Senior Project Help Please!

[Mikey092902]

Hey LLT forums,

 

I have my HS senior project coming up, as of now we have to have a proposed topic, a research paper question, and ways I can get my hours. Our proposed topic is supposed to be a one-word topic, currently my topic is "computers". For the research question it's supposed to be arguable topic that we can have data backed research, so with that my research paper question is, "Is a self built computer the best economically, customization-ally, and longest lasting?". While the ways to get my hours consist of actually building and coming up with an end result, the end result being a computer. 

 

We're supposed to have a 5-7 page essay as the "project", and our end result be the "product". My questions to you guys are; Do you have any recommendations on changing my research paper question? By this I mean, any other things that make building a computer better than purchasing a computer, I touched on cost savings (economics), customization, and life span. Do you guys have any other recommendations as to how I should go about my hours? Currently to get my hours I'll be building a PC with my mentor, and I'm worried that isn't enough time. I want to get rid life span in my research paper question, any other recommendations?

 

We're supposed to have some topics that we can touch on based off our question, so for cost savings I was thinking of comparing pre-builts costs and custom built costs, for customization I wanted to touch on; overclocking, part choices, AMD vs Intel, fans, negative vs. positive airflow, etc..., and for life span I'm really not sure what I could speak on.

 

Any feedback and/or ideas are greatly appreciated!

 

-Mikey 

 

 

[Light-Yagami]

By building the computer yourself, you're able to have more freedom of parts and build process, which means you can probably do a better job than people in the factory. I despise prebuilt systems and have only ever built computers myself. That alone if worth it for me. 

 

Most of the time, you save little to nothing by building it yourself - but idk.. any day of the week for me. Your question is good. Make sure you're able to conclude a decent result without doing insane amounts of work. Form your question in a way that it can be answered with already obtained knowledge or something you can research fairly easily.

[minibois]

23 minutes ago, Mikey092902 said:

I have my HS senior project coming up, as of now we have to have a proposed topic, a research paper question

[...]

"Is a self built computer the best economically, customization-ally, and longest lasting?"

[...]

I want to get rid life span in my research paper question, any other recommendations?

Long last would be incredibly difficult to 'measure', as you have to take into account a lot of different things.

Why do people get rid of their PC? (often it's lack of power, broken parts, it's too slow, etc.) How would you measure it, as in at some point it's not powerful enough but people might still stick with it? etc.

 

There are different types of research papers and this one seems to tackle a lot of the "qualitative" points, which means you are tackling human opinions a lot, which would require quite a few applicants.

Plus, you also need to make sure you are getting the "right" people too.

For example, if you only interview/survey people who hang out on a tech forum, or survey people that live in old folks housing, you get way different answers. 

The people you interview need to thus be part of the group who you're trying to speak to.

 

You would switch this topic over to a more quantitative research. 

You could also the questions "What price range in custom- and prebuilt computers offers the best price to performance to its users?"

Within this research question, you can still have qualitative surveys, to for example ask what people find acceptable in their computer (for example for gaming; what resolution/fps/settings would be minimum?*, how often does the user add components? etc.).

Mainly you would be dealing with numbers afterwards. Looking up prices for components and pre-builts during certain timeframes and assessing their performance (through benchmarks done by others). Visiting back the performance of said hardware and making charts based upon how long a part was viable.

 

Then you can build a computer right now within the 'most optimal' price bracket and compare said computer's performance to the performance of these older parts and assess if the previous "best bang for the buck" budget still is the case today (or if it has increased/decreased, etc.).

 

A research paper like this can provide value to a (IMO) larger audience of people, as this can be used to gather information for the best price/performance parts as of right now (judging by the past too).

23 minutes ago, Mikey092902 said:

Currently to get my hours I'll be building a PC with my mentor, and I'm worried that isn't enough time.

Research that involves benchmarking (testing PC components' performance and pitting it up against their price) can increase the amount of hours working with your mentor too.

 

Just food for thought, it's just most important to be able to find a topic which you can actually measure and conclusively say something about.

Understand too, that most people who buy pre-builts may not be looking for the most customizable PC, they just want a PC. By showing the value (or lack there-of, depends on your research conclusion), you can give the reader an idea of why they might want to consider a custom PC the next time.

[Chris Pratt]

There's different kinds of pre-built. You've got the stuff from actual computer manufacturers like Dell and HP, and then from smaller SIs like iBuyPower, CyberPowerPC, Maingear, etc. It makes a difference. The smaller SIs are going to use parts you could mostly buy yourself, while the big manufacturers will often use entirely custom and proprietary boards, PSUs, even RAM and storage sometimes. Those latter computers are invariably crap, and virtually impossible to upgrade or customize in any meaningful way, but a pre-built from an SI is generally the same as if you built it yourself, just without having to do it yourself, and with support and warranty. You can easily upgrade or change out components whenever. They're also not always more expensive. Yes, there's inherent build costs, but the SIs buy components in bulk, so the entire build is generally cheaper than what you could build yourself with equivalent components. Just depends.

 

I'd recommend building yourself, but for the experience, not necessarily to save money, have a better computer, or any reason like that. If you build it, then you learn the various parts, how they work, how they connect, how to set them all up, etc. That type of knowledge is invaluable.

[LogicalDrm]

Thats kinda wide range, and there's no one clear answer. I would pick something bit easier. Like comparing productivity aspect. Like in businesses. Why do they select desktop vs laptops, do they use some 3rd party or buy directly and what are the reasons for that.