Multipurpose (flip?) desks... recommendations?

[Ben_Stanton]

Hi all,

 

We need to turn a small space into a multifunction room. We're looking at the funky desks that flip or slide to reveal or pop up computer etc..

 

What have people got and can recommend (as cheap as possible without compromising reliability/ease of use)?

 

Cheers in advance

[jslate1980]

I would stay away if I was you. My school have Isis tables for a few years and they have been nothing but trouble. Mostly caused by kids putting heavy bags or sitting on them. They expensive to maintain.

[6Foot2]

We had smartdesks with clamshell enclosures for the pc cases attached to the desk legs. We were told that they were:

 

So robust that squaddies gave them heavy use day in day out without any issue

 

I was glad to see the back of them. The lids would not open/close properly, the clamshell doors frequently jammed and the cable management was a pain. If you are determined to use them make sure that you visit other sites that are using them so that you can see them in-situ.

 

For me: Never again.

[truebluesteve]

We had a room full of these a few years ago and they were a bit of a nightmare with keyboard and mouse cables getting trapped and the mechanisms jamming or breaking. I wouldn't touch them!

[unixman_again]

Yet ours have been fine - maybe it's because we're a college and the students are older. I don't know who made ours as they were included in the new building.

[Ben_Stanton]

Well that has made the decision easier - thanks guys We won't be going down this route

[strawberry]

How about removing the computers from the desk? Maybe have a wall mounted monitor and a caddy to put the keyboard and mouse in when not on the desk? or put it on a pole if no wall space ( like a projector pole)

[nelliott]

I would stay away if I was you. My school have Isis tables for a few years and they have been nothing but trouble. Mostly caused by kids putting heavy bags or sitting on them. They expensive to maintain.

 

I agree with @jslate1980 a school i worked at purchased them before I started and the 25 computers in the desks caused me more issues than the other 500 pcs on the site.

[synaesthesia]

What about keeping it simpler and cheaper. For instance, put in the tables you'd like and make sure there's power available. And put a trolley of laptops in there...

[Bev]

We have some which look like this. (the picture is interesting, as I don't know where they have stashed the PCs, ours were originally on the floor and we now have them in metal cages hanging from the desks)

 

 

They are ok, but at 8 years old they are looking very tired now. Some of them are very hard to open, we have the occasional mouse/keyboard wire trapped but it's not a massive problem. My biggest gripe is if a cable falls out of the back of a monitor, then 8 screws need to be removed to push it back in. The power cables do seem to work themselves loose. It's also a bit of a nightmare to wire them all in, and remove them if you need to change a PC.

 

For us, they have been the only viable option, our school is small and we couldn't dedicate a classroom purely to ICT so this way we can have other lessons in there as well.

We had laptops before we got these desks, and I prefer these desks to laptops.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Bev

[jslate1980]

We have some which look like this. (the picture is interesting, as I don't know where they have stashed the PCs, ours were originally on the floor and we now have them in metal cages hanging from the desks)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]36647[/ATTACH]

 

They are ok, but at 8 years old they are looking very tired now. Some of them are very hard to open, we have the occasional mouse/keyboard wire trapped but it's not a massive problem. My biggest gripe is if a cable falls out of the back of a monitor, then 8 screws need to be removed to push it back in. The power cables do seem to work themselves loose. It's also a bit of a nightmare to wire them all in, and remove them if you need to change a PC.

 

For us, they have been the only viable option, our school is small and we couldn't dedicate a classroom purely to ICT so this way we can have other lessons in there as well.

We had laptops before we got these desks, and I prefer these desks to laptops.

 

We have the same desks as above. We have had some major design flaws with these tables that if you put enough weight on the top, it will will bottom out. Due to the cost we are replacing table tops and with kitchen work tops. As we use ultra small format factor pc's we are just going mount them to the bottom of the work top. Estimated cost £1200 a classroom compared to £10000 to replace the desks for one classroom.

[Bev]

We have the same desks as above. We have had some major design flaws with these tables that if you put enough weight on the top, it will will bottom out. Due to the cost we are replacing table tops and with kitchen work tops. As we use ultra small format factor pc's we are just going mount them to the bottom of the work top. Estimated cost £1200 a classroom compared to £10000 to replace the desks for one classroom.

 

i've never had one 'bottom out', but we had a few where the monitor was pulled repeatedly and the lid developed a hole in the wood so the lids didn't stay shut. We have had a kitchen company repair the lids and they are working ok at the moment, I am also looking at ultra small PCs to mount under the desktops.

[Bev]

Interestingly, I have now had one bottom out. The entire clamshells section dropped onto the floor. Now looking for a replacement, but looking at this thread, it doesn't look like there are any good options out there.