New for the Fall 2009 semester (literally, we put them in place the first week of classes) are 23 brand new Intel Core2 Quad based PCs. It was time for the good ol’ P4s in 813 to go per our replacement cycle. We gathered input from our faculty and students to get a feel for specs of the next generation machines. Here are some details:
Mainboard: Intel G45ID
Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q8400
RAM: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9600GSO w/ 512MB GDDR3 by ASUS
We went with quad core processors to accommodate requests for multicore programming projects. Beefed up graphics cards were added to accommodate requests for courses teaching OpenGL programming.
The room remains split with half of the systems running LOUD based on Ubuntu Linux 9.04 while the other half run Microsoft Windows XP. Additional software upgrades for Fall include Matlab 2009a and Visual Studio .NET 2008 Professional.
Stay tuned for more information about other labs scheduled for hardware and software upgrades.