Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: A great book! Good for those who want to learn what makes a computer work. It's handy for every day use to have on your desk as a reference book, too!
Rating: 
Summary: A nice book...but a lot to read...and more on CD-ROM
Review: A very complete discussion of computer hardware especially on the PC side. The size of it makes it formidable, but a good reference. The price is reasonable considering the abundance of information in it.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute, unconditional endorsement for this classic
Review: An absolute, unconditional endorsement for this classic by Winn Rosch, a certified computer genius. This book is all substance, unlike the confused trash and filler cluttering the (real and virtual) bookshelves today from people who received an A in Freshman English and happened to end up working for a computer magazine. I am truly awed by the breadth and scope of this work. Bravo, Winn. A bonus is the CD-ROM which includes an additional 700 pages of archive and background material which did not make it into the hardcopy edition. Compare it to the throwaway shareware garbage that passes for a CD-ROM volume in most computer books today.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect professional's reference book
Review: As a computer professional I have found the Hardware Bible an invaluable resource both as a reference work and as an aid to keeping up with the latest technologies in the ever changing computer field. Everything is explained in a straightforward and easy to understand manner, including the latest innovations such as SDRAM and AGP with just enough detail to be useful but not so deep as to be incomprehensible. The book is geared towards people who have some basic knowledge of computers but is not too technical for a casual tinkerer. If you have a curiosity about what everything in a computer is and does then this is the perfect book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: ???
Review: How can you guys sell a hardware book that is so old, let alone charge $35 for it!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, the best general purpose hardware out there
Review: I have owned the Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible 3rd edition for 2 years now and I have not managed to find another book as complete, readable, and as close to the kind of hardware book one could wish for in order to learn everything there is to know in this field (as opposed to hardware programming books such as PC Intern) as it. Other books mainly concentrate on upgrades and repair, that meaning there is a lot of overhead for discussing computer design rather than it's concepts and technical parameters. The "Bible" does not limit itself for comprehensiveness and is THE definitive book to get for beginners and experts alike (hence it's all around user level). My life changed with the "bible", enough to make hardware my religion!
Rating: 
Summary: Could be much better with some editing.
Review: I was hoping this book would be as good as "Upgrading and Repairing PC's", but it doesn't measure up. The depth of detail on certain topics is not well balanced.
For instance, the author refers to floppy discs as necessary to modern computers as an appendix, but spends a many pages detailing it as well and it's all but obsolete relatives like the Iomega Zipdisk. Granted the zipdisk was relevant in the 1990's but it is irrelevant today. OTOH hard disc construction and it's evolution, a far more interesting and relevant topic today is not written in such deep detail.
Many dated topics pertaining to only MS-DOS need to edited down to be more concise. A detailed breakdown of all the registers in a CMOS clock chip, and all the different frequencies produced by the system timer is not needed by the average computer programmer and system builder today. It almost seems the newer the technology, the fewer the pages devoted to it.
Some information is downright wrong. The author has a limited understanding of digital video and makes many inaccurate statements regarding that topic. For all pages in the book devoted to technical minutia, I wouldn't trust it to be entirely authoritative.
Although this book is giant sized and expensive, many pages are wasted. Seperating the interesting bits of information from all the long winded filler is a chore. I would recommend browsing "Upgrading and Repairing PC's" over this book.
Rating: 
Summary: adequate
Review: I've owned the Mueller and Minasi books previously. Recnetly I decided to go for a change of heart and try Rosch's but I was severely disappointed in the comparison: Rosch does not have the depth of the other two nor is it as well written. This could be a really good book for a beginner BUT I don't think with this book you will progress beyond that stage.
Get Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing or Minasi's gold standard instead. Minasi's is the best on the subject for a beginner to an advanced hardward engineer who needs to keep up on the ever changing hardware environment; Mueller's fills in some technician gaps; Rosch is a distant third.
Rating:
Summary: adequate
Review: I've owned the Mueller and Minasi books previously. Recnetly I decided to go for a change of heart and try Rosch's but I was severely disappointed in the comparison: Rosch does not have the depth of the other two nor is it as well written. This could be a really good book for a beginner BUT I don't think with this book you will progress beyond that stage.
Get Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing or Minasi's gold standard instead. Minasi's is the best on the subject for a beginner to an advanced hardward engineer who needs to keep up on the ever changing hardware environment; Mueller's fills in some technician gaps; Rosch is a distant third.
Rating:
Summary: The best to buy components
Review: If you are going to buy an entire computer or some components read this book before, you will save time and money. The preliminary tables at the beginnings of the chapters are wonderful, concise and complete. The website of this book http://www.hardwarebible.com/ is also very good. If you have more time to read and if you have to install or repair a component, Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs is the best, in the last edition there are also movies in the CD explaining how to install and repair.
| 
