Computer System
Comparison and
Upgrades
By Matthew Pinch
Matthew Pinch
1
Contents Page
Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3
Computer Choice 1 ........................................................................................................ 4
Computer Choice 2 ........................................................................................................ 6
Computer Choice 3 ........................................................................................................ 8
Comparing and Final decision on which Computer to use .......................................... 11
How and why particular upgrades to computer systems will be useful ....................... 12
Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 13
Matthew Pinch
2
Introduction
In this report I am going to chose three computers for under £2400 for the charity
‘Techno for Tanzania’. I am going to compare the three computers and decide which
one will be the best choice for them. On the computers, they will have to be able to
run a word processor, spreadsheets and database software’s, as well as good quality
DTP, graphics and multimedia software. It is going to be used to produce leaflets and
other literature and possibly CD and DVD material. It also needs to be able to scan
documents, access email, and set up and maintain a web page. The system will have
to contain hardware, an operating system, and software utilities, leaving enough
money for required application software.
Matthew Pinch
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Computer Choice 1
Packard Bell iMedia X2416 with 20" TFT - Price including VAT: £599.99
This is the first computer I chose for the charity from PC World.
Full specification
Processor Type
Clock-Speed
Front Side BUS
Cache
Operating-System
RAM Memory
Hard Disk Capacity
Optical Drive 1
Keyboard
Mouse
Intel. Core 2 Quad Q8200
2.33GHz
1333MHz
4 MB
Windows Vista. Home Premium
4096 MB
640 GB
Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
YES
YES
Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition
I would also buy the Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition package with this,
it costs £379 and contains the essentials such as: word, excel, PowerPoint. It also
contains programs which are really good for businesses to use. It is good at creating
good professional documents, such as posters or leaflets like needed for the charity. It
is also quite easy to learn to use. This will let you access your email as well with a
good emailing system.
Norton All-In-One Security
Finally I would advise buying The Norton 360 All-In-One Security Version 2.0 for an
extra £30. This will protect your computer from any unwanted visitors gaining
access. The system offers:
 All-In-One Security
 Protection for up to 3 PCs
 Comprehensive Automated Protection
 Antivirus, Antispyware & Antiphishing

Website Authentication, 2 Way Firewall
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Protecting your computer from hackers and viruses and making it a lot safer for you.
Canon MX310 All in One Printer, Scanner, Copier and Fax
As you are also going to want to be able to print and scan stuff, I
would recommend the Canon MX310 All in One Printer, Scanner,
copier & Fax for £59.97.
Accessories Included
Power cable, telephone cable, inktanks PG40 & CL41,
Borderless Printing
Yes
Brand
Canon
Built in Card Reader
No
Built in LCD Screen
No
Compatible Cartridges
PG40 & CL41
Compatible With
Windows(r) & Mac(r) compatible
Copy Speed
22 cpm B&W, 17 CPM colour
Direct Print
Yes
Fax
Yes
Maximum Print Size
A4
Maximum Resolution Horizontal
1200
Maximum Resolution Vertical
4800
Pages Per Minute - Black
22
Pages Per Minute - Colour
17
I have worked out the price for all of this and it comes to £1068.96 which is under
your £2500 budget, meaning it saves you a lot of money towards anything else you
may need for your business.
Matthew Pinch
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Computer Choice 2
HP Pavilion Slimline s3644uk with 21.6" TFT – Price Including VAT - £699.99
This is the second choice of computer I chose and it is from Currys. Below is a
specification:
 AMD Phenom X3 8250e processor
 (1.9GHz, 2MB Cache)
 Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
 4GB DDR2 800MHz memory
 500GB SATA hard drive (7200rpm)
 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce 9300GE graphics
 Blu Ray Reader and DVD Rewriter
 Digital TV Tuner
 6x USB, 1x IEEE 1394 FireWire® ports
 Includes a 160GB pocket media drive
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Edition
With this system I would also advise to buy the Microsoft
Office 2007 Professional Edition. I would do that because it
offers good programs and is a good package. This is also
because this is a good computer and deserves better software,
good software that will match the speeds of the computer. This
is a cheaper version and costs around £99. In this package, it
includes: Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and
OneNote 2007.
Matthew Pinch
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Windows Vista Business Edition
For this computer as it is a bit faster than the last one, I would recommend getting the
Windows Vista Business Edition to match the speeds of the computer again. This
will cost an extra £219.99, but will increase the ability of the computer. With both of
these packages it should offer everything you need again.





Instant Search helps you locate information on your
Work in a more simple and intuitive way.
Shadow copy automatically archives previous versions of
your files.
Improved Explorers help you organize things your way.
Use the Windows Backup and Restore Center to back up
critical documents.
HP Photosmart C4180 All-in-One Printer Scanner
Again you will need a printer, and because I have spent a
bit more this time, I will go for a cheaper printer option,
this being the HP Photosmart C4180 All-in-One Printer
Scanner, this being £38.
Norton All-In-One Security
Finally I would advise buying The Norton 360 All-In-One Security Version 2.0 for an
extra £30. This will protect your computer from any unwanted visitors gaining
access. The system offers:
 All-In-One Security
 Protection for up to 3 PCs
 Comprehensive Automated Protection
 Antivirus, Antispyware & Antiphishing
 Website Authentication, 2 Way Firewall
Protecting your computer from hackers and viruses and making it a lot
safer for you.
This meets the requirements that you asked for, and I have calculated this up again
and found out that it comes to £1086.98, which is still quite a way below the budget
leaving you money for anything else the charity might want.
Matthew Pinch
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Computer Choice 3
Dell XPS 630/2644 with 22" TFT – Price Including VAT: £1,219.99
For this choice I have chosen the most expensive versions of everything for the best
performance you can get from the computer, including a good computer, but it will
probably leave you with a small amount of money left at the end.
Processor Type
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Clock-Speed
2.4
Front Side BUS
1066MHz
Cache
8 MB
Operating-System
Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
RAM Memory
4096 MB
Hard Disk Capacity
1000 GB
Optical Drive 1
Multi-Format Dual Layer DVD Re-Writer Drive
Graphics Memory
Dual 512MB MB
Graphics Description ATi Radeon 3870
Sound Card
INTEL ONBOARD 7.1
No of USB connections 4
No of PCI Slots
2
Keyboard
YES
Mouse
YES
Microsoft Office 2007 Business Edition
With this system I would go back and recommend getting the Microsoft Office 2007
Business edition again. I would recommend this because it will work and run fast on
the computer with a good specification. With anything lower, you would not be using
the computer to its full potential. This would cost an extra £379 again.
Windows Vista Business Edition
The next thing I would recommend would be to get Windows Vista Business Edition
again, because it is offering more applications, and things you can do on it.
With these two applications it will also offer you everything you need for your
business, as they will be able to make e-mails and create leaflets for the
business and create documents for it. This would cost £219.99 again.
Matthew Pinch
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Epson Stylus Office BX600FW
The next thing to buy would be the printer, as I want this to be the best performance
wise computer, the printer I would chose would be the Epson Stylus
Office BX600FW costing £149.99.
Key Features
Technology (Detailed)
Inkjet
Output Type
Colour Printer
Printer Type
All-In-One Printers
Max Resolution (BW)
5760 x 1440 dpi
Max Resolution (Colour)
5760 x 1440 dpi
Black Print Speed
38 ppm
Colour Print Speed
38 ppm
Platform
PC, Mac
Macromedia Dreamweaver
And on this computer I would add the addition of Dreamweaver to make it much
easier to create WebPages, and it also makes the design of the webpage easier, and
tends to make it look better and more accurate. This will cost an extra £308; it is
quite expensive but will still come within the budget and will improve the computers
performance. The final cost of everything being £2276.97, which is still in budget.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 offers new features such as:
 Live View
 Code Navigator
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Norton All-In-One Security
The final piece of software I would advise to buy for this computer choice would be
the Norton Anti virus all-in-one security software. I would choose this because it
protects your computer from unwanted users and viruses accessing the computer. The
system offers:
 All-In-One Security
 Protection for up to 3 PCs
 Comprehensive Automated Protection
 Antivirus, Antispyware & Antiphishing
 Website Authentication, 2 Way Firewall
Matthew Pinch
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Comparing and Final decision on which Computer to
use
Comparing
Computer 1 is a very good computer with a good range of software and a good
operating system selected. It is good for everything you need a computer to do, and
can run efficiently. However Computer 2 is similar to Computer 1 with the packages,
but has a better specification and the packages are a bit better, meaning it is easier to
use, while still at a good speed. But Computer 1 has a better printer and scanner
combination. Computer 3 is better than both of them, using the best packages taken
from each of the previous choices and adding on Dreamweaver as an extra package.
The computer also has the best specification, and the best printer, meaning overall
Computer 3 is the best of the 3, and has the best software and operating system.
Decision
Out of the three computers I have chosen for you, I would personally recommend the
third computer, the ‘Dell XPS 630/2644 with 22" TFT’ with Microsoft Office
Business Edition, Windows Vista Business Edition, the Epson Stylus Office,
Dreamweaver and Norton Anti-Virus.
I would personally recommend this one because, although it’s the most expensive, it
still comes within your budget, and it is going to be the best computer for you to use
with everything you want to do. It has the best specification out of the three I have
selected meaning that it will be able to perform all the tasks better than the other two I
have selected. It has the Office Business Edition with it meaning it has good
Microsoft Software and will be good for you to use to create the documents
efficiently. Also coming with Vista Business Edition, this means that it will also be
more efficient, one of the main things is that it is easier to locate programs within it.
It also offers good security features, so for these reasons this is why that is the best
package to use. In this package, it has the best quality printer which is another reason
I would recommend this package. Finally having Dreamweaver as an extra from the
other computers, this is a good thing because it makes creating web pages easier. It
also gives you a better chance to make the web page exact and more personalised for
your own use.
In conclusion this computer has a better specification, and the packages I have offered
with it are better, so for all the reasons above is why I would recommend this one as
the best computer package.
Matthew Pinch
11
How and why particular upgrades to computer
systems will be useful
The main reason for upgrading a computer system is because your current version is
becoming outdated and newer software / hardware is available. Other reasons might
be to upgrade depending on what you use the computer for, so, for example, if you are
a gamer, you will want to upgrade the graphics card and possibly the RAM. Whereas
an office user would just want to upgrade the Software packages, and possible the
hard drive for more space on it.
With a new up-to-date computer, it seems silly to upgrade it because you have just
bought it, and you would have bought a different package if you wish to upgrade it. I
would recommend updating computer systems every one to two years depending on if
you’re updating software or hardware.
For software upgrades, I would recommend it every two to six years depending on
how up-to-date you want to be. Seeing as how new packages come out every two to
six years, depending on if you want to be constantly up-to-date, then I’d recommend
updating every time a new package comes out. But if you are not too fussed about
having the best technology then you can just upgrade every six years or so. The
reason you would upgrade software was so that you can be up-to-date with the newest
computer technology. Also because newer versions tend to contain bug fixes and run
a lot smoother.
For hardware, depending on the piece of hardware you are talking about would
depend on how often you should upgrade. If your computer is starting to slow, I
would recommend an immediate upgrade in RAM, because if you don’t have a big
enough RAM for the usage of the computer, it can’t run it as well as it would if the
RAM was bigger. If you are running out of space I would recommend an upgrade in
the hard drive as soon as possible, otherwise you won’t have any space on the
computer to save new documents. For things like the specialised cards and
peripherals, these do not need to be upgraded really if you are just using the computer
for office work. Its only when you start to game and want to listen to music that you
should upgrade these. But I would still recommend having half-decent up-to-date
graphics and sound cards.
If you wanted a computer for gaming I would recommend an update in the graphics
card so the game can run better pictures. I would also recommend an upgrade in the
computers RAM, so the game can run smoother without jerking around. If you
wanted to listen to music on it as well I would recommend improving the sound card,
so the sound all comes out better quality.
Matthew Pinch
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Bibliography
For this report I have only used the internet to get the information I have used. The
links I have used are:
Computer Choice 1:
 http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@
@@1448648831.1227173948@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccejadefjmkkffdcflgc
eggdhhmdfnn.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=737738&
category_oid=
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/suites/FX101674091033.aspx?WT.srch=1
 http://store.norton.com/v2.0img/operations/symantus/site/promo/pd/523598_nav09_360_UK.html
 http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-6082.aspx
Computer Choice 2:
 http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@
1578173593.1227174878@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceeadefkdjgjdgcflgceggd
hhmdgmk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=292902&cate
gory_oid=
 https://emea.microsoftstore.com/UK/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid3/?et_cid=8&et_lid=77
 http://store.norton.com/v2.0img/operations/symantus/site/promo/pd/523598_nav09_360_UK.html
 http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=38895&source=g
oogleps
Computer Choice 3:
 http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@
@@1448648831.1227173948@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccejadefjmkkffdcflgc
eggdhhmdfnn.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=088403&
category_oid=
 http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/
 http://store.norton.com/v2.0img/operations/symantus/site/promo/pd/523598_nav09_360_UK.html
 http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/suites/FX101674091033.aspx?WT.srch=1
 http://uk.shopping.com/xPO-Epson-Epson-Stylus-Office-BX600FW
Matthew Pinch
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