Central Texas College Business Problem New Computers Research

Scenario: You are an intern at the local branch office of WidgetsUnited, which is in need of new computers for their twenty employees. Their current computers (Optiplex 620) are 16 years old and can not support Windows 10. The budget has been set to $20,000.00 for the new computers. (Note: they all have decent monitors, so those need not be replaced). Your supervisor tasked you with researching what’s available and at what cost. (The effective Tax rate is 8.5%)

What do you recommend and why?
Note: In a business setting you should always try to select the best product you can buy within a given budget.

Instructions:
Do some Internet research and present your recommendations for 20 computers under the $20,000 limit, with the following minimum requirements:

• Intel i5, i7 or AMD Ryzen or better
• 8GB RAM minimum
• 500 GB HDD minimum
• Tower workstations with video output for DVI, HDMI connections
• Windows 10 Pro 64bit
• A 3-year warranty
• Our authorized vendors are Dell, CDW, NewEgg and BestBuy.
• Consider at least Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and HP.
• Present your data in an easy-to-understand way – e.g. Dell 1020 with 8GB RAM right above Dell 1020 with 12 GB RAM.
• Create a spreadsheet considering the various options and price combinations (at least 15 rows of data), identifying the cost impact at least of RAM, processor speed, and storage capacity. (Apply what you learned about MS Excel.)

– Please don’t call the vendors – we don’t intend to actually buy anything.

What to submit:

• What do you recommend and why? Write a presentable, short, 2-3 sentence explanation. (This can be part of your spreadsheet or a Word document.)
• Be sure to submit a nicely formatted easy-to-understand Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx) to show your supervisor what you’ve considered, and how the various items compare. Show various options, as appropriate (changing RAM, CPU, etc.).
• Present at least 15-20 options. Use appropriate functions (at the very least a Totals column).
• Apply what you have learned in Excel to enhance the appearance of the spreadsheet.

Grading will include clarity and spelling, and what you learned in the lesson on Excel:

• Three or more concepts learned from Excel Chapter 2
  (formulas, cell references, an Absolute cell reference, SUM and other functions)
• Three or more concepts learned from Excel Chapter 3
  (Charts, pictures & shapes, Sparklines)
• Three or more concepts learned from Excel Chapter 4:
  (Conditional formatting, color scales, AutoFilters, subtotals, groups, pivot table)

When complete, zip your file(s) and name them with your last name and “_recommendation”. ([Name]_recommendation.zip). (.7zip and .rar files will not work!) Upload here in Bb when done. (click the “Business Recommendation” header)