Assembling a proper station for working on computer hardware and software

[ConundrumMSU]

I'm not certain if this is the right forum for my post, but I was wondering if anyone might be able to give me any specific direction for this. My idea was to create an area to work on computer hardware. I find myself presented with different individuals requesting that I work on their hardware. I would be interested in putting together a stationary work area.

My thoughts would fall into the range of recommendations for creating an efficient and effective area to work on systems. I was thinking of looking for an antistatic pad for the hardware to rest on, some kind of wrist strap perhaps to make certain ESD doesn't ruin anything being worked on. Possibly setting up a monitor on a top shelf. I'm simply looking for solid ideas that go along with the task itself.

If anyone has any recommendations on what they consider to be the best software out there currently for diagnosing any hardware problems (from motherboards, memory, CPU, to ports and the PSU) please feel free to volunteer any suggestions. I want to do this in an intelligent manner. Possibly even construct two stations to work on some of my own projects while also working on others.

Thank you for any and all suggestions!

 

[Modelworks]

In the industry the normal work area is a rubber mat for the floor , rubber mat for the work surface, and grounding strap for the wrist. I would buy some gender changers for all the cables along with couplers to keep from wearing out the primary connectors on cables . Constantly plugging and unplugging connections wears down connectors fast.
A power strip , can never have enough outlets.
Bright lighting , no greater hell than working in bad lighting.
Decent quality multimeter, needs to do AC, DC, ohms, current.
Cleaning supplies - foam swabs, not cotton, and some plastic safe cleaners.

If you plan to do a lot of pulling of things like memory get some extra ESD protection bags to place it in rather than just laying it on a shelf.


This company has everything you need and I dealt with them for years when I was running a warranty center for electronics. Their prices are reasonable too.
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/

 

[Biftheunderstudy]

You could set it up like a typical tech bench at a computer store:

I've never bothered with the grounding straps, but if it makes you feel safer

A big wooden bench, about belly button height. Monitor on a shelf above with keyboard and mouse about chest height.

KVM switch's are great for this kind of thing.
PS/2 to USB adapter, VGA to DVI adapter -- put these on the KVM
Get a stable motherboard without any bells and whistles
RAM that you know works
Video card (one of the powered trough PCI express kind)
Modular power supply (modular is optional), always seen the Corsair PSU's used
One of those USB to SATA/IDE converters, great for testing hard drives
Multimeter
Power supply tester
Obligatory box/jar of screws
Magnetic screwdriver set
Thermal paste
Stock heat sinks
Masking tape for labeling things (alternatively a label maker)

As for the software side, I would go with a fast bootable USB drive with some operating systems on (Ubuntu + Windows etc)

Turn off a lot of the features, you could use something like 7lite to get rid of the crap on windows and install software etc. Or use a hard drive image.

Turn off the automount thing for devices, this will get you a virus for sure on your safe system. Lots of people have transmitted viruses through USB drives this way.

+ a whole bunch of virus scanner/removal software, there's tons of it out there.