Anyone using Atom powered desktops?

[BJC]

we've started putting some veriton n260's in admin offices as replacements for some really old computers. In fact i have two being set up in the office right now.

 

We've been really impressed with them. We first bought one to test and had it set up next to a dell that had 3 GB ram and core 2 duo. The difference was barely noticeable for things like office and SIMS which is all most of our admin staff need. It couldn't handle youtube HD very well which i suppose is good as they shouldn't be on you tube anyway.

 

Staff are pleased with them too, no complaints at all so far. They love that it sits on the back of the monitor.

 

think we paid about £230 ex vat without a monitor. This was with acers dual load which allows you to restore the computer to XP or windows 7 and comes with both licenses.

 

As with most acer's there's lots of junk to uninstall.

[SteveR]

I've got a room full of Acer Revo 3610s. These are the dual core Revos with 4gb of RAM. They are all running Windows 7 Pro, and for the applications we are running, speed is simply not an issue. These machines are mainly used for office 2007 and web browsing, although we also do some basic video editing on them and run plenty of primary multimedia applications.

 

It is remarkable to be in the room when all 40 are turned on as it is almost silent. Unless you are running some seriously processor intensive software, I would highly recommend these small computers.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4384382181_d049636fbe.jpg

 

Looks like a great setup! I bet you don't need to have the AC on so high aswell!

 

How well do they handle flash video? - Have you needed to upgrade or tweak flash player?

[mwnci]

Thanks!

The A/C also provides the heating which has been necessary recently. Not much cooling needed - in the summer I should easily manage by opening the roof light. I'm trying to make the suite use as little power as possible. I am using LED monitors which also cut the electricity consumption. In terms of flash video, I had a few kids watching iplayer the other day during a lunchtime club and it just worked - in full screen. No problem at all.

[dtakias]

Let us know how you get on with the evaluation unit, may I ask where you are getting one from?

 

Just one of our main IT suppliers(Misco) but Acer apparently won't give them the loan unit.

[dtakias]

I've got a room full of Acer Revo 3610s. These are the dual core Revos with 4gb of RAM. They are all running Windows 7 Pro, and for the applications we are running, speed is simply not an issue. These machines are mainly used for office 2007 and web browsing, although we also do some basic video editing on them and run plenty of primary multimedia applications.

 

It is remarkable to be in the room when all 40 are turned on as it is almost silent. Unless you are running some seriously processor intensive software, I would highly recommend these small computers.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4384382181_d049636fbe.jpg

 

That's very cool.

Are you running them on 32bit or x64? Did you make an image with W7 for them? What kind of monitors are you using? Any reason you went with 16:10/9 format?

[mwnci]

The machines are currently running 32 bit, but I'm currently building a 64 bit image which I'll be rolling out soon. Using WDS and waik for the imaging. I would prefer to use fog, but the current version won't join windows 7 machines to the domain.

The monitors are great, and I must say this has got to be one of the best deals I've seen in a while. I paid a bit more than this:rolleyes::

 

BenQ G922HDL 18.5 DVI LED Monitor - Misco.co.uk

[dtakias]

The machines are currently running 32 bit, but I'm currently building a 64 bit image which I'll be rolling out soon. Using WDS and waik for the imaging. I would prefer to use fog, but the current version won't join windows 7 machines to the domain.

The monitors are great, and I must say this has got to be one of the best deals I've seen in a while. I paid a bit more than this:rolleyes::

 

BenQ G922HDL 18.5 DVI LED Monitor - Misco.co.uk

 

Amazing monitors those look like. Was the cost the reason you didn't go with the BenQ G920WL ?

[mwnci]

Hold on - those are the monitors I've got! Not the original one I posted - thought the price seemed good!

[burgemaster]

I am eying up a Revo to be used at home for a media PC running XBMC. I keep swaying between the dual core and single core versions of the Revo. Just can't make up my mind! I would want to dual boot into Windows 7, which I think could do with having dual core. It is said that there is a 20% increase in performance with the R3610 dual core but is about £60 more.. having 2GB of the instead of 1GB would also be handy.

How is the performance of the single core R3600 in windows 7 drewp? When you say it runs OK is it a tad sluggish?

 

Thats what im running at home in the living room, runs xbmc and plays 1080p media perfectly.

Im dual booting with win7 which i rarely use for web browsing with a wireless microsoft media keyboard.

Mine is also the R3600 which is single core and has 2gb ram.

 

All good

[burgemaster]

I've got a room full of Acer Revo 3610s. These are the dual core Revos with 4gb of RAM. They are all running Windows 7 Pro, and for the applications we are running, speed is simply not an issue. These machines are mainly used for office 2007 and web browsing, although we also do some basic video editing on them and run plenty of primary multimedia applications.

 

It is remarkable to be in the room when all 40 are turned on as it is almost silent. Unless you are running some seriously processor intensive software, I would highly recommend these small computers.

 

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4384382181_d049636fbe.jpg

 

Are they bolting / secured into the plastic quick release cradle at all mate?

I can easily see someone unplugging and popping one of these in thier bag?

[dtakias]

Apparently the Revo is getting an update soon with Nvidia Ion 2 , question is how soon? Maybe that will mean cheaper existing R3610 soon...

[robyholmes]

Apparently the Revo is getting an update soon with Nvidia Ion 2 , question is how soon? Maybe that will mean cheaper existing R3610 soon...

 

I picked up a Ex Display 3610 (Dual Core Atom, 2Gb, No OS) for about £180, not bad? They may well be coming down tho. Has anyone used these in a Primary School? I know primary software is a lot more graphical and wonder how they perform.

[SteveR]

Apparently the Revo is getting an update soon with Nvidia Ion 2 , question is how soon? Maybe that will mean cheaper existing R3610 soon...

 

I came across this surprising article stating that the first look of the ion2 has revealed it slower than the current ion!

 

Nvidia Ion 2 GPU Benchmarked As Slower Than Its Predecessor - ion 2 - Gizmodo

 

I've had my R3610 for a few days now and loving it! I still need to install Windows 7 but having too much fun with XBMC Live.

[mwnci]

This suite is in a primary school and they manage all of the primary applications no problem. Most of these are just flash based - and aren't a massive strain on the resources of the machine.

 

In response to the question about securing the Revos to the monitor, no they are not bolted to the screens - to be honest I'm not sure how you could do that easily as a result of the small chasis on the Revo. We will rely on other measures such as cctv etc - fortunately we don't have a problem with student vandalism.

[AIT]

Here are our electricity costs per pc per year based on a school average on and off peak usage pattern and current off and on peak electricity costs.

 

£21.09/year - Dell Optiplex GX520 P4 3.00Ghz PC

£19.62/year - RM Core2 Quad 2.66 PC

£8.16/year - RM EcoQuiet Atom PC

£4.12/year - HP T5135 Thin Client

£1.51/year - Axel M70w / Sun Ray II Thin Client

 

Also for VDU devices:

 

£16.14/year - 17" CRT

£6.35/year - 19" TFT

 

So - moving from an ICT suite of 30 x older Dell P4 workstation and 17" CRT to a Atom PC with 19" TFT's will save you £681.60 per year just in electricity.

 

Butuz

 

Its all well and good saying energy saving on the desktops. however what about the power consumption of the heavy servers running the thin clients.

[Butuz]

Its all well and good saying energy saving on the desktops. however what about the power consumption of the heavy servers running the thin clients.

 

Hey it's a good point. My £681.60 per year saving was based on using Atom PC's as dekstops, so no thin client servers needed in that example.

 

With our thin clients, based on our usage, and the fact our terminal servers are virtualised (which further reduces server costs) thin clients still work out significantly cheaper to a) buy and b) run than even the atom desktops and that's including the server costs and power consumption etc. When your moving from old P4 type fat clients with possibly CRT monitors, huge energy cost savings can be made by selecting newer, much more efficient equipment such as Atoms or thin clients.

 

Butuz

[jamin100]

Just picked up on this thread . .

 

and have a question - Would CMIS run well on one of these?

[CHR1S]

Just picked up on this thread . .

 

and have a question - Would CMIS run well on one of these?

 

Is that like the education version of will it run CRYSIS?

Facilitys only limiting factor is that it runs from a network drive, so the slight delay to pull it down and run it in memory is the only issue. You could probably run Facility on a celeron with no issues if you felt like it. Remember its just a pants front end for an SQL database after all

[jamin100]

Is that like the education version of will it run CRYSIS?

Facilitys only limiting factor is that it runs from a network drive, so the slight delay to pull it down and run it in memory is the only issue. You could probably run Facility on a celeron with no issues if you felt like it. Remember its just a pants front end for an SQL database after all

 

Yes, I'm thinking about getting one of these for our bursar to begin with and all she uses is Office and CMIS... Maybe worth a try..

 

I'm also thinking about attaching some of these to the network to run IWB's from instead of teachers laptops that there always forgetting to bring to work!!!

 

going to see if I can get a demo unit from somewere to give it a little test!

[jamin100]

For those of you that have these how have you licenced them?

 

My supplier states that they come with w7 home and that i'd have to purchase a full retail copy of W7 Pro to be able to downgrade to XP Pro.

 

This obviously pushes the price right up!

[robyholmes]

I have personal bought one of these, I already had a W7Pro license and so didn't want to buy W7Home, so I got the Linux version, does your supplier have any of these? Revo 3610 with Limpus Linux I think it is.

[mwnci]

If you want to use Windows on it you'll have to get the machine with an MS OEM licence anyway. Ours had Windows 7 Home on them, then we bought the Pro upgrade licence.

[ranj]

Can I ask if any school is using the Asus EEBox PC Model EB1502.

 

I am thinking of trying these out in a small area where the main use is office internet and online exams?

 

Does anyone recommend them?

 

thanks