Customer Reviews

Upgrading and Repairing PCs (18th Edition)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I first started reading the Upgrading and Repairing PCs series at 15th Edition, I thought it was an outstanding reference manual. While it's still quite an order of magnitude superior to other general PC architecture references out there, I no longer feel it is conforming to its own standards of in depth coverage.

The book claims to extensively review Core 2 micro architecture. If you expect a half page summary complete with marketing information you can already find on Intel's website, then this book is for you. I was hoping for better.

The book still does not cover PCI-Express in-depth. He points you to the PCI-SIG website. PCI-Express has been out long enough for Upgrading and Repairing PCs to provide detailed coverage. I would rather have more extensive PCI-Express coverage than say an extra ten pages of PC evolution and history. Also, there is virtually zero attention spent on Intel's new EFI ROM technology or the GUID Partition Table. There is very in-depth coverage provided in the Mac OS X Internals book, but Upgrading and Repairing PCs doesn't even so much as talk about them. Surely you can do better than the Macintosh book?

The included DVD video leads me to believe that networking is not Scott's area of expertise. It's OK for your typical neophyte, but I was previously led to believe that Scott places a lot of emphasis on accuracy and I cringed every time he said "Private Shared Key" in the video. It's "Pre-Shared Key" dude.

I am a machine control technical person where my main focus is not on PCs, but I sometimes have to work on PCs as they are often associated with machine control systems. Over a year ago my 2003 vintage OEM PC motherboard stopped working. I felt I was ready to put together my first PC using as much of the previous PC components as possible. Based upon the advice of a friend I purchased a copy of the 13th edition as it was written in the time frame of my PC. The book was extremely helpful as it put a spot light on a lot of "fuzzy" knowledge I had gained over the years, or had heard talked about. I ended up reading the majority of the book. Anything in the book that applied to my situation at home or at work I read about and I felt filled to the brim with the information I gathered from the book.

Recently, my wife's PC motherboard stopped working. I gave her my 2003 vintage PC and started work on building a brand new PC for me. The first action I took was to purchase the 18th edition of Upgrading and Repairing PCs. When I progressed with trying to determine my future PC components and needed to understand questions of SATA & Multi-Core theory & PCI Express 1 PCI Express 2 & CPU comparisons & knowledge on the latest System memory RAM, I went straight to the 18th edition book. But I just did not feel like I got the warm feeling inside which knowledge and understanding gives you. Compared to what I got out of the 13th edition (which was appropriate to my vintage of PC) to what I got out of the 18th edition (which was appropriate to the build of my newest PC), I felt like the authors have not been on top of "updating" the "upgrading" book.

So with hopefulness, I attempted to go to the author's website. upgradingandrepairingpcs. com and found it led me to another website called informit. com. It appears the author has banded with a group of other technical people to share their knowledge and expertise on this informit website & buying the 18th edition book allows free access to a lot of this web site. But this website was not satisfying for a person with a specific problem or question who is trying to link up with an answer. I ended up gathering a lot of my knowledge and understanding from the multitude of technical websites available on the internet. Including information on what a person has to do to repair Windows XP in order to use a hard drive from a broken PC on a different hardware platform. I would have thought that situation would be very common for "Upgrading and Repairing" a PC.

With that all said, I am giving the book 4 stars and I really wanted to be able to give the book 5 stars. The author is very good at explaining things in just the right manner. The knowledge & understanding I have gained from the books was well worth the full retail price for one book and made me a groupie of the book. But the next time I have to build a new PC in a few years, I won't be buying the latest edition without making sure it has been given a healthy dose of updating.

If you are building a new computer from scratch, this is a useful resource. Has a lot of basic information (goes back too far with historical information in my opinion). Publishing time makes it somewhat dated for leading edge technology, but that is the nature of a dynamic computer industry. Also, would be somewhat helpful in trouble shoothing an older system. Check the internet for very lastest info.

The first edition I bought was the 4th. I have now just received the 18th edition from Amazon and I am still amazed at the amount information contained in this book. A must for anyone working, tinkering or wanting to learn more about PC's. A fantastic reference book.

Authour should get rid of the information about old IBM 80286 processors and other vintage trivia. If we want to know about that we can order the 10th or earlier edition of the book. The 17th edition had a lot of good explanation about current technology but lacked the dual and quad processors that the 18th edition carries. Unfortunately they took out some of the good stuff (dual channel memory explanation for example) but again kept pages and pages about 80's computers.

A most comprehensive treatment of computers from their beginning to present. the author has a long and extensive experience with the subject and offers critical insights and knowledge, especially for those building their own computer. At times the history is too much, but interesting, nonethless a good book for those so inclined to more fully understand the workings of the modern marvel known as the personal computer!! a bonus is the cd on networking setup!!

Since I'm on my way to completing my Microsoft Certification in System Administration I was looking for a complete reference to the PC. This book more than fits that need and has provided me many solutions to problems I've already encountered at work. I highly recommend this for anyone who needs an in-depth, easily searchable and complete PC reference book.

The book is excellent except that the enclosed cd is not what I expected and would open only with DVD player, not computer. I would still strongly recommend this book to someone who wants to learn a lot more about computers and how to repair or improve them.

This book really is fantastic. A real credit to its author. It is the Volvo of the computer world.......indeed the entire book world. Amazon discount this book to make it a really great bargain. Further, I would still have been delighted even if I had paid full price.

I cannot praise this book enough. The perfect 10 out of 10!

In addition, the book is hardback. A joy to have, to hold and to own. The paper is very good quality and is lovely and white (not oatmeal/grey like some books.)

Now we come to the 'But.......'. The DVD that is with the book is the WRONG DVD! It is not about upgrading and repairing pc's but about networking. My guess is that the company that duplicates the DVD got them mixed up. (The author also writes a book about networking.)

Amazon offered me a replacement or a refund, but I declined both. There was no point in have a replacement because I strongly suspect that ALL the books have the wrong DVD (perhaps hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of them.) I am so pleased with the book that I didn't want a refund. In all honesty, I bought this item for the book and the DVD was just a bonus. So not having my 'bonus' is not too important.

I have emailed the publisher to try to help them, and the author, but no reply yet. I have written to Amazon, and spoken to their customer help. But of course it is not Amazon's fault in any way.

So that is my review. The book is brilliant and very highly recommended at any price. The DVD is totally the incorrect DVD. Hopefully in due course this will be corrected.

Very good book, I have several of Scott Mueller books and this one is even better then the previous versions. The DVD is great show new computer how to set up routers and a wireless network. The book goes into detail about repair and troubleshooting the system. Along with spec on CPU Memory and other spec.I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about there computer and repair and do upgrade on your own. The DVD alone is worth the price if you never set up a wireless or hard wire network this DVD will show you step by step how along with other information on it.