HodgeHi Posted May 22, 2012 Posted May 22, 2012 I am looking at speccing some laptops for staff. I am looking at the minimum requirements for the software that will need to go onto the machines and trying to work out the best fit for these plus a bit more for the future. How do you guys work out the system requirements for your hardware? Do you just go with the requirements of Windows + a bit more or do you use calculations that supercomputers have to perform to get the end results? TIA
localzuk Posted May 22, 2012 Posted May 22, 2012 I go with a price point to be honest. Laptops cost about £600 with a 3 year warranty - so whatever it is ends up fitting into that price. This time round, I've gone with laptops with SSDs in though so they're a little more expensive. 1
sonofsanta Posted May 22, 2012 Posted May 22, 2012 2GHz Dual core with at least 4Gb of RAM (may as well these days, so cheap) will cover you for anything, more or less. The only time I'd consider more is if there was a specific requirement for something I know to be heavy e.g. Photoshop - in which case, just go on the recommended spec for that. SSD if you can. Intel processors generally better, but if it's being used for Office, there's no reason why AMD won't do the job just as well. If you look at minimum specs for Windows/Office etc. they're surprisingly low. Problem is, a system at that spec would be painful to use... 1
kernewek-sam Posted May 22, 2012 Posted May 22, 2012 Generally dual core, minimum of 2GB of RAM though it's usually 4GB, around 320GB HDD, and as @localzuk said 3 year warranty. All that though depends on price and what the staff member will be using it for which is more often than not just office 2010 etc. 1
Michael Posted May 22, 2012 Posted May 22, 2012 I would say it's partly down to experience, understanding/knowing specifications, but of course working within a budget. It's very easy to over-spec a requirement, so it's important to find the sweet spot for price vs performance. 1
jamesfed Posted May 22, 2012 Posted May 22, 2012 TPM chip We work from there as many of our suppliers will know with their 'perfect for Education PCs' only for us to take them down a few notches.... 1
HodgeHi Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 OK. Folowing on from this discussion was a meeting with the head. As most of you are probably aware, we are a mac school. ONe of the reasons though for this thread was because the head wants to move some staff from macbooks over to Windows-based laptops to reduce replacement costs, which is fair enough. So the next question is really what windows-based laptop manufacturers are you guys avoiding right now. I've been out of the loop a while with regards to buying this sort of hardware, so not sure which companies are a little unreliable these days. I know in the past Toshiba had issues with their batteries causing their hardware just simply failing to turn on at one point, and the acer machines we have the keyboards seemed very weak and bendy and they failed quite quickly. So what do you guys buy? Personally, I am interested in HP and Lenovos at the moment as both seem to be decent looking and reasonably priced.
sonofsanta Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 Never never ever Acer. Well, the Aspire One 522 netbooks are great but everything else is far too likely to be flakey. Asus laptops always seem good quality and have low return rates when such things are reported. Lenovo, being the old IBM Thinkpads, are built like tanks. They don't look pretty but you could conquer France with them. 1
localzuk Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 Personal opinion - avoid Acer and Toshiba. I've had negative experiences of both. I did have negative experiences of Fujitsu Siemens, but supposedly now they are just Fujitsu they have upped their game. We've recently gone for Dell and Samsung laptops. I'd also look at HP and Lenovo myself too. Asus look like great kit, but all reports I've had indicate some dire support. 1
witch Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 It's all a matter of opinion - I would say yes to Toshiba and HP but no to Dell unless you can get very good prices. Samsung are good for netbooks 1
HodgeHi Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 I'm trying to avoid netbooks as these machines will be used for lesson planning and assessment. Some of the templates the staff have to use would mean a lot of scrolling. I am looking at 13.3" to 15.6" screens, but more on the 15.6" side I think. The macbooks that we would have gotten would have been the entry level Macbook Pro models. Dells online prices at the moment are coming in at around £1,284 ex VAT. I assume a school could get these for less? Some of the lower priced machines on the PCWorld Business site look to be lower specced than I would like. I have found a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15.6" that may fit the job but the buttons for the track pad seem to be in an odd position, which could take a while to get used to.
sonofsanta Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 For a laptop being used for office, I don't reckon you need to spend more than £450 ex VAT. £1200 is stupid money (but then it is Dell). That Lenovo model is an older processor as well - you want Core i3 2xxx as the model number, e.g. Samsung RV520 Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com (though that is only Win7 Home, your volume license should let you upgrade) 1
Sandman Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 Go with your budget and shop around to get the best spec is the usual way to approach requirements. 1
localzuk Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 What is coming in at £1284 each?! A Dell or Apple gear via Dell? If Apple, then you could probably get them down to about £1220 I'd guess, plus the cost of warranty. That Lenovo has 2 sets of buttons, 1 in the normal spot, and one above the trackpad, for people who use the trackpoint thing in the middle of the keyboard. 1
HodgeHi Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 What is coming in at £1284 each?! A dell latitude E6320. Not sure if this is their lowest spec machines but it was either this, the precision mobile, which was more or the XPS, which was even more! That Lenovo has 2 sets of buttons, 1 in the normal spot, and one above the trackpad, for people who use the trackpoint thing in the middle of the keyboard. I didn't see the other set of buttons. I will look again. But the samsung seems like a decent enough machine. I did have a Samsung of my own a while back. The jack on the mainboard broke off twice on mine.
HodgeHi Posted May 31, 2012 Author Posted May 31, 2012 I think I should mention that I have 10 of these things to buy. I don't fancy getting 10 lemons at once
localzuk Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 A dell latitude E6320. Not sure if this is their lowest spec machines but it was either this, the precision mobile, which was more or the XPS, which was even more! Yeah, you're looking at the wrong range for sure. We just ordered 85 E5420's for about £640 each, with SSDs. 1
kernewek-sam Posted May 31, 2012 Posted May 31, 2012 We buy Toshiba's at the moment and haven't had any major problems with them, one warranty power supply so far. 1
HodgeHi Posted June 20, 2012 Author Posted June 20, 2012 I think I'm going to take a punt at this one: Samsung Series 3 300E - 15.6" - Core i3 2350M - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 6 GB RAM - 750 GB HDD NP300E5A-A0LUK | PC World Business for all your IT needs Everything seems to point to it being a reasonably decent laptop. Reading a review online it seems capable of what it will be used for, Office, ActivInspire (it will be used to drive the IWB in the class) etc.
shreevie Posted July 11, 2012 Posted July 11, 2012 (edited) I think I'm going to take a punt at this one: Samsung Series 3 300E - 15.6" - Core i3 2350M - Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - 6 GB RAM - 750 GB HDD NP300E5A-A0LUK | PC World Business for all your IT needs Everything seems to point to it being a reasonably decent laptop. Reading a review online it seems capable of what it will be used for, Office, ActivInspire (it will be used to drive the IWB in the class) etc. We're also looking at buying these as it's kind of hard to match this spec with our current budget. Has anyone else had any experience of this model? Edited July 11, 2012 by shreevie
HodgeHi Posted July 11, 2012 Author Posted July 11, 2012 Mine have arrived. I got them for around £355 per machine, with a free bag, wifi keyboard and mouse. You can register for the 5 year warranty as well, which has been extended until September. I have opened 3 and have an issue with one (hissing noise coming from the sound card). Not sure if I'm just unlucky. Will be unboxing the rest shortly. 1
tmcd35 Posted July 11, 2012 Posted July 11, 2012 (edited) Pinning a Misco catalogue to a dart board might be more accurate than my method. I tend to have a very rough idea of price/spec based on experience. Price is circa. £400. Spec. up till now has been "Dual Core, not celeron, with 2Gb Ram and 15" screen". For the next batch I think the spec with be "Dual Core, not Celeron, 4Gb Ram, SSD and 15" Screen". Also Toshiba have been the favoured brand for the past couple of years, thinking of looking at Lenovo again? Might ask Novatech next time? Edited July 11, 2012 by tmcd35
gshaw Posted July 11, 2012 Posted July 11, 2012 I'm looking at 13" sub-notebook form factor for something that's a bit more portable for students to move around the classroom, Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E330 i3, 2 \ 4GB RAM
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now