Executive Summary
The report introduced the topic of personal computers. It looked at the history of how personal computers have evolved to become one of the most adopted gargets in businesses and the personal lives of many individuals. The study entailed both primary and secondary research that aimed at enlightening the researcher about the most vital hardware and software of a personal computer. A survey to determine the prices of the various requirements of a PC was conducted. The results were displayed in tabular form before appropriate recommendations were given on the best personal computer to be purchased.
Introduction
The contemporary world has witnessed a great deal of advancement in technology and particularly in Information Technology. This particular advancement has resulted in the adoption of Information Technology by many organizations to enhance their performance. Information technology has been widely adopted across all fields ranging from schools, hospitals, businesses, government offices, and households. Information technology is associated with the current enhancement in communication within and across borders. On the other hand, the widespread of information technology has led to an increase in the production of computers which include computer hardware and software to address the ever-rising technological requirements. Many firms have ventured into this new business of manufacturing computers and computer accessories. Some of the major companies that are renowned in the manufacture of computers and computer accessories include Dell, HP, Compaq, and IBM.
The widespread adoption of computers greatly enhanced in 2001. During 2001 more than 125million personal computers were manufactured in contrast to 48 thousand that were produced in 1977. The widespread intensified further such that bb the end of the year 2002, more than 500 million personal computers manufactured and sold worldwide, it is estimated than 75% those computers that were produced were used for office work, while the rest which comprised of 25 percent were for personal use. Among the computers manufactured, 81.5 % were desktops, 16.4% laptops while the rest comprised 2.1 % being servers. The United States of America received 394 million computers which accounted for 38.8% of those computers shipped. Europe received 25% while 11.7% of the shipped computers were delivered to the Asia-pacific region. In 2008, the number of personal computers that were in use globally had increased up to one billion. It is estimated that by the year 2014 the number of computers that will be in use will have doubled from one billion to two billion. The major consumers of the manufactured computers are Japan, the United States of America, and Western Europe which accounts for 58 percent of all the produced personal computers.
Background Information
In the early 1970s, personal computers were referred to as microcomputers and were often sold in kit form and limited quantities. They were only sold to only hobbyists and technicians. They contained very little programming that possessed only the toggle switches to input instructions and the processed information was output by front panel lamps. They required hardware such as computer terminals, keyboards, hard disks, and printers to be used practically. Micral N is known as the earliest commercial personal computer designed. It was designed with a microprocessor, the Intel 8008. It was manufactured in 1972 and 90,000 pieces of these computers were sold. In the early 1970 and 1980, most computers were manufactured and sold for household use. They used software that was meant for personal productivity, programming, and games. As time passed personal computers become more common. They lost their technical distinction and business computers that had color, sound and graphics became more common. Business people and game systems users started using the same computers that shared similar processors and operating systems. The nature of personal computers changed to resemble those computers that were tailored for businesses that even possessed local area networks to enhance communications.
A personal computer is a general–purpose computer. It is often a desktop computer whose size, specifications, and sales price are designed to meet the requirements of an end-user. A personal computer is designed with hardware that is necessary for personal use. Similarly, such a computer is also installed with application programs that are meant to meet the requirements of the operator. Among the common application software include emails, games, Ms. Office applications, emails, and digital media among others.
Problem state statement
The high rise in the level of information technology has resulted in many organizations venturing into the business of manufacturing computers and computer accessories. This has resulted in a big challenge of monitoring the quality of manufactured products where some of the computer hardware and software that are currently produced are of very low quality. In addition, many computer users lack adequate information about the necessary hardware and software that their personal computers should be equipped to enhance their usage. It is from these perspectives that this report investigates the recommended requirements of a personal computer in terms of necessary quality hardware and software for a personal computer.
Purpose of the Study
The findings of this report will help in informing the reader about the hardware and software that are required in a personal computer. It will also advocate the right specifications in terms of speed and size that are most suitable for a personal computer.
Methodology
This report entailed the use of both secondary and primary research. The researcher reviewed relevant books, journals, and articles about the requirements of a personal computer. To supplement the study researcher the researcher also interviewed several computer technicians to help him identify the best computer brands that are available. In addition, the researcher visited various shops that specialized in the sale of computers, computer software, and accessories and tried to find out the prices at which they were selling various personal computer products.
Literature Review
A personal computer is composed of two parts, hardware, and software. The hardware represents the physical components of a computer. They include the computer case, mouse, keyboard, CPU, Memory, motherboard, disks, and printer (Messmer, 2001).
A personal computer case is a thin sheet that encloses some hardware of the computer such as motherboard, hard disk, processor, and memory. The cases are often offered in two forms namely desktop and the tower. Today the tower is more commonly adapted than the tower. The tower is placed on the floor next to or under the desk. On the other hand, the desktop is placed on the desk and the monitor is placed on top of it. The towers are mostly offered in two shapes which are the ATX 12 which can accommodate the wide motherboard and the ATX 8.5 wide which can accommodate the smaller motherboard. The motherboard and power supply are mounted on the floor and mainly at the rear end. The drives which include the hard disk and the CD/DVD are usually mounted at the enclosures that are known as the drive bays which are located at front of the case (Anthony, 2000).
The motherboard is a major component of a PC where many of the circuits in a personal computer are located. It contains all the components and circuits that operate the personal computer. The motherboards have the following components CPU, BIOS RTC and Chip Set. The bios act like a nonvolatile memory that keeps the computer configuration information. It contains all the necessary codes that are required by the computer to communicate with the mouse, keyboard, communication devices, and disk drives. When the computer is switched on, the BIOS gives the codes that are required to set up the necessary functions so that the PC can be in a position to operate. The RTC which is referred to as the real-time clock is used to keep time, day, and date in a 24-hour format just like any other watch. The PC uses this clock to indicate the time when files are created or modified ( Messmer, 2001).
A power supply is another important component of a PC. It is contained at the back corner of a PC case and next to the motherboard. It converts the direct voltage that is supplied through the grid system into a direct voltage that is used by other components in the PC. It contains a 20 conductor cable that carries +5vdc, -5vdc +12vdc, -12vdc and is usually grounded to the motherboard. It also has another pair of cables with four conductors and two 4-pin connectors that carry +5vdc, +12vdc, and ground to the hard disk, floppy disk, or CD/DVD. Po supplies are rated at 200-500 watts.
The hard disk is installed in one of the drive bays that are present in the personal computer. It is usually powered by a 4 conductor cable that originates from the power supply. Data to and fro the motherboard is usually transmitted by a 40-pin integrated drive electronic cable. Data in the disk is stored magnetically on multiple and stationary disks that are stacked on top of each other. Small arm-like objects with magnetic pickups move hurriedly back and forth across the bottom and top surface of each disk drive. The sensors float a few microns over the rotating disk surface and can read and write at a very high speed. Most of the common hard disks are rated at 5400 or 7200 revolutions per minute. The rate of data transfer from them to the motherboard is approximately 66 Mbytes/sec. They exist in various sizes that range from 40GB, 80GB, and 120GB among others ( Messmer, 2001).
The floppy disk is installed in one of the external bays in front of the personal computer case and is usually secured in position by screws. It is generally powered by a cable with a 4-pin connector that originates from the power supply. It transmits data to and fro the motherboard with a help of a 34 pin ribbon cable. It keeps data magnetically on a removable floppy disk. A pickup arm-like feature in the drive floats over the disk surface. The arm-like feature usually moves hurriedly back and forth across the disk surface as a small magnetic sensor at the rear of the arm writes and reads data on the rotating surface. Floppy disks hold 1.44 Mbytes, but these days floppy disks are rarely used as they have been surpassed by CD/DVD and flask disk (Davidson, 2007).
Compact Disk Drive often referred to as CDD is installed in one of the external drive bays located in front of the PC case. It is usually secured in position by machines screws. Some manufactures of personal PC provide rail-like system systems that are mounted on the CDD. This makes the drive to be easily removed from the PC without having to remove any screw. Data is usually stored optically on the surface of the disk. A laser is attached to an arm-like object that moves forth and back across close to the disk surface and sends light towards the disk surface that is covered with a slim layer of aluminum. The CDD is currently the most common removable storage media for personal computers and can accommodate up to 700 Mbytes of data. It derives its power from the power supply through a 4-pin cable. A 40-pi IDE cable carries data from and to the motherboard. There are generally two Compact Disks Drives available which are CD-ROM which stands for read-only memory. This is the earlier model of CDD. It can only read CDs. It generally reads standard CD and most CD-R type disks. Often it is also able to read CD-RW disk type. The other type is CD-RW. This is a Rewritable. It can read and write CD-R and CD-RW disks types. It can also read standard CD-disks type (Davidson, 2007).
The Digital Versatile Disk drive is often referred to as DVD. It is installed in one of the external drive bays on a personal computer. It is generally secured in position with the help of machine screws. In some machines, they have special rail-like systems where the DVD are mounted so that they can remove them more easily without removing any screw. The drive is manufactured in a manner to enable it to access data kept in a DVD. A laser moves to and fro close to the disk surface and gets data at a very fast speed. It delivers its power through a 4-pin cable that connects the CDD to the power supply. It uses a 40-pin integrated Drive Electronic cable to transmit data from and to the motherboard. These two categories of DVD namely DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM. DVD reads DVDs and CDs while Random Access Memory reads and writes DVDs and can equally read CDs.
The monitors are personal computers output hardware. They are generally grouped into two Cathode Ray Tubes often referred to as CRT and Liquid Crystal Display commonly referred to as LCD. The CRT is the earlier version of monitors. They are generally big and heavy. They are available in screen sizes that range from 14 to 21. Data is commonly transmitted to the display by a cable that has a 15-pin shell connector that plugs into a connector on the video card which plugs into the personal expansion slot. The LCD is less bulky and heavy than CRT. The LCDs are connected to the personal computers in the same way the CRT is connected. They are more convenient to use than the CRT (Davidson, 2007).
The keyboard is another important component of the personal computer. Keyboards are used to input data into the computer. They occur as either PS2 OR USB. Some keyboards offer more functions such as volume control for speakers or web browser controls. There are wireless keyboards that use infrared rays to communicate.
The mouse IS also important hardware in a computer system. It also occurs either informs of a USB or PS2. There is also a wireless mouse that uses infrared rays to communicate.
Personal computers are designed with audio output devices. Personal computers use speakers and headphones as their major audio outputs. Similarly, others have monitors that have speakers mounted on their sides. Some passive speakers are plugged into personal computers and are powered directly by the output signal. On the other hand, active speakers which are powered from the sound card using battery or rectified AC house power are often used by personal computers and especially where amplification of the sound is needed. The printer is another important output device that is used to output softcopy into hardcopy.
Software
Personal computers are also installed with various computer software programs. The operating system is a major program that is necessary for the operation of a PC. The operating system supports the system files that are necessary for the booting process of the computer. There are various types of operating programs such as XP, Window 2000, Vista, and Linux among others. Other application programs that are common in personal computers include Microsoft word, database, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, publisher, and PageMaker. Other application packages are installed depending on the interests or usages of the owner (Tanenbaum, 2005).
Uses of the Personal Computer
The personal computer has various uses such as research work, playing computer games, entertainment, and communication. The PC should be connected with the internet to enable the user being in a position to access various learning materials over the net with the help of the search engines such as goggles. The MS Office program installed in the system assists the user in his daily activities. For instance, he/she can use the Microsoft word application to type his mails or write personal notes. Similarly, he/she can use the spreadsheet provided by the MS Office to do some personal calculations. The spreadsheet can be very essential when the user is conducting quantitative research. He can use the application to analyze the data collected into meaningful information which can be outputted graphically and even printed and accessed in form of a hardcopy (Anthony, 2000).
The personal computer is also used for entertainment. For it to be very effective for entertainment, the system should be fitted with a window media player to enable it to play music accordingly. The PC should also be fitted with an active speaker which will enhance the music played by the computer by amplifying it accordingly. Similarly, the PC is still be used to watch movies and soap operas. The LCD is the best monitor to use since it is more portable than the CRT (Anthony, 2000).
The personal computer also assists in enhancing the communications of the user greatly. Since most computer systems are connected to the internet, the user uses the computer to chat with his friends, send emails, or communicate with his family members through chat, emails, Facebook, or Twitter.
Findings of the primary study
The following table illustrates the prices of personal computers from among the renowned computer brands that are readily available in the market worldwide. The illustrated computers have the same specifications, but the difference in the prices is a result of the market performances of the brands.
Specifications
Recommendation
The best computer to buy as a personal computer should be the hp dual core which has a speed of 3.0 GHZ. It should also have a memory of 1GB, a DVD-RW with an LCD display. The market price of this computer is $ 530.The computer should also be purchased together with a printer which will also be a HP model Photosmart Plus B210a E at a rate of $ 200.The printer will be used to print documents and photographs of the user. In addition, the computer should be installed with XP software which will cost $ 100. The XP was preferred as the best operating system since it is user friendly and supports many programs. The computer will also be installed with MS Office applications which will cost $ 100. In addition, the personal computer should be installed with a Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 that will cost $ 50. This software will help to protect the system from being infected by virus which can delete the files saved in the system or crush the system all together. In addition, the personal computer should be connected to the wireless internet at a cost of $ 500. The internet will help the user to search for materials while conducting his/her research. Similarly, the internet will assist the user to communicate with his friends or colleagues through the chats, emails, face book or twitter. The computer should also be accompanied with an active speaker that will cost $ 50. An LCD monitor that will be used to output the PC information will also be purchased. The LCD that will be purchased will be of size 17 and it will cost $150.An LCD monitor was preferred over a CRT because it is more portable than the CRT which is regarded as bulky and heavy. Since the PC purchased will be used for the entertainment, active speakers that amplify sound will be purchased to amplify the music appropriately. Joy sticks and appropriate software for playing the computer games will also be considered. The choice to purchase a HP computer was arrived at because Hp is a renowned brand of high quality. Its price is relatively affordable because it ranges relatively to the price of the other popular brands.
Reference List
Anthony, J., 2000 Computer Hardware. Web.
Davidson, P., 2007.The Architecture of Computer Hardware, Systems Software, & Networking. New York: Prentice Hall.
Messmer, H.P., 2001.The Indispensable PC Hardware Book. New York: Prentice Hall.
.Tanenbaum, A.S., 2005. Operating Systems Design and Implementation. London: Oxford University Press.