First the crew over at MAKE Magazine - the “Bible of the DIY movement” - lit a big ol’ bonfire of enthusiasm for the growing community of garage inventors, backyard, scientists, and DIY enthusiasts around the planet, now they’re showing us how the Perfect PC is the one that any of us can build ourselves in our own basement. With instructions for crafting a budget PC for about $350 to creating a fire- breathing, high performance system running Vista and all the latest games - Robert and Barbara Thompson’s Building the Perfect PC, Second Edition aims to inform and inspire anyone with the DIY itch and a little patience to start flexing their PC-building muscles.

“This was a year of major change in PC components,” notes coauthor Robert Bruce Thompson about why he put together the new edition. “New technologies proliferated, including an entire new processor architecture from Intel, the triumph of the new PCI Express video interface standard over the older AGP, new types of memory, and even including new power supply standards. Nowadays, PC builders have to be much more careful about choosing the proper components, and this book is their guide to doing so.”

Additional fun do-it-yourself projects include:

• Configuring a PC appropriate for your own needs
• Choosing the best and most cost-effective components for it
• Designing and building a low-cost SOHO server system with a two terebyte subsystem for a residential environment

“Increasingly, building your own PC (or paying a screwdriver shop to build it for you) is the only good way to get a high-quality system,” adds Thompson. “The typical mass-market PC you find at a big-box store is the computer equivalent of a Yugo at a Chevrolet price, whereas a home-built PC can be the equivalent of a Rolls-Royce for not all that much more money.”

Straightforward, easy-to-grasp directions and full-color illustrations make this detailed, step-by-step reference accessible to DIY computer builders of every skill level. So if you’ve always wanted a customized, super-charged, quality machine with high-end components - get this one-stop guide and make one yourself.