nathan Posted March 6, 2014 Posted March 6, 2014 (edited) Hi All, We're at a stage where we're beginning to plan upgrading our ICT Suite (around 30 pc's), PC's around the school (around 10) and our Teacher PC's (17). I have been looking into the nComputing to see if we could make use of this of the L300's. We would look to replace the teacher pc's with normal desktops but use the L300s with the ICT Suite and the PC's around the school. So in total 40. Roughly speaking what sort of server hardware would we require for this? Majority of the time it's office, browsing the web and printing use. But i'm worried about the ICT Suite, around 30 of them all using flash based websites. Of course SSD is a must, could we get away with using an i7 instead of Xeons? Might have to see if we can get something on loan. Edited March 6, 2014 by nathan
ICTDirect_Dave Posted March 6, 2014 Posted March 6, 2014 I'd suggest one of our Z800 Workstations running multipoint server or similar. For less than a grand you can have an SSD, a few HDDs for storage, 2 x Hex Core Xeons and 48 Gb RAM. You'd have no problem with 40 machines
nathan Posted March 6, 2014 Author Posted March 6, 2014 I'd suggest one of our Z800 Workstations running multipoint server or similar. For less than a grand you can have an SSD, a few HDDs for storage, 2 x Hex Core Xeons and 48 Gb RAM. You'd have no problem with 40 machines Could you pm me with a the spec. thanks
nathan Posted March 6, 2014 Author Posted March 6, 2014 Also would i need both RDS and Windows Server CALS?
DrCheese Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Hi there, I've been looking at this as an alternative to installing fat clients in some of our business suites. I've seen them in use at another school nearby but I'm not 100% sure yet. For me, end user experience is absolutely key. The systems I saw had issues scrolling in IE & services like Aero were turned off. iPlayer HD was unusable (Tho you could argue that this is rarely used & not really important) Even if the underlying server is incredibly fast if the machine "feels" slow, the user will report as slow. But the cost (£170 per seat rather than £400+ for a fat client) is really tempting. I'm stuck! Has anyone else used these yet in a big production environment? What are your experiences?
Oaktech Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 I've just gone completely the other way, sacked of 4x multipoint servers and 35 USB connected ncomputing terminals because the performance was abysmal and if one froze the only option was to kill the whole server. I've bought 35 of @ICTDirect_Dave's finest Lenovo M58. Whilst they aren't super speedy they are plenty fast enough for a primary school. 1
ICTDirect_Dave Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 I've just gone completely the other way, sacked of 4x multipoint servers and 35 USB connected ncomputing terminals because the performance was abysmal and if one froze the only option was to kill the whole server. I've bought 35 of @ICTDirect_Dave's finest Lenovo M58. Whilst they aren't super speedy they are plenty fast enough for a primary school. As as the sub £100 M58 is our entry level desktop, there's plenty of scope for increased performance without getting close to £400 per unit. In fact for just £195 you can get yourself core i5 sff desktops 1
DrCheese Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Cool, that's something worth keeping in mind. The machines I want to replace are 2006 era Dell 740's - Performance is awful now
achedgy Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 Got to agree with the above. Tried ncomputing solution in one of my primary's, was complete hell. Speed being the biggest issue, but random usb and audio issues. Doing anything beyond basic web browsing or office was out of the question. That's if you could get the software to install. The amount I came across which just said no!!!.. Was a fab day when I ripped it all out and replaced with some little sff Lenovo's
DrCheese Posted April 1, 2015 Posted April 1, 2015 What did you use? Was it the L300s & VSpace server?
nathan Posted April 8, 2015 Author Posted April 8, 2015 Got to agree with the above. Tried ncomputing solution in one of my primary's, was complete hell. Speed being the biggest issue, but random usb and audio issues. Doing anything beyond basic web browsing or office was out of the question. That's if you could get the software to install. The amount I came across which just said no!!!.. Was a fab day when I ripped it all out and replaced with some little sff Lenovo's Sounds like this is the multipoint solution rather than the thin client/server model
mdrabble Posted April 8, 2015 Posted April 8, 2015 Currently using approx 40xL300 with VSpace on a 2008R2 Server. Usage/Logon times were slow until SP1 was installed and that seemed to cure speed issues. Usage is mainly Office and Internet Usage.
DrCheese Posted April 8, 2015 Posted April 8, 2015 ok - How's things like scrolling in IE/Chrome? For me that's a big reason to avoid them at the moment...
mdrabble Posted April 9, 2015 Posted April 9, 2015 Just tried on scrolling on Youtube on Chrome and IE and no real issue other than IE being slightly juddery now and then.
DrCheese Posted April 15, 2015 Posted April 15, 2015 ok thanks.... I admit that does worry me tho - If it can't do something we've been doing for years on fairly low powered devices then what else is it going to struggle with down the line?
PotNoodleTech Posted April 15, 2015 Posted April 15, 2015 "Down the line" is the main issue with remote desktop based computing. In 2 years time you may need to run completely different software compared to now - will your solution cope? Fat clients certainly will cope and you sure as heck don't need to spend £400+ to get a fat client with a reasonable CPU, 4GB ram and an SSD! I avoid RDP with a barge poll now.
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