Auckland Boys Grammar embraces the Mac mini
Auckland Grammar School is a State Secondary School for boys and caters for students from Years 9-13 who reside in the 'Grammar Zone'. It’s well known for it’s high levels of both sporting excellence and academic achievement. This level of excellence extends to the IT department where a staff of three support the school’s entire IT infrastructure, including installation and maintenance.
With so few staff supporting a such large number of computers and associated networking infrastructure, the need for efficiency is paramount. Over the past two years there has been a gradual shift to fill the school computer labs with Apple’s Mac Mini. So why the change from beige box PCs to the Apple Mac Mini? According to Bradley Scarisbrick, Network Administrator at Auckland Grammar, there were a number of reasons for converting the computer labs to Macs. First, there was the growing demand among staff and students for a lab of Macs so they could utilise some of the award winning Apple software for teaching and learning. Secondly, there was the space saving footprint of the Mac Mini. Having one of the smallest footprints of any computer, the Mac Mini can be tucked away under the desk in lockable cabinets and away from students. “No more mouldy sandwiches to found inside the computers.”
One of the unintended benefits was the massive drop in power consumption. “We’ve achieved a 50% to 60% power saving in the labs since the switch over from PCs” says Scarisbrick. With much less heat generated by the lab of Mac Minis, there has also been a massive drop in the air conditioning bill.
All of the Macs are dual boot enabled so the students select either the Mac or Windows operating system when they start up the computer. Scarisbrick is keen to point out that there have been no problems with performance. “They stack up comparably to a much larger PC. We’re running Adobe CS4 with absolutely no issues along with other programs such as SolidWorks, TurboCAD and 2D Design which are all GPU and CPU intensive”. Maintenance has also been easy. With separate external power supplies it’s easy to replace a failed power supply and get the user up and running again with minimal delay. Not that failing computers has been an issue. In fact, with over 200 of the Mac Mini currently onsite there has not been a single failure or DOA (dead on arrival) amongst them. Crashing is also an unknown event on the Macs; “Even running Windows they don’t crash” says Scarisbrick. All of the Mac Minis integrate seamlessly with the network so deployment has been as easy as holding the ‘N’ key while the Windows and Mac images are broadcast over the network. So management is minimal, reducing downtime and freeing up the IT staff for other jobs.
The labs of Mac Minis have proved extremely cost effect. Scarisbrick notes that the Mac minis “came out cheaper when compared with equivalent quotes from major manufacturers like Dell and HP.”
And the change over has been a hit with students and staff. “Reactions from the students and staff have been very positive,” Scarisbrick says. “The noise level has dropped to a point where even the quietest staff can talk to a class without any interruption”
And the change in interface has proved no barrier either. Scarisbrick notes that “students didn’t have any problems using the Mac OS or the Mac keyboard. They took to it straight away”.
When asked about the overall sentiment toward the labs of Mac Mini, Scarisbrick summed it up by saying: “Overall reaction has been really positive to the use of them, including, most importantly, our accountant”.
If you would like further information about deploying Apple Mac computers in your school, please contact Renaissance Education by calling 0800 733 725, emailing sales@red.co.nz or visiting www.red.co.nz
