Personal Computer Purchasing Project
Personal Computer Purchasing Project.
1.0 Introduction:
When purchasing a personal computer for home or business use, buyers are faced with a myriad of options to choose from in the market based on brands, technical specifications, pricing, quality, and reliability. In this case, it is important to conduct significant market research, read customer and technical reviews, and make your own comparison before deciding on the PC to buy. Some of the major considerations include the intended usage i.e. for home entertainment, business or gaming, etc. There are considerations to be made with regard to software such as operating systems and application software, network connectivity, performance, portability, and design. Depending on the user type, some users especially beginners would prefer preassembled computers that come out of the box with preinstalled software and hardware configured. Other users may prefer to buy individual parts and built their own custom machines. These users are often power users such as gamers, designers, and IT professionals who require certain high-end specifications (Knapp, 2015).
2.0 Purpose:
The reasons for purchasing a PC is to have a multipurpose home entertainment and work machine that can perform simple tasks such as word processing and even heavy tasks such as gaming and multimedia editing. I also need a machine that is easy to upgrade if need be, and has robust hardware such that it shall serve me well without becoming obsolete. Since the PC will be used at home, it is only fair that the PC purchased will have good multimedia capabilities and features such as Bluetooth, Webcam for video chatting with friends on social media, wireless network access to facilitate internet access, and a quality display to watch movies and music videos on.
In this paper, three PC configurations are compared, and a recommendation on the best machine among the three is presented at the end. The PC selection criteria will be limited by a budget constraint of $400 for software purchases and $100 for hardware. Other considerations include the computer design and in order to appreciate the assignment objectives the paper shall compare three common PC designs i.e. a tower desktop PC, a laptop PC, and the modern all-in-one PC designs. The PCs chosen for this study are the ASUS ROG G20 desktop PC (gaming PC), the Lenovo B50 an all-in-one PC and a laptop computer, the Acer Aspire E5-573G-57HR. This paper did not consider Apple computers such as MacBook and iMac since they’re quite expensive ($1000+) yet there are similar PCs with equal specifications or better at lower prices. Apple computers also have limited customization capabilities. The three computers are compared in Table 1 below based on their software and hardware specifications.
Upon assessing the comparison table above, it is evident that all these PCs are similarly matched in terms of specifications, but they are also far from being stated as equal since each configuration has its strengths and weaknesses.
3.0 Software.
The three PCs are all based on the 64-bit processor architecture and come with 64 bit Windows operating systems installed. The Acer Aspire comes with Windows 10 64 bit while the other two have Windows 8.1 64 bit preinstalled. This is quite a relief since the user is relieved of the costs of purchasing an operating system for the PC he/she purchases. The recommended application to purchase is the Microsoft Office suite and the recommended package for the PCs is the Office 365 Personal suite which can be purchased for only $69.99 on the Microsoft website (Microsoft, 2016). The recommended antivirus is Bitdefender Total Security 2016 since it is the most powerful antivirus in the market (according to user and expert reviews), and it comes with inbuilt firewall program, all this at a bargain price of 89.95 though at the time of writing this paper, there was a $29 offer (Bitdefender.com, 2016). These software applications were the only ones necessary to purchase since there are reliable freeware and open source software for other functions such as reading PDF files (Adobe Reader free) and playing multimedia content e.g. VLC media player and KODI among others. The hardware drivers are usually provided free for download by the manufacturer, and most are regularly updated to ensure a streamlined user experience.
4.0 Hardware:
Hardware upgrading and portability:
All the three PCs chosen for this study have different physical designs with the most portable being the Acer laptop, followed by the all-in-one Lenovo and finally the Asus desktop. However, the two desktop PCs require some desk space. In terms of upgrading, the ASUS desktop PC has a large casing, chassis, and motherboard and this allows for easy upgrades and customizations including adding RAM, cooling systems, graphics cards and hard drives. It is also easy to swap peripherals such as a mouse, monitor and keyboard in the Asus desktop as compared to the other configurations which lack this flexibility since screens are inbuilt. The laptop and the all-in-one desktop have minimalistic designs which limit the potential to upgrade parts.
Processors and System Memory/ RAM:
In terms of performance, all the three PCs have powerful processors i.e. Intel core i5 and i7 processors. While the Lenovo has a core i7 processor, the clock speed is much less compared to the Asus ROG 3.2 GHz core i5 processor. The Acer Aspire and Lenovo all-in-one have 2.2 GHz processors (Amazon.com, 2016; Best Buy, 2016; Lenovo, 2016). Also, the Asus desktop is designed for gaming, and generally, desktop PCs usually have better performance than minimalistic designed all-in-one and laptop PCS even if all machines have the same specifications. This is due to functional considerations such as hardware robustness (desktop hardware is more robust compared to mobile/laptop hardware) and other factors such as cooling. In terms of system memory, the Acer laptop and ASUS desktop have 8 GB of RAM each while the Lenovo all-in-one has 12 GB RAM. However, all three machines can be upgraded to 16 GB of RAM if need be. However, the Lenovo B50 is expected to perform better when running multiprocessing applications compared to the ASUS desktop and Acer laptop.
Graphics Processors and Hard Drive Storage.
When it comes to hard drive storage, the Lenovo B50 beats the other PCs hand down since it has a 2 Terabyte + 8 GB SSHD (solid-state hybrid drive) hard drive that completely overshadows the 1 Terabyte SATA disks found the Acer laptop and ASUS desktop. The hybrid drive in the Lenovo PC had over twice the capacity and given that it has an extra 8 GB of fast solid-state memory; it will surely have faster boot times compared to its counterparts.
All the PCs discussed come with dedicated graphics cards manufactured by NVIDIA, and the ASUS ROG, which was designed specifically for gaming, has the most powerful card, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 desktop graphics with 2 GB graphics memory. The Acer laptop has the NVIDIA GeForce 940M mobile graphics chip with 2 GB graphics memory, but since it is a laptop graphics chip, its performance cannot be compared to the desktop graphics in the ASUS ROG. Finally, the Lenovo all-in-one comes last in this category with its NVIDIA GeForce GT 840A desktop graphics with 1GB memory (Amazon.com, 2016; Best Buy, 2016; Lenovo, 2016).
Audio, Networking and other hardware.
All the three PC compared support WLAN 802.11ac and Gigabit Ethernet LAN connectivity which means they can connect to both wireless and wired networks. The Asus desktop and the Acer laptop also support Bluetooth connectivity which means they can connect to Bluetooth speakers and support Bluetooth file sharing. All machines have USB ports with the ASUS desktop having 8 ports, followed by the Lenovo B50 with 5 ports and finally the Acer laptop with 3 ports. They also have HDMI out ports, but the Lenovo B50 does have the added advantage of possessing an HDMI input port that allows you to plug in smartphones, game consoles and watch their content of the Lenovo desktop’s wide screen. If you need many connection ports, then the ASUS desktop would be the ultimate choice (Amazon.com, 2016; Best Buy, 2016; Lenovo, 2016).
Peripheral Hardware devices.
The Acer laptop and Lenovo all-in-one have inbuilt high-definition displays at 15.6 inches and 23.8 inches respectively. The ASUS desktop requires one to purchase a monitor separately and in this case, a 27 inch IPS HD LED monitor from ASUS was chosen. The monitor costs 259.99 at Best Buy. The desktop PCs i.e. Lenovo B50 and ASUS ROG require a USB mouse and keyboard, but these come in the PC purchase package. The Acer laptop has an inbuilt keyboard and touchpad (Amazon.com, 2016; Best Buy, 2016; Lenovo, 2016).
5.0 Cost:
6.0 Recommendation and Conclusion:
After reviewing the costs and specifications on the three PC’s i.e. the Acer Aspire laptop, ASUS ROG desktop and the Lenovo B50 all-in-one, the best PC for overall use based on several considerations such as design, performance, productivity, costs and upgradeability is the ASUS ROG desktop PC. The Acer Aspire laptop also has good value for money and various portability benefits given that it is a laptop. However, given the rate at which computer technologies are evolving, it is most likely possible that the laptop will become obsolete in quite a short period, and the upgrade options for this PC are limited. The same also goes for the all-in-one hybrid PC and even with its superior hard drive space, processor, and RAM, it is still quite expensive and has limited upgrade options.
However, the ASUS desktop was designed for heavy tasks i.e. gaming and thus possesses a fast 3.2 GHz core i5 processor, superior gaming graphics, sufficient RAM, ample ports and most importantly the ability to be customized. In fact, on the desktop PC, a user can change virtually anything from the processor, motherboard, RAM, chassis, peripherals, cooling systems, interface cards, etc. Budget wise, the system is the most expensive overall but given that it is still within the budget range and offers all the intrinsic benefits mentioned above, then it is worth the investment. The ASUS ROG can be used by any type of user ranging from home users, gamers, multimedia designers and editors, and even businesses.
References:
Amazon.com. (2016). Amazon.com: Acer Aspire E5-573G 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Intel Core i5 5200U, 8GB, 1TB, NVIDIA GeForce 940M 2GB, Windows 10 Home): Computers & Accessories. Amazon.com. Retrieved 12 May 2016, from http://www.amazon.com/Acer-E5-573G-15-6-Inch-GeForce-Windows/dp/B012IBOCRU?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAICE7LOAJMK3SSLPA&tag=pcm_buyitnow-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B012IBOCRU
Amazon.com,. (2016). Amazon.com: Lenovo All In One B50-30 (Multi-Touch) - F0AU0003US: DOORBUSTER - 4th Generation Intel Core i5-4460T (1.90GHz 1600MHz 6MB): Computers & Accessories. Amazon.com. Retrieved 12 May 2016, from http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MWMWAW0/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687702&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00MWMWDAY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=02TPCKTS9ZV79KA043VF
Best Buy. (2016). Asus - 27" IPS LED HD Monitor. Best Buy. Retrieved 13 May 2016, from http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-27-ips-led-hd-monitor-silver/8767178.p?id=1218890757451&
Best Buy, A. (2016). Asus - ROG Desktop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Black/Red. Best Buy. Retrieved 13 May 2016, from http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-rog-desktop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black-red/4494202.p?id=1219754439214&skuId=4494202
Bitdefender.com. (2016). Bitdefender - Live Your Digital LEAP YEAR at Full Speed. Bitdefender.com. Retrieved 15 May 2016, from http://www.bitdefender.com/media/html/29Offer2016/?pid=SEM_NA_29Offer2016&sem_region=US&utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=Search_RLSA
Knapp, M. (2016). 9 Key Things to Know Before You Buy a New Computer. The Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 13 May 2016, from http://www.cheatsheet.com/technology/9-tips-for-picking-your-machine-computer-shopping-cheat-sheet.html/?a=viewall
Lenovo.com. (2016). Lenovo B50 (Intel) - All-in-One Desktop PC. Lenovo. Retrieved 14 May 2016, from http://shopap.lenovo.com/in/en/desktops/lenovo/b-series/b50-30/
Microsoft. (2016). Buy Microsoft Office 365 Home & Personal subscriptions. Products.office.com. Retrieved 12 May 2016, from https://products.office.com/en-us/buy/office
