[WEB4LIB] PC public configuration

[Lee Jaffe]

I think there are two important factors in making these decisions;
one, a complex consideration of use and support and, two, market
forces.  These days market forces are setting a higher minimum than
you'd come up with using the more involved determinations. In other
words, you can't buy a computer lower than a capability already higher
than what you think you need.  And, besides, the prices are getting so
low that you have to ask yourself, "Why not?"

As an example, for Windows machines, we buy from Dell.  Right now
we're looking at their Optiplex GX150 line and specifically the
small-form case for catalog area stations.  The base model comes
with 64MB RAM but it costs only $43.61 to add another 64MB.
On the other hand, the smallest drive available with this model is
a 10GB, which is overkill for this application, but I wouldn't dump
this model just because I'd worked out that 6GB was adequate.
Nor will I spend the extra $25.81 to increase to a 20GB drive.
Again, there is a $50 difference between their least expensive
15" monitor and the least expensive 17" model.  Unless I had some
hard limitation on monitor size -- space, power consumption, heat
gain -- the larger monitor is a no-brainer.  (Note; we have problems
in all three areas and I might decide to buy these from Dell w/out
monitors in order to buy LCD displays through other channels.)

Finally,  the total comes to $922.  That's quite a bit lower than what
a basic system cost me last year.  I might go back in and bump up the
CPU speed just for the hell of it.  I could spend a lot of time trying
to develop standards, but what you can buy sets much more concrete
limits that the other considerations don't really factor in.

-- Lee Jaffe, UC Santa Cruz

At 4:55 PM -0700 4/9/01, Anne Kaay wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I'm wondering if there are minimum standards re: library pc's: 
>specifically, what's the recommended hard drive size, RAM, video 
>RAM, bus speed, etc. for computers designated for public use?
>
>Please note that these machines are not running any word processing 
>applications or office-type applications (e.g. MS Access, Excel, 
>PowerPoint, etc.).
>
>They are only running a web browser (currently Navigator standalone) 
>and certain plug-ins (e.g. Acrobat - what others would people 
>suggest as standards - Windows Media player? Real Audio? Flash?). 
>Also, they are Windows 95 pc's but we probably will upgrade to 
>Windows NT in the future. Currently, they're 233 MHz Pentium 
>machines with 32 MB RAM, 1.5 GB hard drive...
>
>Thanks in advance!
>
>Anne