PC School Pg02

Page 2

Hardware - The physical stuff that makes up a PC that you would typically have.

CPU - (Central Processing Unit)

- A chasis or box that contains the guts and processing chip

- Processor chip - determines how fast - current - Intel Core Duo 1.86MHz

- Has a power button - Look for the Universal Power Symbol.

Keyboard -

- Like a standard typewriter keypad - with a numeric pad added to the right.

- Connects to CPU by wire

Mouse

- Navigational device controlled by hand

- Connects to CPU by wire or wireless

Monitor ($175 and Up)

- Display device - currently LCD flat screen

- 17" to 19" most common LCD size

- light weight - not like a TV with cathode tube.

- Has a power button (desktop)

- Connects to CPU by wire

Speakers (>$10 to $200)

- Used for multimedia - music, TV, etc.

- If you will listen to music or TV you will want speaker with subwoofer.

Other devices or peripherals

- Printer

- Basically three types to look for:

- Color Inkjet

- Laser (B&W and Color)

- Multifunction

Color Inkjet Printer- $70 to $1000

1) Slow

2) low cost

3) Can print photos in decent quality

4) Best Bet - >$125

5) Recommended brands: Canon, HP, Dell, Epson

Laser Printer $99-$1000

1) Fast

3) Great for text documents

4) Color Laser good for presentations

5) Color laser fair on photos but fast

6) Best Bet - B&W >$125 Color > $350

7) Recommended brands: Canon, HP, Dell, Epson

Multifunction $149 and UP

1) Inkjet or laser with scanner, sometime with Fax

2) Good for home office

3) Best Bet - >$200

- Scanner $150 and up

- Scans documents and creates a picture file

- Best Bet $150

- OCR -(Optical Character Recognition) can convert text from copy to word

processor software