JoHimself

Although 100% virtual is a Microsoft supported configuration.

I don't think I'd notice either, even though I play DayZ (the ArmA engine is very CPU intensive). Sandybridge chips were really good.

I have an i7 2600K, the CPU is definitely not the bottleneck, really good CPUs. If I were you I'd get a nice 500/600W 80+ PSU and a GTX 960/970

Again, conversely it is no more reliable than virtual.

Conversely your mission critical systems are best protected by the HA systems available in virtualised environments. And technology such as DRS can help to improve the performance of key systems. And virtualisation means, even in the event of hardware failure, key systems can be brought back up quickly.

Regarding brands I tend to use the same brands as I would trust for motherboards. I currently have a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming. I avoid Palit and wouldn't touch anything which is designed for small cases (single slot, half height) because these tend to perform worse than full sized GPUs. I'd say the rest of your machine is fine.

Regarding departments, I would populate the department field on the user account rather than have a separate OU for each. While you are doing this it is definitely worth a rethink on your GPOs. Do you need all of the settings you deploy? Are the same settings delivered using different policy objects? Do you use enforcement or blocked inheritance? As many have said, Keep It Simple; if enforcement/blocked inheritance is required then there needs to be a VERY good reason to do it. Likewise as AD grows there are tendencies to put in "quick fixes" etc which may no longer be required. It may be more appropriate to deliver settings via GPPs, there may be XP only policies which are still deployed but no longer required. If you redesign the whole strategy it can sometimes be easier than just restructuring your OUs.

Sorry, was suggesting the Raspberry Pi as the client device.

A GTX 960 or above will easily play current games at 1080p with settings set to high. Is the rest of your machine up to snuff?

+1 for Kodi Have a backend device recording/streaming the TV channels and a client device to watch on. If the TV has CEC then I'd suggest a Raspberry Pi with Kodi installed; you can use the dpad and media buttons on the TV remote.

What's the native resolution of your monitor?

Look out for deals on a GTX 960. I have a 970 (upgraded from Crossfire 6950s) and absolutely love it. What resolution do you play at?

Quite the contrary I would always put the organisation name as an OU in the root of the domain to separate it from the default OUs and containers. This can help with delegation and allow you to set a GPO at the root of everything.

Bit "Quick n Dirty" but could you prevent access to wpad from DirectAccess clients using a firewall rule?

You need to think about why you are putting users in a separate OU and where that OU needs to reside to do the job most efficiently. Things to think about based on the structure you propose: Do your teaching staff need to be separate from support staff? Could you use AD groups instead of OUs? Could you get your different systems which query AD to look for something other than OU? If you have things like Department as AD properties, could you leverage that to differentiate using Group Policy Preferences? Do your external users need to be a subset of users? Do these users ever log on to a machine or are they in AD to give them a mailbox? What is the difference between "SchoolName > Accounts > Devices" and "SchoolName > Devices"? Do these distinctions need to be made? Think about GPO flow. If you were to put a GPO at the top of each OU would you need to duplicate settings into multiple OUs? Are "Corporate" machines imaged using SCCM or similar? Does the OSD tool dump machine accounts into specific OUs? (Does the OSD tool differentiate between Desktops and Laptops for example)

I'm sure that on the list of school expenditure which requires more careful consideration, buying a Macbook for the Head is a long way down.

No one said the head needs anything more than a classroom teacher (although it has been suggested that the needs of the head are different). What has been suggested is that the Head wants a Macbook. This is a political decision not a technical one.

I'd say the need for portable equipment of any kind varies depending on what services the IT department provides. If the department strategy is give everyone a laptop then that's fine. The schools I used to work in had a full managed desktop delivered via Citrix. We used this as the driving force behind our BYOD strategy; use whatever kit is your personal preference and you get the same experience regardless. This cuts down on a great deal of end user device support which, in turn, justifies the expense of the Citrix system. All varies based on approach. In my old place a £350 HP piece of crap would have been a wild extravagance.

I think identifying the drive to replace may be the issue. Are there serial numbers listed in the RAID software/RAID utility?

I'm surprised that so many people are surprised about headteachers getting preferential treatment in this thread. Mind you, I worked in an Interesting school environment.

Doesn't matter. The Head wants a MacBook. It doesn't matter about value for money, it doesn't matter about fitness for purpose, warranty and support go right out of the window.

It is my experience that you get what you pay for. Stick with proper servers (Dell, HP etc) and proper software (ESXi, Hyper-V, XenServer at a push). It will be much easier in the long term if you have standard configurations for troubleshooting and advice. Start by looking at what you have by way of CPU, RAM and storage (capacity and performance) and work from there. Obviously you don't want to be virtualising for the sake of it or spending £20k with no visible benefit to the business.

Is that spec from the head? They want a MacBook Air. You can buy them whatever you like, but they want a MacBook Air.

It seems to be an issue with an update. More info here http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/161844-borked-windows-update-kb3097877.html

OK, my thinking around the questions was that something required admin access as a one off either a Chrome update or an extension being synced to their account which required some kind of admin access. Since it's happening all over it may be Chrome update related but if you can run it as an admin and it still doesn't work I'd suggest this isn't the issue.