PC Hardware in a Nutshell

In a Nutshell

by Robert Bruce Thompson, Barbara Fritchman Thompson

PC Hardware in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference relies 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 Wall

Topics 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.

Genres: Computers, Collections, Nonfiction

874 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2000

About the author

Robert Bruce Thompson was an accomplished author and scientist, publishing books on computers and the sciences. He built and sold science kits in support of home school education throughout the United States.

Reviews

[Tal Shprecher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why would anyone read a hardware book in 2024 written 20 years ago? Because hardware standards may change but the principles do not. There’s still a motherboard, chipset, BIOS (now EFI), etc.

Today it’s just more integrated with better standards.

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably not a bad book back when I was written in October 2000 but completely useless today in this Windows 7, SATA, DDR3 world. Doesn't even have anything dealing with Windows 2000, the latest OS being Windows Me.