrote: »

Something that hasn't been suggested yet, but what about just buying a new SSD drive, putting it in the laptop and install Windows 10 on it? Obviously use the original harddrive for work, then use the SSD for your own tasks.

The above could work, as long as you can boot from a USB device or DVD/CD. I suspect they may have disabled this and possibly even installed a BIOS password. But it's worth trying to access the boot menu or BIOS before buying an SSD.

Tampering with work hardware is not recommended under any circumstances, giving your employer a standing reason to fire you is not worth the cost savings of a computer.

esuhl

RobTang wrote: »

Tampering with work hardware is not recommended under any circumstances, giving your employer a standing reason to fire you is not worth the cost savings of a computer.

Absolutely. You could install Windows to an external drive, however, and boot from that.

For example:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-run-a-portable-version-of-windows-from-a-usb-dri-1565509124

Kamran

esuhl wrote: »

Absolutely. You could install Windows to an external drive, however, and boot from that.

For example:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-run-a-portable-version-of-windows-from-a-usb-dri-1565509124

There's a good chance my employer would have disabled the ability to do this, given how "big brother" they are, however, is there an easy way for me to find out for sure?

In the event that I use an SSD to run windows externally, can they find out in any way?

RobTang

Kamran wrote: »

There's a good chance my employer would have disabled the ability to do this, given how "big brother" they are, however, is there an easy way for me to find out for sure?

In the event that I use an SSD to run windows externally, can they find out in any way?

Theres a reason windows on the go its only available in the enterprise space... its really really really slow; good for light browsing + email and a remote connection to a real PC back at work, for regular consumer tasks forget it.
External interfaces are generally just too slow to run the OS, I would actually personally consider this as tampering with the hardware its not worth it.


If your IT dept has done its job properly you wont be able to do it anyway. There's nothing "big brother" about securing company assets, everyone has locks on their doors right ? and with the recent spate of crypto ransomware security has a much higher visibility.