Customer Reviews

Buying a Computer for Dummies, 2005 Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I walked into a computer-mega store to buy a computer and left confused and dazed. I then bought Dan Gookin's book and had a completely different approach. Mr. Gookin's book helped me to not get caught up in product name, but more on what I wanted to get done with the computer. What a great approach. Buy this book before you even think about buying a computer. It will honesly help.

Having looked at others, I have to agree that I found Dan Gookin's book to be by far the most helpful in preparing me to buy a computer for the first time. Sure, he didn't mention brand names, but there's plenty of information available from many sources to make that decision after you understand the basics, which he rightly concentrates on. As for Gookin's humor, that is a matter of taste, but I see no contradiction in being humorous, even silly, while at the same time being very serious and knowledgable about this subject. His humor helped put me at ease in a topic that is often scary for the beginner. We need awe and reverence, but they belong to God.

Okay, this is a little tough to explain. This is an EXCELLENT guide for people who need to buy a new home computer or laptop. But it by itself will not be enough to guide those people through the process smoothly.

There are two considerable strengths to this guide. First of all, it demystifies all the jargon and obscure terminology, and does a commendable job doing it. Second, Dan Gookin's advice to think about SOFTWARE primarily and not HARDWARE or PRICE when one is buying is worth its weight in gold. (The fact that brand names are scarcely used in this book is a strength and not a weakness, I believe, and fits in with Mr. Gookin's approach.) And for people who think "For Dummies" guides have too much clowning around, there is very little of it here, and it is not intrusive.

Having said all of these nice things, the book is occasionally minimal on key information. It could be argued that to make this guide complete, the author would have had to have written an 800-page book. In any case, this book alone won't get you through the computer-buying process comfortably. You should supplement the book with a friend who is moderately or heavily tech savvy.

In short, this is a great beginning and I honestly think it would be foolish for a computer beginner to buy a new machine without having read this very price-friendly work. But that reading will have to be supplemented by a friend or work colleague in the know about personal computers.

Buying a Computer for Dummies is a wonderful resource for someone who has never been through the herculean task of buying a computer. Even if you have purchased a computer before, this book may help demystify and improve the process for you. The best thing about the book is that the author deals with the basics of a computer (i.e. Software, Hardware) and does not deal with brand. When you are finished with this book, you will be able to buy the ideal computer for yourself. The only problem I have with the book is the lame humor. This deficit, however, is more than outweighed by the great advice it offers.

The book is well written without becoming too overbearing. As with many "For Dummies" books, there is the correct amount of levity and quite a bit of useful information. I found the info to be up to date (at least today!) in what is perhaps the fastest changing environment that ever existed. If you need a quick education ,deciding what to buy, this is your guide.

Don't depend on this 2005 edition of Buying a Computer FOR DUMMIES to help you to buy a computer in 2005. This book has a lot of outdated information and missed a lot current information. For example:
1) This book still talks about "external L2 cache", or Celeron with no L2 cache; still showing the picture of SIMM memory slots. We havn't see those processors & memories for at least 7 years!
2) It still recommending about the floppy drive. Why in 2005 do we still need floppy drive & floppy disks? It should discusses more about USB flash drives.
3) It does not mention about Athlon XP processor (an alternative to Pentium 4), DDR memory, & serial ATA hard drive.
4) It still mentions the ISA expansion slot, but not PCI Express.
5) It is a mis-statement that "the only real reason to go with [XP] Home over Professional is you plan to play computer games..."; there is no different between Home & Pro for computer games; but Pro cost about $100 more than Home.
6) It does not mention about Open Office which is an alternative to Microsoft Office!

A GOOD PRIMER FOR ANYONE SHOPPING FOR A COMPUTER. ALSO A NICE REVIEW OF ONE'S CURRENT MODEL.

I wish I had read this book when I first bought my current computer; it is real eye opener. I don't know that I will buy another product or service without first reviewing it in a "dummy" book.
Martin

This really helped me from buying something that I did not need or what. It kept me from spending more than I should, being a first time computer buyer. It has been several years since my first computer but I bet there is still a lot for a first time computer buyer.

this book is for the beginner (not even), but for a person looking for more info look elsewhere. He doesn't talk about specific companies, so a beginner doesn't know what good choices are there. he doesn't recommend any companies!! the beginner will have to find out for himself what companies are good and which are garbage. another thing that bothered me was the fact that every page has about 2 words, and there so spaced apart that the book could have been written in 100 pages instead of the 277 minus something like 25 pages for writting down stuff about the components to choose. btw, the stupid sarcastic jokes ruined my respect for him being a serious person and knowing much about buying a computer!