Admin machine spec

[Jobos]

Our admin department is looking to replace their machines. What spec of machine is recommended to run Sims, FMS and MS Office 2007?

[pscott]

That would depends on what you can afford!

[BatchFile]

Well I've just put some out : Dual 1.6Ghz, 1Gb Ram, 160Gb Hdd, and they sseem to manage ok... I'd go for memory over processor if money's tight.

 

I'll dig out the official system rqs... just a sec

[tmcd35]

I'm currently thinking of these...

 

Acer Veriton L410 Ultra Small Form Factor PC - Misco.co.uk

 

For both the Admin and the Classroom replacements this year. They seem to tick all the boxes at a very reasonably price IMHO.

 

Note to CPL - you may want to e-mail me prices for these toward the end of June/beginning of July. Looking at about 31-36 of them...

[Jobos]

That would depends on what you can afford!

 

As long as they can run the above programs I'm not bothered.

[Jobos]

Well I've just put some out : Dual 1.6Ghz, 1Gb Ram, 160Gb Hdd, and they sseem to manage ok... I'd go for memory over processor if money's tight.

 

I'll dig out the official system rqs... just a sec

 

I take it they will be running XP?

[BatchFile]

SIMS official hardware spec attached

sims_hardware_spec.pdf

[BatchFile]

I take it they will be running XP?

 

Vista business - they manage OK, pretty zippy in fact

[K.C.Leblanc]

Generaly we're going for 2gb RAM, low to mid range Core2Duo (not Celeron) processor and the smallest hard drive is offered (your admin users should not be storing data locally).

 

If you're going for Vista (particularly if you're getting 64 I'd add an extra 2gb ram).

 

EDIT: Personaly I wouldn't touch Acer with a barge pole.

Edited May 8, 2009 by K.C.Leblanc

[achedgy]

Capita are recommending PC's with 4gb of RAM at the schools i look after and a decent dual core processor (again not Celeron) Wouldn't recommend below 2gb even if running XP (Never know you may want to change in the near future) I always stick to either Dell or HP for admin PC's. Acer are a nightmare when things go wrong. Recently had a laptop take 3 months to come back from them.

[AyatollahPies]

Generaly we're going for 2gb RAM, low to mid range Core2Duo (not Celeron) processor and the smallest hard drive is offered (your admin users should not be storing data locally).

 

If you're going for Vista (particularly if you're getting 64 I'd add an extra 2gb ram).

 

EDIT: Personaly I wouldn't touch Acer with a barge pole.

 

I wouldn't touch 64-bit on the admin side workstations with a barge-pole.

[tmcd35]

EDIT: Personaly I wouldn't touch Acer with a barge pole.

 

Any particular reason? I'm open to suggestions for suitable alternatives, short building my own (which timescales don't allow for), I can't find anything close to this little Acer at the moment.

 

The Tick Boxes:

- 64bit processor with Virtualisation support (in case XPM mode in Win7 is needed in the future)

- 2Gb Ram

- Dual Core

- Not Celeron or Sempron

- Vista Business OEM (currently use downgrade rights for XP Pro)

- SFF or USFF case

 

I wouldn't touch 64-bit on the admin side workstations with a barge-pole.

Again any particular reasin why not?

 

We're not going 64bit until Win-7 hits, which for us is looking like Summer 2011, but when we do I can't think of any reason why the admin machines should stay 32bit. The only possible reason I can think of is if the School Management System (Phoenx Gold here) doesn't support 64bit.

 

OT: (but related to Tick Box 1 and the School Management System), Any one know if you can download and use the 32bit version of XPM in Windows 7 on the 64bit version of Windows 7 - or is it only 64bit XPM on 64bit Win7?

[timzim]

Acer are a nightmare when things go wrong

 

I'll agree with that - I had the misfortune to phone their support line this week (because their support people were incapable of reading an email correctly). I was put on hold for 15 minutes while extraordinarily loud rock music (even for IT Support!) was blasted in my ear. Eventually I got a voice saying "You are being transferred to voicemail", then another voice saying "The mailbox is full", then the line went dead. Grrr. I'll never buy Acer again.

[achedgy]

Acer are definitely a 'value' proposition, read: cheap but low build quality/reliabilty. You get what you pay for at the end of the day. Always been hassle when I've had to support them. For admin machines i always want reliable, that equals HP or Dell

[Fridge]

I'll agree with that - I had the misfortune to phone their support line this week (because their support people were incapable of reading an email correctly). I was put on hold for 15 minutes while extraordinarily loud rock music (even for IT Support!) was blasted in my ear. Eventually I got a voice saying "You are being transferred to voicemail", then another voice saying "The mailbox is full", then the line went dead. Grrr. I'll never buy Acer again.

 

Having worked at PC world in the past i have had a lot of dealing with Acer and this is on there contact number for store support. They don't have a clue what they are talking about on the phone, replacements usually take an age to get to you if at all. I remember once we had an Acer monitor that went wrong under warranty. Took well over 6 weeks for Acer to replace it.

[john]

Don't forget we have Acer-Man on here who is a sponsor and a good guy. He is here to A supply new Acer Kit, and B help existing Acer users sort out problems in the hope that you will see they have changed and improved and give them a chance

[timzim]

Very useful. Perhaps you could ask him to nip down to Acer Support, change the hold music & turn it down a bit, clear out the voicemail box, and maybe wake everyone up...