Another winner!,  January 30 2007
Submitted by csanders41   [Respond | View]

When I received my copy of "Building the Perfect PC" and started reading it, the thought that pop in my head was my newest home-built unit was almost 2 years old. I need to start putting something new together.

I've been in the pc business since 1981 when I purchased my first computer. It was a Commodore 3031 with two floppy drives. (5 1/4). I built my first computer in 1988 and since that time many more. They were use for home use as well as the work place.

This review is the third one I've written for Robert and his wife and the comments are the same on each publishing. When you buy the book the timed saved of making mistakes of what not to buy, will more than pay for the time and cost of the book.
The clarity of thought and sequence of ideas presented my Bob and wife simplifies the process and the results will speak for themselves.

The book allows a newbie or seasoned builder to know all the latest whiz-a-mug-jiggers that are available to use as components of a new PC. Any one that starts the process of building a PC needs to research what work with what. The book saves many hours of reading and research for the magic answer to the perfect PC.



Building the PC that YOU want,  January 14 2007
Submitted by Gary Berg   [Respond | View]

Building the Perfect PC, second edition is a welcome update, covering some of the changes in technology since the first edition came out, such as socket 775 processors Core Duo, AMD X2, etc.

This book takes the approach of having multiple ?projects?, so you can see the tradeoffs between PCs built for different purposes. Want to build a server; the Thompsons will tell you what priorities you should select and how to meet them. Want to build a budget PC ? a parts list that comes to $350 for a fully functional PC you can build yourself.

The book starts out with some basics, such as what you will need to build a PC and how to choose components. Each project lays out the analysis, component selection, and assembly processes, including places where you have to be careful when assembling that particular project.

I?ve built several PCs based on the first edition of this book; I?m looking forward to building more using the second edition.



Building the Perfect PC (2nd) - review,  January 14 2007
Submitted by cwclark   [Respond | View]

Cordwainer Smith's telepathic Martian Scientist politely introduces himself to his American visitor as a Lotan, among other things. And, answering the obvious question, that a Lotan was an Arhat. To many people the workings of a computer, hardware or software, are equally transparent as our exiled Martian's answer. The Thompson's 'Building the Perfect PC' aims to clarify what the some of Computer industry's hardware Arhats are.

The book's chapters (Fundamentals, Choosing and Buying and building 6 types of PC) take the reader from the asking the most important question, why build a PC yourself, to closing up the Budget PC case in the last chapter. Each chapter progresses the same way, clearly showing the reader *a* method to determine what one wants, how to select components to meet that need, alternates or restrictions and slapping the thing together. The writing style is *not* corporate-speak. The Thompson tell you what they thinks and why but also gives marginal room (literally, you'll see) to advice from others and a few dissenting opinions. The book is written (surpirse) and photographed entirely by the authors. Assembly was done on the kitchen table on a sheet, just to show the reader one can assemble a PC at home. And that if you get one's Wife to do the assembly for the photos she can't complain about the use of her sheets.

There is inevitable repetition, one learns how to open the case 6 times. Repetition is necessary if the chapters are to stand alone so don't worry about it when you come across it. The text is descriptive as text can be (how many ways are there to write "take the screwdriver in your gripping hand, unscrew the screw and drop it in the most inaccessible crevice of the case"?) and there are plenty of pictures (see below).

One clear mistake is the Thompson's opinion that once the voltage of the power supply is set correctly you can't, really, hurt anything. This opinion could stand some revision. We recently set fire, *accidentally set fire*, to a hard drive by shorting the contacts on the drive behind the Molex power plug. This prevents the PC from booting and should be avoided. And, no, we did not use a screwdriver.

Which brings us to the best photo in the book, one lone Phillips screwdriver in figure 1-1. The entire arsenal of tools one needs to assemble a PC. Minus the explosives needed to open blister packaging, but that activity is not assembly. It would have been better to show one with a bent blade and a scorched handle, just to make a point, but one can't have everything. The screwdriver on the cover is not the same one illustrated in figure 1-1. The one on the cover is fancy.

The author's own photography is excellent in terms of content and there are many photos in each chapter showing all stages of assembly. And, surprisingly to this reviewer, all are in colour for a book of this sort. Maybe we are just out of date. Most are on the same page as the relevant text, very Tufte-like. Well done. But. Exposure problems make some of the illustrations close to unusable. The content is there but many are too dark to make out clearly. Cameras are very good at making a white sheet look 18% gray! Chapter 8 seems to be affected most, figure 8-52 shows a black SATA plug being attached to a black drive. All we can see are fingers and a bit of green motherboard. Channeling Hotblack Desiato are we? C'mon O'Reilly, give Bob a couple of flashes and Photoshop elements. Seriously, the next edition of the book needs to rectify this issue, luckily the tools are readily available for the home-based author. Building the Photo-Processing PC, anyone? Hmm...that's actually a pretty good idea, come to think of it. We own 8 cameras of various types but *no* computer games. There is a market there.

The cover fell off as we were leafing through our review copy looking for figure 8-52. Serves us right.

The book takes the mystery out of PC components and assembly for the non-initiate, always a good thing, and may even surprise more knowledgeable people. Good reading and recommended.

We still don't know what an Arhat is.

"The best feature of this book is the clear, step by step instructions coupled with photographs of the actual components used in the builds. You can see where they chose to feed SATA cables and why. They do all of the builds for us first and work out all the kinks like just how to fit everything into a form factor case or which DVD burners can go through a spindle of 25 DVDs one after the other and still produce quality media. If you're lacking in experience building your own PC this alone is worth the price of the book."
-- Ben Gerber, ArsGeek

"Overall, the book's layout is clean, with tips and other information kept in the side columns. There's plenty of colour photos illustrating exactly what that part looks like you're trying to attach the cable to looks like. Reading through, you can't help but feel that that the writers really know what they are talking about, whether it's the anecdotes about how some standard came to be or some small tip that makes perfect sense when you think about it, anyone contemplating building their next PC themselves should take a look through this one."
-- Zoltan Hunt, YYZtech.ca

"If you are an "übergeek" who can build systems in your sleep, you won't need to buy this book. If you are someone who would like to "roll your own" and aren't afraid to get your hands dirty, Thompson and Thompson wrote this book for you. The first chapter starts out "Building a PC is no more technically challenging than changing the oil in your car or hooking up a DVD player." That lets out those people who have never been able to set the time on a VCR or microwave but opens the door to everyone else."
-- James Pyles, CertForums