[K12OSN] CPU or Memory

[David Trask]

"Support list for opensource software in schools." <k12osn at redhat.com> on
Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at 9:13 AM +0000 wrote:
>cpus are running fine.  during program start, (OO or other) cpu usage 
>spikes but then settles down.  It is entirely livable as is, without the 
>extra ram.  Only problem now is things like Tux Type and Tux Math.  They 
>seem to bog down system horribly.  They are graphics intensive, but as 
>everything else is acceptable, why them?  10/100 nics everywhere, and 
>10/100 switches.  Because of the server motherboard switch, 1 of its 
>nics is a Gig one, but it is plugging into a 10/100 switch so is unused 
>to its potential

I used this as a test bed in my case.  With a gig card and only a 10/100
switch....tuxtype and tuxmath were only usable for about up to 4 or 5
clients.  With the addition of a gig uplink switch (Amer.com
SR24G2...which has 24 ports 10/100 and 2 ports 10/100/1000) I was able to
make it usable for the entire lab!  22 machines!  Using a gig switch makes
a HUGE difference!
>
>
>Question.  Will getting a Gig switch that the server will plug into, 
>along with a line from the other 10/100 switches do anything?  I mean, 
>if only the server has Gig nic, what good would it accomplish if I 
>cannot afford to put gig switches and nics everywhere? 

think of it this way....if you had 25 kids that need to exit a room and go
out into the hallway and enter 25 different rooms (one kid per room)
through a standard door...they'd be able to get out, but only one at a
time.....now take the same scenario....except you now have a garage
door.....same number of kids, but they can get to the other rooms a lot
faster since they can leave the first room more than one at a time.  (in
server speak.....the server gets to work at full speed....thus shifting
the bottleneck from the server down to the clients)  thus...a HUGE speed
increase!

> I have truly 
>blown the budget for this year.  I might be able to squeeze out a small 
>gig switch, but what good is it?

SR24G2 from Amer.com (I use a bunch of them) is $179


David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
(207)923-3100