Thirty PCs in Steele Hall and the Energy and Computing Management training rooms have been upgraded in an effort to promote sustainability and save money.

Rather than buying new computers, the university upgraded the PCs to avoid purchasing new hardware and to save money and resources, according to an SU news release.

“By doing this, we didn’t have to purchase 30 new machines, and we also kept the old machines from having to be recycled in the recycling center through e-waste,” said Melissa Cadwell, marketing manager for SU’s Sustainability Division.

The 6-year-old PCs have been rebuilt to run the Windows operating system and other programs from a remote server rather than having the software installed on the computers themselves, a practice called ‘virtual clients.’ This allows the resources and software to be used elsewhere when the PCs are not in use, according to the news release.

ECM is a department within Business, Finance and Administrative Services that provides computing support and cost-effective energy services. ECM includes SUÕs Sustainability Division, which was formed in 2007 and serves the university, as well as the city.

The computers have also been outfitted with the newest Windows operating system, Windows 7, Cadwell said. The upgrades originated as the university-wide effort to upgrade all PCs to Windows 7.

When Windows 7 came out in October, the university announced it would upgrade computers, starting with those in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, The Daily Orange reported in November. Using Windows 7 will also help decrease energy consumption, as it only uses 1 watt of electricity in sleep mode as opposed to the 75 watts Windows XP uses.

In addition to saving money, the upgrades will also prove to be more environmentally friendly. Virtual clients extend the life of PCs, but the lifetime ultimately comes down to how users treat them, Cadwell said.

The PCs will also save energy by automatically powering off at 6 p.m.

“By converting these PCs in a sustainability aspect, we are keeping old PCs out of the landfill and we are upgrading the application of the PCs,” she said.

Users will not notice a difference between the virtual client and a regular PC, as the two look very similar, Cadwell said. The two also have similar computing speeds.

The upgrade to Steele and ECM is not the first time the university will be using virtual clients, according to the news release. SU has used virtual clients since 2003, and other locations that use them include the Department of Public Safety’s closed-circuit television monitoring systems and the Physical Plant.

Published on April 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm