Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Upgrading and Repairing PCs
This book is now into its 17th edition so it must be doing something right.
| Product | Upgrading and Repairing PCs |
|---|---|
| Company | Que |
| Web | www.quepublishing.com |
| Price | From £42.99 |
| We like | Definitive guide to PCs, easy to use |
| We don't like | Could break your bookshelf! |
| Rating | |
| Requirements |
It's a hardback and no lightweight, weighing in at 1608 pages plus a DVD. It's divided into 21 chapters covering every area of PC use and development that you could need.
It's worth listing the topics so you can appreciate the depth of coverage: Development of the PC, PC components and system design, Motherboards and buses, BIOS, Memory, ATA/IDE interface, Magnetic storage, Hard drives, Removable storage, Optical storage, Hard drive installation, Video hardware, Audio hardware, I/O interfaces, Input devices, Internet connectivity, LANs, Power supplies, Building and upgrading systems, PC modifications such as overclocking, and PC diagnostics.
Phew!
New to the 17th edition is a discussion of the latest dual-core processor designs from Intel and AMD, new processors like the Pentium D and upgrade options for them, plus a revamped power supply chapter.
The detail is amazing. Most topics cover early hardware so even if you're tinkering with an old PC, you're bound to find information about its bits and pieces, inputs and outputs and connections.
All the latest features are included, too, and in detail, so if you want to know the difference between a Pentium D 840 and a Pentium Extreme Edition, you'll find it here.
For anyone wanting to upgrade or repairer a PC, the book includes copious details about pin outs, specifications, setups, and procedures. If you want to add a hard drive, DVD drive, increase the RAM or create a home network, this book will help.
It is very well laid out with diagrams, bullet points, lists, photos and illustrations. This makes it easy to compare items and standards. There are often dates indicating when an item was used and a note to say if something is now obsolete.
The book also has Caution and Tip notes, so if you want to know how to calculate the power requirements of a system you intend to upgrade, you can read how SCSI drives can reduce consumption and see what the author's preferred choice of PSU is.
In spite of its size, the books is not intimidating. You can easily find what you're looking for and read about the topic - say RAM, hard drives or upgrading the BIOS - or skip to a specific section containing the information you need such as RAM types and performance, or BIOS error messages.
If you repair PCs, you'll like the Troubleshooting Index in Appendix C which lists around 250 problems, causes and solutions with a reference to pages where it's discussed in detail.
The DVD contains over 2 hours of new, high quality video including the author discussing the new topics, plus it contains all previous book editions in PDF format.
In all, this is a very impressive work and an essential book for the PC repairer, inveterate upgrader or for anyone who wants to know how their PC works.
