Tech-Forums PC Book.

[zedman3d]

You know me and my wacky ideas to do with the forums.

I was thinking maybe some of us can get together and write a book on choosing hardware, putting it together, upgrading and old pc, using bare bones, installing drivers, software, what to watch out for, peripherals, tips and tricks etc etc.

I say a select group of people because usually when i put out one of these silly ideas i have, the first post is usually: Dont count on using the Tech-Forums name without permission and so on and so forth.

I think it would be a good idea, and lots of people are making money from it selling their books on Amazon.com for like $30.

Amazon.com: computer building

What are your thoughts??

 

[computer newbie]

that sounds like a brilliant idea so brilliant its evill lol.id defanitly buy it

 

[Kharn]

I doubt you will get larry to let you use the TF name but it's a good idea but you would have to offer somthing more than the other books out there are offering. I wish you the world of luck with this but honestly I think self publication would be the way to go, the name escapes me atm but there is a place that will let you sell digital copys an if some one orders a hard copy (not hardback) they take so much money from it.

I will see if i can rember the name but i seriously think it's the way to go.

 

[Lexluethar]

Great idea, the only thing I see wrong with it is the pointing people in the right direction part. You rarely see books of this nature because within the PC world things change extremely fast. So when you write a book saying the core duo w/ a Nvidia blah blah blah is great for gaming, six months later the information is irrelevant because something new has come out, or maybe that video card is no longer in production.

But putting hardware together, how to put it together, etc would be a great idea.

 

[zedman3d]

Thanks guys. Yeah i know i probably about using the forum name, i probably wont use it. But i was thinking of having the year on it as well so they can immediately tell how old/new it is. Most books on Amazon where still talking about 7 series cards and such when i looked at them.

I was also thinking to do it at the end of this year when ill have a Nehelam so i can take pics and not be a large 'Intel Milestone' behind the moment i sell.

Thanks again.

PS: I came up with a good idea to sort of avoid the technology rushing past you part. We can include a section at the front with TechForums CPU and Video card rankings so they can quickly see what period of time we were in when writing it.

 

[zedman3d]

This is what i got so far, i need some help because ive already run out of ideas:

Computers

Index of Topics
Opening Statements and Introduction.
Common Myths / Tips and Tricks / FAQ.
Processor Ranking. (If possible.)
Video Card Rankings.

Building a New PC / Upgrading.
Defining Purpose
Defining Budget
Choosing Parts
- CPU
- Motherboard
- Memory
- Video Card
- Hard Drive
- Optical Drives
- Sound Card
- Case
- Power Supply
- Cooling
- Operating System
- Monitor – Common terms etc: ms, contrast ratio, panel type.

Putting it together
- Motherboard + CPU + Heat-Sink + Thermal Paste
- Water Cooling Guide (Additional)
- Video Card(s)
- Memory
- Hard Drives and Optical
- Additional Cards (Sound, Additional PCI/PCIE)
- Power Supply to Case and Motherboard.

Software
Installing
- Operating System
- Drivers
- Updates
- Anti-Virus (Choosing and Configuring)

Maintenance
Cleaning
Checking Temperatures (Including Safe Temps)

Over Clocking
Principals
Over Clocking CPU
Over Clocking GPU

Some additional features i thought of were color coding some parts for advanced users and then just the basic stuff for what novices needed.

 

[KSoD]

Well the main part comes in with the software. How do we tell them what OS to install? Do we jsut go thru the setup of every OS we can? Who says that they will use Windows XP? Or Windows Vista? What if they want Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu? What if they want a BSD Distro? What if they want Puppy Linux? What if they want PCLinuxOS?

See where this gets tough. So that would be a book itself. Cause the driver isntall for each system is different. Not to mention the work that would have to be put into researching how to install certain drivers for Linux.

Updates is pretty basic though. I am sure that would only be a chapter long.

The AV and that would depend on what OS. But then again which AV? NOD32? AVG? Avast? Norton? This is a personal user preference item. I would only make a note to install a AV and possibly a firewall if they dont use a router. Cause it would be a long drawn out book as to how to install and update and navigate each AV.

Then comes in networking. You left that part out.

 

[zedman3d]

Ahh yes networking. But about the rest of the points you made:
I say we should show installation of XP, Vista, Ubuntu and BSD Distro. So that's two Windows OS's and two opensource alternatives.

I would say the driver install would be different as you said, but this is just the driver install for the video card, anything else they bought like add on cards, in which we can spend time on talking about each of the 4 OS's.

I think we need to remember that most of the other books on sale go for about 300 pages. We have plenty of time to talk as long as we dont mumble on for too long.

And yes, we go through all those AV's that you have listed. That was my exact list, although would it be legal to say: Dont get Norton. Ever.

Thanks for your help Mak213.

 

[KSoD]

It wouldnt just be Video. Cause there is onboard sound adn networking to connect to the internet that would also have to be installed. Not to mention that some WiFi cards are built into laptops which can be very difficult to get workign in Linux.

My only concern is that with the OS's it is very tough. Cause of those facts. I mean even getting drivers for a newer machine for XP can be tricky now. Espically if they use onboard stuff like aintegrated Intel chip. Not every place has drivers for them for XP. LEt alone trying to get Ubuntu and a BSD workign with the NIC and sound.

My main concern is even if you dont babble on you can still get well over 200 pages for Windows alone. I just finished reading a book on Vista that was 1641 pages long. That was just on the ins and outs of Vista. There are books jsut as big for XP. Configuring a network is espically tricky when using a open source OS when trying to hook up with Windows. Not to mention all the trouble people have with getting XP and Vista to play nice.

I do agree that Norton can be ruled out as well as McAffee. But i think it would be tough to get hardware and software in 1 book. There is so much to explain hardware wise for newbies let alone the software aspect. Then the troubleshooting section itself could be well over 300 pages itself.

I personally think it would be easier to do 2 books. 1 for hardware 1 for software. Just to be through and give as much information as possible along with giving troubleshooting information.

 

[Lexluethar]

I agree with Mak. Just finished an 800 page Vista book myself (I'll take that exam pretty soon Mak!).

As for the structure of the book(s). I think you should do one book on hardware, one book on software, and another book on troubleshooting both. I think the more you 'compartmentalize' the book into smaller books the better. No one wants to read 500 pages on software if they just want to learn how to put a computer together. Or read 300 pages on putting a computer together when they just want to learn how to overclock a computer.

I think that would be your best bet, and the easiest to manage. I don't know who owns this site, or if they would ever be interested in selling stuff. But you could possibly get them to sell the book. Unless you get some credible authors it may be difficult to get the book published and get some place like barnes & noble to sign off and sell it on their shelves. You can get it bound yourself, but it costs, then if you can get the owner of this site to sell it that will cost more for shipping, taking payments, etc.

Then you have the task of writing up contracts for the people that take part in the book, no one is going to write 100 pages worth of stuff w/o wanting a little compensation.