Reddit reviews Build Your Own PC Do-It-Yourself For Dummies

In most cases, if not all, building your own machine can be cheaper. Not only that, but you get the added satisfaction of seeing YOUR rig, built with your own hands, whir into life for the first time.

There are plenty of great resources out there if you're looking to build a machine. There's this subreddit, the rest of the internet, and countless how-to guides. There's always this:
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Do-It-Yourself-Dummies/dp/0470196114
...but if you're reasonably intelligent, I'm sure you'll figure it out with other resources.

There are some great sites out there for finding computer parts. Well-known and well-established are http://www.newegg.com/
and
http://www.tigerdirect.com/
which both happen to have barebones kits, in case you want an easy start. I'd recommend doing research and shopping wisely, though. During the process, you'll likely pick up quite a bit of knowledge as well. A savvy shopper is typically a savvy user.

There's always /r/buildapc

Most importantly, have fun with your build!

(Anyone else reading, feel free to add more helpful info or links.)

Yeah man, no problem.

Before I find some specific books, I wanna mention one series that you've definitely heard of: Blank for Dummies. From my experience, if you want to start from no knowledge and work up to an intermediate level of understanding, For Dummies books are great. A lot of experts beg to differ.

But, to be frank, people who are experts in their field are just that: experts in their field. I have friends who are excellent in their fields, but they are terrible teachers. They expect people to pick things up as quicky as they did. We're not all wired that way, and For Dummies books get that.

So, for my first two recommendations, here ya go:

Networking for Dummies

Building Your Own PC for Dummies

Both of those are less than 20 bucks on Amazon, and I'm sure you can find them at a library.

Now, if you really want to get into networking, and you want to get in to the IT field, you should read the A+ and Network+ certification books from Comptia. These will be harder to find in a library, but there will probably be some older editions lying around somewhere. If you know someone who works in the field, they probably have a copy, or can get you a copy, for free or cheap.

These books are more expensive, and more difficult, but they are peerless if you want to jumpstart a career in IT. I'm not going to claim that getting an A+ and/or a Network+ (or a Security+) certification is going to guarantee you a job. However it will definitely help you get your foot in the door.

Other books that you'll want to eventually check out if you want to check out things from O'Reilly. Most of their books are not meant for beginners, but they are the quintessential reference books in the IT field, including computer science, networking, and security. To give you an idea of just how many books they have, check out this picture of the programming section at the Noisebridge Hackerspace in San Francisco.

That band of colorful books in the middle? Those are (some of) the programming books they have available. They have just as many on every topic of IT. Here's their networking section. 19 pages. Of just networking books.

I hope that gives you a good idea of where to start.