3s-gtech Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Just a general question really, I see there was an old thread about oldest production server too. Would be interesting to hear what sort of machines you all manage to keep going, and in what role. Here, I have: Oldest servers: 2 x Dell Poweredge 2550 (2 x P3 950MHz) - backup DC and Successmaker Oldest student desktops: AMD Duron 850 with 512MB of RAM - they actually run really well (nothing less than 512 now) Oldest staff desktop: AMD Athlon 1333 with 512MB of SDRAM (undergoing maintenance!) Surprisingly small amount of trouble from the older stuff, as they tend to be put in lower use areas. Have had loads of P4 machines give trouble though, usually dying onboard LAN and IDE. 1
Grommit Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Have PC and servers that are 5 to 7 years old... BSF said we would have to dump them all
sidewinder Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Some P4 3Ghz Stone machines in some integrated desks from about 2006...anything older was just too unreliable (bad equipment from previous supplier). 99% of pcs/laptops are less than 4 years old Oldest server is a circa 2004 Dual Xeon 2.4Ghz, soon due to be retired because its massive (5U)
ssiruuk2 Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Oldest desktops being used are Celeron 366mhz with 32 mb of ram.. Running linux as thin clients
tmcd35 Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Oldest PC's - HP Pavillion 553x. P4's mostly now with 512mb Ram. (2002) Oldest Server - Elonex Resilliance 5000. Dual P4-based Xeons Oldest Laptop - RM N30-N3. Early P4's (I think) with 256mb (2002) - replacements now ordered
cookie_monster Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Oldest desktops P3 1Ghz with 256 Mb RAM, they'll be going this time hopefully. Next oldest are P4's. Servers are all pretty new now, we just got rid of 2 Poweredge 2600s.
3s-gtech Posted November 12, 2009 Author Posted November 12, 2009 I do think it's a shame when perfectly workable PCs, that still do the job, are dumped just for the sake of it. I hope any that are, are offered to primaries etc. Dumped our last thin clients a year or so back, AMD K6-2 350s, plus some Wyse terminals. They were all so slow, they got trashed while the kids waited for them to load.
ssiruuk2 Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Funniest thing is the kids think the celeron 366's are the quickest machines on the network. Might be due to the very powerful TS servers they log into - logging in takes all of about 2 seconds.
sidewinder Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 I do think it's a shame when perfectly workable PCs, that still do the job, are dumped just for the sake of it. I hope any that are, are offered to primaries etc. Agreed. I see some advantages in the 4/5 year replacement cycle but a lot of equipment could be upgraded or just do the job for longer. We donate truckloads of PC's and laptops to local schools. Only non working equipment gets recycled
dgsmith Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Our oldest still in use are RMOnes from March 05 with spec P4 3ghz, 512mb ram (min ram anywhere) and 80GB HDDs. Starting to struggle - especially on CC4! All 3 main IT rooms (~33 each room) are Core 2 duo, and also around 50 laptops that are core 2 (core 2 accounts for just over half our equipment - in excess of 300 comps & laptops). Servers - oldest is a 2.4ghz Xeon from May 2004 (2 physical single core processors with hyperthreading) - want to get this replaced within the next 12-18 months.
witch Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 I do think it's a shame when perfectly workable PCs, that still do the job, are dumped just for the sake of it. I hope any that are, are offered to primaries etc. That really bugs me - things are NOT offered to other schools in the pyramid or generally, it seems. I have approached the high school and got some monitors which enabled to finally remove all the CRTs from the school! But I am not sure that they would have offered them to me if I hadn't asked. You are right, my junior school runs some pretty old beasts but they work, and any spares are gratefully received!
DSapseid Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Oldest spec machines still in use are RM machines that are 866mhz with 256mb RAM running xp with sp3!! they do tend to take a bit of time to logon!! Oldest server is my exchange server Intex Xeon 2.80ghz 512mb RAM running server 2003 R2 SP2 with exchange for staff and students!!
Pottsey Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 We have two Acorns still in use. Wonderful little computers as the rare times something goes wrong you just power cycle it. Our oldest PC’s are 5 years old as we work on a 4 to 5 year rolling replacement.
gavins38 Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Our oldest machines still in use are P4 2.6Ghz Dell GX240s. We're aiming to reuse these as thin clients in the classrooms to work alongside the new Core2Duo machines. We have got a big, clunky old P2 laptop sitting proudly on a shelf in our server room as a reminder of classic computing though!
dhicks Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Our oldest still in use are RMOnes from March 05 with spec P4 3ghz, 512mb ram (min ram anywhere) and 80GB HDDs. Starting to struggle We have some RM Ones we're using as thin clients, at which task they excel. We'll quite happily take your off your hands if you don't want them any more :-) Our Dell 2400 workstations are holding up remarkably well - we have most of our admin staff, teaching staff and the sixth form using them on a daily basis. They must be about 5 years old, and look like they'll last at least a couple more years - few hardware failures. We have a Dell server a similar age which I'm transferring all our images over to. -- David Hicks
dgsmith Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 We have some RM Ones we're using as thin clients, at which task they excel. We'll quite happily take your off your hands if you don't want them any more :-) We'd have to replace them with something though - and we have no money at all to do that We've not long retired some RM desktop units that were Celeron 2.4ghz, and trying to see what to do with them!
Butuz Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Oldest Server: 2005 - Due to be decommissioned by Xmas! Oldest PC: 2002 - Still have a few of these dotted around. Majority of PC's are 2005 and we are struggling to replace them! Butuz
3s-gtech Posted November 12, 2009 Author Posted November 12, 2009 I'm a sucker for upgrading our school PCs with bits off Ebay. Huge amount of machines have been bumped up to 512MB, large number of HP mini Gbics bought, plus some very cheap server RAM. For the most part I've paid for the stuff personally, but it's been pennies overall and allows me to keep within my small yearly budget.
maniac Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 We have a lot of Dell D510 laptops - Celeron 1.4GHz with 512MB RAM, these are slow but work fine once logged on. Due to replace as many of these as possible this year, with the remainder going to low use areas of the school until they die. Oldest workstations are Dell GX60's which are about 5 yrs old this year, P4 Celereon 2.4GHz with 1GB ram (We upgraded them last year) and also brough flat screens for them to improve them a bit. I think we'll get one more year out of them, maybe 2 if we're lucky. Servers, I have 2 that are 5yrs old+ running Linux for Digital Signage control (Xibo) and FOG for my imaging server. These will stay in use until they die as they are perfectally good for the job. The rest of my servers are under 3 years old. It's what to do with the 120 HP TC1100 tablet PCs that I have stored up that I'm struggling with. These are P3 700MHz with 256MB ram and are absolutely useless as a portable PC, as the batteries on most of them are knackered, and if you put them on a network with XP SP3, forget about it - they're absolutely dog slow. Any suggestions? Mike.
3s-gtech Posted November 12, 2009 Author Posted November 12, 2009 Personally, I'd look at installing Ubuntu with Open Office on them, or connect them to a TS, good way of getting some extra workstations without worrying about the specs too much.
sted Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 i retired a win95 workstation earlier this year 64mb ram and p2 iirc was stuck in the nursery not networked (for some reason they have no sockets down there)
Guest salan Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 We still have a few PII 400's running xp with 256 meg of ram! up to 15 mins to boot!! lol They are next on the list to go Alan
OverWorked Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 I'm just in the process of replacing a load of 10 year old PII machines with win98 COA stickers on them. They we're made by Centrex and are indestructible. In the 8 years I've been here not one has died. Boot up and logon can take between 10-30 minutes depending on Windows and antivirus updates.
mpe Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Agreed. I see some advantages in the 4/5 year replacement cycle but a lot of equipment could be upgraded or just do the job for longer. It also isn't always the oldest equiptment which causes the most trouble either.
ozzy Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 Still got our 1998 rm server p3 128 mb ram running dhcp:o just got rid of the last rm p2 with 64 mb ram from 97 running xp sp2:eek:
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