Need more PC's on the cheap?

Lester · Post by **Lester** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:02 am

NComputing L200 RJ45 Multi-User Network Computing Terminal

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=204

From the "Too good to be true" department. I actually saw this in SkyMall, and then had the chance to lay hands on one at CES. It is just as cool as it appears to be. (I have two in the shop now, testing for wide scale deployment.)

You purchase the head unit (hee-hee), and install the client software on your WinXP or Server 2003 system (You can use the cheaper L100 on Win2k and Server2k).

Plug a mouse, keyboard and VGA monitor into the device, plug it in to the network, and power it on. Upon boot, it seeks out the server, and awaits the order to connect. Upon connecting, you're running a full Windows session with 16bit color and sound.

The client software is capable of divvying up a Windows XP (or 2k as mentioned above) into 10 separate sessions. It will carve up a 2003 (or 2k) server into 30 sessions. Although I haven't fully tested it, the L200 also sports a USB port that can utilize a USB memory key or printer.

This gets the "pretty freakin' cool" award. And while it probably wouldn't be a good match for an audio editing system, it would make more PC's on the saleshole's desks an easy, and low cost reality.

Dave Harman · Post by **Dave Harman** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:48 am

Do they respond well, or is there any latency problem?

I wonder how well they work when 5 or 6 salespeople start working on Poqwerpoint stuff at the same time?

Lester · Post by **Lester** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 5:39 pm

Only running 2 systems, latency isn't a problem on the same subnet. Even sound playback is good. Streaming video looks a bit flickery at times, but it stays synchronized. (By contrast, remote desktop has great audio, but lagging video on streams. Citrix is synchronized, but the audio sounds really bad.)

I'd think several Powerpoints wouldn't be a problem, as Powerpoint still spends the majority of its time waiting on the user... not processing any data.

I'd say buy one, install it, and see what it does. If it's OK, add another... and so on. Once you hit the point of diminishing return, install that one on a second machine.