Require new PCs

[Chuckster]

My school has requested that we look into buying new desktop PCs for the whole school.

I am unsure of which make to go for and which offers the best warranty and support.

Intially I am looking at RM as their hardware support is second to none, i.e. I can log a call on their forum and an engineer is sent out to me the next day. This requires little effort on my part.

Can anyone suggest two other manufacturers that are parallel to RM's support before I start investigating for new PCs?

Just for the record, we are completely a vanilla school but use RM workstations.

Thanks in advance.

[glennda]

Personally for custom Builds I would look @ Stone computers or for Standard desktops the Lenovo Kit is brilliant.

[british_government]

Personally for custom Builds I would look @ Stone computers or for Standard desktops the Lenovo Kit is brilliant.

I have said it so many times, STONE STONE STONE, These
IT manufacturer and solutions provider to the Public Sector | Stone Group

With These
IT manufacturer and solutions provider to the Public Sector | Stone Group

With 5 year warranty, the most you will ever need to do is install a bit of software and fill in a web form for hardware failure. We have about 180 different age ITX space-savers now from the last 3 years and have had about 10 support calls for all of them, next day on site fixed by an engineer who knows what he is doing!

[alan-d]

We use Stone Computers. 5 year, next business day on-site warranty is hard to beat. Ring by 3:00pm and engineer is here the next day. Sometimes we just ask for a replacement part to be sent out and it's done.

With all suppliers there is an element of breakages or DOAs and Stone are no different but I have to applaud their service.

EDIT: They can also supply other branded makes if you ask.

[JJonas]

We usually buy Dell with a five year next business day (NBD) warranty.

We have found their support to be good, we ring them up tell them the fault and we have an engineer out next day, they also dont mind supplying us with parts (usually the easy stuff (memory/DVD drives/PSUs etc) to fit ourselves if we wish.

With the five year warranty we know we have hardware support till the end of the machines useful life.

[tmcd35]

We're currently buying Novatech with 2 or 3yr RTB warranty's. So far no complaints. They've been known to send us the replacement parts before now for us to swap out and send back rather than sending the whole unit back, which I much prefer.

Edit: just looked at Stone's website, no prices. I'm always suspicious of companies who can't/won't put their prices on their website.

[FN-GM]

We are have dumped stone and gone with Dell due to the following.

• The Pro Support offered by Dell is excellent
• The Design, everything is small, fits on the stand, lots of monitor choices etc
• People will be on site the next day for repairs
• If you get a continuing hardware issue they will replace with brand new
• You can get exact parts with repairs, for example the motherboard will be the same on a repair 4 years after the order
• The computers they offer are available for a long period of time, for example we ordered hundreds of Optiplex 790 over a few years and nothing had changed in them. Others change the motherboards etc
• The ability to manage the BIOS using SCCM
• Update BIOS via SCCM if need be.
• All the old kit matches the newer stuff, they don’t change the design often. so the majority of our kit is identical but different models. For example the Optiplex 780, 790 & 7010 are all identical looks wise.
• The matching monitor, keyboard & mouse.
• All machine as standard support dual output display
• The PC and monitor requires 1 power cable
• The stand really tidies cables up.
• Full support with imaging, include all WinPE drivers

[Oaktech]

Stone all the way here... like RM, only cheaper and less grief.

[Little-Miss]

I use Dell a lot..

Now, i have no personal experience but get a quote off @VeryPC too....interesting

[Dos_Box]

Moving to Hardware forum.

[alan-d]

Edit: just looked at Stone's website, no prices. I'm always suspicious of companies who can't/won't put their prices on their website.

Normally I'd agree but I have 2 exceptions, one is Stone, who by the way will build bespoke machines for you too, and Computer Products Ltd.

[north-ict]

I am currently talking to stone and in the past have bought a few laptops off them and there prices are pretty decent. So don't let the thing about no prices on the website put you off.

[FN-GM]

We're currently buying Novatech with 2 or 3yr RTB warranty's. So far no complaints. They've been known to send us the replacement parts before now for us to swap out and send back rather than sending the whole unit back, which I much prefer.

Edit: just looked at Stone's website, no prices. I'm always suspicious of companies who can't/won't put their prices on their website.

There is no point really, we pay a fraction of the prices with dell compared to whats on the website.

[hardtailstar]

we are currently looking at stone, so all the good reports here are making my job easier.

[aleach2]

We have used Viglen now for the last 3 years and they have been really good. Five years NBD warranty seems to be fine for us. Have a look:

Viglen - Product Range - GENIE

Adam