A Computer Technician is some-one that will go to an ailing P.C. and once he has (usually in a competent manner), diagnosed the fault will swap the offending piece of hardware.

A Hardware Engineer Is someone that is capable of taking the said faulty piece of hardware, and then either repair or modify the board down to it's component level and get it working again.

Although within the throwaway society that we live in today such things as modems, ram sticks etc, etc. are not worth the attention of a Hardware Engineer, there are many expensive and unique boards especially designed to do particular jobs in various branches of the electronics industry for controlling production lines etc. these are what a Hardware Engineer is employed to service and repair.

In comparison to the Computer Technician it is a highly skilled and very intricate occupation and only employs the time served electrical, electronic and mechanical Engineers!

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