Customer Reviews

Building the Perfect PC, Second Edition

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are very few folks who know their subject as well as Robert Bruce Thompson. He has been keeping a web-log for several years now where he discusses many subjects, especially about is daily adventures with building computers, managing a home-network and diagnosing problems with them.

Probably the single biggest reason that many people don't put together their own systems is the simple lack of knowledge on how to do it. This book provides a great introduction on how to do it.

The best reason to do it for yourself is then you will have the piece of mind that you have quality parts in your system. Picking good hard drives, video cards, motherboards, means you are less likely to have a computer failure. Cheap parts are the major reason large corp. retailers put out a lot bad systems... they got some parts that were cheap, but that fail a lot. Thus, causing their customers a lot of headaches. Sure, you might get a dirt-cheap computer system, but you get what you pay for.

The other best reason to build a system on your own is that you will learn something in the process. If you can build your own system you will start to be able to do your own tech support. You won't have to wait to get your system fixed: you'll have the knowledge to do it yourself.

Better than the simple list of hardware (which since this is a physical book will be out of date very soon after publication) is the discussion on how to do it. The questions you need to ask yourself before picking hardware, etc. What do you want to do with the system? Do you want to play high-power games? Maybe you just want to surf the web and do some light word processing. The system can then be customized for you and you don't get one-size fits all system from some corp. retail giant.

And don't forget about his web site. He keeps updated lists of recommended hardware on it, as well as details as to his adventures of computer-problem land. A lot of tips can be picked up there. A good way to keep abreast of the authors thoughts and opinions as to the state of the industry.

Anything by Thompson is worthwhile.

I came to this book fairly late in the design process of my own new custom PC, but it was uncanny how closely the book tracked my own needs.

The book's approach is superb: After a few chapters on the basics of building PCs and buying parts, the authors describe five different PCs: A mainstream system, a SOHO server, a "kick-ass LAN party PC", a home theater PC, and a small form factor PC. The issues for parts choice are carefully explained, and there are step-by-step instructions on assembling each one, with some of the best photos I've ever seen in a book like this, all of them in color.

As I said, I had most of my custom PC design completed before I found the book. I had already chosen the very quiet Antec Sonata case (recommended in the book) and the authors pointed me at the Zalman Flower HSF, a CPU cooler that runs almost silently. I learned a number of things about high-performance disk drives from the book that I didn't already know, ditto RAIDs. My unfinished design turned out to be very much like their description of a mainstream PC, and my final PC will be quite a bit better for having read the insights in the text.

I may someday want to build a media server, and I learned a lot reading the section on the home theater PC, though I had to tuck it all in long term memory for future reference.

The book is probably most valuable for people who don't want to spend the time studying every PC component technology to the extent that they could confidently spec their own custom system. It would be quite easy to just make a "blind copy" of one of the designs presented here, and the mainstream PC and small form factor PC look very effective for general PC neeeds.

The book is beautifully written, clearly laid out, and probably the most useful of the small pile of PC hardware books I've been accumulating and poring over this past year. Clearly the best of breed.

This book has gotten some pretty good reviews, which is one reason I chose it over other, similar titles. So I hate to be the voice of dissent, but here's how I feel about this book.

I think this book is extremely useful in theory. What I mean by that is you can sit back and read the book without actually doing the projects and learn quite a bit about PC components. For example, I now know that Antec is a really good brand to choose for the case. I saw the layout of a motherboard and have a better understanding of what the different sections of it are for. And maybe most importantly, I learned about the little things to look for when choosing the individual components, especially to make sure that they are all compatible with each other and, of course, with the motherboard.

However, when I finally started reading one of the chapters on actually *building* a system, that's when it fell apart for me. I read the gaming PC chapter, because what I'd like is a gaming PC. Well, it didn't take long before I was thoroughly confused. I felt like a lot of the steps were given in broad strokes and weren't detailed enough for a novice like myself.

Now, I know what you might be saying: you can't just read these sections "theoretically" like you can the first few chapters. You need to sit down and actually put the pieces together yourself. Well, that's fine and all, if someone gave me a bunch of free components to use. But I have no desire to spend $1000+ when I don't even understand the instructions I'm reading in the book in the first place. Example:

"Position the free-floating retention bracket over the plastic nub on one side of the black plastic retention module base."

Uh...what? And no, I'm not even taking that out of context. The instructions were just difficult to follow. And yes, like I said, it might be easier if you had the components in your hands, but this isn't like picking up some cheap items at the grocery store to perform a high school science experiment just for fun. This is serious and expensive stuff.

Something else that didn't give me too much hope was the fact that after inserting the motherboard into the case and putting it all together, the authors discovered that the back-panel I/O template had some metal tabs that actually blocked the ethernet ports on the motherboard. First off, if *they* make this mistake, I can certainly imagine myself doing much worse. Second, they don't even tell us how to fix it. They simply say that they would have "started over" -- which is absolutely no help at all, since it isn't at all clear how you would prevent this from happening a second time (none of the other ports were misaligned, so it can't simply be a matter of trying it again and hoping the tabs don't block the ethernet ports the second time around).

I also browsed the other sections and found another interesting dilemma they got themselves into. In the budget PC chapter, they chose to use a CPU cooler that ended up not fitting properly against the motherboard, and only after a lot of work and "minor surgery" did it finally fit. In other words, a hardware compatibility issue -- exactly what the authors had been warning us to avoid.

A final example of what I would call the "impracticality" of this book is this: in the chapter on building a mainstream PC, we are given this advice before installing the motherboard:

"Check the motherboard documentation to determine if any configuration jumpers need to be set."

Again...what? The authors don't explain what this means or how to do it, and they don't even mention this step in the chapter on building a gaming PC. I suppose it's possible that the particular motherboard they used in that chapter doesn't need any jumpers set, but I doubt it. I think they just left it out of that chapter. I shudder to think what else could have been left out, and having to face that problem all alone when I'm in the middle of putting all my components together.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not listing these things just to show how incompetent the authors are. They seem to really know a lot about what they're doing. My point is, if they can make these types of mistakes, then certainly anyone new to building a PC can (and probably will). Furthermore, as I said in the case of the metal tabs, they don't even say how to fix the problem.

If anything, this book has shown me that building a PC is just as difficult as I imagined it might be, and that it isn't always a clean and easy process. It's a really exciting thought to put all these pieces together yourself, but I don't know if I'd start by doing it with new, top-of-the-line components. One thing for sure I will do is take apart my parents' current computer as soon as they get a replacement, and I might even have this book on hand just to see if I understand it better then.

Finally, the binding of this book is terrible. One section has already fully bent back, looking like at any moment the pages will start coming out. Even worse, the entire spine of the book has torn away from the back cover. If this happens in the front, then the entire cover will come off the book! And I am very careful with my books, so this isn't from rough treatment. This book has moved from my desk to my bed, a matter of two feet, and after three days it's already falling apart.

So all in all, I would recommend this book if you are interested in reading about building a PC, but I'm not so sure everyone will find it all that easy to follow when it actually comes time to build it. Furthermore, since the authors use (necessarily, I understand) very specific components in their projects, it seems possible that when you go to build your own PC using different components, some entirely different issue might pop up that the authors don't discuss since they aren't using the same equipment as you. This, of course, cannot be avoided, but to me it just shows that building a PC still might be a somewhat intimidating process.

Life is full of compromises and so are our computers. Every PC is a balance of qualities such as price, performance, reliability, noise level, size and expandability. With commercially built PCs, the manufacturer determines what factors are most important, and the number one factor is generally cost. Building the Perfect PC 2nd Edition tells you how to build your own PC and make the choices that reflect YOUR priorities and not those of the manufacturer's accounting department.

The book begins with a chapter of fundamental knowledge. It explains the advantages of building vs. buying a PC (cost is only one), discusses how to strike the balance of PC characteristics that are right for you when choosing the components to build your PC and gets up close with a typical motherboard. It also includes a guide to troubleshooting many of the most common problems encountered when building a PC. The next chapter addresses each component that goes into a PC on an individual basis, from major items such as processors and video cards to seemingly trivial items such as power supplies and optical drives. As savvy PC builders know, the power supply is an important part of a reliable PC. You'll learn how and where to buy the individual parts. Names are named, of both manufacturers and resellers.

The remainder of Building the Perfect PC documents the process of building several different kinds of computers, each with a different budget and different goals, including mainstream PC, SOHO server, gaming PC, media center PC, small form-factor PC and budget PC. Each build is broken up into a functional requirements section, hardware design criteria, component considerations and documentation of the actual assembly with plenty of color photographs in extreme detail. The parts selected to build each PC are listed and just as importantly, the reasons for selecting them. Alternate choices are given as well in case the reader wants to deviate from the recipe for some reason. I found the parts of each case study that dealt with requirements and component selection to be most interesting, but first-time builders will likely be grateful for the very detailed assembly instructions and accompanying photos.

In addition to the Thompsons, who are the primary authors of the book, several other experienced computer builders provide tips and the occasional dissenting opinion throughout the book. The book is filled with useful real-world advice that might otherwise take years of building PCs to discover on your own.

Books are also subject to compromise, and this one is no exception. The authors recommend that readers read the entire book and not just the beginning chapters and the PC build that they are interested in. However, much of the assembly information such as installing motherboard standoffs is repeated in each chapter. The Thompsons had a choice between trying to provide complete instructions in each build and boring readers who followed their instructions and dutifully read the complete book. They chose thoroughness, which was probably the correct decision, but I wonder if the book might have been organized in a better manner to avoid the entire issue. I was also disappointed that the media center build didn't have more information about the software that the authors ultimately ended up using. The software installed on the assembled PC is generally up to the owner discretion, but full-featured multimedia PCs are still on the cutting edge of computer technology and there seem to be many pitfalls in installing and configuring the necessary software. Complete documentation of this particular build would definitely have added value to the book. My assumption is that deadlines prevented them from performing more research into this important topic.

Another complaint is that I found only one photo of setting jumpers on an IDE device and it was too dark to make out any details. Most of the many photos in Building the Perfect PC 2nd Edition are quite clear and all of them are in color, but given the amount of space allocated to pictures of tightening screws, I had hoped for at least one more jumper photo.

Despite a few flaws, the book is still excellent. Beginning computer builders can follow the provided plans and well documented assembly instructions and end up with a reliable, good performing PC. The authors also maintain an active Internet forum where troubleshooting and configuration advice is readily available. Intermediate builders will undoubtedly learn some useful techniques and gain greater insight into optimizing their computers without going over budget. Even experienced builders, if they haven't built a PC in the last year or longer, are likely to find that hardware has changed since the last PC they built. This book offers broad coverage of the mainstream PC component market and will bring them back up to the state of the art quickly. Overclockers may be disappointed, since running a PC out of specifications is not conducive to reliability and the Thompsons always emphasize reliability as a high priority. They can still benefit from the book, though they'll have to find out about the latest in extreme cooling technology elsewhere.

This book was my only guide to building my current PC, and I must say I'm pleased with the results. I made a few changes and additions to the authors' component recommendations for a "mainstream PC," but the book's step-by-step, profusely illustrated (in color) approach covered all the potential pitfalls encountered along the way. And their recommendation of Newegg as a merchant proved to save the price of the book, many times over. (After Newegg, I would recommend Tiger Direct as well).

My only small complaint is that the book is rapidly becoming dated, and begs for a 2nd edition. The authors maintain a web site at hardwareguys.com In another review of a competing book, I had written that they're not updating this as promised, but I just went and had a look and was pleasantly surprised to see that it's now fairly up-to-date. The individual hardware comments at http://hardwareguys.com/picks/picks.html serve as valid updates to the book.

If you're thinking of building your own PC, get this book, and also look at the updates at hardwareguys.com. You won't be disappointed.

This book is $30, which seems a bit much for what you get. The book is getting dated. The authors haven't provided much in the way of updates on their website. This book may be good if you build one of the PCs they build, but if you use a different motherboard or case as I did, a lot of the material isn't all that relevant. I valued many of the opinons of the authors about their experience with particular pieces of hardware, but found their rant about Windows XP and refusal to install a floppy drive annoying. If I was getting free advice from my neighbor, I would tolterate it, but after paying $30 I didn't like hearing about why they needed to install Windows 2000. A floppy drive is $10, and they refer to using one (at least twice) to solve problems, but their refusal to install this "obsolete" piece of hardware is puzzling, especially since they install an obsolete operating system. In fairness, this book was helpful for designing a system and selecting components. But it was one of 5 or 6 resources I used. There is a vast amount of information on the Web. I found the manual for the ASUS mother board I eventually purchased to be more helpful and more to the point than this book. I also found the reviews of particular pieces of hardware at newegg to be helpful. Bottom line, buy a used copy or skim the book in the bookstore. To me it was worth about $10, not $30.

The latest in a series of how-to books from Robert Bruce Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson, via O'Reilly, is as complete a DIY guide to building a PC as you're likely to find.

Geared towards the first time builder it removes the mystery out of custom PC building while leaving the magic of creating a working system in. Old hands at PC assembly, this writer included, can also glean a wealth of information from its pages. The authors assume nothing, with the possible exception of the reader being able to read, in their complete coverage of planning a system, selecting components, selecting vendors, purchasing the parts, assembling them into a system, configuring the system, starting the PC up and troubleshooting.

A handsomely illustrated guide to building any of six basic configurations ( Mainstream PC, SOHO Server, Media Center PC, Small Form Factor PC, Gaming PC and Budget PC), each with its individual needs and configurations, it brings forward the years of the Thompson's experience in designing and building systems.

Now one may ask "why build your own when affordable systems are available from so many suppliers?" The answer provided is that only by building your own are you in full control of the quality of the components used and configuration based on your specific needs. System manufacturers, in their quest of maximizing profits, will often install the cheapest components in their units. While it may not necessarily be true of all custom built systems, cost of a personally built PC, with superior components can actually be lower. An example is the choice of a CD-DVD burner, those supplied in retail versions, while perfectly all right for occasional burning duties, simply can't reliably burn disc after disc after disc. Another example is that one simply cannot find a commercially available PC with one's choice of operating system but, as the Thompsons point out, even purchasing a component motherboard, in most instances, enables one to bundle in an OEM version of an OS at significant savings over the retail version. The book identifies those components that have proven to be of high quality and can be expected to perform over the life of the PC.

Up to date, with coverage of the latest Intel Core 2 Duo and AMD Athlon X2 CPUs, the book avoids obsolescence by providing links to the Thompson's own websites where information will reflect the latest advances in the art.

If you've always wished you could build a system configured to your needs but were afraid to, make it a reality with Building The Perfect PC.

The book is obviously dated but worse, it is very poorly written. When they wrote the book they decided to describe building 5 different systems. I liked that idea because it gave you a good understanding of the components needed for different PC builds (ie: Gaming Machine, Home Theater, Soho Server, etc.) But then they had the ill-advised idea of not including everything you needed to know in one chapter (or build decscription). Instead, they put something vital to most system builds in the first build description but excluded it in others. Then they would put something essential to most builds in the second build description, that they had left out of the first. So as the reader, you had to read the first build, then go on to the second build and see if you could remember what information in the second build wasn't presented in the first. Then you had to do the same thing with all of the other chapters (build descriptions), constantly taking notes and checking back in earlier chapters to see if information was previously presented. I ended up having to virtually reorganize and rewrite their book, so that it could be useful to me. I'm reminded of the old expression, 'Those that can't do, teach.' Well, having worked in the schools for over 25 years I think to some extent that is true. But it is also true (and probably 10 fold) that, 'Those that can't teach, do.' That's why there are so many tech manuals and tech articles written by brilliant tech people, that go unused or unread because they are to poorly written or presented to be understood or useful to a novice. Let's put it this way, if Robert and Barbara used this method to teach a class in the public schools, they'd be out of work.
Anyway, I also bought (at Amazon, of course) and read two books by ExtremeTech, 'Building the Ultimate Custom PC,' and 'Building the Ultimate Gaming PC.' Both of these books were more useful to me than the Thompsons' book. They were well organized and much easier to follow. I also found a great article at HardwareZone.com. If you go to their home page and click on 'Articles' at the top, then scroll down to 'Categories' and click on 'DIY,' there are 2 great Build It articles that are free. Both of them were far more useful to me than the Thompsons' book. They are a little dated (summer '04) but they are still very useful, especially the article on building an AMD socket 939 system.

When I bought this book, I vowed I'd come back and give it a 5 star rating if I successfully built one of the recommended machines without either drawing blood or producing smoke in the process. I'm happy to report I'm writing this review from my newly built mainstream PC.

Some experienced builders may complain there is too much detail in the instructions. Believe me, every little detail helped me get through the process, and it was much more fun than I thought it would be. It's very likely I will be building another box or two from the book in the future. Great book!

I just put down my copy of O'Reilly's "Building the Perfect PC" by Robert and Barbara Thompson, following a cover-to-cover read. There are a number of reasons for going through this book like a banshee. First off, I'm a System Administrator by trade, and keeping up with the latest best practices in PC hardware is a must. Next, once started, the book is a good read. It flows as well as any highly technical documentation possibly can, with a mix of hard data, diagrams and photos, sidebars and anecdotes. Finally, I've counted on Bob and Barbara to answer my PC hardware questions for years, both personally and via their excellent "PC Hardware in a Nutshell" editions (also from O'Reilly).

The book starts with a Fundamentals chapter that takes a non-partisan look at the whole process of selecting components, tools, and utilities in preparation for a self-built PC. It's got the same feel as a Consumer Reports article: Vendor independent, but the authors are not afraid to recommend their choices for manufacturers in each category of component. One thing I liked very much was the Troubleshooting section in this chapter. In many other works, by the time you've found the Troubleshooting pages back in the Appendices somewhere, it's far too late to be of great help. By bringing that section up front, it helps every reader, from novice to expert, keep an eye out for possible problems before they become troubles that need shooting.

Through the component selection and project chapters that populate the rest of this 300+ page book, there is a wealth of great information. From the painfully obvious "Benchmarks lie." to specifying the correct quiet cooler for an AMD Athlon XP processor, the Thompson's have covered nearly every base. Another standout feature of this book (and a first from O'Reilly) is the superb 4-color printing throughout the book. Most computer works are in grayscale, possibly with one accent color. But there are a few hundred pictures in this book, illustrating each step of building each project PC. Color matters when aligning ribbon cables, getting audio connections right, and in a myriad other little ways. O'Reilly's done every reader a great service in going to the expense of printing this book in full color. Bravo!

The project chapters are Mainstream PC, SOHO Server, Kickass LAN Party PC, Home Theater PC, and Small Form Factor PC. Each project chapter is written and copiously illustrated with images to provide all the guidance needed to get the box built right the first time and running without a hassle. That makes for some repetition when read straight through, but all of the repeats are worth hearing: Ground yourself before handling static-sensitive components, check the motherboard mounts against the hole pattern carefully, and many more lessons well worth deeply embedding. Additionally, while addressing the specific needs of each project, the Thompson's are giving the reader the tools and opportunity to take the vicarious experience of building these systems to meet virtually any type of PC requirement.

I've been building systems for about as many years as Bob has, and I learned new things (as well as refreshed my memory in several areas) from "Building the Perfect PC". Having it as a guide to getting components selected and balanced properly against needs, wants, and budget is a great tool. For the novice or casual system builder, this book will be invaluable.

The only oversight that I caught on this reading was near the beginning, where the authors claim that you can build every project in the book with just a Number One Philips screwdriver. You simply must have some sharp implement, possibly even a bench-mounted sheet metal shear, to open some of the tempest-hardened and atomically welded plastic packaging that some components ship in. I also sent an email to Bob to suggest that with so many fingers and thumbs appearing in the pictures (assembling the computers, inserting cables and memory and whatnot), perhaps a photography class would be suitable. I hope he's wearing his sense-of-humor hat today!

[Disclaimer: I know Bob and Barbara Thompson -- that may lead you to assume there's bias in this review. That's as may be, but if I thought there was a problem with the book they would have heard it from me when I was reading drafts. The finished product is even better than I expected, thanks to the superior production staff at O'Reilly (with whom I have no relationship aside from owning several shelf-feet of their books). It's your grain of salt, do with it as you will.]