Building a PC for Dummies, Fourth Edition

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I really liked the book, I found it easy to read and understand and full of humor. I can now, confidently, build my own PC.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I really liked the book, I found it easy to read and understand and full of humor. I can now, confidently, build my own PC.

Rating:
Summary: Format a hard drive with DOS 6.22? You got to be kidding!
Review: I think the author needs to badly update the section on partitioning and formatting a hard drive. Since most folks building a home computer will want a drive larger than 2GB, formatting with DOS 6.22 doesn't make sense. Nor does the author tell you where to get those DOS 6.22 diskettes.

If you want to partition/format a new hard drive larger than 2GB, you'll have to go and buy MS Windows for PCs without Windows, which costs around $190.

If I had know about this before hand, I would have thought twice about attempting to build my own PC.

Rating:
Summary: WOULD HAVE BEEN A GREAT BOOK 2 YEARS AGO, VERY OUTDATED BOOK
Review: I was totally disappointed with this book. This book has a publishing year of 1998, that is a total lie, it is out dated by about 2 years. This book does not cover any current components such as Pentium II class processors, current chipset motherboards, AGP video cards, the list goes on and on. You know a book is old when they show you how to install SIMM RAM memory. I would not advise anyone to consider this book, because it is shamefully outdated. TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY.

Rating:
Summary: Very Basic
Review: If you are really scared of building a computer and you don't care at all about knowing the details of how computers work then this is the book for you. When I read this book I had no dislikes about it. Thats was until I read other books on this topic. For a little more then the price of this title you can get a very complete and very detailed book on building a computer. Again, this book is mainly for the technophobic folks who want to join the tech arena.

Rating:
Summary: Building a PC?
Review: If you have any hankering to build your own pc or pc-clone....pick up this book and read it. I didn't have any idea of what was what with the inside of a computer. But, this book has cleared up everything. It has helped me to build my own PC that I am currently using to write this.... And has taught me the ins and outs of the pc and has saved me a few hundred dollars by doing it myself.

Rating:
Summary: Covers all the bases, A+ rating!!
Review: Includes stuff that other assembly books leave out, even down to what operating system you need and which specifications really MEAN something. I want to know what to buy just as much as how to install it!! Also has a lot of material on used parts, because not everybody can afford (or needs) a pentium 2 and a 500 dollar video card. I give this book a grade of A+ and have recommended it to my family and friends.

Rating:
Summary: Build a PC for dummies
Review: One day I decided to try to play around and build a PC for grins. I then went out and bought this book. The first 2 or 3 chapters give you a lot of hope and inspiration that it could be done. The author didn't go into depth about XP, but if you can read between the lines and are bold enough to take on the challenge, you can reach that goal of completing the task. I found myself using several books in addition to this one to do so. The author didn't quite give you enough details about what to buy specifically, for any system. Good luck to all that attempt without any book.

Rating:
Summary: Great inspiration
Review: One day I was trying to play a star trek demo that I downloaded and it woudln't run on my cyrix MII machine, so I said "forget this, im going to buy a new comptuer", then I said "nah, i will just pay a friend to make it", then i said "forget that...I WILL MAKE IT". I then went out and bought this book. The first 2 or 3 chapters give you alot of inspiration..and "you can do it"'s. The author gives you alot of invaluable background information, but I didn't find myself using the book to make the pc. I mean how many words does it take to tell how to install a pci card..and the author didn't quite give you enough details about what to buy specifically, In the beginning when it came down to video cards and a motherboard, i found myself looking into newsgroups (which the author reccommended). Well the moral of the story is i promised myself i wouldn't write a review unless it was from my new computer..and here I am fulfilling my promise. a PIII 550, 15.0 gb hard drive, 128mb ram, 32 mb tnt2 video card, 16 pci soundblaster, blah blah blah..i spent $1200 grandtotal including monitor. be prepared to spend money for a good system. You will not find a secret to building your own computer for $300. my system works, this book got me started, but once i was past the starting phase I needed more resources. Good luck to anyone trying to build a computer and if you have any questions email me at [e-mail] AND [e-mail] and i will try to help you.

Rating:
Summary: Great inspiration
Review: One day I was trying to play a star trek demo that I downloaded and it woudln't run on my cyrix MII machine, so I said "forget this, im going to buy a new comptuer", then I said "nah, i will just pay a friend to make it", then i said "forget that...I WILL MAKE IT". I then went out and bought this book. The first 2 or 3 chapters give you alot of inspiration..and "you can do it"'s. The author gives you alot of invaluable background information, but I didn't find myself using the book to make the pc. I mean how many words does it take to tell how to install a pci card..and the author didn't quite give you enough details about what to buy specifically, In the beginning when it came down to video cards and a motherboard, i found myself looking into newsgroups (which the author reccommended). Well the moral of the story is i promised myself i wouldn't write a review unless it was from my new computer..and here I am fulfilling my promise. a PIII 550, 15.0 gb hard drive, 128mb ram, 32 mb tnt2 video card, 16 pci soundblaster, blah blah blah..i spent $1200 grandtotal including monitor. be prepared to spend money for a good system. You will not find a secret to building your own computer for $300. my system works, this book got me started, but once i was past the starting phase I needed more resources. Good luck to anyone trying to build a computer and if you have any questions email me at [e-mail] AND [e-mail] and i will try to help you.