I'm thinking of upgrading my PC. I'm a bit of an amateur having so far limited upgrades to new hard disk, dvd rom drive plugging in cards and memory.

Now I'm looking at upgrading the CPU / overclocking but really need to know where to look.

Can anyone recommend a good book that tackles these issues without being to technical, although I'm quite willing to learn.

Dave

Dave your best option is probably what you are using right now, the Internet. There are numerous sites dedicated to upgrading, overclocking, hardware, tweaking etc, etc. Go to google and do a search and you will reading until the cows come home. I guess it would also be handy to have a goal in mind. Do you want to do grahpic design, play games, CAD, etc. From there you can find the right information on what it is you want to achieve.

Also if you post a specific question on here like how do I change my processor or how do I upgrade my motherboard you will be swamped with answers.

This info goes out of date so quickly that books are useless.

A CPU that seems quite popular at the moment is the AMD Athlon XP +2500 Barton. The AQXEA / AZLEA /AQZEA steppings are good for overclocking, to +3200 levels, but you need good cooling, probably increased core voltage and fast memory.

I don't know much about Intel. I tend to avoid them, as apart from being a bit pricey, I've heard the company tends to outsource IT jobs to Asia, which I don't agree with (ditto HSBC).