I recently purchased this book thinking I would save myself a few hundred bucks by putting together my own computer, but this is definately not a book designed for beginners. There are some pictures, but the person's fingers are in the way of some of them, and some of them are really dark, making it hard to tell what they're doing or what you're looking at. And they don't go into that much detail on the different parts you're buying (I guess in a 222 page book, what can I expect?). Needless to say, I think this book is a complete waste of money and will be looking for a different one.