How to Build Your Own PC: Save a Buck and Learn a Lot

I speak from the viewpoint of a novice PC builder. Newer motherboards, improved sockets, and evolving interfaces have not altered the fact that this remains an excellent guide for the novice that is building a PC. Excellent photos, clear text, and an engaging style make this a must-have book.

This book was my bible last year when i decided i wanted to build my first pc. I was tired of my video/audio integrated Dell that couldn't play any modern games or do more than two of three things at a time. With the tips and instructions in this book i built a gaming powerhouse and it works. My first time built went so well that I've been building others and am seriously leaning towards going to school for computers..something I've never done. Some things in it might be dated now but the basic foundation for most pc's hasn't changed that much in the years I've been using them.

This is a very informative book on all aspects of building a PC. For a first time builder, or a novice person looking to round out their computer building skills, this book is the best. With plenty of pictures, and easy to follow directions, this guy does it all. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn!

Before I purchased this book, I was spending sleepless nights trying to get information on building my own computer. It seemed that everywhere I went, had "some" information that was useful to me, but I never had the feeling that I knew everything I needed. After reading this book, that all changed, and I felt 100% confident that I was ready to do what I orinally set out to do. This book has everything you need to know. There is no way you can go wrong. Althought this book does not talk about SATA hard drives, SLI, or even Athlon 64 processors, this book gives you enough basic knowledge to figure out those things with relative ease. Great book !!

When I picked up this book I was very skeptical. The title says Save a Buck and Learn a Lot. My experience is that this is at best only half true. I was just down at WalMart looking at their computer offerings. What you can get from them at around $500 is more, faster hardware than you can buy as components - not even considering the assembly effort. Then in first flipping through the book I found a section labeled Will I Save Money by Building My Own System. His answer was maybe. And I think he is right. The WalMart system for instance included a 17" monitor and Windows XP. I've got a bunch of monitors and don't need another, and what if I want to run Linux, why should I pay for XP. Or, I have a computer that died recently. I suspect that it's the motherboard. I could use the case, power supply, CPU of the old system and build a new one much, much cheaper than WalMart. Second, the next system I need is a web server. Having a DVD R/W and a super sound card is absolutely useless. This machine's going into a closet and will sit there serving web pages, and hopefully not making any noise or recording any movies. On the other hand, it needs more memory and CPU power than the WalMart machine. The second part of the title says Learn a Lot. And here he is absolutely correct. Following his instructions to build a PC, perhaps from an old one that you might get at the thrift store, you can put into it just exactly what you need. And if it ever breaks, you won't hesitate tearing into it to fix or upgrade it. This is a good book to take the mystery out of building a PC.