Science Project

[Mattrod]

Hello everyone,

Its been a while since ive posted on here or visited, but i need you help. Thsi year i participated in my schools science fari. I did my project on the benifets of overclocking and the performance gain by overclocking different percentages. Well, i won overall at my local fair and placed 2nd at state competition and won the intel computer science award. Ok now that i have told you that, now my problem. I dont know what to do next. I would like a project that i could possibly win state with. Ive been trying to think of a computer science project that would be cool, but my heads not working. So if any of you have a suggestion i would be very grateful. thanks

[Floppyman]

Hi,

Before we can offer you any suggestions, it would be good to know what level this project should be, e.g. middle school, high school level, or beyond? HTH

[james8547]

Are there any requirements and/or constraints for the project? Is there any theme?

[Mattrod]

OK thsi year i was in 10th grade, Next year which is when this project will be used, i will be in 11th and there arent really any limitations except no harming animals.

[Mattrod]

I really need some help with this i woul dlike it to have to do with computers and maybe bicycles because those are the only things i kno0 wabout

[surewhynot]

The first thing that comes to my mind is if you have an interest in overclocking, maybe a project on cooling. I don't know how complicated that would be or even if it's feasible though. Just my 2 cents.
Tony

[ZeratulsAvenger]

First of all, edit. We have an edit button and people have a tendancy to, once they have a fresh thought after posting an initial comment, they will make another post directly after the comment they posted 1-5 minutes ago(although you can edit for up to 30 minutes I think) with no one else's posts in between. I say, press edit and go a few spaces down from where you had typed your last statement, type EDIT or something similar, and go on with the new statement. No need for a second post. Maybe that is just me.

On the project: Are you taking Physics next year, or have you yet? 12th grade I think may be the standard year for Physics, but that is only if they even decide to take it. Just asking since you could jump start yourself on some form of electricity and circuits. A shallow link to cpmputers perhaps, but I am sure it is workable. Or you can do something on data and coding, the 0's and 1's that make all this possible. Wip out some Assembly language with a workable example and BAM, you are sure to win

They have a science fair at your school, in HIgh School? We don't. That's strange.

[james8547]

Building on ZA's suggestion of Assembly language, I had to write a program that can encrypt/decrypt any file. The encryption algorithm was straightforward. It was built on the binary XOR (exclusive or) operation. It was about 50 lines of code and took less than an hr. to write and debug. Actually, it was the 1st and only program/code that I didn't have to debug. I made a text file containing the string, "Hello World!" I ran the program, and decrypted the output file. Surprisingly, it worked.

[Panama Red]

How bout something to explain the emerging 64 bit technology? Now that a 64 bit Windows OS is available, you could show the benefits and long term possibilities of this technology.

[Mattrod]

Yes i will be taking Physics next year, all of these ideas are good. i knew i should come here and ask everyone on the forums. I ahve a question about the 64 bit processer idea. would it be necessary for me to own one fro the purpose of the project. right now i only have an xp3200

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by Mattrod I ahve a question about the 64 bit processer idea. would it be necessary for me to own one fro the purpose of the project. right now i only have an xp3200

Depends on what you intend to display. Probably would have a greater impact if you could display a 64 bit system but I'd think you could come up with charts and drawings to simulate a 64 bit performance comparison.

[David M]

Wow...congratulations Matt! How about the benefits of liquid cooling over air cooling? This would tie in perfectly with your physics class. You could go into thermodynamic principles, conservation of energy, heat transference principles and all kinds of physics principles relating to materials and heat.

[Mattrod]

thats anotehr good idea. that one would be cool to test and work out

[thefultonhow]

I second the two cooling ideas. It would be interesting to do a study of the ever-rising thermal dissipations of modern-day chips (the TDP envelope for the new dual-core Pentium D chips goe sup to 130W!) and then show how cooing improvements (better airflow, water-cooling, etc) help mitigate the high TDPs.

[Mattrod]

ok all of you have given some great ideas to think about. now i have 8 months to decide and get it worked out. i will let you know which one i decide and how it turns out. Thanks so much

[kram 2.0]

I like Panama Red's idea on 64-bit systems - it's quickly becoming the "thing" lately - MS is behind it and so is Intel and AMD. So it would definately become very prevelant in a few years.

I was also looking at something else the other day - dual core processors. The benefits of having an entirely new execution core in respect to Intel's HyperThreading technology.

Just some thoughts. Congrats on the award.
kram

[Techdec42]

I think I would do something with cooling

[Mattrod]

ok i just had a friend give me a simple but good idea. Amd vs. intel take an amd xp 3200 adn compare ti with a 3.2ghz p4. compare them over a range of tests.

[Mattrod]

what does everyoen think about that idea

[kram 2.0]

Good idea. Be sure to include several types of each processor - ie. different cores.

kram

[Floppyman]

What tests are you planning on running? Make sure you include something about architecture differences too -- it relates to how these chips perform in various tests/benchmarks. Good Luck, wish I could have done something like this while still in High School.

[Mattrod]

yea i am going to talk about the architecture of each one the cost. perfromance over differnt programs, music, video and the tlel which i think is the better buy

[Jaggannath]

How you acquiring these different processors??

[Mattrod]

i have an amd 3200 and oen of my frirends has a p4 3.2ghz so i will probably have to get with him and see if he will help me out