The bland beige box is dead. Fuelled by a passion for performance and a love of sports car style, a new breed of PC user is taking matters into its own hands. Combining cutting-edge components with the latest trends in system design, they’re turning the standard personal computer into a high-speed work of art. "Digital Hot Rods" is the ultimate guide to the world of PC modification and customization. Both a scene showcase and a DIY handbook, it goes in depth into system building, overclocking, cooling and modification, reveals the secrets of optimization and benchmarking, then moves on to cover some of the most exciting and inspirational hot rod systems around. From silent systems to multi-processor monsters, from gaming powerhouses to neon-lit speed machines, this book has it all, complete with guidance from the men who made them. A celebration of a thriving community and a great introduction for newcomers, "Digital Hot Rods" is a book that every PC owner with a pulse will want to read.

Ben Hardwidge is the news and features editor of the leading enthusiast magazine Custom PC, and has spent five years working for UK computer magazines. He?s been fiddling around with PCs since his dad bought a Sinclair PC200 in 1988, which he dismantled in a desperate effort to force it to run games. Since then, he?s owned PCs from every processor generation, right up to his current 3.4GHz Pentium 4 (lovingly fitted into his modded Sinclair PC200 case). Ben lives in Brighton, and when he?s not doing strange things to PCs, he can be found listening to Iron Maiden, messing about with old synthesizers, and avoiding anything that sounds like real work.