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Preface
Preface
PC Hardware in a Nutshell. An oxymoron, as it turns out. When Robert began work on the first edition of this book in late 1998, he planned to write a 300-page book in five months. Barbara joined the project early, at first as the researcher and later as the full coauthor. After more than 18 months of working seven days a week, including last-minute rewrites to make everything as current as possible, we finally completed the first edition.
Robert decided to write the first edition because he couldn't find a good answer to what seemed to be a simple question. Robert, who has extensive PC experience, wanted to buy his first CD burner but didn't know much about them. He needed information about how to choose, install, configure, and use a CD burner. It would have been easy to check articles about CD burners in hardware-oriented magazines and enthusiast web sites, but Robert didn't trust them to provide accurate and unbiased information.
He next checked the shelf of PC hardware books he owns. What he found in those books was lots of interesting information, but a surprising dearth of useful information. For example, one very popular title devoted less than five of its 1500+ pages to CD-R and CD-RW, and most of these pages described only the history and low-level functioning of these devices. Advice on how to choose a CD burner? Advice on how to install it, configure it, use it, or troubleshoot it? Next to nothing. That same book devoted nearly 70 pages to a list of vendors—information easily accessible on the Web—so the shortage of information couldn't have been a result of page-count constraints.
We were determined to write a book filled with useful information. You won't find tables of drive parameters for hundreds of obsolete disk drives, instructions on how to change the interleave by low-level formatting of an XT hard drive, charts of keyboard scan codes, and so on. As interesting as those things might be, they fail the useful test. Pruning stuff that was merely interesting was painful because we like to read interesting stuff as much as the next person. But we quickly found out why there's so much interesting information and so relatively little useful information in most PC hardware books. Interesting is quick and easy to write. Useful is slow and hard, because you actually have to do all the stuff.
We found numerous errors repeated nearly verbatim in more than one book—things that were clearly wrong, but that an author had simply repeated instead of verifying it by taking the time to check for himself. We were guilty of that at times, too. When we listed the pinouts for a gameport, for example, we got that information from published sources. But surprisingly often, we found that these sources disagreed, and so were forced to check for ourselves.
And, boy, did we expend an incredible amount of time and effort checking things for ourselves. Rather than simply repeating what others had said about CD burners, for example, we decided to find out for ourselves. Doing that required building four computers—two IDE and two SCSI, one each with Windows 98 and Windows NT—and testing each configuration with different drive models by burning numerous CDs with each. About ten 14-hour days and 400 CD blanks later, we finally had a handle on CD burners. All that work turned into just a few pages and some specific product recommendations. But all that work was necessary if we wanted to write something more than just a me-too book.
Our efforts were rewarded. The first edition of PC Hardware in a Nutshell sold well, and was widely acclaimed by readers and reviewers alike. For example, Barnes & Noble had this to say:
Here's one PC hardware book that pulls no punches. It even recommends specific brands and models, and tells you why—so you can evaluate whatever's on sale when you're ready to buy. The authors speak to you as if you're planning to build your own computer from scratch. That's the "big kahuna" PC maintenance project, so the book's easily up to any "smaller" challenges—like adding a CD burner, or maybe replacing your motherboard. And it's all new—not padded with obsolete data and techniques. Specific, comprehensive, and relentlessly useful—superb!
Given the success of the first edition, we considered doing just a quick update, but we decided that our readers deserved better. So we spent nearly a year building the second edition. We spent weeks on end doing detailed testing and comparisons of numerous products, the results of which often boiled down to a couple of paragraphs of advice or a single product recommendation. We greatly expanded both the breadth of topics covered and the level of detail presented. The second edition was, in every respect, twice the book that the first edition was.
Of the second edition, Barnes & Noble said:
O'Reilly's straight-shootin', no-holds-barred, quality-focused PC hardware book is back, in a Second Edition that's even more indispensable than the first.
The "Hardware Guys"—Barbara Fritchman Thompson and Robert Bruce Thompson—have updated PC Hardware in a Nutshell to reflect pretty much everything that's come down the pike in the two years following the first edition, including Athlon XP/MP microprocessors, USB 2.0, and the "Big Drive" initiative for ATA drives larger than 137 gigs.
Want someone to make sense of all the DVD writable/rewritable standards and give you some decent advice about buying one? Look here. Want honest and specific advice about the latest motherboards and chipsets from both sides of the Pacific? Look here. Want troubleshooting help? There's even more of it than in the first edition.
Want to put together your own PC? The Thompsons walk you through it in extraordinary detail (how to make sure your system's multiple fans are working together, not at cross-purposes; why you should only use three screws instead of four if you're mounting a drive in a cheap case; which add-on cards generate the most heat and should be given the most breathing room).
In the first edition, the authors ended most chapters with an "Our Picks" section offering specific hardware recommendations. But hardware changes so fast that they've revamped these sections to be a bit more general and moved the specific advice to the book's companion web site. Don't worry: The book's as opinionated as ever, and when the Thompsons don't like something (Sound Blaster Live! PCI cards, generic memory), believe us, they say so.
For this third edition, we again set to work, testing new components and updating the existing material. PC hardware changes fast. We ended up completely rewriting material we originally thought would need only minor revisions. This new edition required much more time and effort than we expected when we set out to write it, but at least we had fun doing it.
We wouldn't have started this project unless we thought we could write the best PC hardware book available. We think this third edition of PC Hardware in a Nutshell meets that goal, and we hope you will too.
P2.1. Audience
This book is intended for anyone who buys, builds, upgrades, or repairs PCs in a corporate, small-business, or home setting. If you want to buy a PC, this book tells you what to look for—and what to look out for. If you want to build a PC, this book explains, component by component, the key parts of a PC, describes the important characteristics of each, provides buying guidelines, recommends specific products (by brand name and model), and takes you step by step through building the PC. If you have an older PC, this book tells you what you need to know to upgrade it—if it makes sense to do so—as well as when it makes more sense simply to retire it to less-demanding duties. Finally, if your PC breaks, this book tells you what you need to know to troubleshoot the problem and then choose and install replacement parts.
This book focuses on PC hardware running Windows 9X and Windows 2000/XP, which among them power the vast majority of PCs. For the first time, this edition includes limited coverage of Linux-related hardware issues. The coverage is limited not because we think Linux deserves or needs less complete coverage than Windows, but because we're still Linux newbies. Some of what we've written about Linux issues will no doubt be obvious to experienced Linux users, but may be helpful to those who, like us, are just starting to migrate to Linux. We use eight primary systems—desktops, notebooks, and servers. Three of those are now running Linux exclusively. We expect that proportion to be reversed by the time we finish the next edition of this book.
P2.2. Organization
Each chapter of this book is devoted to one topic, and is self-supporting. The first two chapters provide an overview of PC hardware and standards, as well as detailed advice about buying, building, upgrading, and repairing PCs; describe the tools and software you'll need; explain basic procedures such as installing expansion cards; and detail the tips and tricks we've learned during 20 years of working on PCs. These chapters include:
The second group of chapters covers the core components of any PC—motherboards, processors, and memory. These chapters take the form used throughout the rest of the book, beginning with brief background information about the component, followed by an explanation of the important characteristics, guidelines on choosing among competing products, instructions for installing and configuring the component, troubleshooting information, if applicable, and a final "Our Picks" section, which tells you which products we recommend. This group includes the following chapters:
The third group of chapters covers removable magnetic storage, including the pedestrian floppy disk drive, one of the few PC components that survives largely unchanged from the earliest days of PCs; "super-floppies" such as the Iomega Zip and the Imation LS-120; removable hard disk drives; and tape drives, which despite the arrival of new technologies remain the best choice for backing up data. This group includes the following chapters:
The fourth group of chapters covers optical storage, an increasingly important component in modern PCs. We detail what you need to know to choose, install, configure, and use CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, and writable DVD drives. This group includes the following chapters:
The fifth group of chapters covers Parallel- and Serial-ATA (IDE) hard disk drives, which are ubiquitous in modern PCs, as well as SCSI models, which provide better performance at correspondingly higher prices. We explain the important characteristics of hard drives, provide guidelines for purchasing a hard drive, and explain how to install, prepare, configure, and troubleshoot hard drives. This group includes the following chapters:
The sixth group of chapters covers sight and sound. We describe the important characteristics of video adapters, monitors and LCD displays, sound cards, and speakers, and explain how to choose, install, configure, and troubleshoot them. This group includes the following chapters:
The seventh group of chapters covers input devices—keyboards, mice, and game controllers. We explain how they work, how to choose the best ones for your needs, and (as usual) how to install, configure, and troubleshoot them. This group includes the following chapters:
The eighth group of chapters covers serial, parallel, and USB communications—the technologies that PCs use to connect with external peripherals and the outside world. We explain how each works, how to choose the best technology for your needs, and how to configure and troubleshoot communications. This group includes the following chapters:
The ninth group of chapters covers three components—cases, PC power supplies, and backup power supplies—that receive little attention, but are important to system reliability and usability. We detail the important characteristics of each, and provide guidelines for choosing the best case and power supplies for your system. This group includes the following chapters:
Finally, Chapter 28 puts it all together, illustrating how to turn a pile of components into a working PC.
Most chapters end with an "Our Picks" section. In the first edition of this book, we made specific recommendations in these sections. The problem with recommending specific makes and models in print, of course, is that PC hardware changes in Internet time. Products that were the hottest things on the market (or even preproduction engineering samples) when we started working with them had become mainstream when we went to press, and may even have been discontinued by the time the book reached the stores. So instead of focusing on ephemera in print, we instead concentrate here on important characteristics and guidelines, which don't change nearly as fast.
We recognize, though, that many people want specific advice by make and model—"Which motherboard/drive/monitor should I buy?" is one of the most common questions we get—so we've gone to some trouble to create and update pages on our web site that provide detailed recommendations. We still provide general recommendations in the "Our Picks" sections, but you'll now find our specific recommendations—by brand name and model—on our web site, at:
We base these recommendations on our own experience, not after using the product for a day or a week, but after extensive day-in, day-out use under realistic conditions. If we say we found a particular DVD burner to be durable, that means we used that DVD burner extensively and burned a bunch of DVDs with it. If we say a particular motherboard is stable, that means we used it in one or more of our own systems over a period of weeks or months and found that it doesn't crash, even when performing stressful tasks such as running a full benchmark suite or compiling a Linux kernel. If we say a particular display is the best we've used, it's because we sat in front of it for many long hours while writing this book. And so on.
P2.3. Conventions
This book uses the following typographical conventions:
italic
Is used for the names of files, directories, hostnames, domain names, and URLs, and to emphasize new terms when they are first introduced.
constant-width
Is used to show the contents of files, command syntax, and the output from commands.
constant-italic
Is used in examples to show variables for which a context-specific substitution should be made. (The variable filename, for example, would be replaced by some actual filename.)
[ option ]
When showing command syntax, we place optional parts of the command within brackets. For example, ls [-l] means that the -l option is not required.
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P2.4. We'd Like to Hear from You
We have tested and verified the information in this book to the best of our ability, but we don't doubt that some errors have crept in and remained hidden despite our best efforts and those of our editors and technical reviewer to find and eradicate them. Those errors are ours alone. Please tell us about any errors you find, as well as your suggestions for improving future editions, by writing or calling:
- O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
- 1005 Gravenstein Highway North
- Sebastopol, CA 95472
- (800) 998-9938 (in the United States or Canada)
- (707) 829-0515 (international or local)
- (707) 829-0104 (fax)
You can also send us email. To be put on our mailing list or to request a catalog, send email to:
For comments on the book, send email to:
To contact one of us directly, send email to:
We read all email we receive, but we cannot respond individually to requests for help in choosing hardware, resolving problems, and so on. We do like to hear from readers, however.
We also have a web site for the book, which includes updated hardware recommendations, buying guides, and articles, as well as errata, archived older material, and so on:
We also maintain a messageboard for the book, where you can read and post messages about PC hardware topics. You can read messages as a guest, but if you want to post messages you must register as a member of the messageboard. We keep registration information confidential, and you can choose to have your email address hidden on any messages you post.
We each maintain a personal journal page, updated daily, which frequently includes references to new PC hardware we're working with, problems we've discovered, and other things we think are interesting. You can view these journal pages at:
Thank you for buying the third edition of PC Hardware in a Nutshell. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it.
P2.5. Acknowledgments
In addition to the O'Reilly production staff, who are listed individually in the Colophon, we want to thank our technical reviewer, Francisco García Maceda. Francisco knows so much about PC hardware that it's scary. He did yeoman duty in finding mistakes we made and in making numerous useful suggestions, all of which helped make this a better book.
We also want to thank our contacts at the hardware companies, who provided technical help, evaluation units, and other assistance. There are far too many to list individually, but they know who they are. We also want to thank the readers of our web sites and message boards, many of whom have taken the time to offer useful suggestions for improvements to the book. Thanks, folks. We couldn't have done it without you.
The photographs in this book were shot with Olympus digital cameras. We've used many digital cameras, and have developed a strong preference for Olympus models. Their experience as a premier maker of film cameras shows clearly in the construction quality, image quality, functionality, and ease-of-use of Olympus digital cameras.
Finally, we want to thank our editors, Robert J. Denn and Brian Jepson, and our publisher, Tim O'Reilly, all of whom contributed numerous useful comments and suggestions.
