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Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide
- By Maximum PC, George Jones
- Published Sep 3, 2004 by Que.
- Register your product - get bonus material or coupon.
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-7897-3194-0
- ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-3194-4
It's the "editor's cut" of PC buyer's guides. Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide takes the guesswork out of PC hardware and software purchases. Based on Maximum PC magazine's popular "In the Lab" section, all product reviews from the past year are included and expanded in this all-inclusive shopping guide to give you details that couldn't be included in the magazine. Organized into categories such as "Motherboards," "CPUs," and "Wi-Fi Networking," products are ranked from "kick ass" to "in the dog house." Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide is your one-stop shop for all of your computer hardware and software needs!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
clear language and objective assessments, By
This review is from: Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide (Paperback)
While we are well on our way through 2005, this book still has merit for many readers. Its attraction is the clear language and objectivity of its assessments of the myriad types of hardware and software associated with personal computing. Buttressed by technical explanations of new features, like command queuing, or how to set up a tri monitor display.Even if you have no specific need in mind, this guide is nice for its overview of the entire PC arena. It neatly characterises waht is available in 2004-5. One day, future historians of technology might also find this book valuable, on this account.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Lots of errors make this a waste of time and money, By
This review is from: Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide (Paperback)
Written by the chief editor of Maximum PC, a magazine devoted to modding and overclocking but not particularly good at it, this is a very poorly written and edited "book" that's basically just a compilation of equally poorly written and edited articles from the magazine's 2003 issues. Published last summer, it's already out-of-date. But that's not its true vice; the problem is 1) it has a lot of factual errors, and 2) it doesn't give you critical comparisons you need to choose among the products in each category.The book is broken into sections by the different PC components: mobo, CPU, hard drive, etc. Each section begins with some general information which is too simple for power users yet too difficult-to-understand for beginners. If you fall in the middle, you would have found this useful, except the author keeps saying everything is great and dandy, so you end up not knowing which technology or brand you should pick. An author who's more critical and opinionated... Read more
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Good Catch-up but now out of date, By
This review is from: Maximum PC 2005 Buyer's Guide (Paperback)
Yep, it's a recap of the last years magazine articles. Not bad if you need to get a clue what's up with the most recent pc hardware. It will explain the difference between the north bridge and the south bridge and other tech stuff you need to know. Lot's of reviews of last year's products (now available for great deal prices). I'd buy the latest one, the 2006 buyer's guide. Like reading a whole year's worth of the magazine.
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Online Sample Chapters
Motherboards & Core-Logic Chipsets
Motherboards & Core-Logic Chipsets: The Deep Stuff
Table of Contents
Introduction.
Who Should Read This Book?
1. Maximum PC: The Year in Review.
July 2003.
August 2003.
Enter the BIOS!
Windows: The Next Generation.
In Other News…
3D Card Benchmarking Improprieties?
September 2003.
How to Share Your Broadband Connection.
Silence of the…Fans.
Legal Tussles, Begin!
October 2003.
The Secret Lives of Hard Drives.
In Other News…Your PC Is Sick!
Skip the Hologram—I’ll Have the Hologram Touchscreen!
November 2003.
AMD’s 64-Bit Gamble.
Internet Explorer Gets Defeated by a Brash Upstart.
nVidia Gets Dissed by Makers of Half-Life 2.
December 2003.
CPU Showdown: Intel vs. AMD vs. Apple!
”This Release Is Final”.
Case Mod of the Year!
January 2004.
But Wait, There Was More…
February 2004.
The Watchdog Bites.
Maximum PC Chooses Its Game of the Year.
March 2004.
Pentium 4 Prescott = Pentium 5?
RAM, RAM, Everywhere.
April 2004.
Google Boggles the Mind.
The Fastest Notebooks in the World!
Intel Shines and Gets Shined.
May 2004.
The Future of 3D.
Videocards Aside…
Project: Budget PC.
June 2004.
Perfect 3D Card Timing.
Need for Speed.
*Top 10 Maximum PC Products.
2. Maximum PC Standards & Practices.
Experimentation, Torture Tests, and Lab Hi-jinks.
How Does Maximum PC Decide What to Review?
How We Review Products.
How We Determine a Verdict for the Products We Review.
The Gut-Wrenching Dilemma.
3. Motherboards & Core-Logic Chipsets.
What the North Bridge and South Bridge Do.
Mobo Integration Madness.
What We Look for When Testing Motherboards.
How We Test Motherboards.
Careful Considerations for New Mobos.
Our Top Pentium 4 Chipsets: Intel’s 875P and 865PE.
Also Solid: ATI’s Radeon 9100 IGP.
Pentium 4 Chipset Pretenders.
Our P4 Mobo Recommendations.
The Back Story: Summer of Athlon XP.
Enter the 64-bit Chipset.
Why Hasn’t Intel Integrated the Memory Controller?
Looking to Overclock?
Looking Ahead: Future Chipsets & Mobos.
VIA Makes Its Move.
Prepare for BTX.
New Sockets Forthcoming.
4. Cases & Formfactor Standards.
What to Look For in a Case.
Trend #1: More People Means More Case Personalities.
Trend #2: Prices Are Plummeting.
Smaller Is Better.
Cooling Is King.
Shhh! Quiet!
Small Is the New Big.
Custom Modding Is Still Influential.
Looking Ahead: Case Design.
5. Processors.
Summer 2003: Pentium 4 Domination.
Pentium M.
AMD Leaps into the 64-bit Market.
Did Intel Possess Hidden 64-bit Code?
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Is Released.
Along Came Prescott.
Why So Slow?
Intel Comes Clean Around 64-bit.
AMD Increases Clock Speeds.
Intel’s New Naming Conventions.
Looking Ahead: CPUs.
Our 5 Favorite CPUs of All Time.
AMD Maintains a Full Plate.
6. Hard Drives.
The Raptor Takes a Bite Out of the Competition.
Serial ATA Arrives.
Drives Get Buffer.
Portable Drives Get Potent.
IBM Sprinkles Pixie Dust on Its Drives.
Looking Ahead.
10,000rpm ATA Arrives in Bulk.
SATA 2.0.
Bigger and Faster.
7. Videocards.
Round 1: ATI Trumps nVidia.
But Where’s Half-Life 2?
Round 2: nVidia Misses the Mark.
nVidia Atones for Its Sins, But…
Half-Life 2 nVidia Brouhaha.
nVidia and ATI Release Fast New Cards.
Looking Ahead: PCI Express.
What’s Alienware Doing?
8. Soundcards.
How Can a Soundcard Make a Game Look Better?
Up Close: Today’s Soundcards.
DirectSound, DirectSound3D, and the API Wars.
Integrated Onboard Audio Is Popular.
Creative: The Three-ton Gorilla.
The Move to 7.1.
The 24-bit Question.
Creative Swallows the Competition.
Looking Ahead: Integrated Sound Leaps Ahead.
And What About the Audigy?
When a Magazine Dreams.
9. Optical Drives.
The Big Trends for the Year Were…
Hello, Dual Layer.
What We Look For in Optical Drives.
Other Considerations Besides Speed.
High-speed Disillusionment.
CD-ROM Media Concerns.
Looking Ahead: Optical Drives.
More Prevalent and Faster Dual-layer Burning.
Faster!
Blue-Violet Special.
10. Speakers.
How to Read Speaker Specs.
What Makes a Perfect 10 Speaker System?
How to Put Your Speakers to the Test.
Looking Ahead: Speakers.
11. Pre-built PCs.
Rapidly Evolving PC Market.
Falcon Northwest Fires Out the Frag Box.
Alienware Goes Big-time.
Voodoo PC Innovates with the F50.
Dell Goes High-end with the XPS.
Go L.
The New Trend: PCs for Gaming.
The Other New Trend: A PC in Every Living Room?
Looking Ahead: Pre-built PCs.
12. Displays.
The Current State of Display.
The Great LCD Shootout.
Sony Discontinues Its “Best of the Best” CRT.
Multi Monitor Displays Take Off.
HD Flat-Panels.
MaxiVista: An Innovative Display Solution.
Looking Ahead: Displays.
LCDs.
Multi-monitor Displays.
CRTs.
13. Mice & Keyboards.
Trends in Mice.
Trends in Keyboards.
How to Find the Right Mouse and/or Keyboard.
How We Test Mice.
How We Test Keyboards.
Looking Ahead: Mice & Keyboards.
14. Wi-Fi.
802.11g Opens the Pipe.
Wi-Fi Product Categories.
Security Is a Major Concern.
Hey, What Happened to Bluetooth?
Looking Ahead: Wireless Technology.
15. Digital Devices.
PDAs.
Rise of the Smart Phones.
Portable Audio Devices.
Portable Video Makes Its Debut.
Digital Cameras.
Printers.
Looking Ahead: Digital Devices.
16. Ask the Doctor.
July 2003.
August 2003.
September 2003.
October 2003.
November 2003.
December 2003.
January 2004.
February 2004.
March 2004.
April 2004.
May 2004.
June 2004.
17. The Watchdog.
Honest–and Strong-minded.
July 2003.
August 2003.
September 2003.
Look Before You Leave.
BestBuy.Com Spam Scam.
Music(Mis)Match.
October 2003.
Rebate? What Rebate?
They’re Always After Me Lucky Charms.
November 2003.
December 2003.
January 2004.
February 2004.
IBM Manager: Failure Rate “Beyond Normal”.
February 2004 continued.
Internal Documents Indicate 30 Percent Failure.
”We Have Been Given False Data, Have Passed the Data on to Compaq”.
You Can’t Do That!
March 2004.
April 2004.
Gone Fishing.
AMD Locks Down CPUs.
Recall Alert.
May 2004.
June 2004.
Appendix A: The Year in Reviews.
Motherboards.
Graphics Cards, Video Devices, and Displays.
Soundcards and Speakers.
Storage Devices.
Networking Devices (Includes Media Servers).
Peripherals (Keyboards, Mice, Scanners, Printers, etc.).
Pre-Built Systems, Cases and Case Mods.
Software and Online Services.
Handhelds, Cameras, and Misc. Devices.
Index.
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