Selection, justification and evaluation of hardware and software
For this report, I have decided to go with two different computer systems manufacturers Dell and Vaio because they’re both famous and have been successful at producing top of the line computer systems and also satisfying the end-user needs.
PC Specification 1
Vaio VGC-JS4EF/Q
Cost: £785.00
About: This PC is of sufficient power to run all the applications that is specified in the software’s section of its specification. I have chosen this computer because its perfect for general home use and also a useful computer to use in both small and big business organisations. The main reason for me choosing this desktop is because of its wonderful multimedia usage.
Operating System: The OS is brand new and its the latest one out for windows, its simple and basic so even beginners in the computer world can find it easy to use. this operating system is ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
About: This PC is of sufficient power to run all the applications that is specified in the software’s section of its specification. I have chosen this computer because its perfect for general home use and also a useful computer to use in both small and big business organisations. The main reason for me choosing this desktop is because of its wonderful multimedia usage.
Operating System: The OS is brand new and its the latest one out for windows, its simple and basic so even beginners in the computer world can find it easy to use. this operating system is a 64bit type instead of the normal default 32bit and the reason for 64bit operating system is because A 64-bit data bus is twice as wide so the system can move data around and being able to process more data means a faster system but this is only for specific things such as video rendering, graphics and such where as, normal word processing and web surfing will show no advantages at all
Processor: The average CPU speed for most computers is around 1.8 GHz to 2.0 GHz, which that is a lot of power for basic tasks like word processing or surfing the web. And with a speed of 2.8 GHz, the fast Hyper Threaded Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E7400 Processor will allow fast processing and will be able to run all applications without any form of lag. Another alternative to this processor is the high end model E8600 its advantage is just that it’s got a 6mb cache, the E7400 model is more budget friendly and it really isn’t worth it to have the E8600 as the processor because the computer would cost a lot more like around a £1000 or more furthermore the difference in cache isn’t that great although it would be useful but can be done without.`````````
RAM Memory: 4GB of RAM will be more than sufficient for all office, media and web design applications, and will not limit the processors performance but boost it so there’s the advantage of multi tasking.
Hard Disk space: the more storage capacity there is, more data can be stored on the computer and by having 500GB of Hard Drive Space it will be enough to store Windows 7, all programs and softwares. And since it’s been known that media files are big in sizes, I believe 500 GB should be enough to contain them all.
Keyboard and Mouse: Optical mouse provides precision pointing when added with cool keyboard and it also shows some style when it comes to beauty.
Network: I may have omitted the network part of this computer but it comes with Gigabit Ethernet which may seem a little over the top but the difference in price is so small it is not worth downgrading, Besides streaming multimedia off the server will be likely to have exceed bandwidth.
Display: The X-black LCD with multiple lamp monitor will provide style and ave chosen it because its bright and has a really good resolution of 1680 x 1050. Multiple lamps’ are also nicer to use.
Graphics: with a graphics card of 2 GB memory it can proof its usefulness when it comes to media rendering and playing the newest games.
Drives Speed: the drives speed of the computer is 7200rpm and with 500 GB storage capacity, the drive speed is almost perfect for it because the spin speed will be faster and with its 3mb cache, it won’t have any problem retrieving recently saved files.
Interfaces: since this computer will be doing quite a lot of media projects, the memory stick slots could be needed since they could need to retrieve a video from a camera through a memory stick.
There also USB ports for any additional connections where needed. There is also a built in camera as a help in hand to their media projects.
Multimedia: there’s a built in stereo sound which good because they won’t have to carry speakers around plus it makes their place tidy. The 3D Surround Sound component adds amazing depth and body to the audio, compensating for monitoring limitations. With 3D Surround processing the sounds will surround you, virtually putting you inside the music! 3D Surround enhances the sound played on conventional 2-speaker systems and makes even small PC speaker systems sound larger and richer.
Software: this computer includes with itself a range of web design softwares, word processing, antivirus software and media authoring software.
Media
Adobe premiere elements is part of the video and TV because ave chosen since adobe is the premier publisher of multimedia software and it’s an easy application software to make movies and editing them.
Vaio movie story just comes with the computer; it’s a free application available to all vaio computers. Its just good for making simple and easy videos
Web Design
For the web design ave added a whole macromedia suite because you get to create the full range of digital experiences, including interactive websites, applications, user interfaces, presentations, and mobile device content, with Adobe Macromedia Studio MX package.
Others
The web processing software are also included in case they will be needed and also with it is the antivirus software from Mcafee and I personally chose this because mcafee has been known to protect quite well against virus attacks which is vital when it comes to data protection.
The version of mcafee that I’ve chosen for this PC is the “mcafee internet security” I personally chose that version because it comes with a firewall and it helps against hackers who would want to infect your computer or steal your files and it will keep your personal information safe furthermore it blocks annoying pop ups while surfing the web. With one click, you can lock down the firewall, which blocks all network traffic between your computer and the Internet. It also stops remote connections from accessing your computer such as the people trying to connect to your wireless network.
PC Specification 2
Dell Inspiron 545
Cost: £543.55
Summary: Dell inspiron 545 battles between the line of budget and mid range pcs because of its price of £545. It's powerful enough to be a primary PC in the house for everyone from the kids to the grandparents to use, and offers dual-core power and scads of memory for under a thousand. All this earns it a choice for budget desktop.
Although it’s not as good as the vaio above, it’s able to media and web design software without ease. It has an integrated graphics card which is not bad since it uses the computer’s ram but since this computer isn’t really meant for gaming it’s irrelevant.
The software planned to be used for media projects on this desktop is avanquest and I have chosen this because avanquest is like an “all in one” type of software because it consists of both web design application, media authoring application, word processing, desktop publishing e.t.c.
Web design software included with this desktop is adobe dreamweaver CS4 this because adobe dreamweaver provides advanced usage for professional designers and its also a user friendly software so even beginners wont find it hard to use it.
In conclusion, am satting that the vaio desktop should be the betterof the two because it provides its everything that has to do with multimedia and its alot more efficient and reliable than the dell because of its powerful specification
Good
A good specification for the first machine well aid out although it reads a little too much like an advert. You will need to expand on the purpose and function of the components and explain in more detail the components.
The media authoring software needs to be added to both machines.
On the way to a merit but needs more work
Why 64 bit instead of 32 bit
A bit of a mixture of fonts going on here
Good
What does this mean this is what you should be explaining here
Good observation what about a firewall
Better
Good
Your going to have to a give a better explanation here . What software is being used for authoring
A reasonable effort here
A better evaluation and reason for choice of one machine over another is required