PC Upgrade in the CSC Teaching Studio Areas
PC Hardware
Further to the PC upgrade last year, the remaining half of the CSC Teaching Studio Areas, around 500 PCs, have been upgraded to newer hardware this summer. These PCs are also configured as diskless start-ups with Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS). The computers boot up from the network and read the virtual hard disk content from PVS servers on the fly. As the write operations are cached on the device RAM temporarily, users are advised to save their working files on removable storage devices, such as USB flash drive and USB HDD/SSD. Besides the USB 3.0 ports, there is also an USB 3.1 Type-C port on each new PC which can support faster USB devices at a speed up to 10 Gbps. In order to provide a larger write-cache and more working memory for Windows 10 (64-bit), both the old and new PCs have been upgraded to 64GB of RAM.
CSC Teaching Studios which have been upgraded this year (2017) are:
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Location
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Workstation Configuration
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Teaching Studio AC2-5500
Teaching Studio AC2-5501
Teaching Studio AC2-5503
Teaching Studio AC2-5505
Teaching Studio AC2-5506
Teaching Studio AC2-5601
Teaching Studio AC2-5604
Teaching Studio AC2-5606
Teaching Studio AC2-5607
Teaching Studio AC2-5608
Teaching Studio AC2-G600
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HP EliteDesk 800 G3 SFF computer
· 3.30 GHz Intel i5-6600 quad-core processor
· 15.9 GB usable RAM for 64-bit Windows 10
(48 GB write-cache) · 3.14 GB usable RAM for 32-bit Windows 7
(32 GB write-cache) · 22" Widescreen LCD monitor (1920 x 1080 pixels)
· DVD/CD Writer drive
· Front-side USB 3.1 Type-C port (10 Gbps)
· Front-side USB 3.0 ports (5 Gbps)
· Front-side headphone jack
· Front-side-microphone jack
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CSC Teaching Studios which had been upgraded last year (2016) were:
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Location
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Workstation Configuration
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Teaching Studio AC2-4109
Teaching Studio AC2-4200
Teaching Studio AC2-4208
Teaching Studio AC2-4307
Teaching Studio AC2-4400
Teaching Studio AC2-4412
Open Area on AC2 G/F
Open Area on AC2 4/F
Open Area on AC2 5/F
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Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 SFF computer
· 3.30 GHz Intel i5-6600 quad-core processor
· 15.9 GB usable RAM for 64-bit Windows 10
(48 GB write-cache) · 2.67 GB usable RAM for 32-bit Windows 7
(32 GB write-cache) · 22" Widescreen LCD monitor (1920 x 1080 pixels)
· DVD/CD Writer drive
· Front-side USB 3.0 ports (5 Gbps)
· Front-side headphone jack
· Front-side-microphone jack
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Operating Systems
The Windows 10 (64-bit) system has been upgraded to version 1607, while the Windows 7 (32-bit) system will still be available for some time. For PCs using Citrix PVS, a black & white character-based Boot Menu (shown below) will be displayed upon startup. Users may either input “1” and press <Enter> key to select Windows 10, or input “2” and press <Enter> key to select Windows 7.
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Furthermore, the default web browser in Windows 10 is still Internet Explorer 11, while the Edge browser is available on the Taskbar and can be run manually. While most of the Privacy settings in Windows 10 are turned off, users may turn them on if needed.
Microsoft Office
The Microsoft Office remains the 2016 version on both Windows 10 (64-bit) and Windows 7 (32-bit).
Microsoft Visual Studio
The Microsoft Visual Studio remains the 2015 version with default modules on Windows 10 (64-bit). On Windows 7 (32-bit), the Microsoft Visual Studio remains the 2012 version. In the next academic year, it is anticipated that the Microsoft Visual Studio on Windows 10 will be upgraded to version 2017.
For more information on Teaching Studios, please visit the CSC web at
For a list of software available on the CSC Student LAN, please visit the CSC web at