where to buy business desktops

atilladehun

I work for a school and it's up to me to chose the computers we need to replace some 10 -12 year old dells. they must have windows professional, be of a high enough spec for dcg and music recording and have dual monitor output for projector/screen use in the classroom.

I'm having trouble building my own machine on the dell site and thought some people might know other pkaces i could look.

cheers
Paul

kirving

Dell supply a huge amount of businesses and colleges, it would be worth your while ringing them if you're having trouble on the site.

If students are drawing, and doing 3D modelling, get at least a 19'' 4:3 screen, or 23'' 16:9 screen and a reasonable graphics card to help with rendering speeds. Obviously budget will be an issue.

Building your own could be problematic when it comes to support and replacements.

atilladehun

Cheers, I think I'll end up doing that.

It's funny we have a 10 year old batch of Dimensions and a 5 year old batch of Precisions.

None of the 10 year old have any hardware replacements but all of the five year olds are dropping hard drives and motherboards like flies.

I'd love to be able to compare different brands like you can personal systems.

yoyo

HP also do business level desktops. I worked with a college one summer replacing old Dell Optiplexes with HP Compaq machines. The funny thing is that HP didn't install the video cards themselves, so we had the rather fun task installing 60 odd video cards separately when necessary. I think this is due to HP selling base systems and not "building to order" like Dell do.

Nick

Ctrl Alt Del

atilladehun wrote: »

I work for a school and it's up to me to chose the computers we need to replace some 10 -12 year old dells. they must have windows professional, be of a high enough spec for dcg and music recording and have dual monitor output for projector/screen use in the classroom.

I'm having trouble building my own machine on the dell site and thought some people might know other pkaces i could look.

cheers
Paul

Hi Paul,

The Windows XP as OS is not the best option,taking in consideration that those PCs will stay in school over a lifecycle of ... another 10-12 years,as the school grants have dried up !!

Call Camara,they have very good deals for schools,second hand /recycled PCs comes with warranty and training if needed !

Also,for projectors,you don't need dual output video cards...
You'll need a VGA splitter (less than a tener) or if the PC's video card is too weak to power a dual output,try a VGA splitter,comes at around €30 ex.

Also,when you buy for a school,very careful here,you have to follow NCTE rules,there are only 5 approved suppliers.One of them is PCP.you cannot beat the price of a i3 @ €475 ex !!!
In case of an audit,you have to explain the reasons and provide 3 (three) quotations ! Most of the time,PCP wins !

Good luck...

ressem

If you are buying for schools then get the Microsoft licenses from a Microsoft Education Reseller.
You can get an Open volume license for Windows, Office, Win Server etc for a tenth of the normally shown advertised price provided by Dell.
And then you have your choice of Win XPpro, 7pro, 8pro using downgrade rights.

So spec a basic machine with Dell's business section, then email them looking for the prices with educational licensed software. You'll require the school code.
You'll have to do the work using quotes from suppliers against each other.

Those cheapest PCP machines are rattley and noisy compared to an optiplex. (poor sound dampening around the PSUs causing rattling against the case, requires extra material and work to stop them being disruptive.)

Firblog

While there may be only 5 'approved' suppliers I believe you can purchase from where ever you want, you don't even have to take the lowest priced quote. Lowest priced may not be the best value when amount of memory, HDD size processor etc are taken into account, also the support you can expect can come into play.

atilladehun

Thanks for the responses. Great to get some guidance.

I didn't realize NCTE had any suppliers on their site. You think they mention it when I ring them every other day when the Internet goes down.

I've no intention to keep XP going, afaik support stops sometime next year from Microsoft. I can only presume other companies will follow suit and anti-virus updates etc will dry up. May as well get windows 8 and look forward.

We have splitters on some of the older ones and it leads to image deterioration on both screen and projector. I thought about the powered version but it crossed my mind that it might be simpler for others to just have the graphics card installed, bundled in with the price.

ressem: Could you explain more about the Open rights. I think we have it for XP and office 2003 but you mentioned something about downgrade rights. What does that mean?

Also does this mean I can just order computers from the likes of Dell and they are included in our licence? I've bought four before, but would like some clarity on it.

Thanks again

Ctrl Alt Del

Firblog wrote: »

While there may be only 5 'approved' suppliers I believe you can purchase from where ever you want, you don't even have to take the lowest priced quote. Lowest priced may not be the best value when amount of memory, HDD size processor etc are taken into account, also the support you can expect can come into play.

NCTE have made it very clear on their site what kind of rules / guidelines a school need to use when are purchasing IT Equipment.
Standardizing all of them and getting only few suppliers,have taken off the market the so called "white boxes" which had no warranty and been installed by some third party friends at home,in the back garden !
If is good value or not,don't know ,i can't pronounce myself !!!
But have a look at the prices some supplier gives to an i3 based CPU AND 3 years on-site warranty !

I have schools with smart boards/projectors and IT equipment under warranty but supplier / installer went out of business !!!

If you want to buy a PC with your money,happy day,buy whatever you like ! When you buy with the school's money,you have to answer in front of BoM and if you get an audit,to justify it with papers ! Also,for most of the schools they don't ask if is an i3 or i7,they wonders if the price fits the quantity required and the IT budget !

If you are familiar with the process,then you'll know what i mean !
If not,don't waste my bandwidth,please !

atilladehun wrote: »

Thanks for the responses. Great to get some guidance.

I didn't realize NCTE had any suppliers on their site. You think they mention it when I ring them every other day when the Internet goes down.

I've no intention to keep XP going, afaik support stops sometime next year from Microsoft. I can only presume other companies will follow suit and anti-virus updates etc will dry up. May as well get windows 8 and look forward.

We have splitters on some of the older ones and it leads to image deterioration on both screen and projector. I thought about the powered version but it crossed my mind that it might be simpler for others to just have the graphics card installed, bundled in with the price.

ressem: Could you explain more about the Open rights. I think we have it for XP and office 2003 but you mentioned something about downgrade rights. What does that mean?

Also does this mean I can just order computers from the likes of Dell and they are included in our licence? I've bought four before, but would like some clarity on it.

Thanks again

NCTE and NCTE broadband are two different departments !
RE dual output,sometimes you have issues with the setup of the dual head,trust me ,is better the VGA powered splitter,seen it everywhere !

Again,i have bad news for you...
There are only few approved resellers that can re-sell Microsoft software to educational institution !
Check it here and possible here !
Of course you can buy it from anywhere but not at same price and Terms & Conditions !!


Stay away for Windows 8 yet...get a PC or two,introduce the Win 8 OS to teachers first,gradually,maybe in staffroom,let them be confident in "how-to" and then deploy it over school range ! What if you bring Win8 in classes and teachers have no idea how to use it ...they will get frustrated in front of kids and never ever touch it again !!!

Buy Win8 licenses and you'll get the right to usage right for Win7 Pro.
Same applies for Office 2010.
If your school is approved,you can get Win8 and Office 201x for a 5 per year per user. Otherwise,can be €50 / €80 per item.

PS
Are you a teacher or an internal /external IT Support !??


Regards.

Firblog

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

!
!!!
!

!!!

!
!
!

!





!
!

!
!
!!


!
!!!



!??


Regards.

Think your shift key and 1 button may be malfunctioning.


On the matter at hand tho, the NCTE do not know the particular requirements of each school, a one size fits all doesn't work 100% of the time. I know of a local school that ordered what the NCTE recommended, including ceiling mounts for projectors from Dublin based supplier. Just so happened that their ceilings were 12 ft high and the mounts turned out to be useless. 100's of euro down the drain; a local supplier would probably have come out to assess needs if requested and seen that there was a problem.

Being on the NCTE list of approved suppliers is no guarantee that the business will still be operating next month to back up any warranty.

bmm

Dell still employ a few thousand people in Ireland so let's support them if we can.

Firblog

bmm wrote: »

Dell still employ a few thousand people in Ireland so let's support them if we can.

Didn't know that.. where they located an what they doin'?

Ctrl Alt Del

bmm wrote: »

Dell still employ a few thousand people in Ireland so let's support them if we can.

Firblog wrote: »

Didn't know that.. where they located an what they doin'?

They're in Limerick,planning outsourcing the Irish moved'Polish site over to Foxconn !