COMPUTER PURCHASE EXERCISE

1. You have two systems with a pentium 4 chip with 128MB SD RAM expandable to 256 MB. You have 12 GB hard drive (7200 rpm) with the ability to add another EIDE hard drive. They both have the inkjet printer that came with the system.

Your mother uses this system to shop on the internet, and belongs to a lot of list serve groups and discussion boards. She also uses large accounting spreadsheets. She is finding that the system moves way too slowly through the internet, and calculations on the account spreadsheets take forever. She has used 6 GB of hard drive so far. She also finds that her printer is way too slow. How would you improve her system?

You use the second system. You installed many games already. The last game you tried to install said you did not have room to install it. You also bought a new camera and want to be able to print your pictures. How would you improve your system to get what you want in the least expensive way?

2. You need to buy a PC for your grandmother. She will look at the internet, but doesn't care whether it is a little slow. She wants to write letters and e-mail. She wants to be able to print pictures her children send her.

3. You are going to take an online course and do not have a computer system. You want to do the work on the system from home late at night. Buy a system and a printer that will primarily be used for that course.

4. You are a high school student who likes to play online 3-D games. Buy the least expensive system and printer for this use.

5. You are a college student. You want a computer to do your classwork on. You have access to a laser printer and a color ink jet printer at school. You have a new camera and want to store lots of pictures, but you don't plan to print any, or can go to the camera store for those few. You will need to use the internet a lot to do research.