This task analysis is designated towards people, both beginners (people whom want a better

understanding on where to start off from) and intermediate (People whom want to use the guide
as more of a reference point on where to begin at) computer users; on how to categorize
themselves on what they need for their own personal computer and have a reference guide on
where to start with each category. 

A.     Determining what you want out of a computer

1. Basic Tasks

2. The Photography and Media machine

3. Intense Gaming and video editing

      B.   Determining the core-components for each type of computer

1. The Anatomy of a basic computer

2. The Anatomy of a Multimedia Machine

3. The Anatomy of a Gaming (and Video editing) machine 

 

A. Determining what you want out of a computer 

-  Most people, when going out to buy a machine are generally asked by a sale associate on what
they plan on doing with their machine. A lot of people think it's just the associates way of getting
into their personal business or a way to attach more merchandise to the sale, but really it's so they
can tell exactly what the specifications needed for what you want to do with a machine. Prices
vary greatly from machine to machine, since a basic model will lack a lot of power needed
compared to a more expensive machine that offers more power to handle higher intense
applications. All of these builds will be based off of Microsoft Windows 7 32bit operating
system and the Intel Brand Processors since more people are familiarized with Intel over AMD.

1. Basic Tasks

-  A person looking generally to use a computer, as the titles implies; for very basic tasks which
include using the machine to surf the web, check news and e-mails. Basic computers are often
the cheapest because they offer little power and little room to upgrade since these machines are
built on a smaller scale and are more cost efficient when we live in a time where it's basically
essential to own a computer.

2. The Multimedia machine

- A person who uses the computer on top of basic tasks, and is looking to use it for media
purposes. When keying the term media for computers, this can go from anywhere to syncing
your gaming console to your machine, or editing photos and uploading small videos too
YouTube.

3. Intense Gaming (video editing) Machine

-  This kind of computer includes everything the above has, plus more. This includes intense
applications like High-end gaming with games that push out a lot of graphics or Professional
style video editing which can put a lot of stress on your machine if not properly powered. The
machines for these kinds of computers require a lot more power, and generally a lot more
expensive compared to a basic machine and even a multimedia machine. Gaming machine need
to have upgradability, since games and technology changes constantly, you’re going to want to
have a machine that can handle multiple upgrades so it can keep up.

B. Determining the core-components for each type of computer

I. All computers will need the following parts, but depending on what type of computer works
best for you, is dependable on how much more memory or storage each machine will need to be
included.

     Computer Case

     Power Supply

     Memory

     Hard Drive

     Motherboard (Intel) - Some mother boards will have a built on Graphics card

     Processor with heatsink (Intel)

     Graphics Card (if Motherboard card is not present or not sufficient enough)

     DVD-Rom/DVD-Writer Drive

     Operating System Software (Microsoft Windows 7)

II. Now with a basic computer, you can get away with some pretty low requirements to have the
machine perform the way you want it to. But we do also have to keep in regards on the minimum
requirements for Microsoft's Windows 7

     1 gigahertz (GHz) Processor

     1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

      16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

     DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

1. The Anatomy of a basic computer 

I.  Since we now know the minimum requirements for running Windows 7, here is a list
of the requirements to look for in a system that is for basic needs. Now with pricing, you
could easily find a machine around 300 dollars with these specifications.  

     Computer Case

     a 300-400W (Watt) Power Supply

     2 GB of Memory

     250GB Hard Drive

     Motherboard (Intel)

     Intel® Pentium® processor E5400 Processor (2.6GHz)

     DVD-Rom/DVD-Writer Drive

II. Most basic machines will almost always have the graphics card built into the board
since this basic user only intends to use the machine for internet purposes. 300-400W
power supplies are found in basic models as well since they do not need a lot of power
for the components in the machine. Choosing the E5400 Processor (at 2.6GHz) is a
pretty basic processor now days which will allow you to multi-task without any
bottlenecking (slowdowns) with simple tasks. 

2. The Anatomy of a Multimedia and photograph Machine

I.

     Computer Case

     350-500W Power Supply

     4GB Memory

     500GB Hard Drive

      Motherboard
(Intel) with a PC-Express 16X card slot and either at least 1 PCI Slot or
PCI-Express 1x

     Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E7500 (2.93GHZ per core)

     PCI-Express 16X Graphics Card (if Motherboard card is not present or not sufficient
enough)

     DVD-Rom/DVD-Writer Drive

     TV Tuner Card

     SD Card/ Compact Card reader (For Camera Memory cards)

II. This machine is built with a little more power compared to a basic machine, and needs a
larger power supply to handle it. With 4GB of memory combines with the Intel® Core™2 Duo
Processor, you should have ample enough system resources to not worry about any
bottlenecking. The TV tuner card is an optional card, which allows you to stream cable TV into
your computer which can act as a DVR as well. Having a separate graphics card is really an
optional as well; unless you plan on playing games or doing picture rendering, it’s not really
essential.  A machine like this can range around 600 dollars.

3. The Anatomy of a Gaming (and Video editing) machine

I.

     Computer Case

     750-1000W Power Supply

     6GB+ Memory

     650GB - 1TB (Terabyte) Hard Drive

     Motherboard (Intel) with at least 2 PC-Express 16X card slot and either at least 1 PCI
Slot

     intel® Core™ i7-920 processor (2.66GHz per core)

     At least one SLI ready Graphics Card

     TV Tuner card

     SD Card/ Compact Card reader

      DVD-Rom/DVD-Writer Drive

II. This machine is built for upgradability rather than power, and the reason I did that because
most gamers and video editors want a machine that can be upgrades and it built around good
parts. The Core i7 Processors are one of Intel’s newer chips that is a gaming powerhouse. With
the 6GB of memory (the more you have, the more open recourses you have) will give you
enough power to deal multiple tasks, and making sure you have a motherboard that has multiple
PC-Express 16X slots to handle more than one card, you can actually SLI two cards together
(making two cards function as one really powerful card) which can take your games to the next
level.