Typical Desktop Machine

[bigkevdamphouse]

Hi all,

I'm a keen reader of the forums but I've never contributed. So...

I'm a time served IT Manager and now a qualified teacher. I'm doing a bit of research work around using Second Life (or similar) to support learning in all age ranges. My work machine won't even run it (poor onboard graphics chip) and it got me wondering 'what's the typical desktop like in a school?'

So, can you give me some feedback as a starter for 10? I'm looking at type of school, OS, processor, memory and graphics card.

If there any links to statistics on this sort of thing then hook me up!

Thanks.

BigK

[webman]

Hi, welcome to Edugeek.

We currently have machines whose ages span 5 years since the network was installed. All machines run XP Pro, network has a 10Gbps fiber backbone. They all use on-board graphics, and find they're generally good enough for Google Earth; we don't run anything that justifies the cost of additional display cards. School is 11-16 with ~720 on roll.

Lowest spec, these are starting to struggle a bit (2 suites)

• 1.8GHz P4
• 256MB RAM
• 20GB Harddisks (5400RPM)

Newest computers, very nippy. (2 suites, offices, 1 per classroom).

• 3.2GHz Pentium 4
• 512MB RAM
• 80GB Harddisks (7200RPM)

We have a small cluster of old Dell machines (800MHz, 256MB RAM) that we recently added to the domain (used to be Win98SE in a workgroup). Not the quickest of computers but they're OK.

[CheeseDog]

Primary School

~360 Pupils (not including nursery)
~60 Desktops all XP

2.4GHz Pentium 4
512MB RAM
40GB Harddisks
Onboard graphics (can't justify anything else for the software in use.)

Just about starting to show there age (Now 4 years old)

[netadmin]

We are small--only 160 students total.

Our slowest machines are:
2.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, CDRW/DVD reader, XP Pro, onboard sound and graphics, onboard 10/100 network

Our newer machines are:
3.0GHz+, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, DVDRW, XP Pro, media card reader, onboard sound and graphics, onboard 10/100/1000 network


Until about 2 months ago, we had a number of 400MHz computers. Luckily, they finally gave us money to upgrade these "modern" systems.

Almost all of our systems run Deep Freeze, which has helped us a lot this year.

[john]

Slowest machines are around a 1.5GHz P4, 256 Ram, 20GB HDD
Newest machines around a 3GHz P4 or 4000+AMD Athlon X2, 512Ram, 80GB HDD

[bigkevdamphouse]

Thanks for the replies so far. This really helps and confirms what I was thinking, that on-board graphics seem to be the de-facto standard (like an office desktop)...What screen resolutions do you run?

Any further input would be greatly appreciated. FE's HE's, what's going on at your end? Is it all thin client stuff?

Cheers,

BigK

[john]

1280x1024 is my main resolution, use TFTs all over site, but obviously if its a 15" TFT it may be different, but basiclally its the optimum resolution for the screen that is used.

[bigkevdamphouse]

Thanks John, are you in a secondary school?

Are TFT's prevalent everywhere then? Anyone still using CRT's at 800x640?

BigK

[localzuk]

Are TFT's prevalent everywhere then? Anyone still using CRT's at 800x640?

We have 5 CRT monitors left in our school and all are due for replacement this coming year - and they all worked at 1280x1024. 800x600 resolution usage went out with the dark ages!!

[Teth]

We have a few rooms with CRTs left. 1 on my network and 3 on the managed network which wont be changed until they're contract renews.

The base resolution of the managed system is 800x600 which anoys me no end becasue the hardware is capable of more they just "don't support it". Our own network CRTs run 1024x768 and all the TFTs in the other 4 rooms run 1280x1024 which I think is the stardard for a comfortable XP desktop.

[webman]

Our newest 30 PCs are hard-glass TFTs (1280x1024) and everywhere else is CRT (1024x768).

[john]

Thanks John, are you in a secondary school?

Are TFT's prevalent everywhere then? Anyone still using CRT's at 800x640?

BigK

Yup, but also do primary stuff, they are all TFTs as well.

[netadmin]

Almost all of the computers here, except admin computers, are still using CRTs (some running 800x600, others 1024x768). A majority of the TFTs are running 1024x768.

[Geoff]

I tend to try and get the glass fronted TFTs. Also, it's best to run the TFT at it's native resolution, otherwise it just looks odd.

[maniac]

We've a right old mish mash of macines.

I tink the oldest machines we've got are
Athlon based 2400 I think
256mb RAM
40GB HDD

these are due for replacement this year (I think we've got about 40 of them left, we disposed of some of them last year)

We've got 3 ICT suites of fujitsu machines,
2.4GHz P4
256 or 512mb RAM (depends on the machine)
40gb HDD

These are also due for replacement this year, mainly because of the physical condition of them, they're wrecked! I think we've about 85 of these.

We've one ICT suite with IBM desktops in
I think they're about 2.4GHz celerons
512mb RAM
40 or 60GB HDDs

These are 2 years old, and I hate them! They are very tempermental.

We've 2 ICT suites with different IBM Desktops,
Celeron 2.8GHz I think,
512mb ram
80GB hdd I think

These are only 18 months old, and doing well. Have 17inch TFTs on these, and they run at 1024x768 which isn't the optimum resolution, but was at the teachers request (apprently the students were finding it hard to read the screen)

We've 2 ICT suites with Dell desktops
Celeron 2.8GHz (I think)
512mb RAM
80GB HDD

These are only 6 months old. These also have 17" TFT screens, we're running these at 1280x1024

All our machines have TFT screens, the older ones are 15", newer ones are 17". We decommissioned our last ICT suite with CRT monitors in over the summer just gone. They do all run with onboard graphics which does everything we need the machines to do.

Our office machines are even more of a mish mash, lots of them brought individually, or at different times. We've around 100 office computers over the school. That excludes laptops, of which we've around 150 for teachers use, and 90 for students use.

Yes we have a lot of computers! I've not even gone into the small pockets of machines we have in places, which probably adds up to another 50+ machines.

Mike