Building a PC for Dummies Book

By buying components and assembling them yourself, you can save a little money and gain a lifetime of free technical support. Building a PC for Dummies removes the intimidation factor from building your own Intel-based personal computer, explains what you need and shows you how to put everything together. It's a fine place to start if you've never assembled your own machine before and want to give the process a try. Author Mark L. Chambers describes what to look for when shopping for components, but refrains from recommending any specific models or manufacturers. Building a PC for Dummies would be stronger if he had made such recommendations, the way Tom's Hardware Guide does. Even without a specific shopping list, this book makes it possible for a novice computer maker to make informed decisions about motherboards, processors, storage devices, expansion cards and input devices. Chambers presents the assembly process logically, telling how to install a component or two at a time while performing incremental testing. He includes troubleshooting information in each component's section, but it's odd that he puts discussion of operating systems in an appendix-most system builders will want to see their creations run as soon as possible. --David Wall Topics covered: Buying and building a PC; selecting motherboards, processors, storage devices, expansion cards and inputting devices.Read More