Rating: 

I hate to harp on this because otherwise it looks like a marvelous book.... I ordered it from Amazon thinking that being a brand-new edition and from O'Reilly this will almost certainly be the most up-to-date general reference for PC hardware I'm likely to find.

But I'm a bit dismayed at the fact that, after looking at the index and table of contents and flipping through the text, I can't seem to find a reference to network cards or modems at all. I see on page 5 there's a note saying that LAN is one of the less commonly available integrated functions on motherboards, which (having spent the last month shopping for components) strikes me as incorrect. 10/100 Ethernet or Gigabit LAN are available on many motherboards these days. Shouldn't there be a chapter explaining the difference between the two? I wouldn't expect a guide on installing home networks or anything, but maybe something addressing the differences between NIC, 56k modem, DSL, cable modem, and so on. And maybe some common configuration and troubleshooting issues? One doesn't build a computer without a networking component of some kind, these days.