Teacher Laptops - Estimated cost for a decent spec

[Stormborn15]

Hi All,

 

Need to provide some really quick info to SLT about estimated costs. Not got time to ring round suppliers as need this quick - in your experience - how much would I be looking at for an i7, SSD, 8GBRam . I know it will vary from supplier and make point of view but just an idea. Haven't bought a laptop in ages so out of touch with pricing.

 

TIA

[Andycat]

We've just got some pricing on i5, ssd, 8gb Dells at 620 (single)

[JordanT91]

VeryPC could probably do it for around £500 including licence if you are okay with an i5 and 250GB SSD. i7 is unnecessary for anything other than video editing in my opinion. I'm a bit out of date on pricing though so I could be way out.

[Stormborn15]

VeryPC could probably do it for around £500 including licence if you are okay with an i5 and 250GB SSD. i7 is unnecessary for anything other than video editing in my opinion. I'm a bit out of date on pricing though so I could be way out.

Was thinking i7 for future proofing as these would need to last some time... but happy to be corrected on this..

[PotNoodleTech]

I'd buy refurbished ones. They're only gonna get used and abused to the max, so no point frittering money on "shiny newness" Something like this: http://www.ict-direct.co.uk/dell-e6440.html

 

i5, 8GB ram, SSD, 2yr warranty only £395

 

I've got a fair few laptops from that company and all are doing great. The Dell 64xx series are so darn reliable.

[Blue_Cookeh]

For comparison's sake this is what I got the last time we ordered some staff laptops last year:

 

Lenovo Yoga 460 convertible Ultrabook - £800

Intel Core i5 6200U

8GB RAM

256GB SSD

14" IPS FHD 10-point multitouch screen

4 year NBD on-site hardware warranty

 

We generally go for the Lenovo X series (12") but a couple of staff wanted bigger screens so we ended up with the above. Our headteacher says touch screens are pretty much essential for all staff machines now.

Edited May 18, 2017 by Blue_Cookeh

[Joanne]

For an i7 I'd say about £650. I bought i5's for our staff with the intention of them lasting 4-5 years. I estimated £550 per device and got what I wanted for that price

[Stormborn15]

I'd buy refurbished ones. They're only gonna get used and abused to the max, so no point frittering money on "shiny newness" Something like this: http://www.ict-direct.co.uk/dell-e6440.html

 

i5, 8GB ram, SSD, 2yr warranty only £395

 

I've got a fair few laptops from that company and all are doing great. The Dell 64xx series are so darn reliable.

Its for a new build , new school so would need new really

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

I'd buy refurbished ones. They're only gonna get used and abused to the max, so no point frittering money on "shiny newness" Something like this: http://www.ict-direct.co.uk/dell-e6440.html

 

i5, 8GB ram, SSD, 2yr warranty only £395

 

I've got a fair few laptops from that company and all are doing great. The Dell 64xx series are so darn reliable.

Its for a new build , new school so would need new really

[JordanT91]

Was thinking i7 for future proofing as these would need to last some time... but happy to be corrected on this..

 

There'd be little benefit. From what I understand, the difference between the two is that i7 uses Hyperthreading to handle more threads at once. This is useful for things like video editing that actually support this but on a normal school laptop would never get used. i7s are often clocked a little bit faster and have a little bit more cache than i5s but they're not worth the cost increase in my opinion. Just don't get a low-end i5 and they'll be more than sufficient.

[mthomas08]

We've got quite a few oldish i3's with some SSDs and they still work a treat.

[Scifigirl]

These are on ebuyer at the moment:

HP 250 G5 Laptop X0Q13EA - Laptops at ebuyer

[HBPS]

https://www.businessdirect.bt.com/products/hp-250-g5-i7-6500u-15-6-8gb-256gb-w10p64-x0q13ea-abu-CH2P.html?refs=54600000-50240 £465 web price reductions on quantity

 

ps i don't work for BT but they are by far my first port of call every time

[Joanne]

These are on ebuyer at the moment:

HP 250 G5 Laptop X0Q13EA - Laptops at ebuyer

 

Add on an extended warranty and a bag and £650 cover all of that!

[10101010]

Wow, seems all a bit over the top for me do you really need to be paying more than 350.00 - 400.00 per Device? Anything with an ssd in seems to fly with windows 10.

[HBPS]

i agree the spec is OTT processor wise i bought hp I5 8gb ram 256gb SSD new for 315 (teachers/slt) per device and i3 8gb 500gb hp for 280 (support staff)

[sippo]

With big budget cuts, how can any school justify spending over £600 on a laptop!

[Jawloms]

If you've got anything to trade in (which I understand you may not if it's a new build) then HPs trade in scheme is definitely worth a look.

[rogerdnixon]

Wow - people have a lot of cash to spend. All our staff have HP 11 G4 Chromebooks (LG have 13" Acer's) cost us £125 each + management licence - work fine - one broken screen the other day - £25 to fix. With £500 I could get an nice touch flip Asus C302.

[Joanne]

With big budget cuts, how can any school justify spending over £600 on a laptop!

 

Because we are making sure that while we have the money now, we will be set for a good few years. Make hay while the sun shines and all that. Luckily my school has combated falling budgets by a steadily increasing roll number. We understand that not everyone is as lucky as us, but if OP has the budget, then why not buy the best?

[jmak]

If I had money and wanted to invest for the future, I'd go for more robust i5 models with more RAM rather than i7s. Seems to make more difference to performance. A good warranty is also valuable.

[Ditto]

It would be better if half the spend achieved the same, that the 'saved' expense was spent on something the improves the kids education. I would take a lot of convincing that a IPS, i7, 14", 16GB Ultrabook is going to improve the outcome compared to having an i5, 11", 8GB laptop. Value for money should be key.

[Danp]

Interesting that people are still buying laptops for staff. We haven't bought a laptop for curriculum side for over 7 years now, took the decision to fit computers in all classrooms and offices instead. Means you can walk into any room and there's a machine. Even with older spec computers they are holding up better than equivalent spec laptop would have done but the initial upfront cost was less.

[dry]

Speak to Lenovo's education department. They attended a conference I was at recently and the lady on the stand said their MS Surface carbon copy was around £400 (very similar specs to the Surface Pro 4). I get the feeling she'd got the numbers mixed up as it's unlikely to be that cheap, but worth posing the question.

 

I'd rather spend a bit more on rugged enterprise kit than buying ebuyer's 'bargain of the week' and the plastic warping/ports breaking/components failing within a month.

[10101010]

Or you could use the spare capitalism other resources, personally in this financial climate I still wouldn't recommend spending that amount of money on devices... just my opinion though.

[HBPS]

i have work stations in every room my laptops are for home/school when not in class eg ppa management time report writing

 

Interesting that people are still buying laptops for staff. We haven't bought a laptop for curriculum side for over 7 years now, took the decision to fit computers in all classrooms and offices instead. Means you can walk into any room and there's a machine. Even with older spec computers they are holding up better than equivalent spec laptop would have done but the initial upfront cost was less.