Tech TV’s Upgrading Your PC 
by Mark Soper with Patrick Norton

by Douglas Mechaber, LACS

These two books are required reading or reference for anyone contemplating more than adding simple cards to his or her computer. Both are well written and contain a wealth of information. Mueller’s Upgrading is not the kind of book you would ever want to curl up with, but at 1556 pages, you do get your money’s worth. In short, both books belong on your bookshelf.

Of the two books, Tech TV’sUpgrading Your PC is the more accessible. This book is well formatted, with tips, figures, explanation of terms and step-by-step directions to add or upgrade various CPUs, motherboards, drives, and accessories. I especially appreciated the breakout boxes, including: Street Buzz, detailing common knowledge, usually about product performance, and from Patrick Norton’s (and Leo Laporte’s) TV show "Screensavers/ Call for Help", where the author lists most common causes of errors. Sometimes the Street Buzz is a little less than completely accurate, probably due to brevity. When discussing Cyrix’s 6X86 chip, the authors, suggest using the actual speed, rather than the rated speed, for comparison; actual performance is somewhere in between. It appears that Patrick Norton wrote most, or all of the breakout boxes covering jargon, web references, and titles.

Other chapters are extremely well done and obviously were the result of considerable forethought resulting in clear, concise prose. The best chapters cover upgrading motherboard BIOSs, CPUs, chipsets and RAM. The explanation of the different socket types available (all the Pentium iterations) and Socket 7/Socket A/Socket 370 is so well done that both the novice and hard-core gamer would appreciate the text. Occasional references to overclocking explain only how to do it, as this book is not designed to serve as an overclocking bible. I am very impressed that Soper and Norton mention Stabilant 22: it’s an old time favorite contact enhancing program that became very popular with audiophiles when diluted and sold as Tweak. Perhaps the best reason to spend your hard-earned dollars on this book is the care and precise way that the authors help you decide whether your system is worth upgrading, and, depending on your budget, where your money could best be spent.

Chapters and subsections on peripherals also cover AGP versus PCI video cards, USB peripherals, printers, sound, hard drives, power supplies, backup strategy and Internet connectivity. Only short shrift is given to monitors, as there is little the amateur can do in the case of failure. There are several chapters on hard drives, since these are one of the first items users wish to upgrade. The hard drive chapters include standard hard drives, with excellent subsections on all current – and some old – ATA/ATAPI standards, portable drives, optical drives, and floppy disks and their brethren.

What is so outstanding about this book is its timely, well-defined topic, presented in such a readable format that whole sections, comprising multiple chapters, are easily digested in one sitting. Later, the step-by-step procedures listed throughout should make even first timers upgrade attempts fruitful. Web sites and advanced tips make the book of value to the hardware guru. Those who would benefit from this book include anyone attempting to upgrade his or her computer, which should include everyone in LACS. This guide is geared at a less technical/professional audience than Mueller’s book.

In the interests of disclosure, the author met Patrick at Comdex 2000, and talked to him for about 1½ hours, mostly about the state of the industry, the split amongst the former Ziff-Davis properties (various magazines, Web sites, books, and television), and the tribulations of producing a technical TV show. Patrick Norton was apparently brought in the "Call for Help/Screensavers" TV show (by ZDTV); to stress solid journalistic integrity and accuracy. I was impressed that Norton was so passionate, dedicated, and even caring.

Mueller’s book represents a different approach to maintaining and upgrading a PC. It is much more of a reference book, with monstrous tables. In the portable chapter, for example there is a listing of every stepping of the mobile Pentiums II and III fabricated at the time of publication. Under Power Supplies, there is a detailed sub-section on the power factor correction and the difference between resistive and inductive load. The chapter on SCSI is very detailed, with performance characteristics, and includes a well thought out subsection on whether to buy SCSI or IDE. Mueller leans toward SCSI, for multitasking operating systems, where you have multiple drives and need the performance (NT/2000). This is because SCSI drives can operate independently, support command queuing, and overlapped, multitasked I/O. There are also charts showing pin outs for simple SCSI.

The companion CD is an impressive attempt at completeness: it includes electronic versions of the 6^th, 8^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th editions of this book in PDF format, 90+ minutes of video on how to assemble a PC from the 12^th edition, a technical database of useful charts, codes, etc., a vendor database, and web references. Unfortunately, the how-to video is from an older edition and only includes one type of case, so the inserting the motherboard and placing the motherboard/tray assembly in the case is only really relevant for one particular kind of case. The technical database includes something called Hardware Reference, which is the original PC hardware reference, of questionable use to anyone, except for historic value! The author makes frequent reference to his Web site,, www.upgradingandrepairingPCs.com.

In the chapter on Magnetic Storage Principles, Mueller discusses not only how heads store data on magnetic media (useful for understanding the how and why of handling hard drives) but also encoding schemes, including partial response, maximum-likelihood decoders, something many of us may not wish to wade through.

In a chapter on CDs, Mueller lists CD parameters, including pit size, track length and speed. In the Microprocessor chapter, Mueller covers the AMD Thunderbird to 1.33 MHz, the Pentium IV to 1.7 MHz, and the Itanium, (the IA-64 chip, based on a 64 bit architecture) at 733 and 800 MHz. There is great detail on different types of motherboards, according to form factor, information about various chip sets by manufacturer, and even details about problems with various chip sets.

Both books discuses WiFi (wireless fidelity) standards, as well as modest peer to peer networking. Mueller's networking chapter is strangely incomplete, probably due to space considerations. Little advanced discussion is made of gigabit ethernet, which is becoming very popular. Mueller suggests that Cat 5 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cabling is adequate, while in the field, professionals prefer a higher specified cable. The hubs and switches pictured and discussed are for small home networks, and Mueller refers other questions to either the 12^th edition or another Que book on Upgrading and Repairing Networks (by Soper and Norton. There is a good discussion of satellite access. New to this edition are standards for the Pentium 4, including RDRAM, and rewriteable DVDs.

For those involved in maintaining or upgrading more than one PC, Mueller’s book is an invaluable reference. For professionals, this is the one place where almost all of the configuration information on hard drives, memory types, BIOS access, etc. may be found. If you find yourself in need of a PC reference book, this is one of the few comprehensive books available and probably the best. Many others have fallen by the wayside. Given the history of this book, Mueller’s Upgrading is likely to continue for many more editions.

Tech TV’s Upgrading Your PC Mark Soper with Patrick Norton Que, an imprint of Pearson Publishing copyright 2002, Indianapolis, IN list, 631 pages $25.

Scott Mueller’s Upgrading and Repairing PCs, 13^th edition, Que, Indianapolis, IN copyright 2002, 1556 pages list, $60, with CD ¨