Guest kerrymoralee9280 Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 My head wants a new 15 computer suite - of laptops (space saving). The specs of the laptops need to be: Windows XP Pro Wireless ready simple as that, the rest doesn't really matter - Thing is I have been given £233 (ex VAT) to get them each (£4500 total for 15) Can anybody help me out here?
paulhyman Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. There is a company that has a ad on here which might be good. ICT-direct. Depends if the laptops have to be brand new.
Elky Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Do you have £3500 or £4500? You mention both. At £4500 you have a chance
Guest kerrymoralee9280 Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Sorry, I did mention both - I think that must of been because I 'wished' I had £4500, but unfortunately the figure is £3500 to play with. Yeah, sorry - Windows XP Pro, Wireless ready and they MUST be brand new. Forgot to mention that. I saw some for about £240 on Misco but they had Windows Vista and I don't want to use Vista in the school yet. The cheapest XP Pro was £300 which is about 67 over budget. (all figures ex VAT)
Elky Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 All I can say is - good luck! Sorry but thats way below our price range. Also, the ones you saw with Windows Vista would more than likely have been Windows Vista Home Basic which I'd imagine isn't really suitable for you I think you will struggle but if you do manage to succeed then let us know - we'll be interested to see what you can find
Guest kerrymoralee9280 Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Well, I do have a few contacts that owed me so it's time to call in all the favours. I will be sure to keep you posted
Butuz Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Good luck with that budget! I wouldnt expect to get a quality laptop with any sort of durability built in for those prices Expect a slow laptop that will more than likely break - and end up costing you more in the long run than a decent one would have! Andrew
FN-GM Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Sorry, I did mention both - I think that must of been because I 'wished' I had £4500, but unfortunately the figure is £3500 to play with. Yeah, sorry - Windows XP Pro, Wireless ready and they MUST be brand new. Forgot to mention that. I saw some for about £240 on Misco but they had Windows Vista and I don't want to use Vista in the school yet. The cheapest XP Pro was £300 which is about 67 over budget. (all figures ex VAT) Do you know if it is Window Vista Business, Ultimate or Enterprise Edition you can downgrade to Windows XP Pro for free?
kestrel1 Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 You will be lucky to get anything for that price with XP Pro installed. If you could look at second user, you may be luckier. Are these machines to be housed in a trolley? If so is that included in your budget? I think you head is be very tight. I am afraid they see these deals on the TV or in a paper & think that the machines are suitable for school use. This really annoys me, they should leave it up to us to give them a price then they can decide what they can afford. Luckily I do have most of the say in what we get. Anyway, with this budget you need loads of luck to find 15 laptops with XP Pro.
Ric_ Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Why can't the laptops be 'pre-owned' or ex-stock? You could save a considerable chunk of money and the gear that ICT Direct has is generally in very good condition. Just make sure you ask for stuff that is in excellent nick. It is also worth considering the limitations of a wireless computer suite. You should put a written proposal to your head stating the costs of a trolley (if applicable), cost of additional access points and finally state how many laptops can be purchased with whatever funds remain.
PEO Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 dont forget licences etc Give stone computers a ring there pretty good
Guest kerrymoralee9280 Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Well, see, licenses is another thing I did mention and was shook off. It's not a trolley and I do realise what limitations they are. But I've been given a job to do and im going to try to do it. All I can do is make it known to her the limitations and such, its her decision.
PEO Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 yep thats the best you can do... The misco ones going for £233 with vista, you can take vista off and use xp, no harm in that. misco is looking pretty good for you at the moment.
mattpant Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 It all depends on what version of Vista is installed on the Misco Machines, and for £233 I doubt that is going to be anything other than Vista Home Basic. If it is Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium you will not be allowed to install Windows XP Pro (Which is what is needed)
tech_guy Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 I'd tell him to forget it because he isn't going to get anything of quality for that price. I once stormed out of a meeting when I told them I needed £16k total for a computer suite job and they turned round and said we had £12k to play with. We got the £16k. They just try it on.
MkII Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Part of the limitations tho' is that you'll have so much more work supporting them if they're cheap tat. That's the main reason i'd hold out for a minimum spec of robustly built machines with a pretty solid hardware. We bought 15 @£335 each plus a trolly for £1500 and a couple of WAPs.
kestrel1 Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 What age are the kids that will use them? It was suggested that we had some laptops available in one of our main school IT rooms. I pointed out that the keyboards probably wouldn't last five minutes with the heavy handed 11 - 16 year old's & I also told them that it would cause even more work for myself (I am the only one, looking after a network of around 200 machines), they agreed not to try the laptop route. We have a trolley of laptops for use in the Sixth Form, not had too much trouble apart from the batteries dying, which is a major pain. We all know about battery memory, but I just can't seem to get through their heads that they need to let the batteries discharge fully every so often, so they are put on charge after a hours use. Still it ain't my money. So the battery life is another aspect that you could throw at them. The cheaper the laptop the lower the quality of the battery (not always the case I know) I know what you mean about getting on & just doing the job that you have been asked to do though.
Quackers Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 If you are going to use them as part of your domain i would also make sure they come with the Intel Pro Wireless, as they have a pre logon system which makes sure the wireless is connected before the user log's on.
SimpleSi Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 £3500 for 15 laptops - probably not possible. Find cheapest deal currently possible and present it your head and explain that is the best you could do. (XP Pro laptops currently commanding a premium because very few people want a Vista machine at the moment - especially in schools ) If you feel the need to, you could also present the cheapest machine you'd actually recommend that would give medium/long term value for money. You'll have done your best at this point - relax and have a nice 1/2 term break regards Simon
Oops_my_bad Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Wireless laptop suites *shudder* If space is a concern tell your cheap ass head to fork out some extra cash and get some thin clients in that badboy
mattx Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 If you are going to use them as part of your domain i would also make sure they come with the Intel Pro Wireless, as they have a pre logon system which makes sure the wireless is connected before the user log's on. Which oddly enough is the first thing i remove from any laptop that has uses the Intel wireless chipset !! Can't stand that software - the MS wireless software amazingly enough runs the wireless aspect better. My opinion blah blah...
Oops_my_bad Posted October 17, 2007 Posted October 17, 2007 Im not sure if this has changed recently but we always used to make sure the laptops were centrino based when buying - this was the only way of being sure they would be able to connect to the network pre-logon (and using only the M$ software). We recently took delivery of a load of bog standard core2 duo's (not sure if these are centrino based?) but these also work fine
K.C.Leblanc Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 I would be costing some alternatives (proper laptop and a desktop suite) and going back to the head. If he just wants to save space there are some excelent space saving PCs these days, or even a normal PC with a TFT will fit on a 60mm bench. It does annoy me when ludites think they know better, our head of sixth form was winging about how much his new server cost him. He'd obviousely had a Dell flyer in his paper that Sunday.
strawberry Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 i'd point out how hard this is to fill, i'd also point out the cost per year of the life of the laptop, include things like upgradability and warranty.
Guest Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 You can get Dell Vostro 1000's for £199.99 each with Vista Home and 249.99 with XP / Vista Business. Might be worth a call to an education sales person to see if they can go any lower. If you can get hold of them
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