Building Your Own PC: Buying and Assembling With Confidence

Rating:
Summary: Well Done, but Dated
Review: Clear, easy-to-read, but Pentium Pro processors aren't exactly cutting-edge anymore. It relegates PIIs to "advanced" and doesn't deal with them. Nice as a general reference, but pass it up if you want specific considerations for building a PII or PIII.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to follow step by step no frills
Review: I liked this book for my needs. I bought it four years ago. Rather than show you everything under the sun it shows you how to assemble the computer and install the OS. It even shows how to format the hard drive with the system. This is good info if you want to install Windows 3.1. I admit DOS and the fdisk are dead now days but it is still used for Windows ME and Windows 98.

This was the only book that went right to the nuts and bolts of building a PC with out a lot of BS to read through.

I admit that with Windows XP you just need to load it into the CD ROM drive and let the OS install with out any DOS line prompt commands but this book would still work for building a PC today. The slave and master settings and jumper settings are still used today.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to understand, good book
Review: I thought this was a good book, well written and well organized. It doesn't beat around the bush, rather it gets right to the point and keeps the book small, around 120 pages. Easy to follow the instructions. I would recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: OUT OF DATE AND NOT COMPLETE INFORMATION
Review: THIS BOOK IS OUTDATED AND REALLY WON'T SERVE YOUR NEEDS NOW. IT HAS MOSTLY INFO ON BUILDING LOW MHZ CPU'S WITH OLD FASHIONED SIMM MEMORY. I HAVE NEVER BUILT A PC BEFORE AND YOU NEED MORE INFO THAN THE BOOK PROVIDES. IT DOESN'T TELL YOU ABOUT WHAT PARTS WILL WORK TOGETHER. BECAUSE THE INFO IS OUTDATED IT DOESN'T ADDRESS COMPATIBILITY ISSUES. SOME EXAMPLES ARE: A HARD DRIVE OVER 8.4 GB WON'T WORK ON OLD MOTHERBOARDS, THE DATA TRANSFER RATES (UDMA) HAVE TO BE COMPATIBLE BETWEEN THE MOTHERBOARD AND COMPONENTS OTHERWISE THEY WON'T WORK PROPERLY. IT MOSTLY TALKS ABOUT SIMM MEMORY BUT DIMM IS PROMINENT NOW AND YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW THE NONASECOND SPEED DETERMINES WHAT DIMM MODUAL TO BUY AND STUFF LIKE THAT. THIS BOOK GIVES VERY BASIC INFO AND BOTTOM LINE: WHEN YOU ARE SPENDING $500+ WITH NO KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED TO KNOW EVERY DETAIL. WITHOUT ALL THE DETAILS YOU WILL WASTE ALLOT OF MONEY. SPEND A LITTLE MORE AND GET A HIGHLY DETAILED CURRENT BOOK.