School maintenance

brere

Hi
I am installing 7 pcs and 2 laptops as well as a new server for a school.The pcs and laptops are coming with Xp and Vista.What I am looking for is advice on what type of server to get and what operating system would I require.I know Windows 2003 is in around 700 euros incl vat.I have also to get a projector and whiteboard.Any advice there.And lastly they are looking for a quote for maintenance for the year.They have also got in the school 4 pc's.:)

ronkmonster

windows 2003 can be purchased on an academic license i think.
i work in a small IT company and i think we sold one recently.
think it was 400/500 but can't be sure of price.

Static M.e.

Yes, as a School you mostly qualify for Academic licensing which makes it a lot cheaper for you.

For your laptops \ PC's, the easiest thing for you to do is make them all XP.

Where are the PCs and Laptops coming from?

For a school I would advise you to setup an environment so whenever the PCs are rebooted that all changes are wiped and the PC goes back to a default image/setup. You can do this with Hardware or through software.

Remember when you buy projectors, they are quite cheap BUT to replace the bulb is very expensive, get a quote for spare bulbs so you can see the cost.

You should also make sure you have extended warranties on the PCs and Laptops, i would say 3 years minimum.

If you set it up correctly at the start and have images of your PCs\laptops either though Ghost, Acronis etc and have warranties for the PCs \ laptops for 3 years THEN the maintenance cost would be minimal.

Any software problems with the PCs \ laptops you can simply image the machines and bring them back to a default working image.

The Warranties will cover any hardware failures.

The server itself should just be small single cpu server, it kinda depends on what you want to do, but most default server configs would suit you. For the Server operating system get Win 2008 or 2003 for simplicity.

If you want Ill look at actual specs for you

ronkmonster

Microsoft have a program now called SteadyState. Doesn't save changes to C drive so it always reverts to a set working state.

brere

Hi
Thanks for replies.Yeah have ordered Dell Computers and Laptops on a 3 year warranty.Will check out bulb for the projector.How do I go about getting the academic licence?Do I get this of Dell as well as the quote will be with them? Or do I talk to the school?. Regarding the image of the pcs and laptops,dats a great idea.I will check out the server price next week.I assume I can copy the images to the server over the network using ghost.
Also any advice which whiteboard I should go for?:)

ressem

You can get MS academic licenses from a number of providers.
As an example of price is from http://www.bss-ltd.com/
P73-04145 Windows Svr Std 2008 Lonly 1 €105.31
R18-02639 Windows Server CAL 2008 Device CAL Lonly €7.10

You'll need a CAL for each PC/laptop to connect to the server.
If you need disks, instead of downloading from the Microsoft Open License site and burning your own, the media kit is about €30 on top.

The version that you install on the server is another matter. In a school I did work for, the providers of the attendance keeping software would not install it on Win2003 R2 X64 Server.

Buying MS Office in the same manner is highly recommended. You'll need MS Office Pro to teach the ECDL, and it's way cheaper.
For comparision with whatever Dell tells you, last quote I got was €70.68.

The volume license version from MS Open License is much handier as all installs use the same key, you can create an image or network install setup which follows a recorded script to leave out outlook, choose the default document format etc.

For antivirus there's special pricing for schools.
Eg Nod32 for €4.50. See http://www.ncte.ie/ for details and other advice, or Symantec Business version.

Product: Symantec AV (1&2 year pricing)
€4.60 (ex VAT) per pc per year for 1 year or
€8.60 (ex VAT) per pc for 2 years.

If you PM me I can send you the contact details I got when doing similar volunteer stuff.

As for projectors and whiteboards, I've asked for the name of the supplier of the stuff our local school got. It included support and a bulb replacement policy.

ressem

The fitted projectors and smartboards mentioned earlier were supplied and fitted by System Video from http://systemvideo.ie in Dublin.

Any problems were sorted out quickly.

xity

Just as a matter of interest, what did you quote the school for maintenance for the year, and what equipment did it cover?. My sister had a similar query from someone in a school in Kerry.

Cheers