MkII Posted June 28, 2005 Posted June 28, 2005 I'm after some quick help here. A moron Tech Teacher is independantly adding machines to my network and i've said we must have a minimum spec. His latest insults are K6/2 500's/128Mb RAM/4Gb HDD These machines run - he's cut out a lot of windows components. The software environment he's trying to run is: WinXP/Ofice2003Pro/Macromedia Studio The K6/2 i've had problems with stability with on 2K and XP. Bear in mind there's only myself to support 275 machines and 1000 users. We have a meeting tomorrow with all the big guns to decide some minimal specs.
Dos_Box Posted June 28, 2005 Posted June 28, 2005 K6-2's (eeeh, I remember those!) have no place on a modern network,. If they are present they should only be there for legacy reasons and with a view to be replaced within the next year or so. As for running XP. On 128MB! They're having you on arn't they? Gone are the days when schools had to put up with low end processors such as K6-2s and Celerons, a minium spec I would recommend is eiert a P4 or Athlon 64 with 40GB HD (if you can get them that small now) and 512MB RAM.
MkII Posted June 28, 2005 Author Posted June 28, 2005 No - they ain't kidding! To quote Tech Head: "it works just fine. I know it does as I have had kids test drive the graphics program "Fireworks" this morning. It is a demanding program and takes 2 mins to load, but when loaded it goes well and the kids worked it well... no problems."
tarquel Posted June 28, 2005 Posted June 28, 2005 P4 or Athlon 64... 512MB? Ideally, but this is minimum useable spec topic lol so for basic office, email & net, u cud get away with less. U must get a big budget and a sympathetic ear in Preston DB lol I would say 128MB complete minimum - providing the pc isnt a crap K6-2 CPU (they were good for their day tho lol) - and the CPU probably a min of at least a AMD Duron/Athlon 800Mhz-1Ghz. HDD would have to be a min of 5.4k rpm and, depending on the use of the computer, around the 10Gb mark - again, for Office, XP and some support tools and apps, this is fine. VGA - 32MB on-board (in which case more than 128MB system memory) / AGP x4 (or above) card. Lan card of 100Mbs - i wouldnt bother with 10M. I would probably have these machines linked to a certain GPO that forces them to use classic-style look/turn off the "graphical effects" of windows just to help speed things up a bit. Cheers, Nath
Dos_Box Posted June 28, 2005 Posted June 28, 2005 P4 or Athlon 64... 512MB? I'm serious. The major manufacturers are ready to open a vein for you. All you have to do is ask. How many here know the name of your regional Dell or IBM rep? I suggest you look them us as they will take hundreds of pounds of he liust price for most systems and give you fantastic warrenties to go with them. As for spec, any new machine should be specced for XP Pro and Office 2003 + multimedia useage. This involves a minimum of 256 MB RAM and a fairly recent processor. See here for an example... http://www.lboro.ac.uk/computing/desktop/xp/min-spec.html
MkII Posted June 28, 2005 Author Posted June 28, 2005 Thanks Nath. 128mb ram is below the minimum requirement for access 2003 i'm sure. Fireworks and Dreamweaver are sluggish on an AMD 1.7/256 ram - i'd hate to use them on lower spec machines. We're not talking new machines here DB - but machines we already have. Yes, I completely agree if you're taliking new - that spec is a sensible minimum, easily achievable new - the same guy is geting some C3Gz/40HDD/128ram for Art @ £199 + monitor. Tho' again - I'd go with your spec as a sensible minimum - especially with Art.
Ric_ Posted June 29, 2005 Posted June 29, 2005 The min spec at my last place were Celeron 400 with 128MB RAM and 6GB hard disks - this was barely enough. I would recommend a sensible min spec to have 256MB RAM and at least a 20GB hard disk. For new machines, Chris is correct - you can get P4s for peanuts (esp. if you go for 2nd user - tel. 1st Technologies on 01254 878800).
russdev Posted June 29, 2005 Posted June 29, 2005 I would kick up a fuss and say if you are supporting it then you have final say on what should go on network... Russ
StewartKnight Posted June 29, 2005 Posted June 29, 2005 I know I'm going to be hung out to dry here! but I've had XP running on 64mb, although Micro$oft say the minimum is 128mb
Geoff Posted June 29, 2005 Posted June 29, 2005 Min specs I have for XP is 256mb, 1Ghz Processor, 20Gb HDD. For historical purposes, the specs I had for 2k were 128mb, 500Mhz Processor, 10Gb HDD. So much for bloat eh?
tarquel Posted June 29, 2005 Posted June 29, 2005 As I said to mark earlier, I think ultimately comes down to how much each school's ICT budget is each year, which helps determine what you consider minimum spec. i.e. a school having 100k a year as opposed to a school that has 8k is gonna have different min specs I think you'll agree Cheers, N
tarquel Posted June 29, 2005 Posted June 29, 2005 lol no mate, you mis-understand me... If you have 100k in your budget, you can safely keep a higher min spec of systems running on the network and not have to worry about holding onto the older pc's, whereas if you only get 8k in the budget, then you're gonna have to hang on and keep older machines whereas with 8k, you may need to get other things and can't afford to to get rid of machines that are, although below what you would like as a min spec i.e. in my case, I have to get a new email (exchange) server and associated licenses and equipment, a VPN/Firewall system, and much more... the ICT Co-ord would never allow me to ditch the older pc's just because I say they are feasable on the network anymore. We weren't on about min spec of buying new ones - just the min spec of what we can carry on supporting efficiently enough. I have a suite of about 25 computers that are: - AMD Athlon 800 (i think) - 128MB SDRAM - ~30GB HDD - 32MB Nvidia TNT2 AGP - Windows 98SE (yes, 98 still lol) They have the usual support apps like adobe reader 6, qtime, etc., Office 2k pro and a few multimedia apps like Kudos (Sept 04 - customised network install I made up...works a treat if anyone is interested in it) and some lovely (not!) welsh proggy's on them. I tried installing XP on one of them and they were fine - slow naturally, but perfectly useable for general internet & office 2k apps, tho O2k3 wud be a tad too slow maybe lol New machines I get are (currently): - HP Compaq DX2000 machines - Intel Celeron 2.5Ghz (approx - keeps getting higher this tho) - 256MB DDR - 40GB or more HD (having large drives is pointless for us currently - 10/100 onboard - onboard shared gfx 32MB or above, which is ok for the general internet/office/multimedia (apps, not creation) affairs - CDROM & Floppy drives (for my benefit only really as the systems are locked away from fiddly hands ) They work lovely - nice and quick for what they are. If the machine is specifically for something else i.e. music, I'll either build it from scratch or get a specific higher model. Sorry for the rant lol Cheers, Nath
Ric_ Posted June 30, 2005 Posted June 30, 2005 Bang another stick of RAM in those Athlons (so that they have 256MB) and that would be sufficient for a min spec. Seriously though, you should consider buying 2nd-user kit if your budget is so low. The number posted above is a great source for me - he even has 2nd-user servers (mainly HP/Compaq). The gear mostly comes from bankrupt stock, office clearance, etc.
tarquel Posted June 30, 2005 Posted June 30, 2005 Nice, but I dont like second-hand stuff. Not for use @ work. We get by, and compared to previous years, we're loaded lol I'm not saying not to beef them up, only what I'd have as a minimum for *this* school thats all. Additional RAM I would go for with a XP upgrade (@ about £25-£30) will be just the job but as these machines are 4-ish years old, I wonder if its worth it - probably will be as I doubt they'll be leaving here anytime soon lol Cheers.
Ric_ Posted June 30, 2005 Posted June 30, 2005 Nice, but I dont like second-hand stuff. Not for use @ work. We get by, and compared to previous years, we're loaded lol Odd man - under £200 for a Dell/Compaq/Fujitsu P4 with 512MB RAM and DVD. The stuff is like new and most comes with manufacturers' warranty. Each to their own.
tarquel Posted June 30, 2005 Posted June 30, 2005 Ahhh Manufacturers warranty - thats better lol I just feel like the old saying "you get what you pay for" tho lol Still....sounds nice Anyhow, this is off topic really so I iz gonna shut up lol Cheers, Nath
ChrisH Posted June 30, 2005 Posted June 30, 2005 I have seen some of Ric's purchases from first Technologies and I can confirm it all looks sparkly brand new!!
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