Starting to study for Windows 7 Desktop Admin MCITP, is it worth doing?

aligator_am · 14-08-2011 1:32pm #1

Hi Folks,

Just wondering if anyone here has done the 70-680 + 70-686 exams?

I'm not sure how many companies are currently using Windows 7 or if many will be going towards it in the near future so I'm wondering if it's worth my while doing it now?

Alternatively, has anyone here done the Enterprise Admin MCITP? looks like there's a lot more involved in it, seems like something worth working towards in the future.

Kinetic^ · 14-08-2011 2:29pm

Started the MCITP:Server Admin course, recently attended a course in Sureskills which I found to be very good.

aligator_am · 14-08-2011 3:19pm

Kinetic^ wrote: »

Started the MCITP:Server Admin course, recently attended a course in Sureskills which I found to be very good.

How much did the course cost, how long and did it cover all the different exams required for that MCITP?

From what I can tell there's 5 exams which need to be passed to get the Enterprise Server MCITP, is this the one you're working towards?

Thanks in advance
Al

Kinetic^ · 14-08-2011 10:48pm

aligator_am wrote: »

How much did the course cost, how long and did it cover all the different exams required for that MCITP?

Course was around 1100-1200, must check the receipt. It was for one of the exams, the 70-640. I've yet to sit the exam, hopefully in the coming weeks.

aligator_am wrote: »

From what I can tell there's 5 exams which need to be passed to get the Enterprise Server MCITP, is this the one you're working towards?

No, I'm working towards the Server Admin, not Enterprise Admin. 2 of the exams overlap between the 2 so you could start with the server and then jump to the enterprise. 70-640 & 70-642 overlap.

All information is here. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcitp.aspx#tab2

druidhill · 15-08-2011 10:30pm

I think it is worth doing for sure, it is the way forward with MS desktop, I've only done the 70-680 exam and a lot of that was about deployment and working with desktop images, so it will be good to know in an enterprise environment.

aligator_am · 15-08-2011 10:42pm

druidhill wrote: »

I think it is worth doing for sure, it is the way forward with MS desktop, I've only done the 70-680 exam and a lot of that was about deployment and working with desktop images, so it will be good to know in an enterprise environment.

How did you find the exam? Windows 7 does seem to have plenty of new features so I've got plenty to learn yet

testicle · 16-08-2011 10:40am

aligator_am wrote: »

How did you find the exam? Windows 7 does seem to have plenty of new features so I've got plenty to learn yet

You'd want to hurry up! Windows 8 is out next year!

Kinetic^ · 16-08-2011 10:55am

testicle wrote: »

You'd want to hurry up! Windows 8 is out next year!

Rollout in an enterprise environment won't come for a 1/2 years at the earliest after that, no real rush tbh.

Cuddlesworth · 16-08-2011 4:22pm

Kinetic^ wrote: »

Course was around 1100-1200, must check the receipt. It was for one of the exams, the 70-640. I've yet to sit the exam, hopefully in the coming weeks.

If your not braindumping the 640 exam wait till you have the coursework done for 642 and 646. All the exams intermingle, especially the first two.

As for the OP. I have it, its pretty good if you are going to be deploying images in a Enterprise Environment and links heavily with the 685 exam as well, so worth doing all three. Its entirely possible to self study with the books, rather then forking out over a grand to have somebody read the book to you. I'd rather spend the money on a SSD array to run my VM's off of.

Kinetic^ · 16-08-2011 4:44pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

If your not braindumping the 640 exam wait till you have the coursework done for 642 and 646. All the exams intermingle, especially the first two.

As fun as they are, books and labs is what I'm using.

Cuddlesworth · 16-08-2011 5:21pm

Kinetic^ wrote: »

As fun as they are, books and labs is what I'm using.

Then wait till you have the two other courses done. Bit crap on Microsofts part tbh.

druidhill · 16-08-2011 8:11pm

aligator_am wrote: »

How did you find the exam? Windows 7 does seem to have plenty of new features so I've got plenty to learn yet

Not as tough as what I thought it would be, but I would have quite a bit of desktop and network config troubleshooting experience. There was a lot of stuff that I had to specifically study for, not having the experience behind me at the moment. Also, I have some server exams under my belt (Server 2003), and the desktop questions are a lot less "involved".

nightowl · 19-08-2011 11:12pm

For the money your spending on training your better off buying a new computer getting the books and running virtual machines. It's a recession time to cut on the training middle men! I'm doing alot of the MCTIP course work at home now since I got laid off from my IT Ops job about six weeks ago. Trust me for the money your going to spend on those courses your better off doing it at home yourself

Tip 1, get the training books or better still get yourself a Safari O'Reilly subscription. 38.00 euro a book for all the IT books you can eat.

Safari O'Reilly http://my.safaribooksonline.com

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-686): Windows® 7 Desktop Administrator http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcitp/9780735656246

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-685): Windows® 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcitp/9780735641457

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows® 7 http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcts/9780735638945

Tip 2, If your getting a new computer make sure you get it with at least 12GB of memory, a processor that can support virtualization and a solid state drive. Solid state drives offer better performance for virtual machines. It's nice to be able to run a Type 1 hypervisor on a solid state drive with the virtual machines sitting on top.

OCZ Vertex 2 240GB SATA II3 .5-inch Solid State Drive http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-Vertex-240GB-5-inch-Solid/dp/B003VX1IMW/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1313791268&sr=8-17

My PC specs

PC make: Alienware
Processor i7 CPU 2.67GHz
Memory: 15GB
Hard drive 1 500GB and Hard drive 2 500GB 7200rpm, RAID 0, SATA II, OS Windows 7 Ultimate

Hard drive 3 7200rpm 1TB (Backup drive)

Hard drive 4 Solid drive 240GB 3.5 inch, OS Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V role installed

Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 580

aligator_am · 19-08-2011 11:54pm

nightowl wrote: »

For the money your spending on training your better off buying a new computer getting the books and running virtual machines. It's a recession time to cut on the training middle men! I'm doing alot of the MCTIP course work at home now since I got laid off from my IT Ops job about six weeks ago. Trust me for the money your going to spend on those courses your doing it at home yourself

Tip 1, get the training books or better still get yourself a Safari O'Reilly subscription. 38.00 euro a book for all the IT books you can eat.

Safari O'Reilly http://my.safaribooksonline.com

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-686): Windows® 7 Desktop Administrator http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcitp/9780735656246

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-685): Windows® 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcitp/9780735641457

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows® 7 http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcts/9780735638945

Tip 2, If your getting a new computer make sure you get it with at least 12GB of memory, a processor that can support virtualization and a solid state drive. Solid state drives offer better performance for virtual machines. It's nice to be able to run a Tier1 hypervisor on a solid state drive with the virtual machines sitting on top.

OCZ Vertex 2 240GB SATA II3 .5-inch Solid State Drive http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-Vertex-240GB-5-inch-Solid/dp/B003VX1IMW/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1313791268&sr=8-17

My PC specs

PC make: Alienware
Processor i7 CPU 2.67GHz
Memory: 15GB
Hard drive 1 500GB and Hard drive 2 500GB 7200rpm, RAID 0, SATA II, OS Windows 7 Ultimate

Hard drive 3 7200rpm 1TB (Backup drive)

Hard drive 4 Solid drive 250GB 3.5 inch, OS Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V role installed

Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 580

Hey man that's an impressive looking machine, how much did she set you back and where did you buy it?

nightowl · 20-08-2011 12:21pm

aligator_am wrote: »

Hey man that's an impressive looking machine, how much did she set you back and where did you buy it?

I bought the PC from Dell for 2000 euro that included the monitor. I then upgraded the machine.

Upgraded 9GB memory to 15GB memory
Added two hard drives one solid state drive and one 1TB 7200 sata II drive (for backups)

I removed the two original graphics that where in SLI configuration (graphics cards name escapes me) and upgraded to one Nvidia GeForce GTX 580. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 takes up two bays in my PC

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 graphics card cost me 650 euro
Solid state drive around 300 euro
Memory I can't remember but I got it cheap enough off the Dell website.

It's a nice gaming rig but I mostly upgraded it for learning purposes. Need a nice chunk of memory for virtual machines and solid state hard drive for better I/O performance. It's not a high end production machine for enterprise but good enough for training on

You don't need the high end graphics for your training lab btw I got it just for gaming

Jumpy · 20-08-2011 12:28pm

Heh, nightowl you have almost the same spec as me in the Alienware except I went for the notebook. Had to carry it around.

Its good to invest in VMWare Workstation 7 as well. You can run nested ESXi installations if you want to study the VCP.

nightowl · 20-08-2011 1:39pm

Jumpy wrote: »

Heh, nightowl you have almost the same spec as me in the Alienware except I went for the notebook. Had to carry it around.

Its good to invest in VMWare Workstation 7 as well. You can run nested ESXi installations if you want to study the VCP.

Yeah I think I'm going to have to bit the bullet and studying more VMWare stuff. I used VMware 3.5 in my last job. Trouble is it's 2000 euro to sit a VMware course! Damn I wish I had the money. Yeah with VMworkstation you can setup Openfiler as a virtual SAN and connect your ESXi machines to it, Sweet

Kinetic^ · 20-08-2011 3:07pm

nightowl wrote: »

For the money your spending on training your better off buying a new computer.......
PC make: Alienware

You talk about saving money yet you spend money on an alienware PC, the most over priced computer you can actually buy.

nightowl · 20-08-2011 3:54pm

Kinetic^ wrote: »

You talk about saving money yet you spend money on an alienware PC, the most over priced computer you can actually buy.

I agree that was just me I'm sure there are cheaper and better options out there!

Kinetic^ · 20-08-2011 5:03pm

Probably more on the channel, I know they've got video podcasts for other certs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiIH_eB5gsw

nightowl · 20-08-2011 5:25pm

Kinetic^ wrote: »

Probably more on the channel, I know they've got video podcasts for other certs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiIH_eB5gsw

Nothing beats hands on experience plus the MCTIP exams have been updated to reflect the new Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 features not the Windows Server 2008 features

Kinetic^ · 22-08-2011 6:32pm

nightowl wrote: »

Nothing beats hands on experience plus the MCTIP exams have been updated to reflect the new Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 features not the Windows Server 2008 features

The video portrays how stupid the MS questions are and what to watch out for. I didn't mention anything about hands on experience.

Kinetic^ · 24-08-2011 1:27pm

http://examforce.com/?page_id=1087&id=1503

Register to get a study guide for Server 2008 R2.

druidhill · 24-08-2011 11:52pm

Kinetic^ wrote: »

http://examforce.com/?page_id=1087&id=1503

Register to get a study guide for Server 2008 R2.

Have you done this yet and received guides? Wondering is it this straightforward or do they get you to jump through more hoops before you finally get the guides.
If yes, are the guides any good? Thanks.

Kinetic^ · 25-08-2011 10:54pm

Did download, was just that form. Haven't had a chance to look at.

runswithascript · 05-09-2011 12:02pm

nightowl wrote: »

For the money your spending on training your better off buying a new computer getting the books and running virtual machines. It's a recession time to cut on the training middle men! I'm doing alot of the MCTIP course work at home now since I got laid off from my IT Ops job about six weeks ago. Trust me for the money your going to spend on those courses your better off doing it at home yourself

Tip 1, get the training books or better still get yourself a Safari O'Reilly subscription. 38.00 euro a book for all the IT books you can eat.

Safari O'Reilly http://my.safaribooksonline.com

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-686): Windows® 7 Desktop Administrator http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcitp/9780735656246

MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-685): Windows® 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcitp/9780735641457

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows® 7 http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/certification/mcts/9780735638945

Tip 2, If your getting a new computer make sure you get it with at least 12GB of memory, a processor that can support virtualization and a solid state drive. Solid state drives offer better performance for virtual machines. It's nice to be able to run a Type 1 hypervisor on a solid state drive with the virtual machines sitting on top.

OCZ Vertex 2 240GB SATA II3 .5-inch Solid State Drive http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-Vertex-240GB-5-inch-Solid/dp/B003VX1IMW/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1313791268&sr=8-17

My PC specs

PC make: Alienware
Processor i7 CPU 2.67GHz
Memory: 15GB
Hard drive 1 500GB and Hard drive 2 500GB 7200rpm, RAID 0, SATA II, OS Windows 7 Ultimate

Hard drive 3 7200rpm 1TB (Backup drive)

Hard drive 4 Solid drive 240GB 3.5 inch, OS Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 with Hyper-V role installed

Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 580

Although I do not believe it your intent, I found your post very discouraging as unfortunately I do not have ~€3,000 of disposable income to drop on a machine right now, but is it really necessary to build a machine with 260 GB of SSD and the rest, let alone a new machine at all?

How many machines need to be virtualized on this 240 GB exactly for: (Exam 70-686): Windows® 7 Desktop Administrator, (Exam 70-685): Windows® 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician, and (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows® 7?

Perhaps your build is for future server and enterprise administrator exams? And even at that is your setup really required?

I know with Cisco exams a keen competent somewhat experienced student can complete the entry level qualifications using only the likes of CBT Nuggets along with say dynamips, Boson NetSim, and even Packet Tracer - are the corresponding CBT videos (from any provider) not able to offer the same level of education, and is there no simulator for MICTP short of spending a small fortune on a new machine?

My previous employer has offered me access to plethora of CBT media they keep in the office which I had hoped would be enough combined with either virtualizing Win 2008 Server and Win 7 with virtual box, or running server on my desktop and win 7 on my laptop.

nightowl wrote: »

I agree that was just me I'm sure there are cheaper and better options out there!

Please expand on that statement

nightowl · 11-09-2011 7:40pm

dusf wrote: »

Although I do not believe it your intent, I found your post very discouraging as unfortunately I do not have ~€3,000 of disposable income to drop on a machine right now, but is it really necessary to build a machine with 260 GB of SSD and the rest, let alone a new machine at all?

How many machines need to be virtualized on this 240 GB exactly for: (Exam 70-686): Windows® 7 Desktop Administrator, (Exam 70-685): Windows® 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician, and (Exam 70-680): Configuring Windows® 7?

Perhaps your build is for future server and enterprise administrator exams? And even at that is your setup really required?

I know with Cisco exams a keen competent somewhat experienced student can complete the entry level qualifications using only the likes of CBT Nuggets along with say dynamips, Boson NetSim, and even Packet Tracer - are the corresponding CBT videos (from any provider) not able to offer the same level of education, and is there no simulator for MICTP short of spending a small fortune on a new machine?

My previous employer has offered me access to plethora of CBT media they keep in the office which I had hoped would be enough combined with either virtualizing Win 2008 Server and Win 7 with virtual box, or running server on my desktop and win 7 on my laptop.

Please expand on that statement

Yeah the equipment I have is expensive and I know during these hard times it's hard to scrape up 3000 euro. The solid state drive is for better Disk I/0 performance for the virtual machines. Yeah your right I'm running enterprise software on these virtual machines. I have Exchange 2010 eatting up about 8.5 of memory at the moment! It's worth spending money on a good machine for when you do move onto the Enterprise software. Your not going to stick with Windows 7 forever. What about all the other good applications like Exchange, SharePoint, Windows 2008 and Citrix?

As for other options checkout http://www.custompc.ie

Starting to study for Windows 7 Desktop Admin MCITP, is it worth doing?

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