Staff Laptop Spec's

[richard]

I've got to look at replacing all the staff laptops at one of my schools and was wondering what spec's people were using for their new staff laptops at the moment. I have listed below the base spec's that I have come up with so far. They will be running Windows XP Pro for the time being but I would like to be able to upgrade them to Vista in the future.

15'' notebook chassis
Intel Core Duo Processor T2300E, 1.66GHz
1024MB DDR2 533MHz SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive
Intel Wireless/Pro 3945 ABG

[Geoff]

If your factoring in Vista make sure you have a decent 3d graphics card in there too.

[richard]

The ones I have looked at so far have the Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics in them.

[PeterW]

GMA 950 is ok for Aero but I would try and get a Core 2 Duo T5500 as its got EMT64 and generally better performane/power wise.

[Leibnitz]

Add warranty, I go for 3 years, and accidental damage cover.

I don't get theft insurance.

I'm considering a Laptop Staff Use Policy clause insisting on cover under their home insurance when they take it home. Don't fancy my chances of getting it supported by the SMT here though.

[plexer]

I've just bought 32 for these for students and 3 for staff.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/nbrange.html?RVM

With XP Pro and 2 year additional warranty they cost £477

Ben

[Leibnitz]

I've just bought 32 for these for students and 3 for staff.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/nbrange.html?RVM

With XP Pro and 2 year additional warranty they cost £477

Ben

Nice price for a Core Duo machine. Did you get Novatech to estimate battery life on that?

[richard]

I've just bought 32 for these for students and 3 for staff.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/nbrange.html?RVM

With XP Pro and 2 year additional warranty they cost £477

Ben

Not keen on Novatech as I've had problems getting quotes out of them in the past.

[limbo]

My money always goes to Toshiba for laptops - particularly the Tecra range if you can stretch to it.

The new A8 series is all Vista ready and tons of built in protection including anti-spill keyboard and strengthened casing.

Not the cheapest - but rarely fail and should last you three years.

[Ch3rub]

Wow. I wish we had some laptops like that in our school

Spec is ok, as for the brand I would recommend Toshiba as well.
We have/had Acer, Fujitsu Siemens, Dell and Toshiba. Toshiba is so far the best and most reliable we had.

[plexer]

Richard,

I have noe problems getting quotes from them.

My account manager is Michael Foy never had a problem and he's a nice guy too.

We have 64'ish laptops from novatech now.

From the last machines we had which were different laptop we get 4hrs battery.

Ben

[limbo]

I would say we have bought well over 1000 Toshiba laptops during my time here - and very few need repairs other than when staff drop / feed / sit on them.

Although I would not necessarily say this was a true of the Sat and Sat pro range as much as the Tecra range (which have the added advantage that they are usually dockable).