Anyone recommend a tough PC?

[El_Nombre]

Hi everyone. As it's just been half-term we've taken a look at the running repairs we need to address here. Our biggest problem is vandalism, mostly to keyboards and mice and the cases of the PCs. Mice and keyboards fair enough are vulnerable to yanking and stabbing and probing of all sorts, but it's the damage to the cases that causes the most worry as a removed drive blank tends to lead to the machine being fed bottles and crisps and drinks and biscuits. Which makes it grumpy.

 

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations as far as a 'tough' PC goes. Are there any manufacturers or distributors within school-budget (and not military contract) grasp who could supply us a year-8-with-a-biro proof PC or twenty? Does anyone have any models which seem to stand up well anyway?

 

Cheers in advance for any replies.

[Andrew_C]

One possibility, may be more work than you want...

 

CPC sell a rock-hard case with lockable front cover here . The beige one.

 

Blast, "End Of Line" but there is an alternative I've not seen, but is much cheaper!

[laserblazer]

PC Chesham doesn't take any nonsense from the yobs in our town

[unixman]

I've been trying to get the bursar to let me buy a couple of these as student loan machines. 20.1" Rugged Laptop Computer - Argon Corp Strangely, she is against the idea

[Batman]

Best machine we've ever had from an anti-vandal point of view is the RM One. We don't like 'em but they don't get messed up like a lot of the others do. Trouble is they're damned expensive for what they are.

[dtakias]

I've been trying to get the bursar to let me buy a couple of these as student loan machines. 20.1" Rugged Laptop Computer - Argon Corp Strangely, she is against the idea

 

Try the Panasonic Toughbook 30 and maybe she'll change her mind

[PEO]

http://www.blankparkzoo.com/documents/filelibrary/jpeg/animal_photos/Hissing_Cockroach_hand.jpg

 

this should do the job... small, portable, and can survive a nuclear attack when north Korea strikes

[jcollings]

Best machine we've ever had from an anti-vandal point of view is the RM One. We don't like 'em but they don't get messed up like a lot of the others do. Trouble is they're damned expensive for what they are.

 

Funny that 'cos we have a couple of rooms of RM Ones and they too suffer the least vandalism of any in the school. I do like 'em though but they are sooo expensive.

[Batman]

Well that's two votes for the RM One then I guess

 

I did have a very strange problem on about three of them where a student shoved a piece of metal into the front usb port which created a short and stopped the pc booting. Aside from that we never ever get problems with them.

[Kipling]

Just a comment on RMones…

 

We don’t get much vandalism in the school – a few mice here and there and the 6th form have their fun with the PS2 pins.

 

However, we’ve got a room full of RMones and at least half of them now have completely useless USB ports; all physically damaged just by daily use.

On a side note, they have also been technically inferior to our other PCs, with a higher percentage of hardware failures.

 

I certainly won’t be buying any more.

[graywoodford]

i would recommend trying to get some senior staff to help you out and stop the behaviour of the kids, this will be a long and hard process but won't cost a penny. We have been doing this for the last year and has made so much difference it is un true. We have even billed parents when one of the pupils punched an lcd monitor and broke it but you will need support from deputy heads or even the head if possible. Once they realise there is a punishment for vandalism they soon stop especially if you take their internet access off them.

 

hard one to do but worth it hope it helps

[Andrew_C]

I did have a very strange problem on about three of them where a student shoved a piece of metal into the front usb port which created a short and stopped the pc booting.

What's strange about that? If you short out ANY rail on the PSU it will fail in some way!

[Batman]

True enough... I suppose it was strange that they'd managed to find pieces of metal the right size to poke in the port that you couldn't see unless you looked closely

[powdarrmonkey]

I did have a very strange problem on about three of them where a student shoved a piece of metal into the front usb port which created a short and stopped the pc booting.

 

Er... how is that strange? You short it, it blows up:tinfoil3:

Edited May 29, 2009 by powdarrmonkey
runaway tinhat

[lafleur1977]

We dont really have tough pc's (we have dell and hp mainly) but previously in the past we had the problem of vandalism - when I first started one suite had wooden covers glued to the front on the case because some kids had smashed them all...

 

anyway the approach we took was caging the pc's under desks, some vertical others horizontal. TBH the cages aren't that well designed for people like us who may need to open them up etc, but they protect really well and out of about 200 pc's now cages not are vandalized at all. We had the cages custom made by Walton Designs Limited, Drawing boards, drawing desks, graphics, turnover drawing desk, art, art table, rack and pinion, desks, school furniture, school desks, stackable furniture, multimedia workbenches, low voltage power trunking, pect, pneumatics,

 

They also desk mounted the monitors which dont protect but make more space and looks neater. As far as keyboards and mice, i found the standard dell stuff fairly tough.

[MatthewL]

Don't buy Panasonic Toughbooks, they are way over priced and to be honest would give you nightmares!! Walked into the office today after been at the other one for a week and I've got a stack full waiting to be imaged and deployed

[PeterW]

True enough... I suppose it was strange that they'd managed to find pieces of metal the right size to poke in the port that you couldn't see unless you looked closely

 

A paper clip will do it quite nicely, some boards have fuses on the USB 5v. For example with some ASUS boards if the fuse is blown when you turn the machine on it tells you you have a USB problem then counts down from 15 seconds and turns off. Others will take the board out completly or have other random effects.

 

As already suggested better classroom managment would be a more proactive way of stopping damage, either by billing departments or students directly for any damage.

 

Get some CCTV in there even if it is a cheapo camera as it will soon pay for itself.

[f21970]

I buy from Millenium Computers who build to order (was IT Support Centre). I tend to ask them to put a steel plate behind the blank drive covers as I had same problem as you. They're cheap & have a 5 year onsite warranty in with the price. Have about 450 of them & no big issues.

 

BTW, the PC's are sideways in hangers under most desking and the ports are redirected to a fused port plate on top. Get lots of vandalism on the port plates (USB & sound), but at least that doesn't kill the PC. About £35 for a new port plate from Datacable & charge the department or parent (if the teacher was observant enough to notice who damaged it & when).

Edited May 30, 2009 by f21970

[synaesthesia]

The toughbooks are nigh on indestructable, use to use loads of them back in the late P3/early P4 days. I'd get a load in from places like Transco and BT, absolutely caked in filth, and being able to just spray any cleaner you like without fear of ingress to components and scrub away at your hearts content made refurbishment a piece of cake. And we still made a small fortune from them, second hand P3 1ghz models were going for well clear of £500 when the same amount of money got you a basic P4m model from the likes of HP. Worth it = hell yes. In a school? No, would be cheaper to replace the PCs

 

I brought up the idea of those port panels at another school however due to the amount of PC's it was apparent the budget wouldn't cover it. So, a bit of chinwagging with Belkin (who have a local base and a few people with good sales contacts there) and we got in a load of cheap USB hubs, being the only external port they used. Cheap and easy to replace, PC itself hidden out of reach (all powered on/off remotely at the start and end of day) and it was rather cost effective. Definitely a compromise on the port replicators but you have to adapt sometimes

[El_Nombre]

Thanks everyone. We're currently in the process of 'cracking down', and lessons are being learned from last year when we simply ran too low on budget to buy mice and keyboards to throw into the grinder. Cheers for the advice.

 

I don't think we'll be buying any toughbooks though, and the suggestion of PC Chesham was a good one.

 

I might just get a few of these:

http://birmingham.lug.org.uk/irc/ed209.jpg

[dalsoth]

RM Ones for me. Had a full room of them put in over a year ago and they are still all in perfect condition. Had a couple call outs for a dodgy screen and a motherboard but all covered in the 3 year warranty so no problem.

 

All my other suites are being trashed every day. We go through 60 mice every month or two and 20 or so keyboards in the same time so you can imagine the damage we get to the computers. Having the keyboards and mice clamped down inside the back of the case makes it almost unheard of to have to replace something in this particular room.

 

I have looked at a few other all in one style computers but nothing matches the RM Ones and the new improvements they have recently made. Will be buying another suite of them soon. The lack of maintenance more than pays for any additional cost over a standard machine.

[Batman]

All my other suites are being trashed every day. We go through 60 mice every month or two and 20 or so keyboards in the same time so you can imagine the damage we get to the computers. Having the keyboards and mice clamped down inside the back of the case makes it almost unheard of to have to replace something in this particular room.

 

You wait til they find some scissors... doesn't matter if it's clamped when they cut the cable. Little rascals!

[westleya]

http://www.blankparkzoo.com/documents/filelibrary/jpeg/animal_photos/Hissing_Cockroach_hand.jpg

 

this should do the job... small, portable, and can survive a nuclear attack when north Korea strikes

 

Uhhhhrgh !! That's put me right off my lunch and saved me £4 in the process

[Butuz]

I think your SMT need to tackle in class behaviour management and also look at rooms that are not teacher base rooms and thus are not looked after in the expected manner?

 

Buying hideously expensive nuclear proof PC's is just fighting the fire, you need to look at stopping kids from lighting the fires in the first place?

 

Billing the parents for damage works a treat. Not sure if you'd be able to implement that?

 

Butuz

[ravens]

We have similar problems so our recent tenders included a stipulation that the PCs must be tough enough to meet continuous use and tampering attempts.

 

The PCs we settled on are Fujitsu Siemens E3510. The front vent is covered by tough plastic and all the holes are very small.

Plus the case is hard metal and can only be opened with a matching key.

Fujitsu also offer toughened blanking plates.

 

We have over 150 and not one has been damaged yet.

 

They also come with a twin boot license for Vista and XP.

 

I think they are replacing the model for the E5730 which we're taking a punt on even though it looks a little vunerable compared to the E3510 and E5925.

 

Our tenders tend to be won by Misco who havent let us down yet.

 

Here is a link in case you want to have a look at the PC:

 

http://sp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/docs/ds-esprimo-e5625.pdf