PC Hardware in a Nutshell

Do you want to know how to upgrade the memory on your computer? Or to add a video card or an extra hard drive? Husband and wife team Robert and Barbara Thompson run their own business showing people how to deal with hardware. This book brings together all their valuable advice into one resource.

And it's much more than a quick reference. They provide a practical guide for those who wish to maintain, upgrade, and even build computers. It's full of tips and recomendations on the selection of hardware; advice on fitting; and warnings about what to avoid. Did you know for instance that data stored on floppy disks often starts to deteriorate after about five years? (It's because the magnetic domains on the disk become faded with time.)



Topics covered range from computer system cases, motherboards, and power supply units, through hard drives, floppies, and CD writers, to monitors, video adapters, and sound cards. The approach taken throughout is hands-on; this is how we do it; and here are some tips on overcoming common problems. Each chapter ends with a list of recommended products, their prices, and where to get them.

Anyone involved in repairing, maintaining, upgrading, or building computers will be interested in the advice they offer. There's a marvellous section on knowing how and where to buy components; how to judge the prices you are quoted; and what goes on behind the scenes which makes prices fluctuate so much.

I went through the section on CD drives - writable and rewritable - and couldn't fault the way they explained the differences, the advantages of one system over another, and how to burn CDs - as well as how to avoid producing 'coasters' (duff, unusable recordings).

If there's a weakness, I think there might have been more illustrations - but no doubt someone who is prepared to open the box and replace a central processing unit doesn't need to be shown what one looks like.

However, the last chapter shows you how to build your own computer, and here they put a digital camera to good effect in documenting each stage. And if you get stuck, you can always download extra guidance notes from the site the authors run at http://www.hardwareguys.com