Laptops + trolly setup costs

[JamesMason]

Hi all

 

I'm looking into laptops and trollies. Can people with experience of this kit give me a ballpark figure of how much they've paid for this kind of setup. We'll be looking at around 30 laptops with a couple of trollies WAP etc.

 

I'd just like to get an idea of prices before I start shopping around.

 

Thanks.

[Haptic]

Hi all

 

I'm looking into laptops and trollies. Can people with experience of this kit give me a ballpark figure of how much they've paid for this kind of setup. We'll be looking at around 30 laptops with a couple of trollies WAP etc.

 

I'd just like to get an idea of prices before I start shopping around.

 

Thanks.

 

Hey James

 

We have supplied many many many a happy edugeek member with there laptops and trolley needs so if you would like some further info on models specs and prices be sure to pm me your details and i can get to work for you , no obligation of course

 

be sure to check the recomended suppliers section for all the great feedback on our service and price

[Ric_]

We have a trolley of 30 laptops, running as Citrix XenApp clients which beats all the concurrent connection problems (of course the BlueSocket wireless network helps).

 

Some pointers:

* I recommend two trollies of 15 is more flexible than one of 30 - they can then be shared between classes and are easier to move about

* Make sure you get decent trollies - I've seen nothing better than the LapSafe ones... there's some seriosly dodgy ones out there!

* Make sure your wireless infrastructure is capable of handling the capacity - managed wireless is a must!

* Make sure your support team has enough time to look after the laptops - from experience, they take a lot more looking after than desktops... idiots pulling keys off seems to be a particular problem

[Mr.Ben]

Also think about the ongoing costs of supporting the trolleys.

 

I've not seen a Laptop battery survive more than 18-24 months yet - so check the availability of spares and the cost - Here's my experience of that:

 

1st Day on the job as NM - told to buy a laptop trolley, I thought not to rock the boat too much so went for the schools usual supplier. The cost was about £400 each (I bought 10).

 

After the initial year, replacement parts cost £60 per keyboard, £90 per battery and £80 per charger. Whilst I have never bothered replacing one, a screen costs £150. They are now 3 years old.

 

6 keyboards were bought, 10 batteries and 5 chargers and 2 hard disks (bought from dabs @ £30).

 

Total cost of ownership over 2 years = Outright purchase + Spares = 4000 +1660 = £5,660

 

 

I bought the next trolley from Dell having done some research, the cost was about £450 per machine with 3 years next business day support and parts (excluding batteries).

 

No new keyboards bought (but they cost £30 outside of the support contract), Chargers cost £25 (although they are more robust and fingers crossed no one has broken one yet) and batteries cost £28.

 

I've had 3 HDD's, 2 screens and 4 keyboards replaced under the support contract.

 

The batteries now need replacing, so I've ordered 10

 

Total cost of ownership over 2 years = £4,500 + £280 = £4,780

 

I also have to add the time that I spend repairing the first lot of laptops to the total cost, where as with the dell ones an engineer comes the next day and does it for me!

 

I would never buy a laptop without that 3yr support contract now (it adds about £30 to the purchase price).

 

I've made the assumption that a laptop will be replaced every 4 years, but from the end of the support contract it is uneconomical to replace screens.

 

In summary convince your beancouter (sorry bursar :-)) that it's total cost, not outright cost that's important when getting value for money!

Edited January 8, 2010 by Mr.Ben
Spelling errors due to Sausage Finger Syndrome

[apoth0r]

I'd recommend Simon for sorting this for you!

We purchased a trolley and laptops for a small primary school and they have been very good, no problems whatsoever.

Can't remember the pricing but I'm sure simon will give you a fantastic quote as usual.

 

Need any advice, don't hesitate to give me a call.

[Tricky_Dicky]

we've just bought 30 Toshiba NB200s and with trolley, software licences, 3 year warranty and imaging it came in under £13,000.

Went for the netbooks due to the extra long battery life because teachers seem to find it very hard to plug them back in over lunch.

Rich

[lordasb]

@tricky

 

we are just about to do the same supply 18 for a school which has 10 dell mini 10s allready in use.

 

are you getting the battery life of what 6/7 hours ish ?

 

we are reusing old trollies, but our biggest issue over the last 10 years has been leads, charging, batteries.

 

leads - they are untidy, get trapped in doors and damaged, out covering stripped off.

 

charging - teachers have the habit of leaving them on charge over night, and over the weekend thinking it helps to make them last longer in the day. not that its cooking the batteries.

 

batteries - they are getting better but still will need to be looked at being changed every 2 years really.

 

one bit of advice get a demo unit on test for at least 2 weeks, and use it, give it to kids and see what happens. does the screen seam flexable ? battery loose in its mounting, keys can be picked off?

[Tricky_Dicky]

Hopefully they will be arriving this morning and once I've let them run for a week I'll report back and let you know.

Rich

[lordasb]

thanks

 

which system are you using windows 7 or xp ? pro or home?

 

andy

[morganw]

I'd recommend this trolley manufacturer

 

Laptop Security Cabinets and Trolleys

 

We've bought about 4 or 5 S-Series units that hold 20 laptops, currently at around £1200 each.

Built like a tank, easy to route cables through, ultra secure, spacious insde. The only problem is the weight if they need to be wheeled around a lot, they are really heavy.

 

You can find them rebadged through resellers or buy direct.

[mb2k01]

I'd recommend this trolley manufacturer

Laptop Security Cabinets and Trolleys

We've bought about 4 or 5 S-Series units that hold 20 laptops, currently at around £1200 each.

 

£1200 each! Ouch!

What's wrong with these? Do the expensive ones do something different?

[morganw]

Shelves are very wide so the power supplies can be fixed to the shelf at the back, secure the lead down the side, leave the connector dangling with a couple inches of slack exactly where the port on the laptop will end up.

 

There is no tension on the cables at any time and it's pretty hard to get the process of putting the laptop in or out wrong.

 

On the newer version the powerlead isn't built in, you get an IEC kettle socket so if someone does manage to damage the lead it doesn't cost hours + electrician.

 

Extremely secure construction.

 

The last point I can't emphasis enough, we have got some £800 laptop trolleys, the sheet metal used for the doors isn't thick enough and were getting bent in general use, there no space to safely and securely fit the power packs, wires were getting stripped by cable ties as staff and students would pulling trying to get the connectors free. Generally everything, trolley, laptops and power packs were getting battered.

 

The turning point was last year when we had a break in, the intruder managed to break into the £800 trolley with... bolt cutters? a crowbar?

 

No... a small rock from the garden outside. There's no way i'm putting a set of macbooks in one of those.

[chris57]

we have over a 100 laptops we look after which we take out to lessons we have shelfing in our office with boxs of 6 laptops in each. we looked at the trolly method and dident work well with is so we did it this way works ok.

[Tyiell]

 

I'd just like to get an idea of prices before I start shopping around.

 

 

If I could get away with it I would pay you to take ours away!! Every set of student laptops we have ever had have been a daily-reccuring nightmare. So my honest advice is - dont get them!! We insist on buying integrated computer desks now - when you can fold away the screen and keyboard and have a decent writing desk when you need it, plus all the benefits of using desktop pcs, you take away a lot of the very limited advantages of student laptops. When you factor in the cost of the trolley, and the inevitable laptop repairs, and the fact that you can get a decent pc for half the price of a comparable laptop, the extra cost of the flashy desks even out nicely.

 

However, if you really must have laptops, I agree with what has already been said by some here - don't skimp on the trolley - you need it robust if you want it to last. Not that it made much difference here when they smashed the screens, tore the keys off the keyboard and threw them at each other, etc...

[K.C.Leblanc]

we have over a 100 laptops we look after which we take out to lessons we have shelfing in our office with boxs of 6 laptops in each. we looked at the trolly method and dident work well with is so we did it this way works ok.

 

Erm, how does this work? If you need 30 lappys for a class then that'll be 5 boxes. How often are they used?

 

As for lapsafes. We've got a 32 laptop trolly. The thing is so heavy that I was agreed no one should be expected to move it on a regular basis. It's a bit of a white elephant to be honest. We've found increasing the number of IT rooms to be easier.

 

Students are portable by design, with computers it costs extra.

Edited January 28, 2010 by K.C.Leblanc

[chris57]

yeh thats correct 5 box's if we needed 30 but our class sizes are (suppose to be) no more then 24.

 

we take them out on sack trollys. there stored in big red boxs from the really usefull box company and stored on heavy duty shelfing in our office which we have wierd all the power supplys up if some photos would help i could try get some pictures for you.

 

and we have a nearly 99% wireless coverage of our site we have set up and managed outselfs.

Edited January 28, 2010 by chris57