Peter Norton's Upgrading and Repairing PCs

Although there is some strong competition, Peter Norton's Guide to Upgrading and Repairing PCs is an excellent choice among guides on upgrading PCs. The book is up-to-date and includes wide-ranging information on upgrades such as digital video disc (DVD) drives, 3-D graphics accelerators, Multimedia Extensions (MMX) microprocessors, universal serial bus (USB) ports, force-feedback joysticks, and digital cameras. More importantly, the guide dispenses some practical, commonsense advice that helps you decide which upgrade path to choose. For example, one early section takes a smart upgrade-by-upgrade look at the components of a PC, evaluating the risk of upgrading each component (such as an IDE or SCSI storage drive) and recommending when to avoid an upgrade.

Peter Norton's Guide to Upgrading & Repairing PCs is a great choice if you want extensive information on upgrade options, basic instruction on how to perform upgrades yourself, and a general education in practical computing. If you're a do-it-yourselfer who wants to keep an aging system viable, put this book on your short list. For the serious computer owner, the guide's balance, comprehensiveness, and relevance are helpful. However, if you're looking for extensively illustrated instructions that detail the nuts and bolts of actually installing components, you might prefer the approach taken by Upgrading PCs Illustrated or Upgrading and Repairing PCs. Both of these volumes offer excellent step-by-step instruction and are also recommended.