Written for those who want more than the standard pre-built PCs offer. Pre-built systems are often a compromise between what the manufacturers want to sell you and what you want to buy. One solution is to build it yourself.

Buying a copy of Building a PC in easy steps is the first step in the right direction to build a PC. Written in concise and easy-to-understand style, this book will take you by the hand and walk you through all the stages of building and setting up a computer: Buying the parts and avoiding sales scams; mastering and installing each component (CPU, memory, video, etc); altering default settings in the BIOS for optimum performance, installing and configuring device drivers. The troubleshooting chapter is invaluable in the event of problems.

By the time you’ve finished, you will have a computer that’s tailored to your exact requirements with no superfluous features or functions.

This third edition covers Windows 7.

Stuart Yarnold is an electronics engineer who has been working in the industry since leaving college. Originally a marine radio & radar troubleshooter, he now devotes much of his time to playing poker professionally and can usually be found lurking in one of the online poker rooms.

Stuart lives near Cambridge with his wife Pauline and his two staffordshire bull terriers – Jim and George. His hobbies include woodworking and marathon running.

1. Before You Start
2. Central Processing Units
3. Memory
4. Motherboards
5. System Cases
6. Power Supply Units (PSU)
7. Video Systems
8. Monitors
9. Testing the Basic System
10. Hard Drives
11. Input Devices
12. Sound Systems
13. Removable Media Drives
14. Setting Up the System
15. Peripherals
16. Troubleshooting