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Help me plan upgrades
Help me plan upgrades
7:01 PM EDT 4/21/05
I am a small rural library with a matching small budget. I have two Gates computers running Windows NT, 3 computers w/ Authentic AMD Athlon XP Processor 1700+ processors running Windows 98, and one computer with a Supercom Touch Intel Pentium III processor also running Windows 98. How far should I go in updating the Windows versions on these machines.

I have a T-1 line being installed in the next few months, plus two wireless connections in the works, so I think I have internet technology handled. Internet access is the main use of our public access computers.

Any ideas?
Re: Help me plan upgrades
2:28 PM EDT 4/22/05 as a reply to Patti Lehman.
What is your overall budget? I am assuing you have almost $0 for the suggestions below. If you have a little bit more than my assumptions, then they would change slightly.

It would be helpful to know exactly how much RAM and the HD size of each machine. It looks like processor-wise, the machines meet the minimum specifications quite easily for Windows XP Pro (see URL below). Depending on the amount and type of RAM, you might want to think about upgrading it if the machines only have 128MB or less and upgrading to 256MB. I know the GLCs only came with 64MB. I cannot find the exact type of RAM you would need, but my guess is that RAM would probably cost you approximately $40 (+shipping and taxes) for 256MB. This is assuming that they still make the type of RAM that these machines handle. For the GLCs, I woudl suggest going to Gateway's support site (http://support.gatewway.com) and putting in the serial numbers on the machines and seeing if they can recommend any memory for you.

Are you looking at adding additional software as that impacts storage space and you might need to consider additional HD space - that is why I asked about that.

To me, though, the balance between upgrading an older machine and buying a new one is getting closer and closer. I think much of that depends on how much interest and time that you have in upgrading the computers as far as hardware and software installation.

You can buy a brand new machine (minus monitor and extended warranty) from Dell for $299 (see link below). Granted, it is no Cadillac, but if your patrons are mostly doing web browsing and productivity apps, it will probably meet their needs and might allow you to stretch your budget further and/or allow you to place more machines in the library. You still would have to factor in software costs - although TechSoup would obviously be the way to go in this isntance as these are PACs - and you would still have to obtain some type of A/V or add that to the purchase price. So it is balacning the time to upgrade the older computers vs. buying a possibly more stripped down new coputer and installing additional software obtained through TechSoup.

You might also want to talk to your city or county IT people and see if they can point you to any discounts or contracts with vendors that would lower your costs. Also, the state library might have some pointers to state contracts that you are eligible to pruchase that might lower your costs.

Does that help at all?

Windows XP Professional System Requirements
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx

Dell Dimension 2400
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/homepage_desktops?c=us&cs=slghome&l=en&s=gov
Re: Help me plan upgrades
2:39 PM EDT 4/22/05 as a reply to Chris Jowaisas.
Hi Patti and Chris,
There's an article on WebJunction about upgrading, which might be helpful - http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=727

About.com also has an interesting article, which explores the topic 'upgrade or replace?'. http://compreviews.about.com/od/general/a/UpgradeReplace.htm

Brenda
Re: Help me plan upgrades
12:22 PM EDT 4/23/05 as a reply to Patti Lehman.
Thanks for the articles! I'm digging through them now. Let me pose a related question...If you had $1500 and a new T-1 line on the way (already paid for), what would you focus on technology-wise to get the most from the T-1 line? Processor speed? Windows version? RAM? As I said earlier two wireless connections are already on the need list, so don't consider that.
Re: Help me plan upgrades
5:55 PM EDT 4/23/05 as a reply to Patti Lehman.
I would have to agree with Dale - not sure that you will get a lot of value out of the Task Manager information. I use it on XP sometimes to see what type of hit the processor takes on some intensive tasks (like running Access queries or pivot tables in Excel), but that is mostly just because I like to watch the fancy green line bounce up and down. I have no idea what all the "commit charge" or "totals - handles" stuff means. If you want to get into the technical side of it, here is one explanation for all the Task Manager stuff in XP -

How do I interpret the Performance tab of Task Manager?
http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/7512

In my opinion, most processors in the last 2 years will be more than capable of handling daily tasks of web browsing and basic productivity software. Most recommendations I see say to spend your money on RAM rather than processor upgrades. I do not understand the "guts" of what happens well enough to give a good explanation, just repeating what I have read and heard from sources that I trust.

As far as getting the most out of your T1 line, I think you would be fine with almost whatever you choose - whether upgrading or replacing the computers. Your local area network (LAN) is going to operate at a much higher speed than your T1 line, so the bottleneck is most likely going to be at leaving / returning to your LAN from the internet rather than your computers.

I would definitely agree with Dale yet again - is there an echo in here? - that your money would best be spent on securing whatever you have now with a software or hardware solution - for the Win98 machine, either DeepFreeze, Fortress, or something of that ilk. For the newer machines, you have more options - the tool from the foundation in addition to the other software products. You could also look into utilizing a hardware solution. In later states, the granted computers came with a Centurion Guard AND the security software as double-layered security. I have no idea how much the Centurion Guard costs, but everyone I have spoken with seems to love it. My understanding is that there are other hardware solutions out there that perform similarly (basically create a "virtual" hard drive in your machine to make it easy to erase any changes made by patrons simply by rebooting).

And, last but not least, you are eligible to replace those two NT computers. The foundation is rolling out a hardware upgrade program to a limited number of states and systems that participated in the original grant program between 1997-2000. Application procedures and funding should be rolling out this fall.
Re: Help me plan upgrades
1:01 PM EDT 4/23/05 as a reply to Patti Lehman.
Brenda,
In the article you suggested "Upgrading Your Computer Components" is says "A more precise way is to look at your system's Task Manager which will provide information on your system's performance." How do you access the Task Mangager? I have machines running Windows NT, Windows 98, and Windows XP. I used the windows help function but did not find the answer.
Re: Help me plan upgrades
2:34 PM EDT 4/23/05 as a reply to Patti Lehman.
On NT and XP, just Ctrl+Alt+Del and then click on Task Manager. It will show you how much of the memory and processor is being used at the moment. On Win98 I think if you look in the start menu under Accessories and System Tools there is a little tool that will display available system resources. But I kind of disagree that you will really find this very helpful.

Chris had a lot of good info and questions to consider. The one other big question I would have is what are you or will you do about security? You now have Windows 98 machines. Are they secured somehow? Do you want them to be?

In terms of ongoing maintenence and costs, it would be best to have all of them using the same OS and secured against anything your patrons may do or get into.

Both of these things could be accomplished cheap by getting XP through TechSoup and using free security software. There are articles on PAComputing I wrote about upgrading the GLC's to XP or 2000 while keeping the applications. You can find them by searching for your state and 'upgrade.'

So I think you should figure out what it would cost to upgrade the hardware for each computer to work well with XP. This primarily would mean upgrading memory to at least 256MB. Sounds like the GLC's are the oldest, and for those, there should be a replacement grant coming out within the year (maybe Chris knows more about how that is going). On any of these pc's you can quickly check the amount of memory by right-clicking on My Computer and choosing Properties.

You might also check to see if the computers all have video cards, as opposed to video built in to the motherboards that is sharing the main system memory. Buying any current cheap video card in that situation would help. You probably have plenty of hard drive space on these - you shouldn't need that much on a public pc. Processor speed is somewhat overrated as an upgrade. You often have very limited choices anyway, because any processor you get will need to be compatible with the motherboard, which usually means a minimal speed increase. Of course you could replace the processor and motherboard, which will necessitate new memory as well, but at that point you are probably better off with the Dell that Chris mentions.
Re: Help me plan upgrades
1:08 PM EDT 4/26/05 as a reply to Patti Lehman.
OKay - I'm going to focus on upgrading all machines to Windows XP and to 512 RAM. I know about TECH SOUP for the purchase of Windows, but where do I go for RAM. I have a local computer dealer, but he does not give us a price break. What do I need to know in order to purchase the right RAM?

Also-where is the article on upgrading the Gates NT machines to XP?

I am also going to research the use of the WEB JUNCTION Security tools. This has been a problem in the past. If there are any articles to help me in this area I would appreciate a link.

Thanks, Patti Lehman, Director
Re: Help me plan upgrades
2:00 PM EDT 5/3/05 as a reply to Patti Lehman.
Patti-

Sounds like a plan.

For memory, the first thing to do is figure out what kind you need. You can find basic specs for your Gates pc's here:
http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=7367
They take PC100 SDRAM. I don't think they will accept 512MB units, you may need to buy 2 x 256MB. You can go to support.gateway.com and enter the pc serial # to find out for sure (if you can't find it in the online documentation, just use their online chat to ask someone.

For the other computers (and GLC's too) you can go to a major memory vendor like www.crucial.com or www.kingston.com and search by the computer make and model. They are normally very accurate at telling you what you need.

But for older memory types, they are expensive. Once you know what you need, I would go someplace like pricewatch.com (my favorite) or shopper.cnet.com, or several others. There you can search many online vendors. For the older stuff, it is almost always smaller online stores that have by far the best prices. Via Pricewatch it looks like 512MB will cost about $45 - $60, depending on whether that is 1x512 or 2x256.

Instructions for the GLC's:
An overview of the process, what you'll need, what is the best method for you, etc., is at -
http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=7391
The actual how-to instructions are -
http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=7393

The Security Tool and instructions are here:
http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=7593
Start by getting the full instructions. There are also two forums for the Security Tool - these can be good places to browse:
http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=35
http://securepc.org/forum/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi

If you are just now planning this process, there is a chance there will be a new version of a similar but more advanced security tool out, so check back here before you install it.

Good luck-
Dale
Re: Help me plan upgrades
5:24 PM EDT 6/23/05 as a reply to Dale Musselman.
I have modified my tech plan slightly. I am going to remove the 2 Gates computers I have from the Internet and use them for children's games. I will not be updating them to XP. I did purchase XP licenses from Tech Soup for my other public access computers. Two computers are running Windows Windows 98, one is a brand new computer with no operating system installed. Can you direct me to installation instructions?