We use a local (ish) firm for our computer supplies that have been superb for us, Astec computing (http://www.asteccomputing.co.uk/). The big advantage with the machines they have spec'd and supplied us is that they prefer intergrated systems as much as is humanly possible. Our current workstations are based on Intel 845GVSR motherboards, which come with integrated video, sound and network. That means all the core components are in one board, with just memory, CPU and disk drives needing to be separate. We've found this results in extremely good reliability. If a falt does occur (rare) then its usually in the motherboard and we just get that replaced under warranty. Of our last summer batch of 80 odd PCs, just two have had any hardware faults this year, and we see similar levels of faults going back over the 4 or 5 years we've been using them (with one notable exception where they got a really awful batch of HDDs, from a manufacturer they won't touch with a barge pole anymore, but they did supply us with replacements in advance of HDDs failing once we started experiencing problems so we had minimal downtime). Whoever you go with I'd strongly recommend getting as integrated a solution as possible. Fewer parts really does leave you with fewer things to go wrong :-) On 26 Apr 2005 at 13:51, Miles Berry wrote:

I've just been asked to draft a proposal for /possibly/ setting up a 2nd IT room here at St Ives. Unfortunately, the preliminary figures will be needed by 4/5/05! I'd like to explore the possibility of going the LTSP route (we have a multi-purpose Linux server already, but are running win98 clients on the rest of the network). We can do a fair bit of stuff ourselves (network cabling and configuration), but draw the line at building computers! The room would be quite cramped with 19 stations, and cost is going to be a key issue here, I'm afraid. The thin client option seems quite appealing, but I'd prefer KDE desktops, even though this may place a lot of extra load on the poor application server, and obviously would want to run things like Office software, and web-browsing; I'd also like to be able to run rosegarden and gimp(!) Can anyone here suggest specs and suppliers for the server(s) and terminals, or point me in the direction of UK based suppliers? Also, I wonder if any of the commercial interests on the list would be interested in quoting for this? If so, perhaps they'd like to get in touch directly, mberry@st-ives.surrey.sch.uk

-- Miles Berry Deputy Head St Ives School Haslemere www.stiveshaslemere.com

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----- Paul Graydon Network Technician Haywards Heath College http://www.hhc.ac.uk (01444) 456281 "Joy is not in things; it is in us." Richard Wagner