Computer Science16 April 2013Gateway DX4870-UB318 desktopThe Gateway DX4870-UB318 is a full-size desktop computer. The reason why I went for a desktop instead of a laptop is because it is easy to upgrade one. The newest primary handling technology inside your DX gives you the independence to gather and arrange images, build music collections, modify video clips, and perform other achievements of your creativity. It has 8GB of memory, enough to handle all my digital photography applications and a 1TB hard drive which proved sufficient to store all my works and provide extra for installation of a number of PC games. The optionally available Easy-Swap development bay allows you have as many as three hard drives—up to 6TB of storage space. With the optionally available USB 3.0, watch your data rates of speed increase. It has an Intel Core i5-3330 3GHz processor to offer a bit more processing power and speed when running multiple applications at once and Intel HD Graphics 2500 video adapter which should be good to handle video playback and and any video related operations. It has no dedicated video memory but that should be a problem for the future as I plan to use it for digital photography for one year then upgrade it to high-performance gaming PC. It comes with Windows 8 pre-installed which saves some bucks for buying the operating system in the case if I had built a computer from scratch. The DX4870-UB318 has a built-in memory-card reader just suitable for its intended purpose, digital photography, and 6 free USB ports for plugging in scanners, digital cameras, external flash drives as well as gaming pads. The DX4870-UB 318 measures 7.1 inches wide by 15.4 inches high by 17 inches deep, which won’t occupy much space. It’s backed by a 12-month warranty, with 12 months of tech support just incase anything goes wrong in that time, i will be able to get any assistance after which i will upgrade it to a full gaming PC. Wired and wi-fi connection are provided via incorporated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN and 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN. With Wireless bluetooth 4.0, linking to Bluetooth-enabled headphones, sound system and other devices is a piece of cake. Transfer information from SD, MMC, MS, MS PRO and xD-Picture display storage cards via the Multi-in-One storage audience.comparing this computer and the same one but built from scratch, you’ll first notice a difference in price of a hundred and ten dollars, that money can be used to acquire video memory in future. this will be well worth it even if the video memory becomes a bit more expensive than that, I’ll still have an year or so to save on my photography work to fund its purchase.The processor, core-i5 3.0 GHz, is responsible for running commands and handling data, considering I will be using adobe CS5 photoshop and corel draw concurrently for most of my work, it should be able to handle to data from both the applications. the above named applications are large applications and require a bit more more memory space and considering that the size of Random Access Memory is an important factor for performance, I went for 8 GB to achieve that. The 1 TB storage provides a permanent area for the operating system, programs and data such as videos, sounds, pictures and music. The video adapter is responsible for processing all the data that appears on the screen and since photography needs instant processing, the intel HD graphics should prove sufficient. It ha an optical Blu-Ray DVD burner which will let me play high-definition videos as well as burn the same videos I have generated to Blu-Ray Discs. It has an xD (extreme Digital) flash memory-card reader which is mostly used in digital photography. It comes with a wifi card which will enable me to connect to the internet or any available network without spending extra cash on cabling of ethernet. It also has a gigabit ethernet port which if need be, i can connect to wired network. It has a Digital video out port as well as a HDMI video out port which will provide connectivity to other visual gadgets like a bigger screen for watching high definition movies or playing games.Acquiring the different part that make up the above mentioned desktop proved a little bit tricky as some were not readily available in the stores. for example, I didn’t get one 1 TB hard drive that could fit perfectly with the CPU unless if I had to order it from the manufacturer which could have taken a bit more time and cost more. The processor that was available was somehow same to the one installed in the machine, both core i5s but it clocked at 2.70 GHz.I resolved to purchasing the desktop as it was cheaper compared to the instance where I would have had to build one from scratch which would have been also time consuming.
Work Cited:”Gateway DX4870-UB318 “http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/computers-internet/computers/destop.htm. consumer, 11 Nov 2009. Web. 14 April 2013.”Gateway DX4870-UB318 Core i5-3330 Quad-Core 3.0GHz 8GB 1TB DVD±RW DL Windows 8 w/HDMI, Wireless-N & Bluetooth “http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=DX4870-UB318-FB-R. Information Links, 11 Jan 2010. Web. 14 April 2013.”DX series”http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/dx-series/dx-series. gateways, 09 Feb 2009. Web. 14 April 2013.
