D2 justify the considerations for selection in the upgrade of an existing computer system.

(For D2) The charity believes that some notes about how and why particular upgrades to the computer systems are selected will be useful to the people in Tanzania. You are thought particularly able to do this and have been asked to make detailed notes justifying the considerations that are made when selecting upgrades for one existing computer system (the spec of which you should define). These notes are to be included in your blog.

Existing computer specification :

3.2ghz HT Intel processor Pentium 4
512mb DDR RAM
80gb SATA 2 HDD
CD RW Optical disk drive
128mb Intergrated Intel Graphics
Intergrated sound card

Upgrade options and notes

The first component I would consider for an upgrade would be the RAM. If the motherboard was DDR 2 compatiable I would look at putting 2gb of DDR2 RAM if not then 2gb of standard DDR RAM would be suitable but possibly more pricey due to demand. The reason I would upgrade the RAM is to give the system more stability and the ability to run more applications simutaneously, smoothly.

The second component I would upgrade would be the processor. The motherboard would have to be changed to accomodate this however this would of had to been altered due to the RAM upgrade anyway. The processor I would chose would be an Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.8ghz, 1066 FSB, LGA775. This processor has a good front side bus clock speed along with a dual core clocked at 2.8ghz per core, this basically means that the processor is capables of processing large amounts of data at very high speeds. This processor combined with 2gb of DDR2 RAM would result in a fast data processing machine capable of handling most modern computer games and almost any other software for example photoshop and office applications.

I would look at upgrading the graphics card to just a simple asus ATI 512mb DDR2 PCI-Express graphics card, which would allow the user to use sophisticated graphics applications as well as taking an uncessary strain off the intergrated motehrboard graphics.

The rest of the components I would not alter as they would be uncessary upgrades. The CD RW drive which is already installed is adaquate for reading and recording data to and from CD's. 80gb SATA 2 is big enough hard drive with with a fast trasnfer rate so I would not look into upgrading as it would be an unecessary cost along with a sound card.