Building the Perfect PC, Second Edition

List Price: $34.99 Discount Price: $20.03

Customer Reviews:

Dissapointed Novice Builder [Posted on 2007-12-13]
I am a fan of Make but was dissapointed in the book because it is so out of date. There is a long lead time between completion of a manuscript and publication of a book. The parts lists, price information, and even some instructions are out of date and inconsistent. The overall ideas in the book are good, but maybe this is a project that should be published as an online guide where updates are dynamic. As a novice builder, the first thing I did was flip back to the budget PC parts list, log-on to NewEgg, and discover the parts are not available. I was dissapointed.

Building a computer is never been so easy [Posted on 2007-12-20]
After reading this book I was able to build my first system. Great book easy to understand.

A good book but you need the buyers guide too [Posted on 2008-02-10]
I am happy with this book so far although I have not had time to put it to the test. I have been monkeying with computers since 1985. I wanted to get current in a hurry. The book looks well put together and easy to understand with good pics. I like the way the information is presented. It looks like it was written with great care and honesty. Not a bunch of BS. You need the buyers guide to go with it. It's cheap, more up to date and a great reference. The writers admit that the book needs a supplement and the buyers guide does that. It is probably not possible to put everything you need in one book.

Book is an excellent overview [Posted on 2008-02-11]
"How to Build a Perfect PC" is a very good overview, but PC's and components are forever changing - so to be entirely pertinent, this is the type of book that requires frequent updates. If you're building your own, you'll find that with all the accompanying instructions and manuals, you go into sensory overload trying to determine the proper way to do your build-out and then make everything work. The most difficult aspect of building a new computer is your wiring and cable management. Make a wrong selection/choice and the system undoubtedly won't work, as expected. This book helps to make you think you can do it, but later on you may find yourself treading dangerous waters. I'm at that point now with my system, and I'm going to have to do a lot of serious reading in the component manuals before I complete my final wiring hook-ups and venture to plug it in.

Useful if biased "anti microsoft" guide on building PCs. [Posted on 2008-11-08]
The Thompsons give detailed steps on how to build 6 very different computers, from a SOHO server to a budget PC.

Of course hardware changes very fast, so anything more than a few months old is painfully outdated. But as the preface states: "The more things change the more they remain the same". You can replace a Pentium D for a Quad Core, the latest iteration for the video board, double the amount of memory and GBs of the HD, and what you read on the page matches what you should get from the shelves.

I would have liked advice on RAID, specially RAID 1 (mirroring, x data security) instead of just JBOD. I've bought my HDs from WD and Seagate, both with a 50% failure rate. Since data recovery shops here don't do the job properly, and are darn expensive of course, I guess RAID 1 is a more sensible advice than what they give: "The Media center PC will be connected to our internal network (...) we've got terabytes of disk spinning elsewhere, so it'd be easy enough to set up a cron job (...)" (p. 273). I just don't think this authors are serious! Not everybody's got a network at home, and the fact of loosing years of information is the closest thing to having your past gone.

The First chapters give enough reasons for the case in favour of building your own PC (versus buying it made). Having done so myself, I do believe it's not at all "for everybody". Yes, "a grandmother could do it", as they quaintly quote, but when things don't go according to plan and not even the tech gurus know what to do, I wonder how a "non professional" would fare. Let alone my mum ...

What I found displeasing is that on the cover it ads: "perfect for Windows Vista" and inside, the few brief mentions of this OS are Microsoft bashings, pleas for Open Source Software, and outright fanaticism, like when they brag about their home as a: "Microsoft free area". Or when they explain why they had to make a PC with Windows for a specific program "that still doesn't run on Linux", but, prim and promptly add "as soon as Robert finishes, it, we'll donate it to the nearest charity". As if that were an asset! Don't get me wrong, most of my "Computer Engineering" friends do use Linux & co, but if you're writing a guide for the "average user" as this one purports, the least one expects is abundant coverage of yes, the most widely used Operating System in the world. Not insider's jokes on why they want such Linux distro (= distribution)...

I also thought the style was highly anecdotic, probably too much. Like when on a GAMING rig, they explain: "We had an old GF 6800 video board, so we used it. For our purposes, it works fine. When it breaks, we'll get another one" (p. 206). Or, to keep about the same PC, they chose an integrated sound adapter for "We don't care about EAX support". It's not about THEM, it's for a gamer! It's obvious the authors are now knowledgeable about anything that a 12 year old would ever play (let alone serious gamers). And not knowing about video board for games is not a matter of principles (like their anti MS bias).

I do like the inclusion of MANY pictures. And contrary to a reviewer, I find it funny and useful that they show their hands. I guess it makes it more humane, you feel identified when you get stuck...
I also like that they include all the extra steps they made when they did something wrong (it makes you feel less of a fool when you botch something, like "if these people, who have been making PCs for 20 years, make mistakes, why can't I? :)". Of course, they magnify them a bit so as one feels less miserable, but the overall result is one feels OK.

What they said about Dell power sources and their unusual cabling, that makes them suitable to blow themselves and the motherboard when you connect them, turned out to be RIGHT when I was about to use a spare PS when I thought our Dell 8400's didn't work. Morale? They do know what they're talking about!
Their checklist for the "smoke test" (the first time you power up the machine) is useful. It may sound silly, but I at least have forgotten to plug a power of one of several HD a few times :)!

I like when they write encouraging phrases like: "Congratulations! You're almost finished building the system". As a learner of English as a 2nd language, it's additionally useful.

Their 80/20 rule for NOT buying over expensive hardware, (specially video boards) is very useful. Coupled by the "law of diminishing returns" (Economics!) "Super-premium adapters are more often bought for bragging rights than for any perceptible performance benefit" (p.207).

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