The document discusses recommendations for upgrading school computers used for media lessons. It suggests that computers should have at least 16GB of RAM and larger, brighter monitors in order to better handle graphics-heavy media projects. Upgrading to an Apple Mac would be ideal but costly. More affordable options include upgrading the RAM to 16GB, switching to an SSD hard drive, and using an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor. Future-proofing involves choosing components like the motherboard and processor that can support new software for a long time. The approximate cost to fully upgrade all computers in a school would be at least £1000 per computer.

1. Group 3
School Media Lessons
Anna Bradford Anna Garland
Grace Whitelock Emily Green
Ellie Wickenden

2. School Media Lessons
• Computers at school tend to only go up to
8gb of memory but realistically, that is
not enough for media students to get
through and submit all pieces to their
best ability so they should be 16gb as
this is an essential component.
• The monitors should be bigger with a
higher brightness level and larger screen.
They should be clearer so graphics can be
seen better.

3. School Media PC
• School media computers are for
making media e.g. music, film and
magazines.
• Therefore for this computer your
going to need a good monitor, to
film and take pictures, some quality
headphones, preferably, that will
last longer than others.

4. Essential Components
• Motherboard
• Hard Disk Drive
• CPU
• Fan
• RAM
• ROM
• Heat Sink
• Battery

5. Approximate price to upgrade
• The best computer to
upgrade to would be an
Apple Mac 27”.
• This would be very
expensive and to get
every classroom that has
a media class in it with
30+ computers, the
school would just not be
able to cover the costs.
It wouldn’t just be one
classroom either, lots
of classrooms would need
to be equipped with the
newest technology needed
for media studies.
• Approximate Price:
Starting from £1000

6. What else can you update?
• If you are unable to upgrade the whole computer, a
view changes can really improve the performance
and make media lessons easier to upload on to.
• A higher RAM with a memory of 16gb. (however, for
gaming, 8gb is only necessary).
• A better hard drive (SSD hard drive)
• Either Intel Core I5 or I7
(comparison on next slide)

7. Comparison
I5 I7
• You'll find the Core i5 to
be about $170 less expensive
than a similarly equipped
Core i7 system.
• Is around £110 cheaper.
• Dual Core.
• Intel Core i5 is made for
mainstream users who care
about performance
• On currently available
desktop processors, i5 CPUs
have 3MB to 6MB of L3 cache
• Core i7 will be better for
multitasking, multimedia
tasks, high-end gaming, and
scientific work. Core i7
processors are aimed at
people who complain that
their current system is "too
slow."
• i7 processors have 4MB to
8MB of L3 cache.
• Quad Core.
• Intel Core i7 is made for
enthusiasts and high-end
users.

8. Future Proof
• Means to update the computer so that
it does not become out-dated.

9. How would you make computers
for media lessons future
proof?
• Computer parts do not last forever but
you can get some that will not be out
of date for a long time
• You can find motherboards and
processors that will be able to
support software for a long time
• Media lessons use quite a lot of
graphics so they need a lot of RAM.
RAM is quite cheap to buy but it may
add up to a lot if you are buying for
a whole school.

10. Continued…
• With a desktop computer, you can
keep on expanding e.g. buying a new
motherboard, adding more hard drives
if and when needed, you can change
the ram and if the DVD drive breaks
you can swap it out for a new one
• Many input devices can be used on
any computers as they use USB 2
which most computers support.

11. Components…

12. Motherboard
• The motherboard is a printed circuit board that is
the foundation of a computer, located at the
bottom of the computer case. It allocates power to
the CPU, RAM, and all other computer hardware
components and allows them to communicate with one
another.

13. Daughterboards
• Daughter boards are expansion boards
that commonly connect directly to
the motherboard and give the
computer an added feature such as
modem capability. Today, these
boards are not found or used in
desktop computers and have been
replaced with ISA or PCI boards.
However, some laptops still use
these boards.

14. RAM
• Random Access Memory
-a type of computer
memory that can be
accessed randomly; that
is, any byte of memory
can be accessed without
touching the preceding
bytes.

15. CPU
• CPU stands for CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT
• The CPU is covered by heat sinks and a fan which prevents the overheating
of the component, this is likely to happen if not covered by these vital
cooling agents as a result of the thousands of calculations taking place
in the CPU per second.
• Made from 3 different components:
a) Control unit:
Responsible for controlling much of the operation of the rest of the
processor. It does this by issuing control signals to the other areas of the
processor, instructing them on what should be performed next.
b) Arithmetic and logic unit (ALU):
Carries out mathematical and logical equations, for example:
• Addition and subtraction
• Multiplication and division
• Logical tests
• Comparisons
c) Registers:
Memory locations within the CPU itself for storing data and instructions.
They are designed to be quickly accessed, for fast data retrieval.

16. Fetch-Execute Cycle
• Within the CPU, a cycle takes place called the fetch execute cycle, enabling
different pieces of data to be retrieved, stored and carried out in the different
areas of the CPU, using different components. The steps of the cycle include:
1) Fetch:
First, the CPU must fetch the data and instructions fro m its main memory then store it
in its own internal temporary storage areas called registers. For this to happen, the
CPU must make use of its vital hardware path called the program counter, the CPU places
the next item to be fetched on this address bus. Data from this address moves from the
main memory to the CPU by travelling along another hardware path called the Memory
address register (MAR).
2) Decode:
Decoding is basically when the CPU makes sense of the data it has just fetched. The CPU
is designed to understand certain sets of commands called the instruction set of the
CPU, this set makes each CPU different, it then decodes these instructions and prepares
various within the chip, ready for the next step.
3) Execute:
This is the part of the cycle, when data processing actually takes place. The
instruction is then carried out upon the data and the result of this process is stored
upon another register. Once the execute it complete, the CPU resets its program
counter.

17. Components of CPU
• Buses:
Transport information around the CPU, for example, they carry data from the
control unit to the ALU.
• Program counter:
A program counter is a register in a computer processor that contains the
address(location) of the instruction being executed at the current time. As
each instruction gets fetched, the program counter points to the next
instruction in the sequence. When the computer restarts or is reset, the
program counter normally reverts to 0.
• Address bus:
A group of wires which selects the address of the source/destination for the
data transfer. The address bus is an output from the microprocessor.
• Data bus:
A bidirectional (2 ways) group of wires used to transfer between the source
and destination, one of which will normally be the microprocessor.
• Decoder:
Decodes instructions received from the programme counter.
• Arithmetic and logic unit:
Performs mathematical, logical and decision operations in a computer and is
the final processing performed by the processor. After the information had
been processed by the ALU, it is sent to the computer memory.

19. Battery
• CMOS: Complementary
Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor
• The standard lifetime of
a CMOS battery is around
10 Years. However, this
can vary depending on
the use and environment
in which the computer
resides. If the battery
fails, the system
settings, date, and time
will not be saved when
the computer is turned
off until it has been
replaced.

20. Hard Disk Drive
• The hard drive is the
computer's main
storage media device
that permanently
stores all data on the
computer.

21. L3 CACHE
• Cache is a high-speed access area that can be
either a reserved section of main memory or
storage device. The two main cache types are
memory cache and disk cache.
• Memory cache is a portion on memory of high-speed
static RAM (SRAM) and is effective because most
programs access the same data or instructions over
and over.