32 Windows XP virtual machines is this sensible?

[mintra]

Hello

I am helping a client to decide how to best replace two classrooms (each with about 30 users) of PCs.

One option suggested by NEC is to have a server for each classroom and have a virtual XP machine for each user, who connects to thin clients with RDP.

Each user would be allocated 512Mb Ram.

Is this a real or workable solution, it sounds much less elegant that using just plain RDP and terminal services.

NEC main punt is that video performance is enhanced (seems that shools want to show video clips). So can we expect 32 virtual machines on 2 3Ghz Xeon CPUs to work.

Surely their is some overhead in constalntly switching between VMs, anyway I think I read somewhere that VMware recommends six virtual machines per processor core.

Any ideas would be most welcome

[bowulf]

It depends upon the load each workstation image. If they are running a thin or browser application, two single core might work. I would expect however much better performance in a dual or quad core scenario as the CPU scheduling will be much less an issue. How much memory were you planning?

[mintra]

The server would have 16Gb RAM to allow about 512Mb RAM

The applications include some graphics applications and flash animations, essentially all the things you may expect to be run at a school.

[TomHowarth]

you have forgotten your ESX overhead in that equation, also are the CPUs sing, dual or quad core?

this would make a significant diffence in the loading of the server's,

also what about the delivery method or are the XP images being presented to the end user.