Thin Clients? What would I need

[tmcd35]

Start with the thin clients themselves and work back. You need 32 that support local video at reasonable speed and resolutions. So you're probably look in the £300-£400 price bracket for each one, if not more. Now look at the prices of normal desktops for the same money and their proper local processing.

 

Then look at the server(s). You're basically centralising the computing power of all those desktops. So maybe you're looking at 32x2 cores + 32x4Gb Ram. So a 64 core server with 128Gb ram? Okay probably overkill, but if your doing video on 32 thin clients, probably not that overkill. Add in OS costs both server and Thin Client CAL's. Then mix in some input lag, with the best will in the world your still running the input and output over Cat5e for 32 machines simultaneously.

 

Seriously I doubt you'd save much money, if any, over traditional desktops for this kind of use and you will notice performance issues under load. Personally I wouldn't do it. Thin Clients have their place. We use them in our library, SEN and for admin staff. Replacing student desktops? not really.