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| Home >> Index Pages >> Informational Pages >> Discount Computer Systems >> News >> Applicants of Scholarship 2008 >> |
Essay by Chelcy E BrumlowDirectron Scholarship 2008 Essay No. 07by Chelcy E Brumlow Current School: Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Tx Current Major: Art The Antec P182 case sits there enticingly, begging me to just touch it. But all the parts haven't been delivered. It wouldn't be right to start construction without all the members here to begin their new journey together. I would have to wait, anticipating, frustrated that I would not be able to continue. Half-assembled and useless it would sit there. Afraid of what was to come next, wishing it could be completed. Lifeless. Ineffective. So it will have to wait, holding on to what it could be. The potential inside of the box inside of a box. Calling to me in my dreams, showing me its infinite possibilities of electronic greatness. Taunting me to compose this masterpiece in all its glory once and for all. Making me feel guilty that I haven't gathered all the pieces to my stimulating puzzle yet. No, a few more days and they will be here, ready to be unboxed and placed with great care and precision inside that promise filled box to become one of the utmost supreme. So I will wait; the masterpiece will wait. A new day has arrived full of hope at what might lay ahead. After art class as I head off to go to work, I wonder if the long awaited parts will arrive today. I can hardly concentrate on my job waiting for the delivery truck to come by. He hasn't stopped by in almost three days now and I'm beginning to worry. As the hours drag by, waiting for 4:00 to roll around I find myself daydreaming about the creation awaiting my guidance, and design. As I take a peek at the clock, I realize that its 4:30 and no delivery truck is coming today. We will just have to wait a bit longer. Hopefully tomorrow will hold the marvels I was expecting today. At last! They're here. I can hardly believe it. After several weeks of initial anticipation at what to order and the excitement of when it would all arrive, it is now time to begin the assembly. As I carefully unwrap each little spectacle and place it beside its new home, I find that I am overwhelmed with pleasure. Pleasure at finally holding the pieces that will make this empty box come to life with purpose, and worth. All unwrapped, and lying on the counter before me, I cannot help but to take a moment to prepare myself for the next intricate task that lay ahead. I have never before made such a thing, not in all of my l9 years of life. I have seen others create such beauties and listened and been taught, but this is the first time I will do such a thing myself. Just to make sure, I ask an experienced friend to stand by and watch, to make sure I do not destroy this happiness before it is complete. It's time to begin. Putting all the pieces together is going to be so exciting, I've waited so long to get to this part. I grab the Kingston HyperX 4GB memory kit and place them in the ASUS P5QL-PRO motherboard, taking great care not to break anything or damage any portion of the hardware. After checking to see that the memory is securely in place, I attach the Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 processor and heatsink onto the motherboard. So far, so good and I can still hardly believe that I'm finally putting it all together. The Antec True Power Trio 650-watt power supply is mounted into the case with greater ease than I expected. After removing the faceplate from the case as thoughtfully as possible, the motherboard faceplate takes its position in what will hopefully be a permanent replacement. I've checked to make sure that the motherboard standoffs are in the proper places. If they're not, it could wipe out the entire motherboard, this is very important in the assembly of a computer. The technician standing by nods in approval and urges me to continue on to the next steps. It's comforting knowing that so far, I've done it all right. Subsequently the ASUS PCI-E 8400GS video card needs to be put in and then next in line for installation are the optical drives. The Asus DVD-RW with lightscribe and an ASUS blu ray BD-ROM both need to be properly installed. After getting them appropriately placed inside the case, I begin installing the hard drive. My Western Digital 750GB SATA drive is in place and now it is time for the Sony floppy drive to be mounted in the tower. Even though floppy drives are becoming somewhat obsolete, I still find it useful to have an extra alternative to backing up and transferring data. Everything is in the case, and it is time to connect the power button and the "front of case" components to the motherboard. My trusty tech is standing by, ever at the ready should I mess something up and hopefully I won't. The SATA cables and all other components that need connecting are now connected. The technician gives the inside of this beauty a quick looking over to make sure nothing will explode when we plug it in. All is well. The case is closed, the computer now assembled and ready for software installation. Powered up, and I can't believe it, but it's working!!! My very first assembled computer put together by me, and it works. On to the software! So shiny in its pristine case, but the real treasure awaits when the proper combining of hardware, updates and drivers takes place. Microsoft Vista Home Premium is the platform of my choosing for this machine. The technician loads the operating system, installs the drivers and downloads the updates while I learn about this process of the beginning of a computer system. I've learned a lot thus far, and my trusting tech believes that I can handle to install of the rest of the software. Although he agreed to do a follow up just to make sure I didn't miss anything. So here I go, onward into learning by experience. Since this is my college PC, I've chosen the Home and Student version of Microsoft Office 2007. It's been installed with updates and seems to be working properly. Next is the Adobe Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, which has all sorts of neat programs like Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator among many more. This may take quite a while to install, but nevertheless it will be worth it when those projects are due. Anti-virus. What would I do without anti-virus? Gotta have it. My technician hands me the Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 3-user disc and off we go. It's been properly installed and I am now ready to begin work on my beautiful, brand new, custom built by me machine. For my very first assembled computer, I think I did pretty darn good, and hey, my tech never had to yell at me. YAY!!! I'm done. Now I actually get to enjoy this magnum opus of my 19 years of life. References: | Directron.com College Scholarship | |
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