DIY PC Test Bench Exposes Parts for Easy Access

Perhaps you want to upgrade your computer. This is easy enough; you simply get in the car and drive to your nearest Best Buy and look at the number before “GHz” on the label. This then tells you what kind of increase in speed you’ll get when compared to your computer’s magical number… Yeah… In reality, though, things are much more complicated, especially if you wan to build your PC from parts. There’s a good chance you’ll be buying online anyway, not allowing you to even see your new device or components in person before you get them.

In order to test out components, Colonel Camp came up with his own test rig for computer parts, inspired by this Linus Tech Tips video. His build takes the inner frame of a PC case and transfers it to the outside of the exterior case, creating a rig where all parts are visible and easily accessible, with a nice storage compartment on the bottom in what was originally the PCs interior. The rig was first painted nicely, and in use, components like a hard drive and the USB/card reader/audio outputs from the original PC can reside in the new bottom storage compartment. This also makes a good place tools and extra screws to reside.

Test builds so far include one with a gigantic graphics card that would be difficult to fit inside a traditional case, along with a second setup using a monster cooling rig. In a world where a virtually unlimited number of component choices will affect your system’s performance, a test rig like this would make it easy to try out things in the real world, swapping components until you get just the right combination for your performance needs!