Bombproof (Studentproof) Desktops?

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

We're going to replace somewhere between 2-4 of our IT Suites (50-100+ PCs) over the Summer hols, and I wanted to start looking at replacement desktops.

 

We don't need screens or OS (we have the licenses already), so I wanted to get the most power possible in a box, with a budget of £400. I also want to get something with as simple a case as possible, so no panels that can be pushed in, no CD-ROM... I'm sure you get the picture. The hard drive also doesn't need to be much more than 100GB, although I know there's not a lot of money to be saved there, and it depends on the most economic hard drive price.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations for makes/models and/or places to buy from?

 

I've seen some cases with a VESA mount on the side, which gets the box out of sight (and potentially out of mind). These certainly look of interest, and would also free up some desk space. Anyone got any practical experiences of this type of case? Aside from having to remove the stands from 50-100 monitors.

 

TIA

[glennda]

Personally I use Stone Computers - they will customize the model to what you need.

 

We have the Mini-tower case times 300 and the older version which has alot more parts to break although the panels on the newer model have been desinged to be less breakable!

 

They will also do no OS which you don't tend to get with HP/Dell etc. I will PM you more info on what we paid etc as don't think should publish!

 

EDIT - if you can afford (and you should with that budget) get a 120GB SSD in it! Its so much better!

Edited April 5, 2012 by glennda

[Haptic]

Hi Gongalong,

 

if you are after for a unit tougher than a squad of marines I'd recommend looking into the Broadleaf range- having been told the units were robust enough to stand on, I tested it and can confirm it dealt with my 16st very admirably! I'll drop you a PM with some further details and get a demo unit sorted for you.

 

 

 

Mark

Edited April 5, 2012 by Haptic

[Millgate]

Hi there,

 

We're a partner of Very PC who i think would be ideal for this. They can custom build the desktops to your exact specs including no OS and they can engrave the schools name onto the front of the box for free. It looks really good. One of my larger schools have this done.

 

Let me know if you need a quote

 

Thanks

 

 

Edited April 5, 2012 by Millgate
Pic Uploaded

[Millgate]

Hi Gongalong,

 

if you are after for a unit tougher than a squad of marines I'd recommend looking into the Broadleaf range- having been told the units were robust enough to stand on, I tested it and can confirm it dealt with my 16st very admirably! I'll drop you a PM with some further details and get a demo unit sorted for you.

 

Mark

 

Ha, snap!

[Oaktech]

I can also recomend broadleaf, we used them for desktops in a manufacturing environment, we had them customized with filters on the fans and a solid front panel with the company logo on them.The machine shop killed a batch of dells within 2 months by feeding them cutting fluid vapours... Dell gave us our money back and we made an investment.

[synaesthesia]

For note, for that price range you can get high end i3/lower end i5, 4gb ram, SSD and a decent SFF case with 5 year warranty. Stone are usually quite good to us for that sort of thing however RM have been able to price match, perhaps surprisingly. Those VeryPC units look nice though...

[K.C.Leblanc]

Hi folks,

 

We're going to replace somewhere between 2-4 of our IT Suites (50-100+ PCs) over the Summer hols, and I wanted to start looking at replacement desktops.

 

We don't need screens or OS (we have the licenses already),

 

TIA

 

Are you sure about that, AFAIK all MS licencing schemes only provide upgrades and MS OEM operating systems can not be transfered to another machine. Unless you have a load of retail copies of windows you will probably need to include an OS in the price.

 

We're buying Stone at the moment. The hardware isn't overly exciting, but it's robust and they include a long warranty.

[Arthur]

We don't need screens or OS (we have the licenses already)

Assuming Windows, which type of licenses do you have already? OEM licenses are non-transferable between computers and volume licenses are only upgrade licenses so you need an existing qualifying OS on the computer (as mentioned by K.C above).

[RTFM]

I wouldn't go with the broadleaf typically unless you are definitely wanting to mount them, the BLD is cheaper but exactly the same style of case as well as being more spacious inside (the broadleaf can be a little 'fiddly' due to its compact size).

 

We have broadleaf, BLD and Willow machine around all 3 schools we look after.

 

I've sent a picture through to @Millgate with our custom design on the front of one of our Willow's to give you an example of what it can look like

 

The VeryPC machines really do make a mockery of most other machines in terms of their case (o cheap horrible plastic, no blanking plates to snap or push in, custom branding on the front etc).

[Oaktech]

If you are not after something which is utterly resistant to the casual vandalism of the bored child, or in another inhospitable environment i wouldn't buy broadleaf as you are paying a lot for that 'made of real metal' case.

 

We use stone for our general desktops these days and we have yet to have one damaged significantly (they still peel the badges off, and they fill the usb ports with gum/blutack). If you are adamant it needs to be impregnable, broadleaf all the way. I'm just very aware that it would be difficult to justify the extra expense to the management at this establishment!

[RTFM]

We use stone for our general desktops these days and we have yet to have one damaged significantly

 

That may be down to your pupils as opposed to the case itself. Before we had VeryPC's around school we used to have standard cases which had plastic blanking plates which would constantly be pushed in, removed, etc (all PAT test failures might I add).

 

Even when we had the original VeryPC (BE units) we had similar issues as they had a metal mesh blanking plate, since VeryPC went away from that case style and now use the full metal cases there simply isnt anything to vandalise on the front of the case other than the USB's (absolutely impossible to stop without just removing them completely, which isnt really an option).

 

I just wouldn't ever go back to cheap, plastic, off the shelf cases.

 

The BLD unit's really aren't particularly expensive in the grand scheme of things.

 

Just my personal opinion

[SYNACK]

If going i3/i5 and SFF I'd try to look for passive cooling of the CPU and an SSD, the less fans the quieter and generally more robust requireing less matinence. I can't remember who it was on here that was using one as a home server case.

 

Option 2: look at a car pc case VoomPC Enclosure for Car Applications robust as anything and probably cheap if brought in bulk. You'd need to use Mini ITX boards that supported external power supplies though.

[Oaktech]

That may be down to your pupils as opposed to the case itself.

 

Ohhh no, the darlings destroyed 2 rooms of HP dc7800 usdt machines in a half term to the point where we had to replace the whole lot and repair the with new parts and redistribute them to less vandalism prone areas of the school (teacher desktops). They just seem unable to get anything into the stone cases to get leverage.

[glennda]

Which Stone Cases do you have Oaktech?

 

The old One

 

Or the new one linked to above on there websites. The older ones had the stickers taken off alot but the newer models are the labels etc built into the plastic - we asked stone not to put a Intel or M$ sticker on and they have nothing to remove. The from bottons on the model above used to break rather alot as well. But I have stock of both which stone supplied for those heavy handed staff members!

[Oaktech]

we have the small form factor black cases with the stone logo moulded into the case so they can't be peeled off! and the older standard desktop cases (which look a bit like RM G series) which have the logo on a raised sticker (the main vulnerability), the fit of the front panels seems better than on most cases and able to withstand levering with a teaspoon and being pushed in (as long as the metal blank behind the plastic blank is still in place) USB are still vulnerable, but we treat these as a consumable!

[localzuk]

Take a look at Viglen machines - the Genie Pro ones are tough as nails in my experience. If you want a tougher one, look at the Omninos - all in one, with cable clamps to lock then in place. When we upgrade here, that's what I'll be looking at.

[sjatkn]

We have been using Stone PC's for the last 3 years and have had very little damage done to them. When comparing them to the other rooms of HP's & NEC's these are in great condition even after 3 years.

[jamesfed]

Would be a bit of a dramatic change but have you looked at using Thin Clients with VDI/RDS - the thin clients can take more of a beating that any PC out there as all the expensive bits sit safely in your server room

[Gongalong]

Thanks all for the responses (and PMs) so far. I'll have a look in more detail next week.

 

Generally...

 

Using SSDs sounds interesting - not something I'd thought of, and hard drives often seem to be the biggest bottleneck on the PC.

 

I think I mentioned some of this already, but damage to PCs has been drive bays pushed in, along with breaking front ports e.g. SD, USB, along with busted CD-ROMs. Hence the ideal case would just have the minimum amount on the front (no drive bays, no CD-ROM, no ports etc.), so the kids would ignore it. I don't know whether that's going to be possible in a standard case, or whether it will require something more exotic.

 

Windows license-wise we have an Open Value education license, or something along those lines. I wasn't aware it was upgrade only, which is a pain financially (and we've already bought a handful of laptops without an OS :-/). It seems an odd bit of "small print" bearing in mind we also have things like Office, and other applications which presumably don't require the upgrade.

[Gongalong]

Thin client isn't an option because most if not all of these PCs will be used with graphics intensive software.

[glennda]

Windows os license is upgrade only - office etc isn't

 

It is annoying though

[Arthur]

Hence the ideal case would just have the minimum amount on the front (no drive bays, no CD-ROM, no ports etc.), so the kids would ignore it.

That would be my ideal case too since we also suffer with lots of vandalism. I think educational PC manufacturers should use cases similar to those in the embedded market...

 

http://i.imgur.com/LQ3hl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/5YU3x.jpg

 

The second VeryPC, @Millgate posted a photo of looks like the best so far in terms of design. Do they still produce them since they aren't listed on the VeryPC website?

 

http://i.imgur.com/LeGtT.jpg

[Millgate]

We provide custom build Very Pcs do I'm sure we can sort it out

[garethEds]

Hi,

 

This past financial year we have been replacing our desktop PCs with reconditioned HP machings from @ict-direct. We pay around £175 for a box which usually comes with 3 or 4Gb of RAM. A new keyboard and mouse is supplied. We don't need monitors most of the time as the ones we have are fine and 19".

 

It has saved us a fortune. £10k bought us 50 new boxes this year and we rekitted out two ICT suites. We have also kitted out the library and our SuccessMaker room. I've just ordered another 27 for use in our DT department.

 

We pay an extra £10 per machine for a platinum warranty. That gives us 3 years.

 

We will never by brand new again and at £175 per machine if a kid breaks one then it's cheaper to replace.

 

The machines built onto our network using MDT without any issues.

 

Each to their own but with budgets slashed this is the way forward for us.

 

Gareth