Teaching my daughter how to build a computer...

[jaybird3rd]

It would be nice to see some pre-configured kits out there that you actually have to assemble. Like they had in the 70's, but without all the soldering. No picking and choosing, you pay one price and get everything.

 

Shuttle comes pretty close, but you still need to pick the parts manually.

As I said before, the closest I've come to a readily available "kit computer" for kids is to piece together my own "kit" consisting of a Mini-ITX board with integrated CPU/video/everything and an inexpensive low-profile Mini-ITX case (I've had good luck with the all-aluminum boxes from Lian Li).

 

If you mount the RAM on the board ahead of time, the only pieces you'll need to assemble inside the case are the board, the hard drive, and the power supply (and an optical drive if you include one). Preinstalling the OS on the hard drive saves you even more time.

[carlsson]

Although I don't have the hands of a construction worker, sometimes I find my hands are too big to reach everywhere, so once she builds up a bit more strength, she may become a valuable asset to you when fiddling with computer parts in small spaces. Well, that is assuming she won't become a construction worker.

[Jess Ragan]

Seven!? Lord, now I feel like an underachiever. I had a VIC at around that age, but if I took it apart, it was really doubtful that it would ever work again.

 

But yeah, I don't see the harm in this. Get her something a little more modern, like a Pentium 3, so she can take what she learns and apply it in a real life situation. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get her one of those Radio Shack-style testing stations so she can learn basic electrical theory too; circuits and whatnot.