What server is needed for 5-10 thin clients?

Question

Server equipment

An idea arose to transfer the computer class of a rural school to thin clients. There are 5 or 6 weak PCs. Three of them are generally rubbish: 2-core processors 2 GHz and 512 MB ddr1 or ddr2 each. The rest 2-3 are more or less normal: 2-4 core processors at 2-3 GHz, RAM 3-4 GB ddr3. There is even a discrete video card on two. We thought to replace computers that are better with weaker ones, and disassemble them and assemble a server from them. All 5 PCs will work at the same time, from tasks: browser 3-5 tabs without YouTube, office, sometimes a simple graphics editor. The idea came to teachers, so money is very limited. Tell me if it makes sense at all, how powerful the server should be for these thin clients and how much it will cost.

Answer 1

Working in a browser, and even more so in a graphical editor (Corel, Photoshop) through the terminal, is uncomfortable.
For me, to work out a site for free ads in the nearest city and buy 2-3 system units or platforms (mother-percent-memory) of the class "2 cores, 2 gigs", or better "4 cores, 4 gigs", they sell quite inexpensively.
And if you buy a new motherboard with a built-in processor + a 4G memory bar - in general, a BULLET will work for your tasks.
I don't see the point in messing around with the server.

Answer 2

For 10 clients, I would put at least a 12-core processor and 64Gb of RAM, with the ability to expand up to 128Gb. Two SSDs in a software raid for the operating system and two HDDs in a software raid for data. Windows Server academic license with 10 user and 10 terminal licenses (Device CAL and Device RDS CAL). I think that somewhere in the 100-120 kilorubles can be kept within.
Any computers are suitable as clients, you can organize the download of ThinStation over the network, then even the HDD on the clients is not needed.

Answer 3

For 3 thin clients and 2-3 RDP + 5 1c via remoteapp. It costs xeon e5, it has been standing for 5 years already, I don’t understand the frequency, I remember, under 1151 socket. There were 16 operatives, a year ago they began to resist, added up to 32. There is still a small margin for the processor.
This is about 1.5 times more than your load, if you take a new stone, then you can get by with e3, assembling on supermicro, somewhere around 60-80k you can meet.
You can share the load between the computer and the server without using RDP, but by running the browser and other applications on the server, and explorer on the local one.

Answer 4

IMHO: In a computer class, there is no point in bothering with a terminal server, because all computers are simultaneously used under the same load and there will be no gain from moving it to VDS / TS.
On the other hand, the introduction of a terminal system is not only a dance with installation / configuration, but also a hassle with licensing, which even in commercial operation with a quantity of <20 pieces is difficult to pay off, but in the educational most of the options do not provide for this.
For a school, the ideal option is to find a sponsor in the form of a bank, an IT office or some other enterprise organization. They often write off computers according to their service life (4-5 years) and instead of recycling they can transfer quite normal iron to sponsored organizations free of charge. We have half of the institutes filled with "garbage" of IT offices

Answer 5

At my school, 10 thin clients with network downloads were spinning on a core i5 with 4GB of RAM. But it was Linux.
It did not work very fast, but it was possible to live.
Long gone from school. Now I plan to open my own training center, I will install Rayzen 5 on a server and 10 thin clients.
It's even worth bothering with a terminal server at school. First, the cost of ownership is reduced. Upgrading a server is cheaper than upgrading 10 computers. And his iron is used more efficiently. Those. by investing 100,000 rubles in a server, we will get much more than by investing 10,000 in each computer.
Secondly, each student has his own account, not tied to a computer.
Thirdly, it becomes easier to manage a set of programs on each computer - just install it on the server.
Problems with the license are solved by switching to Linux.
Good luck to all!