Maximum PC

Hi, ive been an avid gamer for some time but my knowledge of computers is severly lacking. I posted in another section about building a computer but id like to know where the best sources are for educating myself. It really sucks reading the forum and not knowing what everyone is talking about lol.

Internet sources or books would be great

An answer to your question depends a lot on how deep you're looking to learn on the topic.

Assembling a computer isn't very hard. If you boil it down to the simplist explanation, it's merely plugging things in.

Understanding how a computer works at a circuit level? That's definitely much more indepth than most of us go.

Google is your best friend really. You can't learn all this stuff ovenight, a couple days, or even in a week or two. It takes time. Plus, it's changing rapidly, it has for quite some time now and it doesn't show any signs of stopping soon.

As for sites, www.proprofs.com has a good A+ prep program that will show you computer hardware and software basics. It'll talk about what the parts of a computer are, and basic ideas of how they work and their role in the system. As for software, you'll learn what an OS is, it's relationship to hardware and applications. Then it'll talk about Windows and basic troubleshooting.

If you're just wanting to know what video card beats another or what CPU is best, that can only be learned by asking questions, listening, and reading reviews of parts.

Hey thanks alot linux guy... ya im start reading more product reviews and stuff.

Id like to learn more technical stuff, once I get my mind set on something im obsessed with learning about it.

Thing about computers is they change so god damn fast.

This a smartass remark ?

That they do. But, the base technology does not change. We are still using ATX motherboards, still using ATX power supplies, still using RAM, still using CPUs, etc.

Don't go into something thinking you will learn everything about a certain series of products (Core 2 for example). Try to avoid doing that. Instead, learn about the technology in general. In other words, experiment.

Avoid learning useless facts about certain products too.

it's true, though. I learned the far basics from my dad, and the deeper stuff from reading maximumPC. (and .werkkzeug1 from Farb-Rausch)

CompTIA A+ Complete Study Guide (BOOK)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/CompTI ... 306/?itm=3

i used this same book as a required text once when i first started taking computer courses in college. i knew a bit already about building/upgrading a PC, but this book gave a lot of insight to other things i had never thought about! since it covers most of the basics of all aspects of computers, like PCs and networking, its a good starter book to have, i think.

Build It. Fix It. Own It: A Beginner's Guide to Building and Upgrading a PC (BOOK)
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Build- ... 271/?itm=7

Build Your Own PC Do-It-Yourself For Dummies (BOOK)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6837307002

i read this one out of curiosity, and it is really easy book to understand. its copyright date is January 2009, so the information should be fairly recent and decent.

Honestly, I learned about computer hardware through TigerDirect magazines and my stepbrother. My parent's were very strict when I was a teen so I got virtually no time on the computer, despite being completely fascinated with them.