james_richards Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 Hi Everyone, Sorry for disturbing you all. I am a junior ICT Technician in a secondary school. Can someone please give me website addresses where i can purchase computer components for my school. Thank You In Advance. Thanks, James
kmount Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 Um, There's plenty to choose from. Misco.co.uk - Computer Hardware, Laptops, Notebooks, Desktops, TFTs, Printers, Servers, Wireless Networking, Software http://www.dabsatwork.com Cheap Laptops, Hard Drives, LCD Monitors, TVs and more at Ebuyer SCL Online - Homepage etc etc etc. Then there's smaller suppliers like CP-LTD, and Westwood who come highly recommended but don't have the greatest of websites. Don't take the web price as gospel, haggle and you'll get better pricing. It would help though if you told us what you were looking for. 3
james_richards Posted March 9, 2009 Author Posted March 9, 2009 Um, There's plenty to choose from. Misco.co.uk - Computer Hardware, Laptops, Notebooks, Desktops, TFTs, Printers, Servers, Wireless Networking, Software http://www.dabsatwork.com Cheap Laptops, Hard Drives, LCD Monitors, TVs and more at Ebuyer SCL Online - Homepage etc etc etc. Then there's smaller suppliers like CP-LTD, and Westwood who come highly recommended but don't have the greatest of websites. Don't take the web price as gospel, haggle and you'll get better pricing. It would help though if you told us what you were looking for. Thank You KMount for your help i really appreciate it and the websites are useful. I was looking to get few Rechargeable Wireless Keyboard with good distance range (up to 10 meters). If other ICT Technicians can help me out and give me some more good websites that they use i would really appreciate it. Thanks
kmount Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 Should have probably checked my links before posting them: Dabs4work - IT hardware, Servers, Networking, Licensing, Business services (not at)
LukeC Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 I find these usefull Computer Hardware - All - Scan.co.uk uk.insight.com ICT Direct - computer hardware for ict in education - primary, secondary, special needs schools and colleges 1
james_richards Posted March 9, 2009 Author Posted March 9, 2009 I find these usefull Computer Hardware - All - Scan.co.uk uk.insight.com ICT Direct - computer hardware for ict in education - primary, secondary, special needs schools and colleges Thank you LukeC for the links i really appreciate it.
mac_shinobi Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 Simon ( CPLTD ) on here deals with a lot of edugeek members and can do better deals : Computer Products Ltd | Computer Hardware | Desktop PCs | Laptops | Notebooks | LCD | Software | Printers | Servers | Wireless Networking | Office Supplies 1
Haptic Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 many thanks for the recomendations guys , agreed our website is our weakest link and is a ongoing project at the min with new back end being released shortly but still we are a IT broker and the best way is let us know what your looking for and the best price you have been given and we will go on the hunt for you and beat the pricing if we can, James be sure to pm me your details and I'll inturn send you mine and save you all the internet trawling , consider me your personal shopper lol
dhicks Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 Can someone please give me website addresses where i can purchase computer components for my school. Don't underestimate eBay, or second hand equipment in general: Welcome to Re-Sales.net (Southampton) Computer Resale (Cambridge) Ltd . An Independently Owned Store (Cambridge) ICT Direct - computer hardware for ict in education - primary, secondary, special needs schools and colleges (Lancashire) For a decent wireless keyboard and mouse set, try Gyration kit - £100+, but they can easily replace a whole £3,000 interactive whiteboard. They're in the Tesco vouchers catalogue again this year, I see. -- David Hicks
Ric_ Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 And don't forget the EduGeek Acer Outlet! http://www.edugeek.net/?pageid=outlet
synaesthesia Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 (edited) Misco are very good all rounders for price and aftersales, as are Dabs who are probably slightly more expensive but have always enjoyed a good aftersales relationship with them. Always make sure you get an account manager to deal with either way, makes life that little bit easier. *Edited in post-posting realisation of saying the wrong thing * Edited March 10, 2009 by synaesthesia < plank.
kmount Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 There's a few SCL people on here; and whilst having only purchased once from them I found the build quality excellent. Misco on the other hand ... well (And I even worked for them at one point.) 1
Sylv3r Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 We used to use Misco all the time, but found issues with returning items i.e. they wouldn't!
Haptic Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 (edited) We used to use Misco all the time, but found issues with returning items i.e. they wouldn't! you should give us a buzz then Sylv3R we tend to always beat there prices and dont have issues with returns! oh yeah and did i mention as a sponsor of edugeek we have a lot more to loose than most suppliers so you know your going to get the service you deserve! Edited March 9, 2009 by Haptic
dhicks Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 I've had to mop up so much of their crap hardware builds I'm beginning to look at Apple and Dell as if they're high quality. And they're particularly avoidable when trying to sort out such issues Fair enough if you've had a bad experience, but can you be a bit more specific? What, exactly, went wrong, and after how long and after what kind of usage? We bought 21 all-in-one systems from SCL last summer and they've been fine so far - couple of dodgy bits of RAM, but that was no problem to sort out (admittedly, I sorted those out myself as I had a couple of sticks of RAM spare, so I haven't had to deal with getting a machine repaired). All seems fine inside the machine, all is quite neat and tidy. Sales representative was surprisingly knowledgeable (knew to recommend a motherboard that supported hot-swap SATA under Windows XP), although it turns out that it is possible to fit a second harddrive in those all-in-one cases after all. Our Dell Vostro machines, now 18 months old, have had no problems, and our Dimension 2400 machines (5 years old?) just keep plodding along. -- David Hicks 1
Haptic Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 Fair enough if you've had a bad experience, but can you be a bit more specific? What, exactly, went wrong, and after how long and after what kind of usage? We bought 21 all-in-one systems from SCL last summer and they've been fine so far - couple of dodgy bits of RAM, but that was no problem to sort out (admittedly, I sorted those out myself as I had a couple of sticks of RAM spare, so I haven't had to deal with getting a machine repaired). All seems fine inside the machine, all is quite neat and tidy. Sales representative was surprisingly knowledgeable (knew to recommend a motherboard that supported hot-swap SATA under Windows XP), although it turns out that it is possible to fit a second harddrive in those all-in-one cases after all. Our Dell Vostro machines, now 18 months old, have had no problems, and our Dimension 2400 machines (5 years old?) just keep plodding along. -- David Hicks I can only agree with Dhicks , We as a company have experience of SCL machines and the build quality is superb the machines are tidy and reliable, as a fellow sponsor I can recomend them! 1
synaesthesia Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Poor quality hardware in most cases - ruddy awful MSI motherboards (even worse than the rebiosed & rebadged units in RM machines), power supplies that make Qtec look like a quality brand and probably worse than all, they appear to like Maxtor hard drives. Recipe for failure on more than one count, and I sincerely hope that's limited to a small range of their machines. Schools need to keep to tight & low budgets but sacrificing quality is a big no no. I've got a small problem speaking to "authoritative" people as it is, and telling the headmaster of a school they've bought 30 Core2Duo machines that want sending to the scrapheap and replacing with something suitable for school use wasn't my idea of fun. But as I said, I hope that's not indicative of their entire range of prebuilds for their own and their customer's sake.
Nedders Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Dear Synaesthesia My sincere apologies that you have had a bad experience, however this is news to me and I would like to get to the bottom of this immediately! Please could you PM me the school your details so I can look into this and respond.
WStore_Dan Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 I'm fairly sure there's someone from SCL on these forums but can't remember, if so please don't take offence when I suggest avoiding them like the plague. I've had to mop up so much of their crap hardware builds I'm beginning to look at Apple and Dell as if they're high quality. And they're particularly avoidable when trying to sort out such issues :/ This doesnt sound like SCL at all. The quality of their builds has always been second to none. And when you say 'particularly avoidable when trying to sort out issues', this definitely isnt the SCL I know. If ever there was an issue, no matter how large or small, it would be looked in to immediately. They pride theirselves on offering top class after sales service and support. Anyway, I hope your issues are resolved. I can't say a bad word about SCL and would highly recommend them to any schools looking for bespoke PCs Regards 1
WStore_Dan Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Hi Everyone, Sorry for disturbing you all. I am a junior ICT Technician in a secondary school. Can someone please give me website addresses where i can purchase computer components for my school. Thank You In Advance. Thanks, James Hi James We have over 100k products on our website available for next day delivery. If you contact me with your school details, I can get you set up with preferential pricing so when you log in, the prices you see will be discounted down from our standard web pricing I'll look forward to hearing from you Regards
synaesthesia Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Well as I said I rather hope it's a one off and the people dealing with SCL at the time of the issues were unlucky enough to catch someone on a bad day or something. Nedders: accept my apologies, probably the wrong thing to say (I'm autistic and can be overly blunt a bit too often) - would have been better to say there's been past issues rather than suggesting avoidance Anyway as for the offer of help, I'm back out at that school next week and I need to get a full picture of the installation history (I'm fairly new to that site personally) and find out exactly what was said, if possible. Probably not ideal what I posted as its a "he said, she said" situation and I'd rather start from a clean sheet. But the small amount of investigation I've had the time to do is flagging up problems with PSU and/or mainboard issue. Not a fan of the mainboards anyway as I noted above, MSI hardware is fairly shoddy at the best of times in my experience, and I didn't note the used PSUs. I'll also speak to the ICT co-ordinator at the school and make sure he's happy for me to act on their behalf before I go "butting my nose in" so to speak. Cheers for the help anyway and once again, please accept my public apology for the foot in mouth syndrome I will probably be come to known for on here
Nedders Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 @ synaesthesia Thank you for the response and your candour. I do hope it is just a misunderstanding. I have known issues when 'non-IT savey' staff have wanted to place orders and in the hope of saving costs themselves have not followed recommendations, etc, but that rarely happens as we like to ensure things go as smoothly as possible for whoever orders from us. It can cause such a headache
synaesthesia Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 @ synaesthesia 'non-IT savey' staff have wanted to place orders and in the hope of saving costs themselves have not followed recommendations, etc, but that rarely happens as we like to ensure things go as smoothly as possible for whoever orders from us. I've been with this company for 2 months and I'm finding that the biggest headache of them all "But it was £2000 cheaper for 10 machines than xyz company!" and find they've got half the spec and a machine that's just not suitable for being turned on at 7 every morning and left on till 8 at night on a daily basis, especially when being hammered by primary age children inbetween :/ False economy in many respects
contink Posted March 10, 2009 Posted March 10, 2009 Can I just note that the only bone of contention I've ever had with the SCLOnline stuff has been the keyboards and mice.. (Sorry guys I meant to bring this up direct). Perhaps I've been spoiled with getting Microsoft Hardware mice and keyboards to date but the keyboard build is a big naff (with easily broken off "stand" bits) and we had an "interesting" machine oil coating on quite a few with my first order. Can't knock the customer service and support but if I had one wish it'd be get rid of the X-Pro stuff... 1
Nedders Posted March 11, 2009 Posted March 11, 2009 Can I just note that the only bone of contention I've ever had with the SCLOnline stuff has been the keyboards and mice.. (Sorry guys I meant to bring this up direct). Perhaps I've been spoiled with getting Microsoft Hardware mice and keyboards to date but the keyboard build is a big naff (with easily broken off "stand" bits) and we had an "interesting" machine oil coating on quite a few with my first order. Can't knock the customer service and support but if I had one wish it'd be get rid of the X-Pro stuff... Microsoft on all future ones !!
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