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A Buyer’s GUIDE Decide on a basic computer system Determine your computer’s arc

A Buyer’s GUIDE Decide on a basic computer system Determine your computer’s architecture Buy a computer Review notebook computers Select peripheral devices Buy system and application software Find purchasing and user support Organize your findings: A Buyer’s Guide Summary Compare computers: Buyer’s Specification Worksheet Work in the computer industry Whether you are a first-time buyer or are upgrading your computer system, when the time comes to make your computer buying deci- sion, you might find yourself overwhelmed by the vast amount of information available to you. There are thousands of computer advertisements in magazines and newspapers which list detailed technical specifications for their products. To get the best deal on a computer that meets your needs, you need to understand what these technical specifications mean and how they will affect your computing power. This Buyer's Guide will help you to organize your purchasing decisions. This guide also includes a worksheet that you can use to summarize your specifications for a computer and compare prices and features. O B J E C T I V E S BUYER'S GUIDE Copyright © by Course Technology. All rights reserved. This publication is protected by federal copyright law. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permision in writing from Course Technology. Some of the product names and company names have been used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers and sellers. may be reproduced without prior permission in writing from Course T echnology. Some of the product names and company names have been used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective manufactures and sellers. Copyright © 2001 by Course T echnology. All rights reserved.This publication is protected by federal copyright law. No part of this publication COMPUTER CONCEPTS 2 f Desktop or notebook: Will you be working from a single location or taking your computer with you to many locations? Choose a notebook if you plan to take your computer with you. Note, however, that notebooks cost more than a similarly configured desktop, so you will pay for portability. f Network or stand-alone: Will you be working as part of a net- work or alone? Do you plan to tie into a network and take advantage of a central file server and microprocessor using your computer as a workstation? If you are setting up for a network, you need to purchase the network components, such as network interface cards (NICs) and cables. f PlatformÑMacintosh or IBM-compatible PC: Evaluate the software available on both plat- forms to decide which better suits your needs. If you will be working closely with other people, decide whether you need to work on the same platform. The computer in the ad in Figure BG-1 is an IBM-compatible. It microprocessor. f Case type: If you choose to buy a desktop, how much space is available for the computer? Towers can fit under a desk on the floor. f Planning for expansion: The computer case includes openings, or "bays." An external bay provides an opening drive, Zip drive, removable hard disk drive, CD-ROM and to hold devices that do not need to be accessed from outside the system unit, such as a hard disk drive. A case with more bays provides you with greater expansion capability. To add peripheral devices such as a printer, scanner, or graphics tablet, your computer needs open ports or expansion slots. Deciding on a basic computer system The first decision you should make is what basic configuration your new computer system should have. The first step is to establish the budget for your computer system, which will help you to exclude those system configurations that are too costly. Figure BG-1 shows a typical computer ad. You can't tell if this MicroPlus is a good deal unless you compare its specifications with those of computers from other vendors. FIGURE BG-1: A typical computer ad MicroPlus award- winning computers offer strong performance at a reasonable price. Simply the fastest Windows machines you can buy. MicroPlus computers feature superior engineering, starting with a genuine Intel processor and a motherboard designed specifically to take advantage of the latest technological advancements. Of course, you are covered by the MicroPlus one- year, on-site parts and labor warranty.* 512K cache G 3.5" 1.44 MB floppy drive G Turtle Beach Montego Sound Blaster-compatible PCI sound card G Stereo speakers G 16 MB Diamond Viper AGP graphics card G 56 K V.90 PCI data/fax modem G 7-bay mid-tower case G Multifunction keyboard and mouse G MicroPlus Edutainment Pak *On-site service available for hardware only and only in the continental United States. Shipping and handling costs are not covered by warranty. All returns must be in original box and packaging. Shipping and handling costs are nonrefundable. Call for an RMA number. Prices and availability subject to change without notice. MicroPlus! www.micropluscomputers.com MicroPlus Home PC XP2 G 40 GB Ultra ATA hard drive G 2 Firewire, 2 USB, 1 parallel port G Intel Pentium 4 - 1.5 GHz with 2GB G 800 RDRAM expandable to G 40X var. CD-ROM/8 max. DVD drive G Microsoft Office XP G Windows 2000 G 17" (13.8 vis) .26 dp monitor 1280 1024 max. res o for installing devices such as a hard disk drive, floppy disk tape drive. An internal bay provides a mounting bracket uses an Intel Pentium 4 BUYER'S GUIDE $1,679 D E T A I L S may be reproduced without prior permission in writing from Course T echnology. Some of the product names and company names have been used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective manufactures and sellers. Copyright © 2001 by Course T echnology. All rights reserved.This publication is protected by federal copyright law. No part of this publication 3 A BUYER’S GUIDE A desktop computer typically includes one keyboard port, one mouse port, two USB ports, one parallel port, and two serial ports. The computer in the ad in Figure BG-1 has seven bays, two USB ports and one of which is a parallel port. Display device: The quality of the computer display depends on the features of the video display adapter and the capability of the monitor. Monitors are rated by their resolution capability as well as the size of the display screen. Prices increase with the size of the monitor. The monitor in Graphics card: A computer display system consists of a monitor and a graphics card, also called a video display adapter or video card. A graphics card is an expansion card that controls the signals that the computer sends to the monitor. Most computers include a graphics card, even if a monitor is not included. Graphics card specifications include the manufacturer, model, slot type, accelerator technology, and video memory capacity. The computer in the ad in Figure BG-1 has a 16 MB Diamond Viper AGP graphics card. The clarity of a computer display depends on the quality of the monitor and the capability of the graphics card. Whether inserted in a PCI slot (slower to update the screen) or the AGP expansion slot (fastest graphics cards), most graphics cards use special graphics accelerator chips to boost performance. An accelerated graphics card can greatly increase the speed at which images are displayed. Graphics cards carry their own memory circuitry, called video memory, which stores graphic images as they are processed and before they are displayed. The amount of memory on the card determines the maximum screen resolution and the color depth that can be sent to the display device. Today’s video cards typically contain between 8 MB and 32 MB of video mem- ory; the more video memory a card has, the more expensive it is. Color depth refers to the number of colors that can be present on the screen at any one time. A 24-bit color depth is considered to be photographic quality and can display more than 16 million colors. Floppy disk drives: Most microcomputers today are configured with a single 3.5" floppy disk drive that reads from and writes to 1.44 MB disks. One 3.5" drive should be sufficient. The computer in the ad in Figure BG-1 has one 3.5" floppy disk drive. Many computers also include a Hard disk drives: A hard disk drive (hard drive) is standard equipment on virtually every PC. Factors that influence hard drive performance and price include storage capacity, access time, and controller type. Capacity is measured in gigabytes (GB). When you compare computer systems, the hard drive capacity should be a signifi- cant factor in your analysis. Most of today’s computers are Computer ads usually specify hard disk access time to give an indication of the drive performance. Access times between 6 ms and 11 ms are typical for today’s microcomputer hard drives. Hard drive specifications also include a measure of speed in revolutions per minute (rpm). The faster a drive spins, the more quickly it can access data. Controller cards: A hard uploads/Industriel/ buyers-guide 2 .pdf