PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition
PC Hardware in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Referencerelies on an  eternal truth of the computer industry: legacy systems never die. This book  focuses on the technologies that have provided Wintel personal computers with  various capabilities over the years. Like most of its competitors, this book  addresses the PC on a subsystem level, and deals with video cards, hard-disk  interfaces, memory, and other pieces of the componentry puzzle that hardware  integrators need to figure out. The authors do a great job of explaining the  differences between (and relative merits of) IDE and SCSI hard-drive interfaces,  various video buses, competing processors, and other technologies. They also  prove themselves adept at explaining general assembly procedures and  troubleshooting strategies.This book distinguishes itself from its most popular competitors by emphasizing  the authors' opinions on hardware products. It's refreshing to see authors  recommend Product A for high-performance systems in which price is not an issue,  Product B for economical home systems, and Product C for organizational  workstations. On the other hand, the recommendations, prices, and similar values  will change over time. The authors maintain a great Web site, at which you can  find their current recommendations. (The Web site, on the other hand, doesn't  include the book's high-quality tutorial on designing and assembling a system  from zero.) Even the photographs that appear in this book--traditionally a weak  point among hardware books--are clear.--David WallTopics covered:Personal computers that comply with Microsoft Windows and  Intel compatibility requirements. The authors address processors, memory, hard  disks, optical media, removable magnetic disks, video cards, power supplies, and  more. Also, there are instructions for assembling a machine from scratch, and  some coverage of troubleshooting problems.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.