BKCIGBPC.RVW 950414 "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying & Upgrading PCs", Shelley O'Hara, 1995, 1-56761-583-X, U$16.99/C$23.95/UK#13.95 %A Shelley O'Hara %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1995 %G 1-56761-583-X %I Alpha Books %O U$16.99/C$23.95/UK#13.95 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com %P 305 %S Complete Idiot's Guide ... %T "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying & Upgrading PCs" (2nd. ed.) There is relatively little material about upgrading PCs here. Most of the book deals with advice for buying. Some of the content about what is inside your PC may be helpful when attempting to add-on to your existing system. Readers should, however, take the "True Upgrade Horror Story" (on page 280) to heart. The facts contained in the book are generally OK, although not always sure. Full marks to O'Hara for noting that not *all* double density 5-1/4 inch floppies have hub rings, but there *is* a dependable way to determine density. (Look thorough the disk, itself, not the cover, at a lit bulb.) The reader is warned about the possible need to throw away memory if you fill the banks with one-meg SIMMs--but that is at the end of a section entitled "You Can Always Add More". The description of a SIP (Single In-line Pin) memory chip is illustrated with a picture of a surface mount DIP (Dual In-line Pin) package. The advice on determining hardware needs and purchases is not particularly useful. The suggestion to know what you want to do, first, is good. The chapter on software, though, provides little analysis of what different applications require. The needs assessment tends to be, "Buy all you can get,"--for each and every item. A system should be balanced to the types of activity going on. A 286 processor is *not* obsolete if all you want is a terminal emulator. Do you *really* need Windows? If you are going to play multimedia games, definitely, yes. If you are a small charity, there are plenty of DOS-based mailing list programs which don't need twenty-four megabytes of RAM. As far as the advice on choice of vendors, it isn't always realistic. Thousands of "Editor's Choice" designations are awarded each year, and most are based more on advertising budgets than on performance. O'Hara does provide good explanations of the guts and jargon of the PC. This *will* help you in buying--but it isn't all you need. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCIGBPC.RVW 950414 ============== Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | Did you ever notice that Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | everyone in favour of Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153/| abortion has already User .z1.fidonet.org | been born? Security Canada V7K 2G6 | - per Benny Hill