[ucc-announce] New Clubroom Machines: Call for Donations

[Luke Williams]

Hi everyone,

The UCC committee is looking to purchase five new PCs to replace some of
the aging computers currently in use. As well as being much faster than
the current collection of machines, they will also provide us with a
clean slate on which to provide better support and standardised
configurations, resulting in a better clubroom experience for everyone
who uses UCC's computers. Committee has passed approval to spend $3325
on these new machines, of which not less than $2000 shall come from
donations and other fundraising activities.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE BETTER MACHINES IN THE UCC CLUBROOM, PLEASE
DONATE!

We are already a quarter of the way there, with $500 of promised
donations, and any amount you can afford will be greatly appreciated. If
you would like to donate, add your name and the amount you would like to
donate to the UCC wiki at http://wiki.ucc.asn.au.au/NewMachines and
we'll come hunt you down when we reach the target amount. Alternatively,
just reply to this email and let me know how much you want to
contribute.

The specifications for the new computers we are looking at are as
follows (prices gathered from Austin/Netplus):
$199 - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
$49  - 2GB DDR2-667 RAM
$72  - 500GB SATA HDD
$200 - ATI Radeon 4850 512MB
$50  - Mainboard
$70  - Generic case/PSU
$25  - DVD Burner

Total - $665

These prices are subject to change and there is some flexibility in
choice of brands. The current PCs that don't suck will be relegated to
permanent Linux machines and the ones that do suck will be retired if no
other use can be found for them.

We are also developing a standard operating environment for building and
installing new machines, and seek your input as users! If there is any
software that you think should be installed by default on UCC machines,
or have an opinion on how something should be configured, come have your
say at http://wiki.ucc.asn.au/StandardOperatingEnvironment.

Cheers,

Luke Williams
UCC President 2008
shmookey@