Multipoint server setup

[SYNACK]

That is grossly overspecced buddy! The GreenHive Mulipoint 6 User Direct Connection appliance; Intel I5 750 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR3 1333, DVDRW, 4 Port USB Card, 3 x Nvidia 8400GS 512MB Graphics Card, 160GB 7200rpm HDD, 12 USB, 2 front, 10 rear, 10/100/1000 LAN, 300W 80+ Bronze PSU, No Operating System, 3 Yr RTB Warranty, Aluminium Tower chassis, 6 Connected through Graphics output and 4 Port USB Hub or KB/MS , Audio etc Was on a primary school sheffield tender at £659 RRP. Some VAR or another won it, but apparently tonnes quoted out.

 

That really depends on what you want to do on them, we just ordered a system that would blow that spec out of the water for four stations but we want it to be scaleable for 6 or 9 stations and last the distance for more than a couple of years.

 

The spec we have gone for is:

i7 950 CPU

12GB ddr3 1600 RAM

2x 500GB HD in RAID 0 (higher density makes them faster and like $10 more than a 160GB)

2x ATI 5570 Silent GPUs

1x ASUS MB with 3x PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots

1x Antec 300 case

1x Antec 750W 80+ PSU

 

The hardware should be arriving shortly and the system should last and be scaleable without major upgrades. The components chosen are also comparitivly low power and low noise making the machine very quiet given its operating environment in the library. With all but the moniters it worked out to just under £1000 which given the mental price premiums we pay here in NZ is quite good.

 

If you are wondering about the delay in this (from my last post) it was actually due to pricing going nuts on the socket 13xx chips in NZ for a while and the reasonable ones have only just come down to sane levels again.

Edited October 20, 2010 by SYNACK

[tmcd35]

T

The spec we have gone for is:

i7 950 CPU

12GB ddr3 1600 RAM

2x 500GB HD in RAID 0 (higher density makes them faster and like $10 more than a 160GB)

2x ATI 5570 Silent GPUs

1x ASUS MB with 3x PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots

1x Antec 300 case

1x Antec 750W 80+ PSU

 

Again, dependant on usage, that looks very much the type of spec I'd go for on an MPS system. Usually I'd have preference for AMD (6-core?) and perhaps less RAM to start with (upgrade later) but then I'd never intend on supporting a 9:1 ratio so it's all relative in the end.

Edited October 20, 2010 by tmcd35

[jc1875]

went for the bundle solution - HP MS6000 and t100 clients. works well.

[PiqueABoo]

Take it you've all seen the Multipoint 2011 beta?

[tmcd35]

Take it you've all seen the Multipoint 2011 beta?

 

No, I knew something was coming up - I was invited to Spain to take part in the conference earlier this week but couldn't attend

 

 

I've got a system tucked away somewhere that I have a MPS2010 license for. Was due to be installed over half term. Might just see the 2011 beta instead...

Edited October 21, 2010 by tmcd35

[plexer]

Synack you may have just saved my bacon dude I've been struggling to put together a setup as I was plannign on an HP Server but main concern was noise and being able to stuff enough cards into it.

 

Multipoint 2011 looks interesting no mention of improved usb mass storage handling though.

 

Ben

[plexer]

Reading the release notes it does now feature private usb so any usb device plugged into a station hub remains private to that hub

 

Ben

[plexer]

Split screen

Any MultiPoint Server station monitor that has a resolution greater than 1024x768 can be split into two station screens using the split screen task on the Status tab in MultiPoint Manager. The screen that is present on the monitor at the time that the split occurs moves to the left half of the monitor, and a new station’s screen is created on the right half of the same monitor. The new station screen must be mapped to a keyboard, mouse, and USB hub to complete the creation of the new station. After a station is split, a user can log on to the left station while another user logs on to the right station.

This feature is useful for reducing cost and space by accommodating more students on a MultiPoint Server system, to allow two students to collaborate together, side-by-side on a project, and to allow a teacher to demonstrate a procedure on one station while a student follows along on the other station.

 

So if you buy big monitors you only need half as many

 

Ben

[tmcd35]

So if you buy big monitors you only need half as many

 

Ben

 

IMHO - that's taking things a little too far. I can hear staff/pupil complaints now at the idea of sharing 1 24" TFT between two. It'll need to have some good viewing angles otherwhys the students would have to sit on each other laps!

[plexer]

Yeah I wasn't really being serious as suggesting you would permanently share a monitor between 2 even the proposed use of it a teacher demonstrating on one half while the student works on the other half is a bit strange as you need to add another hub and k/b & mouse.

 

If the teacher could split all the screens and demo from their own machine onto all the others that would be cool, using the new grouping of MP hosts is a step towards that I guess.

 

Ben

[phenomizer]

Hi All,

 

Sorry for stealing the thread some, but I've recently become the IT individual on a middle school campus (grades 6-8) and have been lusting over the cost-effectiveness that Microsoft Multipoint Server would seem to provide. Since our school district is Apple-only (I can't imagine why, except that the school campus is less than 2 miles from Apple Corporate Headquarters) I doubt that I would have much luck with having it implemented, but I may prepare a proposal anyways and see where it goes.

 

My main question is what kind of performance do you seem to get out of Microsoft Multipoint?

 

For the most part, the students at this school use productivity or browser-based applications, but would this be a good solution for video editing for example?

 

From what I've seen, my ideal setup would probably include:

- motherboard with the AMD 800 series chipset

- AMD Phenom II x6 CPU, perhaps an overclocked black edition

- 8GB of DDR3 ram @ 1600mhz

- 2 HDDs in RAID 0 (the user accounts would probably be domain, so perhaps only a single smaller drive)

- 3 5000 or 6000 series ATI graphics cards to support 9 monitors

- powered USB 2.0 hubs for each station with 20" widescreen monitors

 

My feeling is that a setup similar to that would be able to handle video editing on top of more menial tasks and be useful for the years to come, but again my experience with Multipoint is nonexistent so...