Building and configuring computers for different performance needs

PC Builds

Low cost computer:

General day-to-day office work, data processing, email, and Internet browsing

4 GB ram

Windows 7 32-bit

Onboard video

Onboard sound

Two Onboard SATA ports

A good processor to use with this computer would be an Intel Core i3. The i3 is good for regular computer work like that mentioned above. The two on-board SATA ports would basically limit the user to an optical (Blu-Ray or DVD) drive and a hard drive. Onboard sound and video are more than enough for what is described above in terms of tasks. 4 GB of RAM would also be more than enough. One note is that upgrading the RAM at some future point (even if the motherboard is capable of it) would not be possible so long as Windows 7-32 bit is the OS in question (Domingo, 2015).

Mid-range Computer:

Multitasking of applications, dual monitor capability

8 GB ram

Windows 7 64-bit

AGP video

PCI sound

- RAID 0, 1, 5 capability

The processor to use here is a Core i7 as that is the best of what Intel has to offer. Again, PCI Express is the way to go whenever possible. AGP is obsolete and PCI is heading that way. However, having the four SATA ports and Raid 0/1/5 capability is a good thing. A bump up in RAM to 32 GB would be a good thing and many modern motherboards have the four slots and capability necessary to pull this off (Domingo, 2015).

Part 2: RAID

Explain the different types of RAID, and elaborate on how each type differs.

a. Spanning (JBOD)

JBOD is an acronym for "Just a Bunch of Disks." This method, otherwise known as spanning, is a way to take a disparate set of drives and slap them together in one volume. For example, if someone has two 4 TB drives and a 2 TB drive and they have a RAID that can accommodate three drives, they could align them in a 10 TB spanned drive that only occupies one drive letter in Windows.

b. RAID0

This type if otherwise known as striping. It is used to increase performance. One disk going south can ruin the entire array.

c. RAID1

This is disk mirroring. This is when the data on one disk is "mirrored" to another.

d. RAID5

This is when data and parity are run across all disks. This sort of array can survive a drive failure until a new one is put in place.

e. RAID10 or RAID1+0

This is a combination of RAID 1 and 0. RAID10 and RAID1+0 are terms that are used interchangeably. This level requires twice as many disks and can be implemented in hardware or software form.