All In One PC's

[Jay_Jay]

Hi there,

 

Can anyone recommend a good all in one pc and how you have found them in terms of saving space and if you have used them in IT rooms, or to put in a class room?

 

At the moment the school I work in want to get more laptop trolley's, laptop trolley's are handy, but they can't give access all day as they need charging, are expensive to fix at times like broken screens and keyboards.

My plan was to put pc';s around the bigger class room's where there is already electrics and adding extra network points would not be a problem, I could fit 15-16 pc's around the edges and have normal class room tables in the middle of the room.

 

Has anyone tried the above and did it work ?

 

Thanks

 

Jay

[Elky]

Hi Jay

 

Please see here

 

We just had 300 in but these have all gone back out again to customers. Next lot of free stock is due in to us in around 2 weeks

 

Please let me know if you would like a quotation

 

Regards

[dhicks]

Can anyone recommend a good all in one pc

 

We're planning to buy (hopefully!) a bunch of those all-in-ones from SCL for our new multimedia suite. If you don't need full PC capability in classrooms, though, you could look at thin clients - several are made these days that are small enough to fit on the VESA mount on the back of a screen. I was looking at the nComputing system this morning, that looks like it might be quite suitable for use in classrooms as you suggest.

 

--

David Hicks

[tobyhacker]

We purchased 180 (ish) RM One PCs about 3 years ago and we have found them to be brilliant. I know a lot of people don't like buying RM products however the RM One has saved us loads of time and money as they are very child proof (a must in my school!) and they rarely go wrong (in my experience). Plus, when out of warranty we've had no problems in getting parts to fix them ourselves.

 

They are slightly more costly than other all-in-one products but after looking at others I have always gone back to RM.

 

Also, I've seen the concept pictures for the next generation and I must say they've improved on an already excellent product.

[K.C.Leblanc]

We have loads of ultra slim HP dc7600 & dc 7700, been very good, only problem is the support is a bit automated. Just unboxed a new dc7800, much smaller, and very nice looking. Shame though it has an external power brick and is only available with widescreen monitors (will have to have a different PC to use on the whiteboard).

 

The biggest difference it's made to us is we can build IT rooms with 60mm benching instead of 90mm. Makes the rooms feel a lot bigger while giving us rooms for more computers.

 

We've got one of the first batch of Viglen's Omnino 3, due to land in August. My boss was very impressed when he saw them at BETT.

[roty80]

Completely agree with tobyhacker. We have some RM One's and some NS Optimum All-In-One's and the RM's have been much better. More reliable and, so far, undamaged

 

We have had to send quite a few components from the NS Optimum's back as they arrived faulty or went faulty after a short time.

[K.C.Leblanc]

We purchased 180 (ish) RM One PCs about 3 years ago and we have found them to be brilliant. I know a lot of people don't like buying RM products however the RM One has saved us loads of time and money as they are very child proof (a must in my school!) and they rarely go wrong (in my experience). Plus, when out of warranty we've had no problems in getting parts to fix them ourselves.

 

We're considering them for our sixth which we're hoping to revamp next year. DO you have any issues using them with a non RM network?

[PeterW]

We've got one of the first batch of Viglen's Omnino 3, due to land in August. My boss was very impressed when he saw them at BETT.

 

Out of interest do you have any info on those? Image or specs would be handy.

[steveg]

Just finished installing 16 Dell Optiplex 755 USFF all in one pc's in a suite, and have ordered another 40 for various schools that we support. They have been really good, and no one could come anywhere near them on price, although I think the LEA have a contract negotiated with Dell.

 

Steve

[tobyhacker]

We use our RM Ones on a CC3 network however, I know a couple of schools who are using them on non RM networks and they have no problems at all. If we ever decide to move from a CC3 network we would still keep buying the RM Ones.

 

As K.C.Leblanc mentioned - being able to have smaller desks is spot on, we have a mixture in our rooms where we have some with deeper desks which allow students to work infront of the PCs with plenty of room if the teacher doesn't require the use of the network.

[richardp]

Hi,

 

We have had 66 RM Ones for just over 3 years and out of that we have had to call out RM (onsite agreement) for approx 15 faults. Most of the faults have been minor such as the vdu power button being pushed too hard, however a few have been motherboard or cpu failures. Having said that we have been very happy with them and are considering replacing them with more of the same this year.

 

However we are looking at other options such as dual boot imacs and a new all in one pc from Ergo. The Ergo PC looks very similar to the imac but it has a maximum 19" screen but it can be a touch screen as an option. I will know more soon as we are getting a demo model to try out this week.

 

Also have you considered the new HP Touchsmart PC ? It does seem to be aimed more at the home pc market but is an all in one with a 22" screen which is also a touch screen.

 

 

Richard

[jcollings]

We're considering them for our sixth which we're hoping to revamp next year. DO you have any issues using them with a non RM network?

 

We have several RM One's on our non Rm network and they work fine. Also probably the least bother of all our PC's. I'm about to buy 25 more!

[kennysarmy]

another vote here for RM one's had 8 a few years back and been brilliant - would buy again

[ANiceEnglishman]

We've had 40 RM Ones for about a year and they've been great, but....

 

They're expensive. The best price we were offered was about 50% more than Dell or Lenovo (IBM) USFF machines with the special stand to make them an all-in-one. This is for the Rm One ecoquiet - the standard model was only 30% more expensive.

 

The screen is an integral part of the RM One so has to be disposed of when the PC reaches the end of its useful life. Re-using the screens should save us maybe £100 per machine next time round.

 

Interestingly, RM are now HP resellers. The prices we were offered are more in line with Dell and Lonovo, though buying from HP direct or another reseller might be cheaper still. I haven't checked as we preferred the design of the Lenovo and RMs offer of the HPs came to late in the cycle to do a proper evaluation. The only thing I don't like is the external power brick.

[Jay_Jay]

Thank you for all the replies, I should have a few demo units to trial in the next few weeks, although RM seem to be popular, there are other manufacturers with very similar designs with much better pricing.

 

I do think the all in one option is going to be much better than getting a laptop trolley, should work out cheaper and also give better access to IT for the students.

 

Do you guys/gals reckon I'm looking at this in the right way by not opting for laptop trolley's ?

[jcollings]

Thank you for all the replies, I should have a few demo units to trial in the next few weeks, although RM seem to be popular, there are other manufacturers with very similar designs with much better pricing.

 

I do think the all in one option is going to be much better than getting a laptop trolley, should work out cheaper and also give better access to IT for the students.

 

Do you guys/gals reckon I'm looking at this in the right way by not opting for laptop trolley's ?

 

Yes - I hate laptop trolleys (mainl because they get the keys picked off them here and staff don't understand how wireless works!)

[ANiceEnglishman]

Yes, desktops are a much better solution than laptop trolleys technically and economically. We have four trolleys of 16 laptops and would willingly swap them for 100 desktops which would probably cost about the same (whole life cost) and cause far fewer support issues.

[farmerste]

does anyone here know if these 'all in one' pcs have a free pci slot?

or are they more based around a laptop type motherboard?

[PeterW]

does anyone here know if these 'all in one' pcs have a free pci slot?

or are they more based around a laptop type motherboard?

 

It depends which one you are looking at there are three main types of all in one system

 

Desktop based; uses custom chassis but is standards based uses matx mainboard 3.5" hdd sfx psu etc, easier to upgrade and add, SCL units have all slots available as low profile. (SCL RM Viglen)

 

Mobile based; Notebook on a stick uses mobile cpus memory typically no expansion slots or mini pci express such as Celvo units (novatech/ergo) normally smallest footprint, worst value for money

 

USSF to back of monitor or monitor stand; custom chassi psu mainboard, very small can use desktop components. (Dell/HP)

 

There are a lot of options out there.

[dhoward_westexetc]

I think the RM one ecoquiet PCs are based mainly on laptop-type motherboards.

 

We will have 246 RM One's by September 2008, have been brilliant, I would recommend them even though they are far from cheap.

 

For lighter use PCs thin clients is certainly worth investigating, provided you have a Terminal server with enough memory to handle the simultaneous sessions!

[KELWAYEDUCATION]

I supply to schools the HP USDT All In One PC.

 

 

 

http://dynarama.net/dc7800usdt%20rear.jpg

 

If interested - get in touch.

[Haptic]

I supply to schools the HP USDT All In One PC.

 

 

 

http://dynarama.net/dc7800usdt%20rear.jpg

 

If interested - get in touch.

 

 

Im sure people appreciate your informative post but if you are a supplier and you wish to advertise your services then do what all of us have to do and that is sponsor the forums and use the advertising forum to promote your services and products otherwise you may be seen as a little spammy lol

[Quackers]

 

Do you guys/gals reckon I'm looking at this in the right way by not opting for laptop trolley's ?

 

 

No, i think you should go down the laptop trolley route. Were putting our 5th laptop trolley in this summer, staff would go crazy without them now. They are used so much. Staff love being in there own room and having all kids on a computer.

 

In september our total will be 160 laptops for pupil usage in trolleys (and 205 PC's for Kids, not bad for a 490 pupil school).

 

I have as yet to see the issues raised in this thread be an issue in the 2.5 years we have had trolleys.

 

Battery power - Make sure you get the right batterys when you buy and they will last all day. Our current ones last every lesson with 2 lessons, 15 min charge (break), 2 lessons, 50 minute charge (lunch), 2 lessons. The acer 80% rapid charge in 1 hour feature helps here.

 

Wireless - We sometimes have almost 50 laptops to 1 Access Point. The kids or teachers do not complain of slow down, and they work just fine. That might be because as much as possable is stored locally nothing comes up and down the wireless if it does not have too.

 

No roaming profiles, profiles are stored on laptop, so its just the group policy setting and drive mapping. After that traffic is just internet and my document/shared area access.

 

Parts - We have had a few keys pulled off, we bought 4 keyboards at £400. We just replace the key not the keyboard, if the orginal key cannot be found and the spring is bust. So far these have lasted the few occations

 

We also have had 1 screen go, we just wrote the laptop off. So its not an awful lot of cost in the years we have had them.

 

Plus you can now pick up half decent laptops for less than £300, not like 4 years ago when you were talking £1000 almost.

[K.C.Leblanc]

does anyone here know if these 'all in one' pcs have a free pci slot?

or are they more based around a laptop type motherboard?

 

The HP dc7800 (like the one pictured above) doesn't have a PCI slot, it even uses laptop hard drives and memory and has an external PSU.