2016 recommendations for a minimal ThinClient box

[bonne]

I read the sticky post... but unfortunately it seems outdated.

 

Planning on setting up a Thin Client solution for a university library.

 

Win2012R2 TS is up and running - I need to focus on the clients. They are just supposed to boot up an RDP session preferable through PXE.

 

Thinking of Thinstation by Donald A. Cupp Jr. but I am open to suggestions. Even Wyse, but my thoghs are that Wyse is to massive.

 

Would like a cheap, but nice 1 Gbps Thin Client - preferable integrated solution and with touch screen.

 

Where to look?

 

Thanks, Lars.

[Winner]

We are using Intel NUC5PPYH units for the same purpose. They have a pentium processor which has proved to be sufficient for RDP. We buy them with 4GB and a 120GB SSD from Stone Computers. Works out cheaper than dedicated thin clients, which often have lower specs, plus you can avoid extra licensing costs associated with thin clients that don't have a Windows OS installed e.g. VDA

 

We load up Windows 10 Edu 64 bit on them with only the free version of ThinKiosk installed. This software sets up a local account with auto logon that replaces the explorer shell with a customisable window which in our case loads up our RDP webpage for the user to login.

[mukz]

plus you can avoid extra licensing costs associated with thin clients that don't have a Windows OS installed e.g. VDA

 

We load up Windows 10 Edu 64 bit on them with only the free version of ThinKiosk installed.

 

Is it an OVS Agreement? As i am 99% certain you need to have a Microsoft base licence on the box first

[bonne]

We are using Intel NUC5PPYH units for the same purpose. They have a pentium processor which has proved to be sufficient for RDP. We buy them with 4GB and a 120GB SSD from Stone Computers. Works out cheaper than dedicated thin clients, which often have lower specs, plus you can avoid extra licensing costs associated with thin clients that don't have a Windows OS installed e.g. VDA

 

We load up Windows 10 Edu 64 bit on them with only the free version of ThinKiosk installed. This software sets up a local account with auto logon that replaces the explorer shell with a customisable window which in our case loads up our RDP webpage for the user to login.

 

Seems a bit to thick for me.

 

I found HP t410:

 

HP t410 All-in-One Thin Client review: First look | IT PRO

 

which even has PoE. It is a bit spicy though. Anyone knows this product?

 

Regards, Lars.

[Winner]

We have the NUCs supplied with a Windows license, then reimage through ConfigMgr with our EES licenses.

 

Thing is we were coming from a teradici zero client solution for VMware (which is really easy to manage) and had trials of Wyse/10zig/Samsung thin clients with Windows Embedded on. They were a faff to manage and we would still require a VDA license for them. Plus they have a Windows desktop there which you have limited manageability of. We didn't want our users seeing a Windows desktop, then clicking on RDP icons to get to the VM's. Confusion would reign!

 

We also looked at Linux based thin clients but we wanted full remotefx support and compatibility with USB devices. Unfortunately this isn't available with many solutions, and the cost of proprietary thin clients can be in many cases more expensive than the NUC's (Or Atom based mini PC's which also work for this solution and can be had for around £100 including the Windows license).

 

We came to the conclusion that we were better off with full fat Windows stripped down with GPO and the ThinKiosk software which does a lot of the work for you.

 

All personal preference of course, but this was what we ended up with after several months of testing and trial and error.

[Davit2005]

Seems a bit to thick for me.

 

I found HP t410:

 

HP t410 All-in-One Thin Client review: First look | IT PRO

 

which even has PoE. It is a bit spicy though. Anyone knows this product?

 

Regards, Lars.

 

We have these t410 All in Ones, pretty painless to setup and you have a central management soltion that dishes out profiles. Can be locked down quite nicely.

 

They even power from PoE so you only have to worry about cabling network, keyboard and mouse and you don't have to worry about users unplugging to charge their phones

 

The other ones we looked at were Igel clients which looked quite good.

 

Try and get a Demo if you can.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Davit2005