Hand-me-down PC: Breathing New Life into Your Pentium 486, 386 and 286PC Book

Though the computer makers would have you believe otherwise, most people who own personal computers have rather old ones. For every new Pentium III out there, there are several pre-Pentium models out there. That's why The Hand-Me-Down PC remains relevant today. Morris Rosenthal's focus on the technologies of early Pentium chips and their predecessors means you can use The Hand-Me-Down PC to wring the most performance out of your old machine. After providing a brief orientation on the appearance of various PC components and their purposes (and a slapdash foray into software), Rosenthal shows you the most cost-effective ways to improve an old computer's speed. He accurately names more random access memory (RAM) as the single best improvement you can make to a computer, then goes on to show you how to carry out a processor upgrade or replace both the processor and the motherboard. The book's motherboard-replacement instructions would be better if they were less text-heavy--illustrations might have helped to clarify this fairly elaborate procedure. Later, the author goes on to show how to add and replace hard drives, covering several standard models. He also talks about modems, sound cards, CD-ROM drives, and other popular upgrades before offering some strategies for tracking down the source of mystery problems. --David WallRead More