Still, he lucidly explains motherboard front side and back side bus speeds; chipsets; memory types, speed and access as well as processor performance and more--as they relate to gaming. He covers 3D graphic hardware, frame buffering, v-sync and how running your monitor at a lower refresh rate can speed up game play, shows why a USB mouse provides more accuracy in shooters than a serial mouse (polling rates if you must know) and why you should deep six all ISA cards. He shows how to improve Internet and local network gameplay and discusses games servers, proxies and more. It's a labour of love.

Inevitably, some of the information is already out of date--for example, Microsoft has effectively scrapped the Millennium Windows release. Even so, if you want the ultimate in PC game performance, buy this book or die--over and over again. --Steve Patient