UNIT 14 ASSIGNMENT

Benefits and Implications of Installing & Maintaining

Hardware
Contents
Benefits of installing and maintaining hardware: .................................................................................. 1
Reduce costs...................................................................................................................................... 1
Improve performance, efficiency and effectiveness.......................................................................... 1
Improve customer services................................................................................................................ 1
Improve health and safety................................................................................................................. 1
Impacts on an individual or organisation:.............................................................................................. 1
Training.............................................................................................................................................. 1
Compatibility with software or other hardware ................................................................................ 1
Decommissioning and disposal.......................................................................................................... 1
Risks such as component damage, data loss, service loss, data corruption, ESD damage .................1

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INTRODUCTION
In this section is a table showcase of the various two systems (Dell Inspiron 3252 & Dell Inspiron
5000) with their specifications. This table differentiate between both machines quality, speed,
storage and durability.

Desktop (Dell Inspiron 3252) Laptop (Dell Inspiron 5000)

Processor Intel Pentium Processor N3700 Intel Core i7 (5th Gen) 5500U
type
Processor 1.6 GHz (2M Cache, up to 2.40 GHz) 2.4GHz, 3GHz max turbo speed, Dual – Core (L3 -4MB
speed has 4 cores. cache)
R.A.M. type DDR3L-SDRAM (1600 MHz) DDR3L SDRAM (1600 MHz)
R.A.M. size 2GB,4GB,8GB 8GB, 12GB, 16GB
Video card Intel HD Graphics 405 (Integrated Intel HD Graphics 5500
Graphics)
Connectivity Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE Intel Dual Band Wireless -AC 3160 (802.11a/b/g/n/ac
802.11b,IEEE 802.11g,IEEE 802.11n Bluetooth 4.0
Monitor No 15.6 inches (LED backlight True life HD) 39.6cm
Storage 500 GB 1TB
capacity
Storage type SATA 7200rpm HDD Serial ATA Serial ATA- 600 (5400 rpm)
Optical drive DVD – Writer No optical drive
USB drives 2 x USB 3.0 USB 2.0
Fire-wire None
connection
Other None Keyboard, touchpad.
peripherals? Multi-gesture touch pad, precision touchpad
Operating Windows 10 Home 64-bit Edition Windows 8.1 64bit Edition
system Windows 10 Home 64-bit edition
Applications Macfee Antivirus, Microsoft office 365 Macfee Antivirus, Microsoft Office 365
Other 5.1 channel surround (High Definition
considerations Audio) it weighs 6.99lbs

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Benefits of Installing and Maintaining Hardware
REDUCE COSTS
For instance, If the PCs are running slow, simply upgrading the memory will help
applications to run more quickly and efficiently. Upgrading memory and hard drives are easy
to do. And for the cost of, say £500, you’ll have extended the life of the PC and need to buy a
new one.
Adding newer technologies to older models, are tour business’s laptops wireless enabled? If
not you can get a Wi-Fi network adapter in the form of a PC card or USB for less amount
than the cost of a new computer.
Another benefit of Installing hardware is it save the cost of hiring IT expert to fix and
upgrade your hardware, e.g. If the owner of a private computer likes to multitask then they
should upgrade their processor and/or their R.A.M. A benefit of doing this would be that
they could run multiple programs without slowing the computers performance and also
reducing the cost of hiring and IT expert to fix and upgrade the necessary hardware. This
way saves enough money for the individual to invest in other businesses.

IMPROVE PERFORMANCE , EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

Improving hardware speeds makes your staff more productive and more efficient so you can
have time growing your business rather worrying about your technology systems.
Another benefit of installing hardware, it allows computers to benefit from additional
protection by making sure that they have the latest defensive solutions that will help limit
threat posed by hackers and malicious files.

IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICES

Installing hardware provides your staff new tools that improve their job performance by
simplifying and speeding up their tasks and improving on customer services and the
satisfaction of their customers.
Installing hardware improves the equipment reliability by reducing the chance of
breakdown and failure of older systems and help process larger amount of data within a
short period which promotes the production of the company.
IMPROVE HEALTH AND SAFETY
Installing hardware help improve health and safety through Routine maintenance, routine
maintenance is where old hardware is replaced before it wears out or breaks down. The
most powerful reason for routine maintenance is to keep equipment working without
problems. Broken equipment can cost a health a lot of money in terms of time wasted and
lost business and patients.
It is often sensible to replace the components that break, rather than replacing the whole
system. For example, if a Power supply Unit develops a fault after it has gone through several

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overheating, it can easily cause harm and electric shock to the user when trying to start up
the computer. And delay in the process and retrieving data from and onto the system which
will slow the productivity of the health sector.

WAYS OF MAINTAINING THE HARDWARE

Cleaning dust from the computer, aside from looking at the possibility of being an allergy
hazard, a dusty computer will trap heat, which can slow the performance of the computer
and reduce its lifespan. The easiest way to clean a computer is with a compressed air. For
most computer cleaning once or twice every year will be adequate.
Another way of maintaining a hardware is by Disk defragment, once your computer has
been cleaned up, it gives a good time to defragment. Defragment of a hardware helps
organizes your files, leading to faster work access and improved performance. There is a list
of commercial defragment software available online.

IMPACTS ON AN INDIVIDUAL OR ORGANISATION:

TRAINING
Installing and maintaining hardware impacts on organisation through training by the costs would
increase as they must pay for things such as staff training as they must have up to date knowledge of
each component and how they work. If there was to be a bad training given to the staff it could
result in slow and bad staff which will result in slow efficiency and customer satisfaction.

COMPATIBILITY WITH SOFTWARE OR OTHER HARDWARE

The organisation should have regular compatibility checks to make sure the system is up to date and
make sure that new components match with existing, this will positively impact the business because
they will have an increase in speed and this will help in productivity within the business.
Installing of security software such as, enabling firewall the and antivirus programs which will protect
the files and other components from harmful malicious malware and viruses and prevent third
parties from hacking into the system and stealing information from them. This will positively impact
on both an individual and the organisation because their data will be safe and highly protected.
For components to work together, they need to be compatible. They need to be able to fit together,
use the same electrical voltages and can communicate with each other. Modern computer systems
are mostly compatible with current hardware and software, but there may be issues if the hardware
and software are not mainstream or are older. Getting the right and compatible hardware into the
chosen systems makes the computer communicates faster and work comfortably as expected.

DECOMMISSIONING AND DISPOSAL

Decommissioning and dispose of components by smashing the hard drives or potentially burn it, this
will protect their data from being accessed by other people, and a safe disposal will also prevent
chemicals from the components harming the environment.
Disposing of computer hardware such as the hard drive which contain some personal data and its not
right to put electronics into general waste, it is made from metal and can contain some chemicals
which can hurt or destroy land field. Another way is through authorised disposal process such as,
WEEE waste disposal (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling) whom is a government
authorised waste sector and specialist responsible for recycling of waste electronic products into
more safe and reliable way.
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RISKS SUCH AS COMPONENT DAMAGE, DATA LOSS, SERVICE LOSS, DATA
CORRUPTION , ESD DAMAGE

Impact on component damage would be to prevent components from getting damaged as they could
use things such as anti-static bags and wristbands and could make sure that they are working in a
clean working space because if a component like the hard drive gets damaged due to mishandling
then data would be loss meaning it will slow down the efficiency of the business and increase the
cost of repairing or replacing them.
Staff should keep food, drink or any other liquids away from the computer and any other equipment;
otherwise, they may have to pay for repairs which again would increase the costs.

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