Building computers

[Batman]

They could give them to me so I can make a cluster server

[Ric_]

Thinking out the box... I just got a quote for 10 Mac Minis - A few pence under £400 each (obviously this doesn't include monitors).

 

You would then need to add a sensible amount of RAM - add anothe £10-£20 per machine and possibly better hard disks for £30 per machine.

 

Logic Studio Site license is about £1600.

 

I'm not a Mac fanboi but they work well in certain situations and are often overlooked.

 

Of course, I'm sure that for under £300 per machine you will get a tier 1 box (Core2Duo) with a monitor from ICT Direct.

[mossj]

I've heard about good things about SCL Online - Homepage (and there active here), I just got my work machine from them quad core, 4gb ram, 500gb disk for £359 (ex vat) then you could pick up a decent graphics card for the rest of that budget..

 

They even fitted the graphics card + soak tested it for me...

Edited April 29, 2009 by mossj

[strawberry]

 

I think I will have a look at a few other suppliers to see what they can do. Do ICT-Direct sell any higher spec kit? Most of the stuff on their website seems to be older cheaper stuff.

 

Thanks

they usually do, worth giving them a ring, there stock doens't always make it onto the website!.

[steveg]

Thanks for all the suggestions, quite a few different things to look into. The mac option is intersting, but we have no mac expertise in the support team at all, and while it would be great to educate teachers / pupils in something other than windows, we really just dont have the time!

 

I will have a look into ubuntuStudio, although initial impressions are it may be a little complicated for some of our youger kids (its a primary school).

 

Hadn't thought what i was going to do with the old machines to be honest, we'd probably be open to offers if anyone is interested? It would be base units only, as we are keeping the monitors. They are p4 1.8ghz, most are 768mb ram, cd-roms, and most have agp graphics cards of some description, can get the exact spec tommorow if anyone is interested. There are 16 of them.

[Batman]

It all depends really, If you're just after someone to take them off your hands then I am looking for some old kit, 10 machines or so, to build a cluster server with. I'm well up for freebies, but I wouldn't really be in a position to pay for them unless it was an extremely nominal fee (like a fiver each or something)! Would also depend on how far away you are.

 

What sort of customer are you looking for?

[broc]

We are using Adobe Premiere Elements 7 for video editing, education licences worked out at £26 each, plus £21 (one off) for the media. You can download it & trial it for free too.