A PC for the Clean room has been mentioned a few times.
what for?
thread:
to discuss pros and cons and suggest options.
Maybe we should consider a mac? Would work nicely with most design type things and play very nicely with the printers - some sensible level of unix would also make the vinyl cutter toolchain more viable.
i bought one of these last year.
astonishing value for money and power.
the base model is £200 (no OS) but has loads of upgrade options.
for example:
£200 base unit
+240 GB SSD = 45 €
+16 GB RAM = 56 €
+USB WLAN Dongle 150 MBits b/g/n + 9,80 €
+Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Lizenz + 45 €
=c£320 for a lot of power
personally i don’t think macs are good value.
twice the price for half us much power, 6 month old hardware, less software, with a ripped off OS, in a fisher price box you cant open. [pinch of salt]
I have an old (2007) 20" imac if we desperately want a mac in the space, but I don’t hink it’ll run new versions of OSX.
I think this should only be considered if we are going to buy Adobe as there are already a number of suitable machines for general browsing and illustrator.
It would only be of use for us offering Photoshop, Indesign etc…
Personally I would rather see a Mac too but thats because Windows is an absolutely diabolical operating system.
On inclusivity, this has to happen.
That said, I’m curious about where real time-consuming, detailed design work currently happens among the membership. Is that on desktops at home? Is that on laptops but still somewhere isolated? Is that on laptops, and would be at Makerspace if only x,y or z? Would that be on a shared but decent machine at Makerspace if only that were there?
Or…
Have we got the wrong approach and the laser cutter machine should be the über-computer dedicated to design work, and all tools should be on glorified print servers.
afternoon story time:
i think we should build two robots.
and fight to the death to see which OS wins.
one robot for windows and one for macs.
the linux robot is still being rehashed and made usable for the average user that doesnt want to read a phone book to mount their floppy disk.
the apple users wont be able to make any alterations to there robot and wont be able to see the architect of there hardware.
they’ll have to log in to a cloud to talk to the robot but simple request wont be understood and every photo they ever took will bring their machine to a grinding halt.
the windows users will have full access to all kinds of awesome brand new cheap hardware that will not be compatible and will cause the robot to keep crashing and turning its self off.
i think we should have a uber computer in the space for pweople that cant afford it. and want to try new software.
and use a big monitor.
people who can and want to use their own devices still can.
and yes. essentailly i think the laser cutting machine is a glorified printer. but still useful if poss t ohave illistrator on it.
by the way i fixed it up to the internet on the weekend!!
It would be nice to have something decent even if its just for opening files and making a few tweaks away from home. And if we get the whole CC suite it would make sense to have something that could actually run the software. I think 8 gig ram and a decent GPU for doing 3D CAD would be better though.
Hackintosh could be an option if you really want the OS ? The GPU options are way too limited on mac hardware, unless you are happy paying £400 for a 2009-era card or going for the super expensive mac-pro
plus if we go down windows route we can pick up a nice 24" monitor for peanuts
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311692792297
Just saying 
I used to think that, and then was forced to buy one for work (well, it was that or Windows). Frankly, I’m surprised they’re so cheap now! Having said that, I do run a Linux VM on it for access to the software I’m used to…
I think it’s probably a good idea to decide what we want in a shared computer before deciding on spec?
I would have thought we’d care about:
Thinking about it, do we even want 'net access?
Perhaps it should be for design use in the space only? Would reduce the risk of it being infected.
In these days a computer without internet access is like a boxer without an arm… in my opinion…
Good and fair points.
Can we have a example from the Mac camp?
A link to a Mac we can but that has details and pics.
So we can see what we would be getting and how much. What monitor comes with etc.
I think doing a comparison would be helpful.
Also I’m not sure as I’ve never owned one but are there good free bits of software with Mac? Like video editing. Could a Mac effictionardo make a list?
I did have a thought. I’ve got a switch that means you can hook up 4 computers to the same monitor and keyboard and mouse. It’s VGA and 2xPS/2. We could just get a PC and a Mac in the same foot print
We could get a USB KVM switch for not much money.
Attention All
I am concerned that this thread could easily be baited towards a Mac vs PC argument.
Please be aware of this, and do not rise to the challenge.
Well it would be an iMac:
Upgrade the base ram to 16GB then optionally fill the two external slots from another company.
Fusion 1TB drive
That would be about £1,600, which is way more than I think Makerspace should be spending.
What I am not yet clear on is the value of having this computer at all, how many people are there that actually need access to a computer like this? I know Paul you don’t have Adobe Creative Suite at home, but it would be good to have a few members vouch that this would be transformative to them, as I get Toby’s idea on inclusivity, but is it actually helping folks or just an idea of inclusivity for members we don’t yet have?
I guess what I am asking is could we see who wants this rather than who thinks it would be a nice idea? And what they would use it for that they can’t currently do on Makerspace machines, or at home.
For my worth, I see it as inclusivity. I’d generally use my own machine and workflow.