2004/5 Workstation Refresh

The current campus rollout systems are the GX270/280. This campus refresh of PC workstations from the GX110/240/260 workstations to GX270/280 began late 2004. Please click here to view the 2004 Campus Workstation Refresh Power Point presentation that provides an overview of the selection, installation, and notification process involved with the refresh and the redeploy of workstations. Currently we are upgrading out of warranty GX-240/260’s to newer in warranty systems. The campus Mac refresh is schedule to happen early fall 2005.

When will I receive a new PC workstation?

The helpdesk will contact the remaining individuals through the Refresh email account on when their upgrade will happen. As presented in the PowerPoint, the first wave of refresh only replaces 600 of the oldest out of warranty PC workstations. This means that 600 of the 720 Dell GX110 with 677 MHz processors will be replaced with new Dell GX270/280's with 2.4-3 GHz processors. The remaining GX240/260’s are now out of warranty and are being replaced with GX280 in warranty systems.

What about Mac Workstations?

All Mac workstations were upgraded through an in-place migration in 2004. As covered in the PowerPoint, they were upgraded with additional RAM and a larger hard-drive to replace the existing one so they may be upgraded to OSX. Mac workstations were upgraded during April-May of 2004. In fall 2005 all qualified Mac workstations will be upgraded to a new iMac G5 Platform. Click here to see the specifications.

The PowerPoint mentions that users will receive notification about their installation. What will this look like?

Yes. Click here to see a sample of the Refresh Email that both Mac and PC workstation users will be sent.

The PowerPoint mentions something about a Redeploy of the GX110/240/260 workstations to other areas on campus. When will this begin?

The redeployment will involve replacing the most vulnerable workstations now on the campus network (often non-rollout workstations) with Help Desk supported GX110/240/260's collected from areas that were refreshed with the new GX270/280 workstations.

This process began in early May 2004.