Views
Personal Technology Infrastructure
From NGOPedia
| ICT Guide for Decision Makers |
|
Contents |
Personal Technology
The core of the personal computing is the "personal computer" - which is abbreviated as PC. In the earlier days of computing, computing was handled by centralized computers, popularly known as "mainframes". Attached to these were "terminals" which consisted of a monitor and keyboard attached to the mainframe. These terminals couldn't "compute" by themselves (so they were called "dumb terminals"). Although mainframes still exist, they are not the widely used technology. Today we have computers on our desks that can "compute" by themselves. They can communicate with each other, but mainly they perform most tasks within themselves. These units are called personal computers, and they are the most common computer technology today.
We, office workers recognize PCs with their "form factors". In other words with their functional forms.
Desktop PC
This is the most common form of PCs. It is simply a computer in a box with a separate keyboard and monitor. In most cases it is expandable and upgradable. In other words you can add cards, memory or storage as needed in the future. This makes them more flexible and have a longer economic life. Since they are stationary they are generally built to be speedier than similarly priced smaller forms. On the flip side they use more power (350Watts and above). Given the conditions of Africa, since the require heavy air intake to cool down, they are prone to dust related issues. They may also need battery devices called Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) that provide the ability to continue working for a brief period even the electricity goes down to save our work.
Laptop and Tablet PC
The second most common form PCs are laptops. They are mobile, i.e. you can carry them with you. The monitor and keyboard is generally integrated. It has an internal battery, so you can work for some period of time without a need to connect to electricity (thus doesn't need a UPS). In terms of upgrade/update they have minimal flexibility: you may add some memory but more or less it is limited to that. Speed is slower for a comparable budget. But for most office applications they become more and more popular.
A special form of the laptops are Tablet PCs (or similar forms like Apple i-Pad). They allow hand writing on the screen with special electronic pens.
Netbook, Notebook, Nettop, Small Form Factor
These are slimmed down, cheaper solutions. They are smaller and in most cases slower. They have smaller screens and keyboards. Some are totally closed systems (no fans), which makes them ideal in dusty conditions. Price and portability makes them attractive for office workers, mobile field personnel who only need mailing, simple office work and forms filling.
Buying a PC
With the available options today buying a PC is like writing a matriculation exam. There are long lists of specifications for starters that you have to understand and compare. And more importantly, answering "does it really matter for my work?" or "should I really care?" questions. In very basic terms, Technology Specifications can be classified in these capabilities:
Speed
The "actual" or "experienced" speed of the PC. This is not the processor speed, although processor speed is a factor in it. It is the combination of several factors that ends up how fast can you work with a PC.
Storage capacity
Normally when working your PC works in its memory. But when you turn it off the work in memory is wiped. That's why we save our work (i.e. documents) to the storage (hard disk, cd, dvd...) And the capacity of it vary.
Multimedia capability
Computers communicate with us with text, graphics, video or sound. And as technology evolves, this capability grows, too. The quality and speed, and capability of PCs to produce these factors vary with components.
Connectivity and Interoperability
As we mentioned before computers connect to other devices or connect to each other or internet. All these are accomplished by some components or "ports".
Below is a diagram that summarizes which type of components impact which capability.
You can also download this guide/cheat sheet from NGOConnect Africa to know more about each components of a PC.
Beyond the technical specifications of a PC system, there are other factors that we should consider when purchasing one. Such as:
- Operating System. PCs need a platform program called operating system to function (otherwise they don't know what to do). Which operating system does it come with if any is a question you need to ask.
- Warranty: How long? Is it on site or not (do they come and fix it or should we send)? Do they have replacement warranty?
- Additional warranty (beyond manufacturer's warranty)
After the introduction of PCs, many other technology attachments were developed that we can add to these computers. These devices work in conjunction with the PCs. They are known as "peripherals".
Printers
Printers are the most common peripherals we use attached to our PCs. Since we haven't eliminated the paper from our offices, at some point we need paper printed information. There are many technologies to accomplish this. But when it comes to printers operating costs is an important issue. The cost factors are:
- Initial investment (i.e. cost of the equipment)
- Ink or toner cost
- Paper cost
- Maintenance cost
- and of course power consumption
Generally we compare printer costs by "per printed page cost". When you are purchasing a printer ask the dealers per printed page costs to make a comparison. Table below summarizes different forms of printers and their properties:
| Printers | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laser Printer | InkJet Printer | Other and Speciality Printers | ||
|
|
| ||
| Mono Laser | Color Laser | Mono InkJet | Color InkJet | |
|
|
|
| |
| Multifunction devices | ||||
| ||||
Other Peripherals
Here's a brief summary table about other peripherals you may look into:
| Monitors | Scanners | Others |
|---|---|---|
If and whenever you can, switch to flat screen
| Use scanner alone if using it for specialty purposes (Photo, slide…)
Otherwise use multifunction device (document feeder is better) |
|
Technology Infrastructure | Organisational Technology Infrastructure 
Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.