The specs are a little laughable compared to modern standards, but part of the exercise is to work with easily obtainable kit. So, a quick summary:
- Dell Optiplex 755 SFF, paired with an existing keyboard, mouse and VGA monitor
- Core 2 Duo processor at 2.2GHz
- 4Gb RAM
- 160Gb Hard disc
My thinking behind the purchase is roughly as follows:
- I have run various versions of Linux on one core of a not-much-more-powerful iMac quite successfully in the past. All versions I have tested have run much more smoothly than Windows in the same virtual machine set-up
- These PC's can be sourced very cheaply secondhand (mine was £75, delivered) as companies upgrade their XP based networks
- Being designed for enterprise use, most components can be easily accessed and swapped out if the need arises
- There is no licensing cost associated with any of the software I anticipate installing
- I intend to use the machine for batch processing, not graphics intensive GUI work, if large jobs need more time to complete, then so be it.
