Complete and Integrated PC Classrooms solution
Today Computer Classrooms play an essential role in our education whether in schools, universities or in business environments. While some progress has been made in their layout or their furniture design, nothing has really changed last two decades when it comes to their computers. As before a typical computer classroom is made of of a set of networked bulky desktops or mini-towers PCs. These computers are general purpose computers that have not been designed for such environment in mind but rather for personal use.
Our ClusterStation has many features that are important in the design and deployments of modern computer classrooms.
Space Saving Design
These separates cases tend to take room space and reduce student workspace. Our solution eliminates these compute cases from student proximity and reduces further the clutter caused by computer and network cables by leveraging the use of flat LCD displays combined with wireless keyboards and mouses.
Noise Reduction
A noisy classroom prevents student from learning efficiently. Each computer has components that are either made of moving and vibrating parts like a drives or cooled by fans like CPU and case fans that emit interfering noises. An average computer has at least three fans ( 1 or 2 in Power supply + 1 fan on top of the CPU heatsink + 1 or 2 Case fans) . Each of them can generate an air flow with an average noise level of 35 dBA without obstruction.
For a small computer classroom with 10 computers; there are at least 30 fans that are generating noise level of ( 35 + 10log(30) ), which almost 50 dBA. This is the noise of the fans alone without any air flow obstructions, in reality their noise level is much higher when the fans are against an extruded CPU heat-sink or venting holes in the case. A realistic noise level for 10 computers would be around 65 to 70 dBA. This is in addition to other noise sources like HVAC systems, air conditioning/heating units or outside noises like corridors and adjacent classrooms which can makes the classroom less effective as teaching space.
A noise level of 50 to 70 dBA is much higher and does not conform with the recently published (2002) ANSI Classroom Acoustics Standards (ANSI S12.60-2002: Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools the background noise) which specifies that the noise level should not exceed 35 dBA in the unoccupied classroom for good speech intelligibility to occur.
Our solution was designed to reduce the noise level and moving parts inside the whole configuration. For instance we use only 6 ultra-silent (21 dbA) case fans for 10 nodes. Low noise power supplies are used in combination with passive CPU heat-sink or heat-sink equipped with low speed and low noise 80 mm Fans. Furthermore, 9 nodes could be configured as diskless nodes ( no floppy, cdrom or hard drives) remotely booting over the network from a master node equipped with a fast Hard drive. This reduction in parts reduces drastically the overall noise of the ClusterStation making ideal for computer classrooms.
If you have no idea about noise levels and how to relate to them, please browse the following links on computer noise:
- Noise in Computing: A primer from silentpcreview.com
- The Quest for Silence : An attempt at eliminating computer generated noise
- Computer Noise
- Computer Noise Report - Part I
Links on classroom acoustics
- Summary of ANSI S12.60-2002, "Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements and Guidelines for Schools"
- Classroom acoustics
- Assessing The Acoustics In Your Child’s Classroom: A Guide for Parents
Integrated Design
Heat Reduction
Mobility