general

Each time I have a PC question, I open this book and find the answer. Very thorough. Well worth the money.

If you know me, you'll know that I'm a software guy. Specifically, I'm a software developer. I don't want to build my own PC. I want to turn it on and have it work. When it doesn't work right, I start to get really nervous. I hate to open up the case and look inside any of my PCs. And I can't tell you how many times I've seriously hosed my machine by attempting to install a new piece of hardware or memory. Bottom line... I don't like hardware.

So why am I reviewing a book on PC hardware? Because fear is no excuse for not understanding the device that allows me to make my living. Having worked a little with this book, I can honestly say that I would have saved myself a lot of grief if I knew about this book earlier. It is amazing.

Scott Mueller covers everything you can think of that you'll find in your PC. He also includes both the "what is" and "how to" details of the devices. For instance, you can read the chapters on magnetic storage and hard disk storage to understand how a hard drive works. He then takes you from the theoretical knowledge to the practical information on how to install a new hard drive in your PC. When I had to install a hard drive about a year ago after a drive failure, I truly had no clue as to what I was doing. While I was successful, it was an extremely stressful experience. If I had been able to review these chapters beforehand, I could have actually learned from the process instead of running scared through the ordeal.

In this 15th anniversary edition, there is also a DVD with two hours of video related to the book. I haven't had the time yet to review the DVD material, but I have no doubt that it will be of the same high quality as the book.

Conclusion
You need to have this book if you ever plan on replacing or fixing anything on your PC. I wish I had known about this book sooner... You don't see many tech books that get past their first edition, much less the 15th edition. This is a classic.

This 15th Anniversary edition of Scott Muller's Upgrading And Repairing PCs includes more than 100 pages of new material, covering the latest in motherboard and processing technologies. There are reasons why Scott Mueller is a bestselling PC hardware author whose "how to" manual for dedicated, do-it-yourself computer users has been a standard and a staple of personal and professional computer repair/upgrade reference collections! An accompanying DVD includes more than two hours of high quality video playable on both standalone DVD player and DVD-ROM. 1608 pages. User Level: All Users