Tuesday 26 February 2008

The Blogg

Scenario

‘Techno for Tanzania’ is charity which is run by a group of Tanzanian businessmen to recycle aging and discarded computer systems for use by children in village schools in their home country. They have collected a number of old PCs, fully and partially working and not working at all. They have also collected spare components and devices, such as power supplies, disk drives, graphics cards and internal memory. Some new systems components have also been donated by local computer companies. The charity is asking for volunteers to work with their own experts to use these materials to create working systems, of various specifications, for shipping to the children in Africa. There will be a small payment for young people who volunteer. The charity will need some notes of explanation as to what has been done in terms of repairing, upgrading and checking the systems. The notes will be electronic and will preferably take the form of a blog, updated as required, and containing a mixture of text and graphics (drawings, photographs, etc). (Alternatively, a small group of web pages, or hyperlinked document pages, may be used and this alternative substituted for the word blog wherever it is used.) My work will mainly involve checking equipment by performing some software utility and routine maintenance tasks, and producing explanatory notes.. I may also be required to add various devices to a refurbished system. Occasionally a member of the charity’s directors may ask you to demonstrate some of the activities you have undertaken. I may also be asked to apply your knowledge and expertise in evaluating and justifying the selection of computer systems for specific types of work.

Friday 22 February 2008

Find a computer with £2500 limit

My final task is different to my normal usual work for the organisation. The organisation has received a donation of £2500 to purchase one or more new computer systems to be used as the directors see fit. The system must be able to run the usual word processing, spreadsheet and database software as well as good quality DTP, graphics and multimedia software. It will be used to produce leaflets and other literature and possibly CD and DVD material for use by the children and teachers in Tanzania.

Computer 1 (http://unit8two.bravehost.com/Computer1.html )

The computer which I have found is from the website, misco.co.uk I have then found the perfect computer. The price of all this comes to a total of £1055.47. This is good because you can use the same printer if a network is made. However most of the money is spent on the Microsoft office disks. However I can reuse the same Microsoft office disk in up to three computers. This computer is ideal as it contains a processor Intel Core Duo, which is needed to keep the computer fast with a 2GHz clocking speed. It has a DVD drive, which is required, and a 2GB ram, which means that this, is a fast computer. The operating system is Vista Business, which will be good for a business like techno for tanzania. I have chosen to a colour laser printer because its made for an office environment as it prints faster then the normal deskjet printer.


Computer 2 ( http://unit8two.bravehost.com/Computer2.html )

My second choice is this Acer laptop, which is also from the web site misco. The laptop contains all the basics which is needed, for example a dvd drive, sound card and networking catability. It has a core 2 duo processor, with a 1GB memory installed and a 120GB hard drive. The operating system is XP buissness. However the laptop does not come with the office applications which are requested, but if this is purchesed speratly then the computer and the applications both come to a total of 500pounds. The laptop also can be improved as it has a maxium of 4GB ram, and the hard drive can always be updated.

Computer 3 (http://unit8two.bravehost.com/Computer3.html )

The final computer, which I have chosen, is an Intel Core 2Quad processor, which is the best of the other three computers. It has a 8MB cache and a 4 x 2.4Ghz of clocking speed. The Hard Drive is the largest of three and has a 4 x DDR2 Slots however at the moment it only has 2GB of ram. It has a networking port with an Asus Motherboard.

Which Computer is best?
It is clear that the best computer out of the three is my final computer, which has a core 2Quad processor that is double the amount as the other two computers. The ram of the final computer is the same as the others at 2gb how the last computer enables you to extend this to a further 8gb, which would make the computer extremely fast. This computer is the best for an office enviroment as it is fast which is necessary for getting the work done smoothly with out any crashes. It does come with a good graphics facility which is not needed as it won't be uses as a gaming computer, but is always good to have. I have not chosen the acer laptop because eventhough it is a laptop, which means its portable, it does not have the features for example a dvd writer which is a must have for a buissness. If this was a desk top then it would be okay because you could easly insert one if you needed to, but its a laptop which means its hard to update.

PC Strip

To insure a safe, clean and fast running pc you need to clean the PC regular. This includes hoovering inside to get rid of the dust, make sure everything is wired up to the correct periphal, and to clean and replace the thermal compound on the CPU. This is to insure that the CPU does not get to hot. The CPU is the heart of the computer which means it gets used the most in every operation which will result in a hot CPU, which means you needed to make sure the heat sink is clean of dust and has contact so it can do its job and get the heat away from the cpu as quick as possible.