Really a good book for someone that knows next to nothing about PCs. Explains everything very simply. The proof will be when I buy things and try to put it all together, but that could be a wee while yet. Highly recommended!

No SLI a 256 Vid card in a Ultimate Gaming Machine ? If you are a 1st time builder this book might help with explanations of what does what and how it does it. But if you are looking to build a Gaming PC thats dx 10 ready to play games such as COD 4 and Crysis go with a recent Maximumpc release.

I bought this book several months ago, and have since built a new computer that I am typing on right now. :) This book is VERY helpful in getting you familiar with computer terms, and knowing what does what. Also in telling you how to shop and buy your computer parts.



I have seen complaints saying that this book is outdated and other such things. Well, it is, but that doesn't take very long to do in the computer world. But that still does not lower the quality or helpfullness of the book. You still will learn what to look for in parts. Online forums are also a big help. This book does alot of step by step instructions. But you also have to use some common sense, and look some things up online yourself, because you will most likely not build the exact computer that they build in the book. If you have a flexible mind, can read instructions that come with what you buy, and have some common sense, you will do just fine!



The only thing about this book that I did not like was several spelling and punctuation errors. There were also one or two sentances in the book, that were not actual sentances. You could still tell what they were saying though. Has anyone making this book heard of "proof reading"?



My concluding thought: This book is a TERIFFIC guide, and I will recommend it to anybody. Just be flexible and know that if you actually build a computer, things will not be EXACTALLY the same as how it is in the book. But everything you need to know is in there.

I bought this book several months ago, and have since built a new computer that I am typing on right now. :) This book is VERY helpful in getting you familiar with computer terms, and knowing what does what. Also in telling you how to shop and buy your computer parts.

I have seen complaints saying that this book is outdated and other such things. Well, it is, but that doesn't take very long to do in the computer world. But that still does not lower the quality or helpfullness of the book. You still will learn what to look for in parts. Online forums are also a big help. This book does alot of step by step instructions. But you also have to use some common sense, and look some things up online yourself, because you will most likely not build the exact computer that they build in the book. If you have a flexible mind, can read instructions that come with what you buy, and have some common sense, you will do just fine!

The only thing about this book that I did not like was several spelling and punctuation errors. There were also one or two sentances in the book, that were not actual sentances. You could still tell what they were saying though. Has anyone making this book heard of "proof reading"?

My concluding thought: This book is a TERIFFIC guide, and I will recommend it to anybody. Just be flexible and know that if you actually build a computer, things will not be EXACTALLY the same as how it is in the book. But everything you need to know is in there.

I used this book as a guide to build my gaming computer. With the technology changing and new items coming out so fast, it's impossible for any book to be current for more than a few months. So use this book only as a guide and search for the most up to date info you'll need to build your computer.

I used this book as a guide to build my gaming computer. With the technology changing and new items coming out so fast, it's impossible for any book to be current for more than a few months. So use this book only as a guide and search for the most up to date info you'll need to build your computer.

I got my first computer in 1998 and have been learning ever since. I just got done building my own from scratch (this is 2007) and this book was a tremendous help. For some reason creating a RAID floppy setup disk boggled my mind. I could get no clear idea of what exactly the floppy was supposed to contain. (In my case it consists of 8 loose files -- not sure if this is true for everybody. My new motherboard's manual didn't even clear it all up. This book helped a little.) I didn't need or want a gaming PC but this book teaches you things you need to know whatever you are building. But between this book, tech support at ECS (motherboard manufacturer), their manual (written by someone not too proficient in clear concise expression in English), and their writing a tech-support reply, I managed.

It's like I told them at tech support. Everybody writes about RAID configuration like everyone not born in a cave already has one RAID install under his belt at conception.

Anyhow, once you do it, it's not that bad. :-) Kinda fun even. :-) Man over machine.

I guess what I am trying to say about this book is that it is not a stand-alone manual to teach you how to build a computer. It must be a PART of your library, not the only book on your shelf.

One minor criticism: The authors put their page file on the SATA drives (the ones that contain the operating system). According to the XP Help section you should place it on a different physical drive than the OS. So, I created this partition on the RAID drives that was supposed to contain the pagefile and now it's useless. I decided to use it for "Safekeeping" files (password lists, templates, address books, and the like) instead.

Get this book, but don't trust it to do all your thinking for you. OK?

I got my first computer in 1998 and have been learning ever since. I just got done building my own from scratch (this is 2007) and this book was a tremendous help. For some reason a RAID setup boggled my mind. My new motherboard's manual didn't even clear it all up. This book helped. I didn't need or want a gaming PC but this book teaches you things you need to know whatever you are building. But between this book, tech support at ECS (motherboard manufacturer), their manual (written by someone not too proficient in clear consice expression in English), and their writing a tech-support reply, I managed.

It's like I told them at tech support. Everybody writes about RAID configuration like everyone not born in a cave already has one RAID install under his belt at conception.

Anyhow, once you do it, it's not that bad. :-) Kinda fun even. :-) Man over machine.

I guess what I am trying to say about this book is that it is not a stand-alone manual to teach you how to build a computer. It must be a PART of your library, not the only book on your shelf.

And now for the real criticism of this product: If you follow their pagefile advice you will get into trouble. They tell you to create a separate partition on your RAID drives -- onto which you install your OS -- for the pagefile and move the default file that Windows creates on your default drive to that space on the virtual drive and delete the one Windows creates. WRONG! If you do this your computer won't even load Windows! And I am speaking about XP Professional here too. :-(

Read the Help file in XP about pagefile and Microsoft will tell you that it is beneficial to create a separate pagefile all right, but NOT on the same physical drive that holds your OS. And if you delete the default pagefile on the C drive you won't have such-and-such capacity... etc. (Like the ability to load Windows on your system, for example. LOL)

So, I created this partition on the RAID drives that was supposed to contain the pagefile and now it's useless. I decided to use it for "Safekeeping" files (password lists, templates, address books, and the like) instead.

Get this book, but don't let it do your thinking for you. OK?

Hi,

Very informative book - simple, clear explanation of which parts to chose for the ultimate gaming machine.

But it was published when AMD were in the lead.

I have a simliar machine based on Intel Core Due and I used some of the tips in the book. I didn't build the machine - I let professionals do it for me for additional 30$ but it helped me in understanding and part selection.

Excellent book. It really helped me in my first PC build. Thorough description of all aspects of Building a PC. Excellent description of component selection. Great step by step guide to the PC build. A very good overview of post build procedures including: creating floppy boot discs, setting up raid and partitions, installing and setting up drivers, optimizing performance, maintenance, benchmarking, etc. However, the book would have been more useful if it had included a more thorough and extensive overview of Installing Windows.
ExtremeTech also published a companion book called, 'Build the Ultimate Custom PC' which does include a thorough overview of installing Windows, but it's not as thorough (in other aspects) as this book. It would have been nice if ExtremeTech had combined the 2 books into one more complete book. But as it is, Build the Ultimate Gaming PC is the best book that I've read on building a PC and I've read 4. It's relevant to building a PC for any purpose, not just gaming.
I also found a great DIY Guide to Building an AMD Socket 939 PC at HardwareZone.com. It's a little dated (summer 2004) but it's thorough, well written, easy to follow and free.

While I'm not a hardcore gamer, I understand the thrill and appeal of having the baddest box on the block. If that's your goal and you're willing to "roll your own", check out Build The Ultimate Gaming PC by K. R. Bourgoine and Matthew J. Malm.

Contents:
Part 1 - Spec-ing Out Your Ultimate Gaming PC: Let's Make Some Decisions
Part 2 - Let's Go Shopping For Parts: Selecting the Ultimate Gaming Processor; Selecting the Ultimate Gaming Motherboard; Choosing Your Ultimate Memory; Choosing the Ultimate Video Card; Choosing Your Ultimate Storage Devices; Choosing the Ultimate Sound Card and Speakers; Choosing a Case for Your Ultimate Gaming PC; Selecting the Ultimate Power Supply; Choosing Your Ultimate Monitor; Selecting the Ultimate Gaming Accessories
Part 3 - Bringing Your Ultimate Gaming PC to Life: Assembling Your Ultimate PC; Installing Your Software/OS
Part 4 - Advanced Gaming: Multiplayer Gaming
Index

There are a number of things that make this book stand out. The authors do a very nice job explaining what each of the components do, how a gamer should view those components, and what options are most important. For instance, Intel's hyperthreading technology may sound really cool, but most games aren't coded to take full advantage of that. Therefore, the AMD CPU with a slower clock speed actually outperforms the Intel Pentium 4. The logical analysis of those types of issues makes the book valuable even if you're *not* necessarily building a gaming system. I also like how they actually recommend makes and models of components, like CPUs, monitors, and sound cards. You may not agree with their selection or you may choose a different model based on your specific criteria, but you can see how choices are arrived at, and how best to use that same analysis to make your decision. Part 3 ties everything together by showing you how to put the PC together, complete with plenty of photos and clear explanations. Even if you've never built a PC from scratch, you could probably follow along here with little difficulty...

Definitely a strong recommendation for a gamer wanting to build a box that rocks. I'd also recommend the book to anyone looking to build their own computer by carefully analyzing why they are choosing certain parts. Either way, it's a good resource...

A book for game addicts. For those of you who want the utmost in performance and are prepared to spend money and, more significantly, time, to achieve this ends.

In the centre of the book are placed colour photos that are clearly meant to make you drool. Nice camera work that gives sexy images of cool hardware. Granted, if you do not believe that hardware can be sexy, then this book is probably not for you.

The book explains what are the key parts that affect gaming performance. Primarily the microprocessor, memory, video card and disk drives. For each of these, various options are explored. The most important might be whether to use an Intel or AMD CPU. There are nuances here that make comparisons non-trivial. But the book does offer benchmarking suggestions. Perhaps the main point here is that an AMD CPU is often (always?) cheaper than an Intel CPU that gives comparable performance.

Memory is somewhat easier to compare. The main memory vendors have standardised on a few formats. But even here, the book delves into what Double Data Rate RAM means, and why DDR2 is considered faster and better. You are warned that if you choose an AMD CPU, then currently it can only take DDR.

The book covers more topics, of course. But the above might be the most significant, and they give some idea of the type of advice offered. It assumes that you will have to spend money, and it shows how to do this wisely.