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"Get Five PCs For Only $719"
By Dave Jansen | Published:15/04/2009
Yesterday I sat down with the guys from NComputing to talk about their latest virtual workstation package, the X550. The thing that struck me was something very simple - this technology could change the face of the PC Market worldwide. It has the potential to save people a huge wad of cash, bring technology into the classrooms like never before, and reduce the environmental impact of PCs with everything from manufacturing to power usage and even a reduction in e-waste. The NComputing solution works by using the CPU of one PC to power up to five extra workstations. The X550 package comes with 5 workstations, a PCI card for the main PC and the necessary software to make the system work. Once the PCI card is installed in the main PC and the software is up and running, the workstations are connected to the PCI card via Cat5 or Cat6 cables. (cat 5 for distances under 5m and Cat6 for 5-10m). Also, if your PC has multiple PCI ports you can use a second package to expand the number of workstations to 10 from the one main PC.
Each of the workstation boxes has a ps2 mouse and keyboard connector, a DSub monitor port and a speaker port. Obviously the first thing I asked was about the Ps2 ports, since Ps2 is a rapidly aging technology and most keyboards/mice are USB these days. The reason the workstations use Ps2 is because they don't have their own power supply so they can't power USB devices.
Once a monitor, mouse and keyboard are connected to the workstation box it acts like a standalone PC with its own desktop and runs independent of the other workstations. The box has no moving parts, and runs silently while only consuming one watt of electricity per workstation. They can be mounted to the back of most monitors to save desktop space, although they are extremely small so they don't take up much space anyway.
The custom software that comes with the package runs on the main Pc and controls the access privileges of the other PCs. Even though the boxes don't have USB, you can run USB hubs from the main PC to each one if you wish. The software allows you to allocated specific USB ports to each workstation or makes all the ports available to all users. It is easy to set up and configure. |
 
By Damien |
Big on promises, short on details.
Pros: Can Save You Money
Cons: Can cost you money.
This type of system seems good initially, but usually causes you more headaches getting application software and Windows security updates to work properly because the operating system just isn't designed to run this way. If the system goes down then 5 people can't do any work until it is fixed. It is also a shame that have to inflate power usage costs and other costs to make their product look attractive. |
By Raj |
Great concept, poor delivery
Pros: Energy savings
Cons: poor connectivity options, zero savings on software
"However, if you are the type that tends to bend or break these rules, there is a potential saving to be had there as well."
This statement by the "Pro" author is quite unprofessional. I think a Microsoft lawyer may have a few words to say about this review. Ncomputing is a great concept, but only IF you break the rules. To deploy this technology and stay within legal software licensing confines, this technology costs about the same as a mini PC but with less options. Poor execution, poor support.
PS: It says Linux support on the box. They don't tell you its BETA software support for 2 Linux distributions only |
By Shayde |
Fantastic Solutions for SMB or Edu savings
Pros: Nearly Flawless operations and instlal
Cons: Emphasize the "nearly."
Have recently rigged one of these up for a client. The item was easy to install and operated "nearly" flawlessly. There are some quirks with some third party video and audio management softwares. The VIA HD ADeck software errored out on the substations because the NComputing Audio devices are obviously not the same thing. Suppressed its start up so no big deal there. The ATI video manager sometimes prevented the NComputing Video adapters from starting so uninstalled that. The NComputing card deos not play well sometimes with the onboard COM and Parallel ports, so disable those in BIOS
After that, all was mostly well. The system starts up before the card is fully initialized so a single reboot is often necessary. But after that it is ROCK SOLID!
SIX stations running any number of apps, MS Office 2007, online fullscreen vid and WoW on the Master station.
NO hick-ups at all and the CPU never went about 35C!
NComputing ROCKS! |
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Find the NComputing X550 on DigitalHome.com.au
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