You should read an online course offered through a University. All these "howto" guides just address the hardware at superficial levels. More like what a car mechanic knows about cars. To really understand what's under the hood, so to speak, you should read the theory behind the components - cpu, ram, etc. etc.
Check around. I know MIT offers a lot of non-credit online courses. If not, there will be many universities that have posted their course notes online. Just do a google search with "... site:.edu".