jayemm Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 I would like some advice from people who already have a Thin Client solution in place too. We currently have some Chip/Jack PC's installed and they run a TS session and this all works fine. We are looking at expanding our Thin clients and I am wondering what else is out there that we could use instead of the Chip/Jack PCs. I would want to stay with TS rather than go to VM View purely from a cost point of view. Really what I am wondering is what other Thin Clients are there that I could use. They would need to be as low power draw as possible as we have issues with our Sub Station. The idea is to replace as many workstations as possible with Thin Clients over the next few years to reduce our costs etc. All sensible suggestions welcome. JM
dhicks Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 I am wondering what else is out there that we could use instead of the Chip/Jack PCs. Good, low-power-draw dedicated thin client devices are available, but for the same price I'd go for ultra-small Acer Revos or a similar nettop device. They are standard PCs, so you can boot them with whatever OS you like - I'd aim to run a web browser locally on each device, with TS being used for everything else. This would reduce the processing needed on your TS servers. If you were going to boot the OS over the network anyway you could remove any harddrives from the PCs, reducing their power requirements. -- David Hicks
imiddleton25 Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 The axel thin clients are a good choice and at sensible price
dhicks Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 The axel thin clients are a good choice and at sensible price I don't disagree, but can you be a bit more specific as to why you find them a good choice? -- David Hicks
jamesfed Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 We use 10zig thin clients here - we do use them with a VDI setup (simlar to VM View but diff company) - only using Linux ones at the moment and you would need the Windows ones instead to run TS with all the fancy bits but they work great here.
Axel Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Hi Jayemm, As Edugeek forum sponsor we have supplied to dozens of Edugeek users - rather than repeat the key reasons why our products have proved popular amongst schools I would rather draw your attention to a couple of existing posts. We'd be delighted to loan you a demo unit - no obligation or paperwork needed, just drop me an email http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/22082-axel-ax3000-m70-lesson-monitor.html http://www.edugeek.net/forums/thin-client-virtual-machines/45960-tidy-thin-client-installation.html If you have access to Youtube you will find a short video showing the setup and booting of an Axel terminal. this is very different from any Windows or Linux based terminal ! There is also a video showing RemoteApp, if you are into the more advanced W2008 functions. (Do a search on "Axel Technical Support" in youtube). [email protected]
marekbrad Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Have a chat with either kmount or linescanner on here as Cutter Project are without a doubt a sound and customer focused team who will make your thin client experience run like a dream and if it doesn't the support team usually answer with 10 mins.. We have a 9TS 150 Client setup with them and it has been superb.. 3
CyberNerd Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 now discontinued: Intel S775 Intel 945GC/GMA950 MATX A L 10 Pack Bulk (BLKD945GCLF) - dabs.com 10pack of these was £450 - add a stick of ram, case, mouse and keyboard - PXE boot thinstation and you have a thin client with 1.6GHz processor and 2GB RAM for around £120 1
Butuz Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I don't disagree, but can you be a bit more specific as to why you find them a good choice? I agree they are an excellent choice. They are my #1 choice based on the reason below: 1. Cheap to buy 2. Very simple to maintain and thus super reliable (they boot their own O/S from a BIOS chip so no hard drive/flash drive and no operating system installation to maintain) 3. Very fast to boot - because of #2 they just grab a DHCP address and boot straight into RDP in a few seconds. 4. Very low power - they only use 5 watts max. (A suite of 30 axels use about the same power as my Quad Core desktop I am typing this on!!!) 5. Very powerful - the M80 can play youtube videos in 360p and run flash sites and animated software with no problems. The same can't be said for the majority of other thin clients under £200 6. Easy to manage - the axel management interface lets you turn them off / on / reconfigure / upgrade bios etc of hundreds of clients with just the click of the mouse. 7. They come with a VESA mount as standard. Unlike the majority of thin clients which charge extra for this. They're a no brainer. Get one on trial and I challenge you to show me another thin client in the same price range that is anywhere near as good. I aint found one, and I've been looking. I could do with buying a lot more of them!! Now - anyone wanna buy 110 HP thin clients off me??? Butuz 2
joe90bass Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I agree they are an excellent choice. They are my #1 choice based on the reason below: 1. Cheap to buy 2. Very simple to maintain and thus super reliable (they boot their own O/S from a BIOS chip so no hard drive/flash drive and no operating system installation to maintain) 3. Very fast to boot - because of #2 they just grab a DHCP address and boot straight into RDP in a few seconds. 4. Very low power - they only use 5 watts max. (A suite of 30 axels use about the same power as my Quad Core desktop I am typing this on!!!) 5. Very powerful - the M80 can play youtube videos in 360p and run flash sites and animated software with no problems. The same can't be said for the majority of other thin clients under £200 6. Easy to manage - the axel management interface lets you turn them off / on / reconfigure / upgrade bios etc of hundreds of clients with just the click of the mouse. 7. They come with a VESA mount as standard. Unlike the majority of thin clients which charge extra for this. They're a no brainer. Get one on trial and I challenge you to show me another thin client in the same price range that is anywhere near as good. I aint found one, and I've been looking. I could do with buying a lot more of them!! Now - anyone wanna buy 110 HP thin clients off me??? Butuz ^What he said!!^ When we come to have a hardware budget again, and need to replace PCs, I'll be getting some more of these 2
imiddleton25 Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 sorry for delay in replying one of the things not mentioned already is the ability to have multiple sessions configured and to switch between them so i have one on my desk with Virtual desktop (xendesktop) , ICA (for zen app), RDP ( 4 of these are set up so i can fast switch between the servers i am working on) then a quick ALT and Fkey (1-8) and i am in the correct session. Started using mine instaed of lots of rdp on my laptop to look at servers . The ease of management and updating are also a bonus. And with the recent firmware from Axel the ICA side has improved considerably 1
EduTech Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 (edited) As someone above recommended, I would 2nd that you may wish to find sometime to speak to Kim (kmount) or Andy Trevor (linescanner) from Cutter Project, 2 very knowledgful people in the area of VDI whom will be able to discuss all different kinds of solutions based on different products and technologies on the market. I have used them in the past, using the Sun/Oracle VDI Software and Infrastructure and it works flawlessly and the administration is nice to pick up and simple tasks continue to become easier for the End IT Admin. If you use Terminal Services at the moment, I'm not 100% sure but it might work out a bit cheaper using the Microsoft Technology. You can use Remote Desktop Services with the Desktop Virtulization options and throw in System Center for Easier Management. Edited January 11, 2011 by EduTech
andrew-virtusolve Posted January 12, 2011 Posted January 12, 2011 The axel thin clients are a good choice and at sensible price Agree, when you factor in cost with the features provided, they are a great offering. I like the ChipPC solutions as they don't leave anything on the desk to be easily taken away, but you won't go far wrong with the Axel product line
jayemm Posted January 22, 2011 Author Posted January 22, 2011 Thought I would give you all an update. We have our Axel product on demo and I am very impressed. I have now had a meeting with SLT to discuss our budget for next year, and basically at our school we can forget any major investment in ICT as our devolved capital grant has been cut by over 50%. I might just be able to buy the one we have on demo! (No joke)
joe90bass Posted January 22, 2011 Posted January 22, 2011 Thought I would give you all an update. We have our Axel product on demo and I am very impressed. I have now had a meeting with SLT to discuss our budget for next year, and basically at our school we can forget any major investment in ICT as our devolved capital grant has been cut by over 50%. I might just be able to buy the one we have on demo! (No joke) If you have any old PCs still knocking around you could use thinstation to turn them into thin clients.
jayemm Posted January 22, 2011 Author Posted January 22, 2011 we have lots of old equipment. 80% of our equipment is over 4 years old!
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