General PC workstation for the clean room

#21

It’s a discussion about what to have as a general machine and design machine.

One part of this decision making process will be to decide which operating system we are going to have.
Or as the latest posts suggest maybe we can have both. Possibly a free machine from TomN.

To make progress it would be good to have clear examples of all systems so that an informed desicion can be made beyond people’s personal preference without context.

Without this context it may stay an academic debate indefinatly.

#22

Jokes aside Ild be fine if we can get a Mac at the right price. Or if that’s what people want.

Is there a cheaper option than the one suggested it seems a bit high.

Is there an option that would mean we could use on a KVM with shared monitor? (I Have very little experience with macs)

In general I think it’s helpful to have a tool in the space. At least three projects this week have been done on the PC on the big table. In cad and illustrator. I think it’s good for doing designs in the space. We can get software that people otherwise would have no access to. I nice machine for people that use their laptops or home PCs but would like to see on a big screen. I don’t think we are in the business of doing stuff at home rather than in the space. It would help in our bid for charity status as a way to demonstrate that we offer access to creative activities. You can use it to watch a YouTube vid on making and show it to your buddies at the space. Need I go on?

#23

My only point was it would be good to see a reprisentation of hands rather than people saying it’s good for inclusivity. We know that but it would be good to see who wants it now too.

Makerspace has the money to support these things but they are meant to be done via pledge where members put their money where their mouth is. So it would be good to at least have a show of hands for those interested, no?

#24

We could do. But I’m not sure these have worked in the past.

There’s 9 people discussing it on here.
All seem to be interested in it.
All offering solutions.
No one has said they strongly abject to the idea.

How do we move this forward?
This may need to turn into a new thread soon.
“How do ideas get the go ahead?”

Adobe? This?
Adobe thread seems to conclude getting illustrator would be good, but I don’t think we currently have s formal button to press to say ok let’s action this now.

#25

They used to do a tower computer thingy, but now it seems that the only thing they do is a “Mac Pro” which starts at £2500. They do the Mac Mini, but it is possibly insufficiently powered.

#26

Ok, I’m not convinced of the value of this.

I think that to be able to use the kind of high end software we after talking about requires a level of proficiency that people will only have if they have the software at home or at work, in which case it’s not needed at the Makerspace.

Yes to a general PC that can show YouTube videos, be used to browse the internet, but in my opinion user for a sophisticated 3D CAD machine, Photoshop beast or video editing machine would be minimal

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#27

raises hand

I don’t have a laptop and would love to have access to a decent design machine in the space. Being able to go back and forth between manufacture and design is very important. It can’t all be done at home.

EDIT: windows please. in theory we still have a shed load of free autodesk licenses

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#28

I raise my hand as well, but with a little difference, I think that we don’t need a supercomputer, one just powerfull enough for autocad and Photoshop… from my side I don’t know how to use 3d cad and render and I don’t think that I’m going to learn…
So just a good computer powerful but not crazy with a good comfortable station and a decent set of software!
P.S. I vote for Windows :slight_smile:

#29

The issue of people who cycle in, come straight from work, don’t have a laptop actually comes up fairly often in the space.

I’m putting time into learning Inkscape for the very reason that I’ll never buy Illustrator and the learning curve of any similar software is steep.

(But I’m not against having an Illustrator license if we get consensus)

Also: ‘computer workstation’ has been on the ‘wants’ list since the early days.

#30

Some questions:

  • How do we know when we have a concensus?
  • Is there a budget for this? (This may give us a better idea of what’s realistic)

Some clarity:

  • Buying what we can afford now doesn’t rule out getting something more expensive later.
  • freeware is free, and can be installed as well as purchased software.
  • a kvm would mean we could have multiple “towers” if we really wanted to.
  • there’s probably even space for two machines if that’s want we really wanted too (One on each corner of a table)
  • it’s nice to be able to do work in the space. Including design work.
  • people could try software. That they would otherwise need to pay to try more than on 7 dsy trial.
  • designing is part of making.
#31

Why would we want two computers but only one monitor, keyboard and mouse?

You need directors to support for both of these as this idea only just came up there was no budget, and the budget we had in the GLA money was spent on the wood workshop overspend.

#32

If it was in the GLA budget it’s not a new idea. I think it’s been around a while. It’s just getting some traction now.

So that we could just have one monitor and keyboard, and satisfy the desire of the Mac and Windows peeps. It’s only a suggestion.

#33

A few posts back Paul was talking about having a Mac and a PC in the same footprint to satisfy both kinds of user. The problem would appear to be however that there is no Mac that is both powerful and within a reasonable budget that does not come attached to a monitor.

#34

There is always the Virtualbox option, but my concern there is the support/maintenance.

#35

I’ve just had a cunning plan…

…can we email Mac and [insert name of PC manufacturer here] and ask them for some sweet sweet candy (hardware)?

#36

You can also dual boot OS X and Windows on the same machine, either a Mac or a non-Mac. Apple will not licence their operating system to run on non-Macs (but it can be installed nevertheless). Windows can of course work on Macs legitimately.

#37

MacOS on non-apple hardware is possible, but no fun at all.

I just had a quick dermotchat and picked £500 out of the air. More if we need a monitor too (or do we already have a spare). You can get a fair bit of computer for £500 these days.

#38

Having worked at Apple, I can tell you there is no point in trying to ask for a donation.

#39

None of the monitors are suitable for a computer like this.

I would suggest 27", ideally Samsung / LG brand 4K wouldn’t be unreasonable.

#40

I second a decent monitor, really important.

This is maybe more than we have budget for, but the author is funny so I’m swayed - http://blog.grabcad.com/blog/2015/07/28/kick-ass-cad-workstation-build/