1. Senior Project Speech
Paul Bechtel
Mrs. Corbett
4th
In this day and age computers are becoming increasingly important, from new advances
in home computing providing us with impossibly fast communication to every corner of the
globe to high end robotics revolutionizing entire fields of scientific discovery, the impact of
computing on the modern world is undeniable. As a student born in the nineties I have used
computers for my entire life, ever since I was young I have been fascinated by the infinite
possibilities presented by an understanding of computers and their operation, but despite my
fixation on these machines I had never had any dealing with the hardware involved in their
operation. With my senior project I decided to change that fact. As someone who is interested in
the field of computer science as a career later on in life, I felt it would be helpful to have at the
very least a passing knowledge aboutthe components of a computer and their proper
arrangements. As such my senior project was the construction of a desktop computer for use in
my college years as well as what little time I now have left at home.
This project was extremely interesting to me, and proved exceptionally worthwhile in the
end. The first thing I knew I would need to construct my computer was a basic knowledge of
what parts I would need, as well as someone knowledgeable about computers to guide me
through the process of choosing parts and assembling them. This person came in the form of a
man from my church, Scott Vadner, who had extensive experience working with all aspects of
computers from software to hardware and back again. The first thing that he did was refer me to

2. an excellent site that he used to purchase electronic components for low prices. He told me to go
to this site and begin picking out the specific parts I wanted to use in my machine, so that I
would get a rough idea of how much my finished computer would cost to build. At first I was
alarmed by the prices I was seeing, but I had saved up a fairly large sum of money before starting
my project, and felt able to construct a decent computer with my budget. After I felt that I had a
good grasp of what I would be able to purchase with my funds I contacted Mr. Vadner again and
agreed to meet with him to spend a day at his house choosing what parts would be the most
useful to install in my computer. This workday proved to be exceptionally productive but after
coordinating with Mr. Vadner for a bit longer I was able to pick out several promising deals that
proved to be well within my price range. With Mr. Vadner'sguidance I was able to order the full
range of necessary parts, a CPU, processor, video card, DVD drive, and case, that very day and
thus move on to the next stage of my project.After about a week of waiting I received all of my
parts and was ready to build. I scheduled a full day with Mr. Vadnerto use his house and his
computer expertise to ensure the safe construction of my computer and set to work. We were
able to completely assemble the computer in one session at his house, thereby finishing the only
part of the project I was really nervous about. The last step was installing the operating system to
make my computer fully functional. Mr. Vadner was nice enough to give me an old copy of
Windows XP that he had laying around his house, and thus my computer was up and running. I
was rather lucky when completing this project in that I didn’t encounter very many obstacles, the
few that I did encounter, however, were entirely of my creation. The first thing that went wrong
is that I miscalculated the price of the full computer, resulting in me having to dip into my own
funds to be able to order the parts. The only other problem that I encountered was potentially
devastating, and I was extremely fortunate to have the parts on hand to solve it. When I first

3. ordered the parts I made a mistake, namely I accidentally chose a more powerful video card
instead of purchasing a DVD drive. When Mr. Vadner and I discovered this we were sure it
would result in another week of waiting for more parts to come in, due to the fact that it is
impossible to install an operating system without some kind of disk interface, but after returning
to my house I discovered that I would be able to swap out an older DVD drive with the newer
one in my families current desktop computer, allowing me to use the newer drive in my senior
project computer. After a full day working on computers with Mr. Vadner I felt more than
comfortable with making this switch and was able to move the parts without any more difficulty.
With the new drive installed I was then able to install Windows XP and begin using my
computer, and it has been nothing but exceptionally useful since that time.
This project was quite helpful to me in many different ways. First of all I was able to gain
a solid foothold in the language and customs of computer construction through Mr. Vadner’s
tutelage, skills which I have no doubt will come in very handy the first time my computer breaks
down. Additionally I now know the cost that constructing a computer from scratch requires, and
I am quite happy to report that it is vastly lower than that required when purchasing a brand new
computer from the store. I was also able to learn of the dangers of procrastinating when
undertaking a project with such a long time period to be finished in such as this one. My own
natural laziness becomes suffocating when faced with such freedom, and without much
prompting from my own parents I never would have completed my construction in such a short
amount of time. The most important discovery that I made, however, is almost certainly the
confirmation of my love of computers and their parts. I was worried when beginning this project
that such labors might prove to complex or delicate for my limited knowledge of the subject, but

4. when I finally began working with the parts I saw how suited such work really is for me, and I
look forward to pursuing such activities in the future.