Chapter 4 Assignment

Chapter 4 Assignment

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Chapter 4 Assignment

Customizing Ideal PC

Apple offers a wide range of products to its customers. Everybody has the freedom of choice to buy their ideal PC. Some apple enthusiasts go an extra mile. These enthusiasts tend to customize their own system which can perfectly cater to their needs. Still, there are a lot of options from which to choose components of their ideal system. This could be confusing. There is a widespread agreement that Apple products are expensive. Some even might think the prices of Apple products are exorbitant. People holding this perspective tend to opt for cheaper options. However, some of them argue that building a PC by buying parts and components separately and assembling them together is by far a cheaper option. This paper will discuss and compare the price, specifications, and features of a customized Apple PC and a PC assembled by buying its components separately would be discussed. Additionally, this paper would reflect on whether or not building a PC yourself actually provides value for your time and money or not.

Customized Apple PC

Apple PC goes by the name of iMac and will be referred to as iMac. iMac comes in two types- a 27-inch and a 21.5-inch work station. I have opted for a 21.5 inch iMac which has a base price of $ 1,299. The display of this 21.5 inch iMac comes with a Retina 4K display. Retina display tends to have a much higher pixel density than the rest of the displays currently available in the market. Next comes the processor. 3.2GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.6GHz is the processor selected. It is a $ 300 option. The RAM of the iMac is 16GB DDR4, which is a $ 200 option. The storage capacity (hard drive) is 1TB Serial ATA Drive, which comes in stock. All this combined together makes a total of $ 1,799.

Self Assembling a PC

Let us shift our focus toward building a PC by acquiring each part individually. To begin with, Samsung 49 inch 4K UHD Display monitor. This monitor comes with a tag of $ 1,219. Next comes with a tough choice of processor. The processor selected for this is Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 8th Gen Processor. It has a price of $ 429. The RAM that is selected for the PC is 16 GB DDR4. The 16GB DDR4 comes with a price of $ 116. After acquiring these components, the next task at hand is to select the hard drive that would effectively cater to my needs. For this purpose, I have selected is Seagate Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive. This piece of equipment has a price of $ 44. Next comes the question of selecting the motherboard. An average motherboard has an average price of $ 50. A power supply system for the PC would cost somewhere between $ 50 to $ 60. A normal keyboard and mouse combined would cost $ 15. All these components combined would cost $ 1,930.

Brief Summary of Experience

There are a few factors that have driven this decision whether buying a PC would be economical or assembling a PC would be feasible. First, the displays should have at least 4K feature in them. Second, the processors must be at least 8th generation core i7. Third, the RAM should be 16 GB. And lastly, the hard drive should be of at least 1 TB. There needed to be at least some common features in order to compare both of the PCs. Acquiring the components separately required extra efforts. To assemble them in one piece needed more effort. To assemble the components together, I had to undertake a brief course on how to assemble a computer. The price for the PC assembled by myself stood at a whopping $1,930. The price of customizing an iMac was just under $1,800. Hence, walking into a PC store and buying a new PC seems more practical than buying each component separately and assembling them together.