Press Release
November 19, 2004
"PC Hacks": Hack and Tweak Your Way to the Best PC Performance Possible
Sebastopol, CA--PCs are pricey, notes Jim Aspinwall, author of the new PC
Hacks (O'Reilly, US $24.95). That's why he shows you how to make the very
most of your investment by hacking your PC to extend its usefulness and
life. "The basic PC is timeless," he says. "A few simple hacks to boost
performance, and even your old PC can have a nice new life."
Aspinwall, the Windows Helpdesk columnist and feature editor for CNET.com
and author of three books on PC maintenance, covers the full spectrum of
PC fine-tuning in his latest book. "I've touched on just about everything
from getting people started with PCs to troubleshooting and repairing,
from a reference guide on PC configuration to wireless networking," says
Aspinwall. "And I take it to the extremes of PC-modding with water-cooled
CPUs and video cards, tricked out enclosures, and fancy lighting and
display accents."
With his hacks and tweaks, Aspinwall promises, "you'll gain performance
and reliability for little or no cost other than the time it takes to
download, install, and run a few pieces of software or figure out how to
add yet another widget without bursting the box at its seams."
Aspinwall believes there is too little information out there about how PCs
really work. "It's important to get inside your PC and find out what makes
it tick, if you are so inclined, and this book offers a lot of areas to
peek inside." But he's a realist--he knows that the non-techies among us
want to do some hacking, too. "I realize that many users simply want their
PC to work and may not have an appetite for bits and bytes." There's
something--lots of things--for everyone in PC Hacks.
PC users will find proven techniques for enhancing performance, preventing
problems, and getting the most out of their PC hardware and software. This
step-by-step, hack-by-hack guide, with invaluable tips and tricks
throughout, will get readers hacking the system board, CPU, BIOS,
peripherals, and operating system. Aspinwall shows readers how to:
Customize, configure, and upgrade the BIOS, which can control everything
from the current date to the CPU's clock speed
Make the most of the CPU, whether it's to crank up the speed or just run
the CPU in a cooler climate
Take control of RAM: control how the operating system swaps to disk, make
the memory run a bit faster, and optimize memory usage
Configure and partition hard disks: choose the optimal settings for speed
and set up multiboot systems
Protect the system: make backups, clone the system, and safeguard it
against viruses, spyware, and malicious hackers
Techie or non-techie, readers of this book will be armed with everything
they need to make sure Aspinwall's motto always rings true: "The machine
never wins."
Additional Resources:
PC Hacks
Jim Aspinwall
ISBN: 0-596-00748-5, 304 pages, $24.95 US, $36.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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