I am planning on taking all components out of my test computer this weekend.

Is there any reason I can't leave the CPU attached to the MB and then take it off when I get the MB out?

You should avoid removing the cpu as a general rule but i can understand why you want to do it, always fit the cpu into the socket while the motherboard is out of the case if posible, too easy to demage it trying to mess around inside the case, and avoid touching the pins if they get damaged theres a good chance it will never work again no matter how hard you try to straighten them.

Like popeye said, you have to be really careful when taking the cpu out, I once took mine out and stepped out it accidentally. I was not a happy man.

Originally Posted by popeye67

You should avoid removing the cpu as a general rule but i can understand why you want to do it, always fit the cpu into the socket while the motherboard is out of the case if posible, too easy to demage it trying to mess around inside the case, and avoid touching the pins if they get damaged theres a good chance it will never work again no matter how hard you try to straighten them.

Hey popeye what if I wanted to take off the heatsink & fan to wipe off the remaining thermal compound from the top of the CPU and uder the HS/fan and then reapply some? I heard once a year is a good time to do it? It's been two years since I done it. Any suggestions?

Not sure if you need to renew tim once a year but it would give you an excuse to blow all the crap out of the heatsink, as long as the hsf isnt too big shouldnt need to remove m/board, if youve got somthing like a tuniq tower trust me take the board out.'

No it's a lot easier than I thought. Not at first though. I actually did it right after I jotted that last post and holy fucking shit dude..you were right with all the dust and debris stuck in the fan. It was like a small sand-storm. Re-applying the thermal compound was easy; I was meticulous doing that not too much and not too little. Scott Mueller (best selling author of "Upgrading and Repairing PC's" etc.) said the size of a BB should do the trick and maybe a dab more if it needs it, and it did. Everything seems to be working fine thus far. While re-applying it though ..In the back of my mind I was thinking "please don't start smoking" "please don't BLOW UP!" as I was a little anxious at first, but A-OK it's all good. This post is mainly directed towards IOWA girl as you may have to do it someday-take my 1st experience as food for thought.

The fans and heatsink in my Xbox 360 get really dusty, it's crazy.

Way i do it is use a piece of plastic or card cover the whole surface as thinly as posible and then put a tiny blog in the middle and twist the heatsink when putting it on make sure its nicely bedded in (just watch you dont hit any of the capacitors when your doing it), your probably going to do a damn sight better job than the person who originally put the heatsink on, they were working to the clock your looking to do a good job.

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

No it's a lot easier than I thought. Not at first though. I actually did it right after I jotted that last post and holy fucking shit dude..you were right with all the dust and debris stuck in the fan. It was like a small sand-storm. Re-applying the thermal compound was easy; I was meticulous doing that not too much and not too little. Scott Mueller (best selling author of "Upgrading and Repairing PC's" etc.) said the size of a BB should do the trick and maybe a dab more if it needs it, and it did. Everything seems to be working fine thus far. While re-applying it though ..In the back of my mind I was thinking "please don't start smoking" "please don't BLOW UP!" as I was a little anxious at first, but A-OK it's all good. This post is mainly directed towards IOWA girl as you may have to do it someday-take my 1st experience as food for thought.

duly noted TS I will probably heed what Popeye says but I sure would like to have a closer look at a CPU. So CPU and processor are the same thing? I assumed the CPU was specific to the actual uniting of Fan, Heatsink, & processor. All three, but not necessarily? Not just the processor standing alone. This did make me chuckle TS In the back of my mind I was thinking "please don't start smoking" "please don't blow up Gee Popeye where have I heard those words before.

I took all the components out of my computer except a DVD &CD drive/bay I left for another day. I thought I understood onboard graphics meant actually in the makeup of the MB or is it referring to the available slots. In my slots, I think they were the AGP slots my cards are like thin plates.
I had a Graphics card, modem card, sound card, and I think it was a speaker card not in a slot connected to the MB with a short IDE cable. I say speaker because of the ports. It took me about 1 1/2 hrs to get what I did get out. The only surprise to me was the cluster of tiny red, white, and blue wires that led out from the on/of unit. With the tiny single pin connectors and the big gray wire from the front USB ports with 2pin connectors. Made a point of keeping track of everything so I could reassemble at some point. It wasn't as bad as I thought.

Does the MB come loaded with the various ports or are those added separately?

At first I thought the MB was just a transfer station that just served to transfer power to the other units and didn't support or retain information. But I think the presence of the BIOS, and Chipset and on board graphics puts a hole in that idea if I am understanding things correctly. And if not, someone please enlighten me.