Build It. Fix It. Own It: A Beginner's Guide to Building and Upgrading a PC

Description

• Copyright 2008
• Edition: 1st

• Book
• ISBN-10: 0-7897-3827-9
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-3827-1

BUILD IT. FIX it. OWN IT.

A Beginner’s Guide to Building and Upgrading a PC

Build It. Fix It. Own It. is the ultimate beginner’s guide to building and fixing your own PC. With a friendly, knowledgeable tone, this book shows the beginning PC builder everything he or she needs to know to build a computer or upgrade an existing one.

We step you through the parts that lurk inside a PC, from the motherboard and power supply to the CPU, memory, hard drive, video card, sound card, and networking hardware. In each case, you will learn how the hardware works, what it does, what types of hardware are available, and what to look for when buying the hardware.

Then we walk you step-by-step though a series of PC building projects. We show you how to build five different types of PC: a basic business PC, a home theater PC, a high-performance PC, a killer gaming PC, and a budget PC. And if building a new PC from scratch isn’t in your budget, we show you how to resurrect  an old PC by swapping out a few key components.

When you have your PC built and running, we show you how to set up a wireless network and the BIOS and maintain your new rig.

Build It. Fix It. Own It. is the ultimate PC builder’s guide, even if you’ve never ventured inside a PC case before!

Author Bio

Paul McFedries is one of the industry’s most well known and respected technical writers and is a passionate computer tinkerer. He is the author of more than 70 computer books that have sold more than three million copies worldwide. His recent titles include the Sams Publishing books Windows Vista Unleashed and Windows Home Server Unleashed and the Que Publishing books Networking with Microsoft Windows Vista, Formulas and Functions with Microsoft Excel 2007, Tricks of the Microsoft Office 2007 Gurus, and Microsoft Access 2007 Forms, Reports, and Queries. Paul also is the proprietor of Word Spy (www.wordspy.com), a website devoted to tracking new words and phrases as they enter the English language.

Category     Hardware

Covers         PC Hardware

User Level    Beginner—Intermediate

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Sample Content

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Getting to Know Your PC

Chapter 1The Barebones: The Motherboard, Case, and Power Supply

Mobo Mojo: Understanding the Motherboard

    A Tour of a Typical Motherboard

    Understanding Expansion Slot Types

    Sizing Up Motherboard Form Factors

    Buying a Motherboard

The Case Is Your Base

    Buttons, Bezels, and Bays: A Case Parts List

    That’s About the Size of It: Case Form Factors

    Case Designs: From Boring to Beautiful

    Going with the Flow: Case Fans

    Buying a Case

Power to the PC: The Power Supply Unit

    Getting to Know the Power Supply

    Buying a Power Supply

From Here

Chapter 2 The Brains: The Central Processing Unit

Intel or AMD?

Clocks, Cores, and More: Understanding CPU Specs

    The Processor Family

    The Processor Cores

    The Processor Name

    The Processor Clock Speed

    The Processor Socket

    The Processor Bus Speed

    The Processor L2 Cache Size

    The Processor Manufacturing Process

    The Processor Core Type

    The Processor Market: What’s Available

Keeping It Cool: Fans and Heatsinks

Buying a CPU

From Here

Chapter 3The Work Area: Memory

What Is RAM?

Combining Memory Chips Into Memory Modules

DDR, DIMM, and More: Understanding Memory Specs

    The Memory Module Standard

    The Memory Type and Speed

    Dual Channel Mode

    The Memory Module Capacity

    The Memory Latency and Timings

    The Memory Module Configuration and Pins

Windows and RAM: The 4GB Conundrum

Buying Memory

From Here

Chapter 4Hard Drives and Other Storage Devices

Drive Time: How a Hard Drive Works

Capacity, Cache, and More: Understanding Hard Drive Specs

    The Hard Drive Interface and Throughput

    The Hard Drive Form Factor

    The Hard Drive Capacity

    The Hard Drive Speed

    The Hard Drive Cache

    The Hard Drive Seek Time

Buying a Hard Drive

Disc Driving: Ch

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