new hardware

[witch]

I have finally been allowed to look into getting 28 new computers, but I have to use a list of preferred suppliers and the prices for a basic Pentium 4, 512 ram, 40GB drive are varying wildly (from 13,000 to 21,000 at the last count)

Please can anyone advise me as to which of the following suppliers you would use, and why?

RM ( the most expensive, what a surprise!)

Dell

Christchurch Computers (CCC and Schoolcare)

XMA (think they are supplying HP or the like)

Viglen (cheapest so far)

Centerprise

I don't have any experience in this area as the schools I work in have no money and have bought no new computers in 4 years

 

Thank you very much.

[ZeroHour]

Dell:

well built boxes.

screwless design for easy maitence.

FAST.

no DOA's so far

USB keyboard can be a pain though

Check out the GX280 its what we use.

[MkII]

Depends what you want. Dells are great but we steered clear because of proprietary parts... they'd be a pain to maintain when the warranties ran out. Same with a lot of other branded PCs now tho'.

 

No experience of the others - sorry

 

I recon you should be looking at around £400 for that spec with a next business day 3yr warranty.

[alan-d]

Stone computers are pretty solid buys - although they may not always be the cheapest - obviously depends on what spec you need.

 

They will usually let you borrow one to play with before you order too.

 

Stone Computers

 

Out contact is [email protected] Tel 01785 285671

[Netman]

Personal opinion only but...

Don't touch RM or CCC (Experience of both)

Your best bet would be to go to a few resellers like insight, probrand etc. and ask them to quote you for the amount you want - they'll let you know what's on the best offers at the moment, but I'd suggest you stick to HP, IBM (Lenovo) or maybe Fujitsu Siemens. Aviod Acer though - bad support...

As a guide I paid about £325 for similar spec IBM's in the summer...

[Dos_Box]

Aviod Acer though - bad support...

 

I agree completly. They once had a staff laptop for 3 months (it was only 2 months old) to replace a touchpad. Every time I called 'customer care' they told me they were awaiting spares. Awful, awful service.

[witch]

Thanks chaps

But please note it is no good telling me about any others who are good as I HAVE to use people from the list I gave! (Dorset CC rules)

Anyone got exp of Viglen machines?

[Geoff]

Yep, I've got some Viglen boxes. No hassle at all with them.

[Netman]

In that case, for me it would have to be Dell or Viglen although I have no experience of the latter - get hold of an education rep at Dell UK and tell them you want a price match against the Viglen quote or you'll go to them... then get hold of the Viglen rep and tell them that Dell have price matched but the warranty is better (or something similar)... play them off against each other until you have the best deal... be cheeky - it usually pays off!!

[broc]

Buy DELL with 3 year warranty. After 3 years if they break you will still be able to buy the parts, even if proprietary. Even better, work on Senior management to adopt a rolling program of replacement in year 4. As a general rule, take a look at supplier web support before making a decision to buy. If they have a decent website with easy access to up to date drivers, bios refreshes, Q&A, online parts lists & ordering etc then they are generally a professional outfit who you can rely upon. That means sticking to big name brands like DELL, Lenovo(ex IBM) etc. We have deployed 200+ DELL systems since I arrived at my school and they give us no grief, unlike the mongrel PCs the school used to buy!

 

Brian

[broc]

Buy DELL with 3 year warranty. After 3 years if they break you will still be able to buy the parts, even if proprietary. Even better, work on Senior management to adopt a rolling program of replacement in year 4. As a general rule, take a look at supplier web support before making a decision to buy. If they have a decent website with easy access to up to date drivers, bios refreshes, Q&A, online parts lists & ordering etc then they are generally a professional outfit who you can rely upon. That means sticking to big name brands like DELL, Lenovo(ex IBM) etc. We have deployed 200+ DELL systems since I arrived at my school and they give us no grief, unlike the mongrel PCs the school used to buy!

 

Brian

[Dos_Box]

Viglen are on my evil list. Eight times bitten eight times shy, and their support is (or was) appauling.

[GrumbleDook]

Dell can and will do 4 year support warranties. If you are looking at a 4 year plan then go for this.

 

Well worth it.

[_Rob_]

Dell - Found the machines to be excellent but the support was shocking!

 

Viglen - Used before and both equipment and support were fine, nothing outstanding, but then that was a few years ago now.

 

Stone - We use them currently and they get two thumbs up.

 

RM - erm, well, if you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything so...

 

Rob.

[Guest]

Another vote for DELL

[witch]

Thanks

looks like Dell would be a good bet - especially if I play them against Viglen!

There is no chance of any sort of rolling replacement at either of my schools - we just dont have the money and I'm afraid that neither head regard either: a) IT as important, or b) their own IT tech knowing what she is talking about.

I just don't have the clout that some of you lot do, it seems!

Anyway

I am armed with info, and dangerous!

[witch]

Thanks

looks like Dell would be a good bet - especially if I play them against Viglen!

There is no chance of any sort of rolling replacement at either of my schools - we just dont have the money and I'm afraid that neither head regard either: a) IT as important, or b) their own IT tech knowing what she is talking about.

I just don't have the clout that some of you lot do, it seems!

Anyway

I am armed with info, and dangerous!

[alexknight]

I have to also give a thumbs up to Dell. Have had no problems and they can be sourced at a reasonable price.

[fooby]

We bought 200 (ish) computers from one of our suppliers, this isnt a "preferred" supplier as we dont have to stick to that. For £200 we got a pc (sempron 2600, 40gig, 512ram) monitor, keyboard, mouse.

 

we know where to buy from

 

 

P.S i can give anyone who wants, the contact details

[alan-d]

Sorry mis-read your post.

 

If you can't use Stone then I'd vote for Dell

 

Pity your CC is still in the Dark Ages by dictating who you trade with. You'd have thought that with more enlightened bursurs and IT staff schools could be trusted to make their own business decisions.

 

(I was going to add another sentence to that but it would have gone way off topic *cough* kickbacks*cough* )

[StewartKnight]

Never, Never buy viglen, we had them here when I first came. Very poor quality, and overpriced, plus the h/ds kept failing. I replaced the whole network with Dells!

[john]

Avoid HP, got them at my place, and the warranties are not worth the paper they are written on, the techies they send out are not that good really, and when they are out of warranty, they sulk at standard off the shelf parts from Insight, CCL etc..... They now seem to be using modified PSUs (yes the old Dell trick is back!) according to some info I got from a HP insider, as well as locking the BIOSes down tighter than ever before for component support.

 

Dell machines are badly designed in terms of Airflow, had a few staff get dells, and all are now suffering with overheating problems as Dell still seem to like the huge heatsink on the CPU with 1 fan in the front or rear of the case and thats it, and on a Prescott P4, it just does not work well enough! Also when I wanted a quote from Dell at summer, it took 3 days and numerous calls to get a quote, needless to say they did not get the business.

 

Out of your list, I cannot think of anybody that really hits me in the face, but XMA can sometimes get hold of a very wide range of machines. If they can get NEC, give them a good look over as they seemed very good kit when I examined one of there latests ones recently, I wanted NEC at our place over HP (as we had to have a big brand as "people would not respect none branded machines!!!" - Next we will say all staff and students must wear Prada, Gucci etc.. as we won't respect each other in Asda George!). My view was to show that it doesnt matter what name it says, so long as its good, stable, has excellent warranty support and does the job and lasts 5 years thats all that matters to me.

[witch]

So, that is most votes for Dell then - except when they are rubbish!! We have Dell laptops and I have found the support OK - I even got an unreserved apology when one of their engineers reformatted a laptop for me (when I wasnt there, the curse of being a part-timer) without bothering to ask if we had the Office discs. Which we didn't as the machines had come with it preinstalled by the reseller!!

Re the new machines: it is entirely possible that my wishes and research will be completely ignored, and the head and deputy (an ex RM man) will do EXACTLY as they like.

Thanks for all the advice

Now all I need is assertiveness training (if you knew me, you would know this is a joke - the hair colour of my avatar is true to life!!)

[Ric_]

I prefer the HP kit to the Dell kit. I've found them to be very reliable and the build quality is far higher - metal cases over those plastic ones that scuff before you get them out of the box is just the start!

 

I've heard bad reports about Stone too but haven't used them myself because I tend to stick with big brands (HP being my favourite and the likes of Dell, IBM, NEC...)

[Guest]

NEC are also good at supplying demo machines for evaluation, plus they come with 3y NBD warrenty as standard. Will be looking at these myself in few months.