Logan Sharpe 

Unit 14 - Assignment 1  

 
Basic Computer Diagram (Task 1) 
 

Processor 
The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the main part of the computer, you can 
compare it to what our brain does for us, it receives and sends signals to 
various components to get the computer to work. There are arrows that go in 
both directions on the CPU because everything that's connected to the 
computer goes through the CPU. 
 
 
Input Device 
Input devices are things like your mouse and keyboard. The mouse is a device 
you use to control the cursor on your screen and the keyboard is what you 
use to type information with. The arrow going into the CPU is only one way 
because these devices only send information into the CPU, it does not send 
any information back. 
 
 
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Output Device 
The most common output devices are the monitor and printer. The monitor is 
used to display all the information the computer is generating into something 
you can see and understand. A printer is a device that is used to get a hard 
copy of something that is digital. The arrow is only going one way and that is 
out from the CPU because the CPU only needs to send signals to these 
devices to tell them what to do, it does not need any data back. 
 
Main Memory 
The main memory in a computer also known as RAM (Random Access 
Memory) is a volatile memory which means as soon as you switch the 
computer off it starts to empty and after a few minutes of being off, it will be 
completely empty. There are two different types of Ram, SRAM (Static 
Random Access Memory) which is a more reliable and a faster version of 
DRAM (Dynamic Ram) they are both storage devices that work in different 
ways. DRAM needs to be dynamically refreshed or it forgets what it is holding, 
this happens thousands of times a second, hence the name DRAM. SRAM, on 
the other hand, does not need to be refreshed which makes it much faster 
but has more parts because a static memory cell takes up more room than a 
dynamic memory cell on a chip, which means you get less memory per chip 
which in turn makes it more expensive. There are arrows that flow both ways 
from the RAM and CPU, this is because data is being written and read to the 
RAM at the same time. 
 
 
Auxiliary Storage 
Auxiliary storage is an external memory that gets connected to the computer 
through input/output channels. There are many different types of external 
storage, there are external hard drives, USB flash drives and compact discs. 
These types of memory are nonvolatile, which means they do not forget what 
is on there when they are disconnected to the computer. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Memory Chart  
 
Name  Abbreviatio Actual Size  Size  Binary 
n 

Bit  b  1bit  1b   

Byte  B  8bits  8b   

Kilo  KB  1,024  1,024 B  210  

Mega  MB  1,048,576  1024 KB  220  

Giga  GB  1,073,741,824  1024 MB  230  

Tera  TB  1,099,511,627,776  1024 GB  240  

Petra  PB  1,125,899,906,842,624  1024 TB  250  

Exa  EB  1,152,921,504,606,846,9 1024 PB  260  

76 
 
 
Above is a chart showing some of the different memory sizes available. The 
memory goes up in powers of two as shown in the binary column, the reason 
for this is because computers use bits (1’s and 0’s) so can only store in powers 
of two. As you can see in the chart the size and actual size are different, this is 
because we round the numbers down so that they are all (except 1 bit and 8 
bytes) 1024 of the previous memory, which makes it easier to remember. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
Logan Sharpe 
 

Boolean Logic 
 
 
AND 
An And gate is used on a gate with 
two inputs, it will only work when both 
inputs are 1. If i switched the switch off 
and it became a 1 and a 0 then it 
would not work. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NAND 
An NAND gate is the 
complete opposite to an 
AND gate. So it does not 
work with the both switches 
pressed  
 
The light will come on if only 
one switch is pressed or if 
both switches are off. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
OR 
An OR gate will work with either both 
switches on or with just one switch on. 
 
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

NOR 
An NOR gate is again the opposite  of 
an OR gate. It will only work with 
both switches not pressed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NOT (Inverter) 
An NOT gate is a single input device 
that inverts the signal going in, so if i 
have a 0 then the output would be a 1. 
It work when the switch is off but does not when it is on. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
XOR 
An XOR is an exclusive OR gate, when 
you hook it up with two switches and  a 
light it will only work when just one of 
the switches are pressed, unlike an OR 
which works if both are pressed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Upgrading computer components 

 
Any business 
RAM - Increasing the RAM gives you more speed, with more RAM the CPU is 
able to write more data to the RAM so it can do more things at the same 
time. Even though you should have less waiting times when it comes to using 
applications, upgrading the RAM alone will not make your computer faster. It 
is one of the cheaper ways to upgrade the computer, if your business is 
mainly word processing then you do not need huge amounts of RAM, but if 
your business is dealing with complex operations it would be beneficial to 
have more RAM. Before upgrading the RAM you need to make sure that the 
motherboard supports it, for example, you cannot go from DDR3 to DDR4 
without changing the motherboard and CPU first. 
 
Any business 
CPU - Upgrading the CPU can turn a slow computer into a fast one. It isn't 
necessarily a cheap way to upgrade your computer but it will feel like a new 
computer afterwards, especially if you have upgraded the RAM at the same 
time. The more expensive the CPU the faster it will be, although you need to 
way up the cost with what you want to do on your computer. Compatibility is 
an issue when upgrading, you need to make sure that the motherboard is 
compatible. You can do this either by looking in the manufacturer's 
handbook that came with the motherboard or going onto the manufacturer's 
website to find out, you will find the manufacturer's name and the model of 
the motherboard on the motherboard itself. 
 
Some businesses 
Hard drive - Businesses that may want to upgrade their hard drive would be 
ones like professional photographers that work with RAW images, which can 
be very large or film producers who need to store a lot of movies on their 
computer. There are different types of hard drive to consider either a solid 
state one or a magnetic strip hard drive, solid state drives are not only faster 
but also a lot less likely to fail, compared to a solid-state drive which is slower 
and has moving parts which can easily fail, however, solid-state drives are 
pretty new so we do not know how they fare over a long period of time. 
There are different ways they can upgrade their hard drive, either upgrading 
their internal hard drive or buying an external hard drive that they can attach 
to the computer, which one they end up buying will depend on what kind of 
things they need to do. If they need direct access to the files without waiting 
for them to transfer over from an external hard drive then they should 
upgrade their internal hard drive, If an external hard drive is better for them 
then they should see how that hard drive is connected to the computer, if it is 
Logan Sharpe 
 

connected with USB 2.0 where the transfer speed tops out at 480 Mbps then it 
may take a lot of time to access the files they need especially if they are 
working with large files, USB 3.0 may be a better option for them which can 
do 5Gbps or even thunderbolt which can transfer a massive 20Gbps. When 
upgrading an internal hard drive you need to check the type of controller 
you have on the motherboard, an IDE (integrated drive electronics) 
controller, a SATA (serial advanced technology attachment) port, if both are 
available then the SATA one should be used as its quicker. The prices of the 
hard drives vary depending on the size and type that's needed, solid state 
drives are more expensive. 
 
Some businesses 
Video card - The video card that comes with the computer should be fine for 
most businesses if not then video cards can be upgraded to increase the 
quality of the graphics, which can be important if your business has anything 
to do with video, photography or games. High performing video cards can 
be expensive to buy, but you shouldn't need to buy an extremely expensive 
one unless you need really high resolutions or have a large multi-monitor 
system. When upgrading the video card you have to take into account the 
amount of RAM that comes with it, this RAM is different to the RAM on the 
motherboard which deals with non-graphic related operations, the type of 
RAM makes a difference as well GDDR5 is the best RAM available at the 
moment. There are a few compatibility problems that need to be thought out 
when upgrading a video card, you need to measure the size of the card you 
want with the space available on the computer, you also need to think about 
power like how much power does it consume and how many amps does it 
need. Low-level video cards draw power from the motherboard but higher 
level ones may need power from an external source, if you need to do this 
you need to make sure that there is enough power not only getting to the 
new video card but to the rest of the computer as well to keep it working. You 
can check this information out on the manufacturer's website. 
 
Some businesses 
Sound card - Sound cards that come with the computer should be fine for 
most businesses, but you can improve the sound which may be helpful in 
businesses that deal with things like movies and recording artists. You do not 
necessarily need to buy an expensive card, you can get an X-Fi Xtreme Audio 
card for about £30 that gives you Dolby Digital 7.1 Surround sound. This can 
be very helpful for music studios to hear clearly what is being sung or 
producers adding sound effects to post production movies. When installing 
the sound card you need to see if there is a sound card on the Motherboard 
Logan Sharpe 
 

and if so can it be disabled or will it be disabled when the new one is 
installed? 
 
Some businesses 
Network interface card - For most businesses the network card that comes 
with their computer will be sufficient, but those businesses that have a large 
network may want to upgrade their network card to get better speeds. 
Upgrading your network card does not necessarily mean that you will get 
faster speeds this will depend on the speed you are paying for from your ISP 
and the available bandwidth. If the business wants really fast speeds it can 
consider upgrading their network card to a fibre optic network card with 
capabilities of 1-10 Gbps which is 100 times faster. To get the benefits of this 
they will need to upgrade their infrastructure from unshielded twisted pair 
(copper) wire to fibre optic. 
 
 
Health and safety 
 
When it comes to health and safety it is vital that we follow all the rules 
carefully, this is not only to protect you but others as well. The safety of you 
and the people around you comes before anything else, once you are safe 
then you need to protect not only the equipment but the vital data that the 
equipment holds. All your electrical equipment should be up to date with 
their PAT (portable appliance testing)  
 
You need to be aware of all fire exits and where the fire extinguisher is 
located you also need to be aware of any hazards in your work area like trip 
hazards, so make sure all bags and belongings are kept away in a safe place, 
this also helps with safety when exiting the building in a fire.  
 
The biggest importance of health and safety is to know your equipment and 
know what you are doing! Do not open up the power supply inside of the 
computer even if it's a really old one because it can hold a lethal charge of 
electricity for years! 
 
 
Correct use of tools 
 
● You need to know how to use the tools available like pliers and 
screwdrivers correctly, this is vital for keeping not only you safe but the 
equipment. You may be tempted to use the tool you have to hand 
knowing it is the wrong tool for the job save getting up and looking for 
Logan Sharpe 
 

the correct tool, this may save you a few seconds now but can cost 
you dearly later down the line of you damage the equipment you are 
working on and have to spend time and money replacing it. 
Multimeters are helpful when diagnosing issues in computer systems but 
they have a lot of safety precautions that need to be followed carefully 
like: 
● “De-energize and discharge the circuit completely before connecting 
or disconnecting a multimeter. 
● Never apply power to the circuit while measuring resistance with a 
multimeter. 
● Connect the multimeter in series with the circuit for current 
measurements, and in parallel for voltage measurements. 
● Be certain the multimeter is switched to ac before attempting to 
measure ac circuits. 
● Observe proper dc polarity when measuring dc  
● When you are finished with a multimeter, switch it to the OFF position, if 
available. If there is no off position, switch the multimeter to the highest 
ac voltage position. 
● Always start with the highest voltage or current range. 
● Select a final range that allows a reading near the middle of the scale. 
● Adjust the 0 ohms reading after changing resistance ranges and before 
making a resistance measurement.” (1) 
 
 
ESD equipment 
 
ESD (Electrostatic discharge) which is that little shock you sometimes get 
when touching someone or something, it is completely harmless to humans 
but can do serious damage or even destroy parts of your computer. This can 
be a disaster for your business if you destroy your customer's computers which 
may hold data that they cannot get back. You can avoid this by wearing an 
anti-static wrist strap, which is a strap that goes around your wrist that has a 
wire with a crocodile clip at the end that you clip to an unpainted metal side 
of the computer this drains any static electricity from your body. The most 
important thing when using an anti-static wrist strap is to make sure the 
computer is switched off at the mains!!! This is the first thing you should do 
before anything else.

 
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

References 
 
(1) http://navyaviation.tpub.com/14020/css/Multimeter-Safety-Precautions
-123.htm 
 
Report 
 
Components I would change in the CEO’s office 
 
Hard drive  
The computer only has a small 40GB hard drive which I would recommend 
changing to a larger one of at least 200 GB SATA Hard drive 7200 RPM 3.5 
inch, although much larger hard drives don’t cost that much and the larger 
hard drive will allow the computer to store more company files. As the 
company expands and the databases of the clients and employees grow 
they will need a larger hard drive to store them. 
Reliability is key when running a business and upgrading the hard drive to a 
new one before the old one fails will give you peace of mind that the 
important folder and files stored on it will be safe. 
 
Printer/Scanner 
I would change the scanner and printer to an all in one printer and scanner 
because the printer is an old printer and the pen scanner is completely 
inadequate when it comes to scanning complete documents. In an office 
environment signed documents are often sent electronically which will be 
easier to do with a flatbed scanner. The new all in one will be more power 
efficient than the old printer and the ink cartridges will be easier to find and 
cheaper.  
  
 
Components I would change in the general office 
 
Network interface cards 
Installing network interface cards that support up to 1000Mbps on all the 
general office computers will allow a LAN (local area network) to be set up 
with not only the office but the CEO’s office as well. Installing a LAN will help 
the business in so many ways and will save the company time and money. 
The way the office is set up now if an employee wants to access files on 
another person’s computer they must disturb that person to ask them to either 
send it to them or copy it to a thumb drive, once the LAN is set up opening 
the files on another person’s computer will be as easy as if they were stored 
on their own machine. A LAN will also help with making sure everybody in the 
Logan Sharpe 
 

office has all the latest up to date information and allow them to send files 
electronically, which is vital for keeping the business running smoothly. The 
network infrastructure is already in the building so there is only need to 
connect the computers with ethernet cables after the install of the network 
cards. 
 
Printer/Scanner 
The old printer that is in the general office needs updating because newer 
printers are more reliable and power efficient than old ones which will save 
the company money in the long run. A new printer will give more professional 
looking prints than the dot matrix printer which will be better for the company 
when giving customers hard copies. The travel scanner is not suitable for a 
busy office, I would upgrade it to an all in one printer scanner which will give 
the benefits I’ve explained in updating the CEO's office. Once the network is 
up and running we will be able to connect the printer to it and everybody on 
the network will be able to print from it, this makes it much easier than the 
current setup where the printer is only connected to one machine.  
  
 
Components I would change in both offices 
 
RAM 
The RAM in both the CEO’s office and the general office is not enough to run 
a busy office, I would recommend a minimum of 4GB DDR RAM which will 
help drastically speed up all computers in the office. More RAM will help 
when you are multitasking with different applications, the computer will run a 
lot smoother which in turn can only improve productivity. More RAM will also 
allow you to use new programs that may have required more RAM than what 
was available, these new programs may be better and more efficient than 
the programs in use. 
 
 
Benefits of installing hardware 
 
Installing new hardware can be a cheaper way to make your computer feel 
like new without having to buy a new computer.  
Installing new hardware can help in many ways including health-wise, if you 
have poor eyesight and need a larger monitor or you need to change your 
mouse to one this is larger and easier to control. 
You may need more space on your hard drive to store large files and 
installing a new hard drive will give you the space you need. 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Installing new hardware can also speed up your computer you can do this by 
installing more RAM or a new CPU.  
You can have peace of mind when you have just installed new hardware 
that it is unlikely to fail compared to the one that needed replacing which 
can be years old. 
 
 
Benefits of maintaining hardware 
 
 
The more you maintain your computer the less likely of faults happening. If 
you do not keep your hardware clean it can easily fail, dust gets sucked in 
through the air vents and collects around all the internal hardware, if this goes 
unchecked it will slowly block the air vents which will cause the computer to 
overheat which is deadly to a computer. Overheating will cause glitches and 
accelerate the ageing and make your components fail quicker than they 
normally would do. Even a small amount of dust can short out components, 
maintaining your computer will save you money because things are more 
likely to not fail and will make your computer last longer. 
 
 
Analysis of the technology systems in Wrexham Employment 
 
RED = Upgrades 
 
CEO’s Office 
PC 
Deepcool TESSERACT SW PC Case 500W power supply 
Fractal Design Define R5 
HP OfficeJet all in one printer/scanner 
Motherboard - MSI Z97S SLI 
Processor - Intel Celeron G1840 Socket 1150 2MB L3 Cache, 2.80GHz 
RAM - 2 x 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM, 4GB Total 
200GB Sata Hard Drive 7200 RPM 3.5 Samsung, Magnetic Internal Hard Drive 
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce 6150 GPU, On Board Graphics 
 
Connectivity: 
2 Legacy PCI Slot(s)  
3 PCIe x1 Slot(s)  
2 PCIe 3.0 x16 Slot(s)  
  
Number of USB 2.0 Ports  2 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Number of USB 3.0 Ports  1 

Number of HDMI Ports  1 
Number of Ethernet Ports  1 
Number of VGA Ports  1 
Number of PS-2 Ports  1 
 
Network Status - LAN Network 
 
Pheripherals 
Monitor - Hanns-G HA191DP0 
Kinesis Advantage Pro Contoured USB Ergonomic Keyboard 
Optical 7D 2400DPI Gaming Mouse Mice Game 
 
Optical Drive - Pioneer BDR-209DBK 16X BD/DVD/CD Blu-Ray Disc Writer 
 
Operating System - Windows 10, ​with Microsoft Office Professional 2010 
installed. 
 
 
General Office 
18 PC’s 
Deepcool TESSERACT SW PC Case 500W power supply 
Fractal Design Define R5 
HP OfficeJet all in one printer/scanner 
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H 
Processor - Intel Core i5 4570 Socket 1150 6MB Cache, 2.90GHz 
RAM- 4GB DDR2 1333MHz RAM 
160GB Sata Hard Drive 7200 RPM 3.5 Samsung, Magnetic Internal Hard Drive 
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce 6150 GPU, On Board Graphics 
 
Connectivity 
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) 
4 x DDR3 DIMM sockets  
1 x D-Sub port 
1 x DVI-D port 
1 x HDMI port 
1 x Ethernet Port 
 
Network Status - LAN Network 
 
Pheripherals 
Monitor - Hanns-G HA191DP0 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Kinesis Advantage Pro Contoured USB Ergonomic Keyboard 

Optical 7D 2400DPI Gaming Mouse Mice Game 
 
Optical Drive - LiteOn iHAS124 24X Internal DVD Writer with SATA - OEM 
 
Operating System - Windows 10, with Microsoft Office Professional 2010 
installed. 
 
Risk of upgrading / installing (Task 2) 
 
 
Installing hardware 
There are many risks when installing or upgrading new hardware, these risks 
include: ESD, equipment damage, data loss, service loss, health and safety 
and compatibility. Some of these are more serious than others, serious 
enough that it can hurt the company you are hired by, which then will 
damage your reputation which is important when running a business. It is 
important that the risks are understood and the rules are followed carefully to 
stop any of them from happening. 
 
 
ESD 
ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) is a tiny version of lightning, it is sometimes felt 
when you go to touch another person or something metal. This charge is 
harmless to humans but is a serious risk computer components, the charge 
can damage components without you even realising, which makes it even 
more of as risk. You can avoid this by using an electrostatic band which is a 
band that has a wire with a mains plug on the end, the band goes around 
your wrist and the clip gets connected to the mains which drains any static 
electricity from your body. Another way to avoid ESD is to use an ESD mat with 
an earth wire, the mat gets connected to the mains with the earth wire. 
Computer components should always be kept in an antistatic packaging 
which has shielding built in to keep the electrostatic electricity away from the 
component in the bag. 
 
 
Equipment damage 
Great care is needed when handling computers and its components 
because damage is easily done. Patience is essential, without it you may get 
frustrated and either be tempted to rush or try to force components with pins 
that can be easily bent out of shape. Most connections are shaped in a 
certain way for you to easily identify where it should go, if you take the time to 
Logan Sharpe 
 

look at not only the shape but the way the pins are arranged it will help you 
see where and which way it fits. Old hardware may not have the connections 
that make it easier for you to see how to fit in the connection so extra care is 
needed. When fitting RAM chips they only fit one way on the motherboard 
and power cables need to be connected correctly if it is not then it could fry 
the hardware so take some time to get it right. 
 
When handling components care is needed not to drop them because things 
like hard drives can be ruined especially the magnetic hard drives that have 
a lot of moving internal parts that can easily brake. Preparation is key so 
make sure you have everything you need at close hand so that there is no 
need for you to leave your work area, this will give you a better chance of not 
dropping things.   
 
 
Data loss  
Data loss is one of the worst things that can happen to a business so you 
need to be really careful this does not happen. This can happen if anything is 
dropped or during the transfer of the data to the new hard drive, either by 
you not doing the transfer correctly or the old hard drive might not be 
working correctly and some of the things it contains may be corrupt. To 
minimise the chance of losing any of the data you should make sure the 
company has a backed up copy of their data, if they do then you should ask 
them to sign a disclaimer to say they have everything backed up and it is not 
your responsibility if something was to go wrong and the their data was lost. If 
they do not have a backup then you can offer to do it for them at an extra 
charge. 
 
 
Service loss  
Next to data loss, service loss is really important, the company will want as 
little disruption to their business as possible. First we need a to work out a plan, 
when is the best time for the customer? What is the least amount of time the 
upgrade will take to implement? Is the time it takes short enough for it to be 
done whilst the business is closed so that there is no disruption at all? If the 
upgrade is going to happen during the working hours of the business, is the 
customer willing to close for the time it takes, if not then can the upgrade be 
done in stages so that the company can remain unhindered?  
 
 
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Health and safety   

Us and the people who work for the company are the most important things, 
second to that is the data so we need to make sure we follow all health and 
safety rules, these are: 
● Fire​ - We need to make sure that we are fully aware of where the fire 
exits are in the company and also the fire extinguishers. 
● Trip Hazards​ - We need to make sure that the paths are clear at all 
times and correctly store things like bags under tables out of the way, 
this is to prevent tripping and also to keep the area clear if there is a 
fire. 
● Electricity ​- We need to make sure that everything is unplugged from 
the mains before we start working on anything 
 
 
Training - ​After we have updated Wrexham Employments computers we 
need to make sure that they are up to date on the changes we have made 
and show them anything they didn’t have before. They wanted to send files 
electronically so we will show them how to do that, we will also show them 
how to access and share files on the new network and explain how they can 
collaborate together on documents. They will have new printer/scanner on 
the network so they will need to be shown that they can now print from any 
computer and shown how to use it. The most important thing they need to be 
shown is how to backup the network, we need to explain that this is very 
important so that they don’t lose important data if something went wrong. 
We will set it to automatically backup but they still need to know incase they 
ever need to do it manually, spending extra time to explain and show all of 
these things to the customer will save the company time and money in the 
long run.  
 
 
Compatibility  
Before we upgrade anything we need to research the equipment that the 
customer currently has, if we are thinking of upgrading things like CPU or RAM 
then we need to make sure that the motherboard that is in the computer is 
compatible with the CPU and RAM we are buying. If we bought CPU and 
RAM without first looking up the compatibility of the motherboard it would 
cost us money because we would only charge the company for what we 
actually put into their machines not for our mistakes. We also need to 
research when it comes to software as well, we cannot just upgrade the 
customers operating system without researching what software they have on 
their machines. If we did upgrade without doing any research we may find 
that the software the customer uses is not compatible with the new upgrade 
Logan Sharpe 
 

and will cost the company money, not only in lost time because they cannot 
use the software, but also the cost of replacing that software. So if we are 
upgrading the operating system we need to look if their software is 
compatible if it is not then we need to see if there is any updates to their 
software that will make it compatible. 
 
 
Decommissioning 
It is important to think about recycling when it comes to upgrading or 
replacing a PC, if you are replacing a PC you should think if the old PC can 
be reused in some way? If the company is replacing any PC’s they could use 
one as a server for their network or if there software is compatible with Linux 
their PC’s life can be extended by switching from Windows to Linux. This is 
because Linux is not as demanding on hardware as Windows is so an older 
PC that is running slow on Windows can become a fast machine when 
running Linux. 
 
If the PC still works then you could donate it to local schools or charities, or if 
you want to make some extra money you could sell it. If this is what is decide 
to do then you need to be aware of data protection, hard drives need to be 
properly wiped so you should reinstall the operating system before you sell or 
give away the PC’s and when choosing an option to wipe the hard drive you 
should choose “thoroughly” not “quickly” as this is the safer option. 
 
You could try and salvage components from the old PC, if a new PC is being 
built money could be saved by reusing parts from the old PC. Things that can 
be reused are the the case, the optical drive and power supply, anything 
that is not being reused should be disposed of in an environmentally 
responsible manner, which means recycling and not throwing it on a landfill. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Strengths and Weaknesses (Task 3) 

 
General Office 
 
 
Power Supply 
The computer 
currently has a 500W 
power supply which 
is fine to run the 
current hardware, 
however a 1kW 
power supply would 
be better, especially 
if you want to 
upgrade other 
hardware 
components. The 
old 500W power supply will not be as efficient as a newer 1kW 80 plus power 
supply, so may cost you more to run than a newer one. 80 plus certification is 
a way for manufacturers to show that their power supplies are at least 80% 
efficient, there are six ratings which have varying degrees of efficiency. 
 
 
Computer Case 
The computer case that is currently being used is perfectly fine if you are 
going to upgrade to similar hardware, the case may not be big enough if you 
want to change to different internals, there are currently 18 computers in the 
office and one could be used as a server if that is needed. If that is something 
that is to happen then a new larger computer case will be needed to hold all 
the storage. 
 
 
Printer/Scanner 
The citizen dot matrix Label Printer IDP-560 was 
first released in 1996, it is completely inadequate 
for a modern office as is the Xerox Travel 
Scanner 150 A4 Document Scanner. The printer 
is only a label printer and cannot print normal A4 
documents which is the standard size an office 
would use, the scanner would be okay if they 
are scanning one or two documents but a busy 
Logan Sharpe 
 

office that needs to send a lot of digital files, needs a proper full sized 
scanner. The ​Epson WorkForce WF-3620DWF is an all in one printer, scanner, 
copying and faxing machine that prints in colour unlike the old printer. This 
would drastically increase the productivity in the workplace. 
 
 
Motherboard 

CPU 
1. Support for Intel® Core™ i7 processors/Intel® Core™ i5 
processors/Intel® Core™ i3 processors/Intel® Pentium® processors/Intel® 
Celeron® processors in the LGA1150 package 
2. L3 cache varies with CPU 
 
This motherboard is compatible with Intel's 5th generation processors which is 
good because they are still very good and fast processors for what they want 
their computer to do, this means they do not need a new motherboard. 
However these processors are not made anymore because Intel is on their 8th 
generation processors so if they want the latest processors they will need a 
new motherboard.  
 
 
Logan Sharpe 
 

Chipset 
1. Intel® Z97 Express Chipset 
 
Memory 
1. 4 x DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory 
2. Dual channel memory architecture 
3. Support for DDR3 
4. Support for non-ECC memory modules 
5. Support for Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules 
 
The motherboard supports up to 32GB of RAM which is way more than this 
business will ever need, 8GB should be sufficient for everything they want to 
do, however if they ever need more RAM the option is still there without the 
need for a new motherboard. DDR4 is available but i don’t think it is needed. 
 
Onboard Graphics 
Intel® HD Graphics support 
1. 1 x D-Sub port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200@60Hz 
2. 1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200@60Hz 
3. 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600@60Hz 
4. Support for up to 3 displays at the same time 
5. Maximum shared memory of 512MB 
 
These onboard graphics will be completely fine without the need for any 
upgrade because the computers are for spreadsheets and word processing 
only, however if in the future they will need a dedicated graphics card it is 
possible to upgrade using this motherboard. As you can see from the 
expansion slots below, there is 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) 
conforming to PCI Express 3.0 standard. This means that you can run a 3.0 
video card on it, but you would have to check the power consumption to see 
if it is compatible. 
 
Audio 
1. Realtek® ALC1150 codec 
2. High Definition Audio 
3. 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel 
4. Support for S/PDIF Out 
 
Again because this is an office based business only the onboard graphics 
card is fine. 
Logan Sharpe 
 

 
LAN 
1. Intel® GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) 
 
This is perfect for the office if they want to set a LAN 
 
Expansion Slots 
1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16) 
(The PCIEX16 slot conforms to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) 
2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) 
3. 2 x PCI Express x1 slots 
4. 3 x PCI slots 
 
As i mentioned above this gives you the option of upgrading graphics in the 
future. 
 
Storage Interface 
Chipset: 
1. 1 x M.2 PCIe connector 
2. 1 x SATA Express connector 
3. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors 
4. Support for RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10 
 
USB 
1. 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available 
through the internal USB header) 
2. 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 6 ports available 
through the internal USB headers) 
 
This motherboard has 6 X USB 3.0 ports which 
gives you speeds of 5Gbps which is 10x faster 
than USB 2.0 which will help when transferring 
larger files. This is not the fastest though, a new 
motherboard would be needed to support 
thunderbolt 3 which will transfer files at 40Gbps 
which i think would be overkill for this business.  
 
Internal I/O Connectors 
1. 1 x 24-pin ATX main power connector 
2. 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V power connector 
3. 1 x M.2 PCIe connector 
4. 1 x SATA Express connector 
Logan Sharpe 
 

5. 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors 

6. 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 header 
7. 3 x USB 2.0/1.1 headers 
8. 1 x CPU fan header 
9. 1 x water cooling fan header (CPU_OPT) 
10. 3 x system fan headers 
11. 1 x front panel header 
12. 1 x front panel audio header 
13. 1 x serial port header 
14. 1 x Trusted Platform Module (TPM) header 
15. 1 x S/PDIF Out header 
16. 1 x Clear CMOS jumper 
 
Back Panel Connectors 
1. 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port 
2. 1 x D-Sub port 
3. 1 x DVI-D port 
4. 1 x HDMI port 
5. 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports 
6. 2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 
7. 1 x RJ-45 port 
8. 6 x audio jacks (Center/Subwoofer Speaker Out, Rear Speaker Out,  
9. Side Speaker Out, Line In, Line Out, Mic In) 
 
In summary, the business does not need a to upgrade their motherboard for 
what they want to do on their computers, it gives them options of upgrading 
components in the future if they wish however the motherboard and the 
components it supports are not the latest. If the business wants to have all the 
latest components so they are future proof it might suit them to upgrade, but 
their really is no need. 
 
Processor 
As I talked about in the motherboard this is not the latest processor that Intel 
offers, although this processor will do everything the business wants, it is a 
quad core processor which means it can handle large files and doing heavy 
multitasking.  
 
RAM 
DDR3 is not the newest types of RAM you can get DDR4 is, DDR4 is more 
efficient and has faster speeds than their DDR3 counterpart which would be 
essential if they were a business who needs it but they don’t. For the office 
work these machines will be doing, DDR3 is completely fine. 
Logan Sharpe 
 

 
Video Card 
I explained in the motherboard graphics that this video card is completely 
fine for what they want to do. 
 
Monitor 
 
This is not a fancy monitor, it does not support 
HD or have an amazing display, it doesn't 
need to either. The business do spreadsheets, 
databases and word processing which do 
not need to be in HD, this monitor is fine for 
their needs.  
 
 
Storage 
The 160GB SATA hard drive is all the storage each of the computers needs in 
the office, especially if they go down the server route where all their files are 
going to be stored in a centralised location. Magnetic hard drives are 
cheaper than solid state hard drives which are much faster than magnetic 
ones but for an office that is possibly going to use a server then magnetic 
hard drive is fine. 
 
Optical Drive 
The LiteOn iHAS124 24X Internal DVD Writer that is currently installed has a 
maximum of 24X write speed for DVD and a maximum of 48X for CD with 
maximum re-write speeds of 8X. There are better optical drives out there that 
support Blu Ray like the LG BH16NS55.AUAU10B 16 Speed Internal SATA, this 
gives you the ability to write around 50GB to a Blu Ray disc. A modern office 
will not use the optical drive to transfer data to DVD’s so there is no need to 
upgrade, keep this one that will work for what the office needs which would 
probably just be to install software if it came on discs. 
 
References - 
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-things-know-buying-power-supply-unit-psu
/ 
 
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/printers/1402512/best-printer-2017-the-best-in
kjet-printers-laser-printers-and-all-in-ones-you-can-1 
 
https://ark.intel.com/products/75043/Intel-Core-i5-4570-Processor-6M-Cache-
up-to-3_60-GHz 
Logan Sharpe 
 

 
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z97-D3H-rev-10#sp 
 
https://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6619/crucial-ddr4-memory-performanc
e-overview-early-look-vs-ddr2-ddr3/index.html 
 
https://www.ebuyer.com/410560-liteon-ihas124-24x-internal-dvd-writer-with-sa
ta-oem-ihas124-14 
 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-BH16NS55-AUAU10B-Internal-Rewriter-Software
/dp/B017NS62M6/ref=pd_sbs_147_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TQE32TV
FCCKZZ25BXGCE