CNET Do-It-Yourself PC Upgrade Projects 2008

The days of tinkering with our cars are largely over, but we wouldn’t have time anyway—the PC takes up our tinker time now! Instead of shade-tree mechanics, we are now a nation of computer upgraders. Beefing up hard drives, RAM, and video cards has replaced carburetor tweaks and oil changes. (And we’re a less greasy nation for it!) McGraw-Hill and CNET have compiled the most asked-for upgrades in this very clear set of projects. This may be one of the most essential titles in our series because it’s still a tricky world inside your PC case and, unlike working on a ’69 Ford, you can’t just figure out PC upgrades by looking at the parts. Some of this book’s projects are classic hardware jobs, like drive and memory upgrades or dual-monitor setups. Others are more software oriented, like setting up your PC as an IP phone or a living-room media center. And some projects are almost more of a user upgrade—the project on good practices and technology for backups fits that category! You may also want to enjoy the hottest project in PCs today: virtualization. The idea of running more than one operating system on a single computer has been catching on in a big way. Macs and PCs now run on the same CPUs, Linux operating systems are desktop-friendly, and a certain détente has been reached that admits some operating systems are just better at some tasks than others. Now the question, “Mac, Linux, or PC?” can often be answered, “Yes.” One thing hasn’t changed and that’s the sharp metal edges inside your PC’s case! So put on some gloves, open your machine, thumb ahead in this book, and get ready to create a new PC out of your old one. We promise, your nails will still be clean when you’re done.

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