Ncomputing - anyone had any experience with this?

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robjg63

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Topic # 27447 26-Oct-2008 14:54

Hi,

I have been looking at replacing some PCs at work.

They dont get very heavy use at all - web/word processing and email pretty much.

I saw this site http://www.ncomputing.com/ and the product looks pretty promising.

It basically turns a reasonably powerful desktop PC into a server and allows multiple desktops to be run off the one PC.

Just wondered if anyone has actually tried it - Does it do what they say?

Cheers

Robert

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

freitasm

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Reply # 173705 26-Oct-2008 15:03

I am curious to know more about it too...

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Tunk

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Reply # 173714 26-Oct-2008 16:54

I have a bit of experience with their l130 boxes, and they do what they say.

They are easy enough to setup, and you can run the server off less than the recommended specs quite happily for alot of word processing applications and other minor things.
You can set them up to log in automatically into a certain profile/user etc and can make changes to their config from the server without fuss and you can have multiple servers on the same network quite happily.

Youll need to be carefull with apps that lock files/single instance apps however, especially firefox and the likes (plenty of work arounds for most programs though).

You can run up to 10 l130s off a single desktop if I remember right, or as much as you like off a server.

One thing you will need to make sure of is NOT to use hubs with them, switches only.
May sound redundant to say switches only, but I had to diagnose this one after someone thought a hub was a brilliant idea to save cash.

With a decent server youll save quite a bit on electricity as these boxes use about 6w~7w total if I remember right.

I dont recommend them in places doing multimedia/cpu intensive work though.

itxtme

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Reply # 173740 26-Oct-2008 19:52

We have something similar at work (not sure its that brand). they work fine for most things like word processing etc. However if a load at anypoint is placed on the server everybody else feels it. Im talking about opening saving PDF files for example..

tonyhughes

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Reply # 173748 26-Oct-2008 20:35

Check the licencing requirements of your chosen operating system carefully.

Not all OSes are licenced to allow multiple users to simultaneously use the same installation.