Hardware Considerations Desktop / xdmcp

[Joerg Saedtler <j saedtler gmx net>]

Hello all...

this is something not particular to the two groups i send it, but with
both groups i hope to find the best answer:

here my plans:

i want to offer the clients in a fast network a full desktop by using a
thinclient solution. the clients are running only the X-Server, all
apps, including the full gnome environment are running on one/more
"desktop"-servers. 

so the server has to be as fast and big as possible. 


the clients need to be able to display gnome and other graphical stuff
as fast as possible. in a small very low powerd testenvironment, i found
this:


Server: 500mhz athlon, 512mb memory, 100mbits LAN, 60gb hardisk, 3dfx
voodoo3/16mb. kernel 2.4.18, garnome 0.20.0 installed for all users

Client: 700mhz duron, 256mb memory, 10mbits LAN, geforce 2mx/32mb X11
4.2(?)


The desktop seems to run more smooth and answer more quickly on the
client than on the server. the display of possible backgroundimages
seems to be faster on the server

the result leads me to:

The Client is faster because of more and faster videomemory available t
o X, the loading of the background image over the network seems to be
the reason for the advantage of the server, perhaps a 100mbit LAN in the
Client can correct this.

So: the Speed (and smoothness) of the Clientdisplay of the desktop
depends mainly on videomemory and speed of the client. larger images
require faster network.

(i'm not interested in playing videos on the Client)

my question:

when i choose hardware for the clients, will it be sufficient to take
lowend processor, e.g. a via C3, combine it with a fast vga, e.g. ati
radeon w/128mb? would it be sufficient to take a lowend vga, because
speed depends only on the server? do i need a fast cpu and a fast vga?


i hope anyone of you could help me finding the right hardware, or
understanding speed of X or xdmcp.


JS