My computer has been acting up on me. It's a pretty old model, and I need to replace it. So I decided to call up my friend Kevin to ask for his two cents. Kevin is a computer whiz. He knows PC really well since he worked on them for years, but in his heart of hearts, he is a big Mac fan. So, I thought he would be good person to ask. I have always used a PC. I do mostly word processing so I don't need anything fancy. But, I see people I know doing cool things with photos and video, so I’d like to take a crack at some new programs in the future. Well, I called up Kevin to tell him what I needed. He immediately started throwing out specs: "You need at least a 2 Gigahertz processor and 1 Gig of memory, and make sure it has a writable DVD drive." "Whoa," I said. "All of that is way over my head. Let's back up for a a minute." Then he laughed and said he had gotten carried away . "Okay," he said. "Let's start at the beginning. Now, the processor determines how easily and how fast you can use the programs on your computer. Got that?" I said that I did. Then he continued, "How much RAM memory you have is very important, too. Your computer will go faster the more you have. So, I recommend getting at least 1 Gigabyte of RAM memory." "I think I'm following you so far, " I said. "Great," he said. Another thing you want is a drive that handles both CDs and DVDs. Some drives can just read DVDs and some can record onto blank ones. If you want to burn your own videos, you'll want a writable DVD drive. Remember though, that's just the computer itself. Don't forget that you'll need a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and speakers." "OK," I said. "I think I've got all that. Now, here's the burning question: Mac or PC? He said: "Now that's a whole different thing. Do you have a couple of hours?‚" Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

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