When journalism students entered room B129, they were excited to try 16 brand-new computers that were added when the school renovations were completed.
Along with the new technology unveiled at the CTE center, every teacher in the high school received new desktop computers in their classrooms, and the two computer labs B129 and B140 also received new computers. The new computer’s feature is a new NVIDIA GPU processor with a speed of 4.8GHz, which measures the number of cycles the CPU executes per second. This enhances the PC’s performance and reduces downtime.
The district purchased Dell Precision 3460 computers. There were 70 new computers added, each costing $1,700. They even purchased new monitors each costing $170, which adds up to $1,870 for each setup.
According to most students who used the computers before the upgrade, the old machines were slow, laggy and prone to crashing when designing layouts or editing photos.
“The old computers were really slow,” yearbook Spanish Editor Amy Rodriguez Rosa said. “Slower than getting [cell] service in school.”
The journalism students often struggled to meet deadlines due to computer issues.
“It was so stressful because they were too slow,” photography editor Jaime Ortega Castro said. “You have to use more than one app, and it would take a long time to edit photos.”
The journalism and graphic design students frequently use Adobe software for their projects, including InDesign, Bridge, Photoshop and Illustrator, which require significant processing power to function properly.
“The students design everything from scratch, so they put a lot of time and effort into their designs and editing,” journalism teacher David Stevens said. “Both the newspaper and yearbook students can design very professional-looking work. They were able to do that with slow and old equipment. I can’t wait to see what they can make with the new computers.”
The computers in B140 are even used after school hours. The Gaming Club uses them so they can practice for their Esport competitions. With the improved specs, players experience more frames per second and an overall better gaming experience.
“Overall, they are a good upgrade from the previous computers,” Gaming Club sponsor Seth Nicholaison said. “The extra storage on them is great. They allow the members of Gaming Club to be able to play whichever games they choose without filling up the storage on the computer. This enables the computer lab to be used for class in school, and Esports and gaming after school effectively.”
The photography club, another extracurricular activity, also uses the computers in B129 before and after school.
“It’s nice to have the equipment that can keep with our photography schedule,” Photography Editor Breanna Nelson said. “It’s nice to finally have something that you can trust and rely on. The work goes by faster and it gives us more opportunities to take more photos since we don’t have to worry about how many hours editing will take.”
With the new computers enhancing performance and reliability, students now have the
tools to excel in their creative and academic pursuits.
