Prices for personal computers keep falling, making it a great time to buy a PC. And, because component prices are falling, it's also a great time to build your own PC. This book strips away the mystery and fear most people have about the internals of a PC. If you can follow a recipe or build a Lego toy, you can build your own PC and save money as well.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
This guide focuses on what's involved in building Pentium-based personal computers for Windows 95. It's a great resource for an engineering-minded 12-year-old, a technical student, or anyone who wants to figure out what's going on inside the case.
This book distinguishes itself from other hardware how-tos by paying sufficient attention to the costs involved in acquiring the components that go into an Intel-based PC--the video card, the memory modules, the motherboard, and so forth. Many of this book's competitors ignore the price issue.
The book focuses on selecting components for your machine. While the author pays fair attention to all of the major components, such as CD-ROM drives and video cards, he gives no attention to less-standard components such as removable-media disk drives and network interface cards. He does, however, make specific brand-name recommendations for each kind of component, enabling novice parts buyers to head into the marketplace with some knowledge. The final chapter explains how to install Windows 95, but doesn't do a very good job of explaining CD-ROM installation with MSCDEX.exe, which is a potential hazard. --David Wall --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
62 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OUT OF DATE AND NOT COMPLETE INFORMATION,
By
This review is from: Building Your Own PC: Buying and Assembling With Confidence (Paperback)
THIS BOOK IS OUTDATED AND REALLY WON'T SERVE YOUR NEEDS NOW.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 BECAUSE THE INFO IS OUTDATED IT DOESN'T ADDRESS COMPATIBILITY ISSUES.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.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Well Done, but Dated,
By Mark Brown (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Building Your Own PC: Buying and Assembling With Confidence (Paperback)
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.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just seemed to be lacking in places,
By A Customer
This review is from: Building Your Own PC: Buying & Assembling with Confidence (Step-By-Step Series) (Paperback)
Most of the material was very current in this latest edition. However, as a PC building novice, even I noticed the glaring omissions (such as how to install an internal modem) Clearly AGP will the standard for video cards in the not-so-distant future, but not enough was said about them. I was happy to see PII processors discussed, but I could have lived without seeing the same pictures and text all over again. Overall, pretty thorough, but I feel like I need other books and materials to fill in gaps.
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