We found that our site was receiving part of a grant, so that we could purchase six new Dell computers. This allowed us to build elements of the computers that would be sent to us. Our conversation with Don Holt, our site coordinator, led us to the form of the computers- minitowers to save space on the table tops, flat screen monitors to save space as well (they were no additional cost), and the basic accessories of keyboard, and mouse (we chose an optical mouse to eliminate rollerball difficulty). We also received a large used HP Laserjet 8000 printer that the site was happy to be receiving.

Other choices we made for building the computers were the Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1GB memory, 160 GB Hard drive, a CD/DVD reader/writer, and a three year hardware support service.

As far as software, our discussion Don lead us to Windows Vista. Don had positive experience with this, and said he was comfortable with using this latest release.

There are an array of multiple packages of vista, we chose Ultimate, which states that it combines the features of Vista home premium and business packages.

Our experience with Vista was fine, we heard of problems networking XP with vista, but were lucky that all of the computers in the lab are identical. The Mac commercials of “you are coming to a sad realization. Cancel or Allow?” are true- but other than happily clicking ‘allow’ on everything- we encountered no problems.

We feel the Teen Tech Team and other users will have a positive experience using Vista and will allow the team to take their computer training to a new level, accessing the internet for additional information, and software tutorials.

The printer is a new addition and something the team can use for their business operations and to make flyers.

We loaded some open source software like seamonkey to their computers, as well as other optional web browsers and media players we though would be helpful. Funny because when T first saw the desktop, remarked “see all this junk on your desktop? all this stuff just slows down your computer!” -he was referring to the proprietory software that is trial or fee-based that is preloaded as part of the OS.

For networking, we were connected to a WAN for internet access and will allow the team to go online for tutorials and to get additional programs as they see fit and are supervised.

Our team also purchased a nice box from Hobby Lobby (great sale!) to hold all the computer info. and extra cables for the six new computers. We had noticed there was not an abundance of storage space at the site and thought that putting all this vital info. into a box with a lid may help keep it all together and in one place for easy future access.

COMPUTERS

• Six Dell Optiplex 320 Minitower P4 computers with Windows Ultimate Vista Operating System
• Six Flat Screen 17″ Monitors
• One HP Laserjet 8000n printer
• Proper cabling to network computers and printer

SOFTWARE

• Windows Office Professional 2007 including…
  • Word 2007
  • Power Point 2007
  • Publisher 2007
  • Excel 2007
  • Access 2007
  • Outlook 2007
• Adobe Acrobat
• Roxio Creator

WE ADDED

• SeaMonkey
• Itunes
• Real Player
• Quicktime
• Rhapsody
• Firefox