Computer Literacy for IC 3 Unit 1: Computing Fundamentals © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.1 Chapter 3 Evaluating, Purchasing, and Maintaining Computer Equipment

Learning Targets Unit 1, Chapter 3 9.I can identify criteria for selecting a personal computer 10.I can identify factors that affect computer performance 11.I can identify other factors to consider when purchasing a computer © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.2

Learning Targets Continued Unit 1, Chapter 3 (continued) 12.I can give several examples of how to protect a computer from theft and physical damage 13.I can identify maintenance issues 14.I can identify and solve hardware problems 15.I can identify consumer rights and responsibilities © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.3

Platforms Combination of operating system and hardware is a platform Operating system Software that allows application software to work with specific types of hardware Common platforms Windows/Processor (Intel or AMD) Mac OS X/Intel Processor Linux /Processor (Intel or AMD) 4© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Choosing a Platform Things to consider Software requirements Cross-platform file management Backward compatibility Drivers for peripheral devices Cost 5© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Choosing Between Desktop and Portable Computers Desktop computers Cost less Notebooks and laptops Portable Take up less space Higher cost More likely to be stolen 6© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Relationships Among Factors Determine tasks the computer will perform Consider software, platform, and location 7© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Processor Word Size and Clock Speed Word size Unit of data that processor can work with PCs use 32-bit and 64-bit word size Display billions of different colors Characters in hundreds of languages Clock speed Circuit on a computer chip that emits pulses Measured in hertz Newer PCs-3 GHz (three billion cycles per second) © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.8

Multi-Core Computing Multi-Core Two or more processors Dual-core and quad-core Included on single microprocessor © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.9

Effects of RAM Speed and Capacity RAM Measured by response time in nanoseconds (ns) Measured by quantity of data stored in megabytes Used to store instructions from software applications If RAM is too slow, May cause errors and malfunctions If RAM capacity is too small May cause computer to use virtual memory 10© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Hard Drive Factors Hard disk – magnetic media Heads – read and write magnetic data Capacity measured in gigabytes (GB) Speed of rotation – revolutions per minute (rpm) Faster rotation = faster performance Disk rotation speed and Head movement speed determine data read and write speed 11© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Monitors and Video Card Factors Pixel Picture element, point of light on the monitor (square) 12© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Monitors and Video Card Factors High-resolution monitors: 1680x1050 pixels Lower-resolution monitors: 800x600 pixels Various video cards Active-matrix Screen refreshes each pixel as needed Passive-matrix Scans a row or column of pixels at a time and refreshes pixels with each scan (each time it PASSES) 13© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Video Connections Digital Video Interface (DVI) ports S-video port – TV connection Video Graphics Array (VGA) ports © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.14

Identifying Video Card Factors © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.15 Video RAM (VRAM)

Connection Speed Factors Internet connection speed Telephone voice lines – slowest Asynchronous digital subscriber line (ADSL) is fast – commonly called DSL Broadband (cable) is 30 times faster than voice lines Satellite connection © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.16

Additional Purchase Considerations Optical data storage Software needs Software sources Other concerns © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.17

Optical Data Storage Options Compact discs 650 MBs of data DVD Nearly 5 GBs of data Blu-ray Up to 50 gigabytes of data 18© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Software and Sources Site license Prepackaged with computer Freeware, shareware, and trials Student discount Retail software 19© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.

Questions? © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. | Publishing as Prentice Hall.20