ISYS123

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ISYS123

• Buying a PC

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• Creative Inspire T5400 5.1 Surround Speaker
  System w/ Subwoofer
• Viewsonic G90FB 19" LCD Monitor - (Black)
• Seagate 250GB SATA2 16Mb Hard Disk
• LiteOn 16x DVD Writer Dual LayerSony 1.44MB
  Floppy Drive (Black)
• Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse BLACK PS2/USB
  Version 1.1a
• BenQ PS2 Keyboard 6511-VA81 - BLACK

• Pentium4 3.2GHz 775
• ASUS P5GPL-X motherboardCooler Master Cavalier 1
  Slvr/Blue ATX Mid Tower Case w/ 500W PSU
• CORSAIR 512Mb P3200 400MHz DDR RAM
• Leadtek Winfaster 256Mb Geforce 7300GS PCIE
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.

http//www.abspc.com/
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Buying a Computer

• Software
• Expansion
• Cost
• Hardware
• Status Consider the power of Apple in today's
  market.
• What do I want the computer for?

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What Computer to Buy?

• Word processing/spreadsheets/Power Point
• 512Mb RAM, 120 Gb HD, 2.6-3GHz Celeron or Sempron
  processor
• Web surfing, email
• As 1. Cable/ADSL2 broadband modem
• Running graphics programs
• 512Mb-1Gb RAM, 200Gb HD, 3GHz Pentium 4 or
  Athlon64 processor, 128Mb graphics card, 19-inch
  monitor
• Playing new games
• As 3., but high end components, at least 1Gb RAM,
  512Meg Video Card

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Off the Shelf or Custom

• An off the shelf computer comes as an all in one
  unit
• Many different suppliers
• Hewlett Packard
• Dell
• IBM
• Acer
• Toshiba
• etc

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Advantages

• Less to think about
• Wide availability
• Not dependent on dealer
• warranty
• Not as expensive What do we mean by this when I
  can build a PC for half the price?

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Disadvantages

• May not be what you want
• Problems with expansion/upgrade
• Big company syndrome (pay for the name)

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Examples of Desktops

• Compaq/HP AMD Sempron processor 3400 (1.8GHz),
  256MB RAM, 80GB HDD, DL SuperMulti burner. 19
  Monitor (750.00)
• Acer Aspire Intel Pentium D processor 2.66GHz,
  512MB, 180GB, DVD Dual 16x Double Layer. 19
  Monitor (1188.00)
• Apple iMac 20" Desktop Intel Core 2 Duo
  processor 2.16GHz, 1GB memory (2x512MB SO-DIMM),
  250GB Serial ATA hard drive (1998)

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Examples of Notebooks

• HP Pavilion dv1737TU Notebook Core Solo
  1.86/512/60/14.1/SuperMulti (1050)
• HP Pavilion dv6207TX Notebook Intel Core 2 Duo
  processor T5200 1.60GHz, 1024MB DDR2, 120GB HDD,
  15.4" WXGA with BrightView (1992)

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Custom Built

• Pick a supplier
• Choose your components

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Components

• CPU/Fans
• Memory
• Monitor
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• DVD/CD
• Motherboard

• Floppy Disk
• Graphics Card
• Sound Card
• Hard Drive
• Speakers
• Power supply
• O/S

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CPU

• AMD or Intel?
• Celeron/Sempron vs P4/Athlon
• Do you need 64 bit?
• For the home computer price rules
• How much speed to you want to pay for?
• But dont just look at the raw numbers
• The chips arent identical, pay attention to the
  benchmarks
• On a performance basis AMD is better value

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CPUs

• Intel Pentium4 541 3.2GHz 800FSB 775Pin (190)

• AMD Athlon64 3000 CPU Retail Socket 754 (140)

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Fans

• Computers need cooling
• Fans
• Water based systems
• Powerful PCs may have 4-5 fans or more
• case
• CPU
• Motherboard
• graphics card
• power supply

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Motherboard

• Make sure it is compatible with your choice of
  CPU
• Not just AMD vs Intel, but what connection
• Socket 939 etc
• A cheap/nasty motherboard means an expensive CPU
  is a waste
• Check the CPU manufacturers website for
  recommended boards

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Motherboard

• Each motherboard will support only a particular
  type of CPU
• The chipset of the motherboard determines what it
  can support and how fast it can run
• Bus speed (particularly front side bus or FSB
  speed) determine how fast the communication with
  memory is
• Typical speeds are 266/333/400/800 MHz CHECK

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ASUS A7V266C for AMD chips
PCI-e Slots
PCI slots
CPU mounting
Fan
Memory Slots
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Inbuilt Sound and Graphics

• Some motherboards have in-built sound and
  graphics (watch for motherboards that claim
  AGP/PCI-e but have no slot)
• Intel graphics always integrated
• Nice and cheap
• difficult to expand and built-ins often low range
  components

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Expansion Slots

• Your computer will need extras
• Sound card
• Video card
• Network card
• These go in expansion slots

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Expansion Slots

• These go in PCI Peripheral Component
  Interconnect) slots, except for the graphics
  card, which goes in the AGP (Advanced Graphics
  Port) slot or PCI-e (PCI-express) slot
• So make sure your motherboard has a PCI-e slot
  and 5-6 PCI slots if expansion/upgrade is an issue

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Buses, Ports, and Peripherals

• Information travels between components through
  groups of wires called buses.

• Buses connect to storage devices in open areas in
  the box called bays.

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Buses, Ports, and Peripherals

• Buses also connect to slots inside the computer
  as well as

sockets on the outside of the computer called
ports.
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Buses, Ports, and Peripherals

• Slots and ports also allow external devices
  called peripherals to be added to the system
  (keyboard, monitor, and mouse).

• Without peripherals, the CPU and memory are like
  a brain without a body.

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Memory

• More is always better
• These days you may as well have at least 512MB
  for a general home computer, 1GB for a graphics
  or other high-end machine
• What sort?

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Memory

• Terminology can be very confusing
• SIMM
• DIMM
• SDRAM
• DDRAM
• RDRAM

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Memory

• These days its all DIMM (Dual In line Memory
  Module)
• Come in sizes from 128MB to 1024MB
• check
• The motherboard will have a number of slots,
  which determine the maximum memory you can have

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SDRAM

• Synchronous Dynamic RAM
• Speed measured in MHz
• Need to get the memory to match the bus speed of
  the motherboard

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DDRAM

• DDRAM (or DDR SDRAM) is Double Data Rate SDRAM
• Quicker again, but also has to be supported by
  motherboard
• DDR-2 is the new standard
• Still very expensive and DDR will be around for a
  while yet

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RDRAM

• RAMBUS Dynamic RAM
• Was used in P4 motherboards
• Expensive
• Intel dropped it

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Memory Speed

• Measured in MHz or PC
• Needs to match motherboard FSB speed
• Easy for MHz
• Divide PC by 8 (so 2700 gives 333)
• Unless its already been divided as in PC333

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Monitor

• Bigger is always better
• For todays computers always get at least a 19
  screen
• CRT or flat screen?
• Flat screens are now affordable.
• But they have lower refresh rate than CRT
• CRTs are less then 40 now (Refurbished)
• See it in action before you buy!!!

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Keyboard and Mouse

• Many to choose from
• I like optical mice, but not for everyone
• Again, try before you buy!

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Hard Drive

• Need at least 250GB unless you will only be
  dealing in text
• IDE/SATA vs. SCSI
• Home user only needs IDE/SATA
• Size is not the only factor there is also
  rotational speed
• 5,400rpm is the minimum but game players need at
  least 7,200 rpm. Today it is not uncommon for
  10,000 rpm.

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Graphics Card

• Currently two main designs
• Nvidia GeForce
• ATI Radeon
• Only need a high end card for animation/game
  playing

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Nvidia GeForce

• GeForce 4 and before is obsolete
• A 5200/5500 series card is only for the very
  budget conscious
• Leadtek FX5200 A340TD 256M (100)
• For gaming ALBATRON 7950GT 512MB 439

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ATI Radeon

• 9xxx and before are obsolete
• Current series numbered starting with X
• X300, X700, X800, X850
• Again, budget cards available

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Quality

• With graphics cards you get what you pay for
• Get hold of comparative benchmark information
  before you decide

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CD/DVD

• CD only takes CD
• DVD both CD and DVD, but often slower for the
  same price
• "X" - Speed relative to base CD.
• Refers to kilobytes (KB) per second to which
  music is listened. 1x 150KB per second.

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Sound card/speakers

• Need to consider how many speakers you want
• Can have a few -gt
• Then buy a sound card that will support that many

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Power Supply

• Often overlooked, but if you are going to get a
  machine full of extras you need a good, reliable,
  power supply
• with sufficient
• wattage
• 400 Watts

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O/S

• Never be too eager to get new version of MS
  Windows
• Wait at least 6 months after release, for the
  next version
• MS Vista Home Premium Upgrade Academic (170)
• MS Vista Ultimate (702)

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USB

• Universal Serial Bus
• Uiversal connection for whole range of devices
• Mice, keyboards, joysticks, scanners, printers
• Make sure your computer has at least 2-4

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Other Terms

• OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
• IDE - Intelligent Drive Electronics or Integrated
  Drive Electronics
• SATA - Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
• RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks

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What Would I buy?

• AMD Athlon64 Venice Core 3500 939 CPU
• ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard
• 1ASUS 256Mb EN6600GT-TD Graphics Card
• 16x ASUS DVD Writer /- Dual layer
• 2x 1024Mb Kingston Dual Channel PC3200 DDRRAM
• 2 x 200Gb WD SATA 7200RPM 8Mb Hard Disk Drive
• 8-channel Integrated Sound Card
• ATX Med. Tower Case with 550W power supply

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What Would I buy?

• Floppy Disk Drive
• 19 Philips 190S6FS 8ms LCD Monitor
• Logitech X-530 5.1 subwoofer with Speakers
• Microsoft Multimedia keyboard
• Microsoft Optical wheel Mouse
• 2x Front USB Ports 4x Back USB Ports
• Integrated 10/100 network Card

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Total

• 1850.00
• You will need another 400 - 600 for MS Vista
  and Office.
• And labour costs, to build it
• You would also want a ADSL/Cable modem (60) and
  maybe a network card (30)
• Interestingly, its about the same price as a
  rather less powerful machine one year ago

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To game or not to game

• A far superior machine to the all in ones from
  earlier, but twice the price of the economy model
• Do you really need the performance?