Require new PCs

[Chuckster]

My school has requested that we look into buying new desktop PCs for the whole school.

 

I am unsure of which make to go for and which offers the best warranty and support.

 

Intially I am looking at RM as their hardware support is second to none, i.e. I can log a call on their forum and an engineer is sent out to me the next day. This requires little effort on my part.

 

Can anyone suggest two other manufacturers that are parallel to RM's support before I start investigating for new PCs?

 

Just for the record, we are completely a vanilla school but use RM workstations.

 

Thanks in advance.

[glennda]

Personally for custom Builds I would look @ Stone computers or for Standard desktops the Lenovo Kit is brilliant.

[british_government]

Personally for custom Builds I would look @ Stone computers or for Standard desktops the Lenovo Kit is brilliant.

 

 

I have said it so many times, STONE STONE STONE, These

IT manufacturer and solutions provider to the Public Sector | Stone Group

 

With These

IT manufacturer and solutions provider to the Public Sector | Stone Group

 

With 5 year warranty, the most you will ever need to do is install a bit of software and fill in a web form for hardware failure. We have about 180 different age ITX space-savers now from the last 3 years and have had about 10 support calls for all of them, next day on site fixed by an engineer who knows what he is doing!

[alan-d]

We use Stone Computers. 5 year, next business day on-site warranty is hard to beat. Ring by 3:00pm and engineer is here the next day. Sometimes we just ask for a replacement part to be sent out and it's done.

 

With all suppliers there is an element of breakages or DOAs and Stone are no different but I have to applaud their service.

 

EDIT: They can also supply other branded makes if you ask.

Edited October 12, 2012 by alan-d
additional info

[JJonas]

We usually buy Dell with a five year next business day (NBD) warranty.

 

We have found their support to be good, we ring them up tell them the fault and we have an engineer out next day, they also dont mind supplying us with parts (usually the easy stuff (memory/DVD drives/PSUs etc) to fit ourselves if we wish.

 

With the five year warranty we know we have hardware support till the end of the machines useful life.

[tmcd35]

We're currently buying Novatech with 2 or 3yr RTB warranty's. So far no complaints. They've been known to send us the replacement parts before now for us to swap out and send back rather than sending the whole unit back, which I much prefer.

 

Edit: just looked at Stone's website, no prices. I'm always suspicious of companies who can't/won't put their prices on their website.

Edited October 12, 2012 by tmcd35

[FN-GM]

We are have dumped stone and gone with Dell due to the following.

 

• 
  
• The Pro Support offered by Dell is excellent
  
• The Design, everything is small, fits on the stand, lots of monitor choices etc
  
• People will be on site the next day for repairs
  
• If you get a continuing hardware issue they will replace with brand new
  
• You can get exact parts with repairs, for example the motherboard will be the same on a repair 4 years after the order
  
• The computers they offer are available for a long period of time, for example we ordered hundreds of Optiplex 790 over a few years and nothing had changed in them. Others change the motherboards etc
  
• The ability to manage the BIOS using SCCM
  
• Update BIOS via SCCM if need be.
  
• All the old kit matches the newer stuff, they don’t change the design often. so the majority of our kit is identical but different models. For example the Optiplex 780, 790 & 7010 are all identical looks wise.
  
• The matching monitor, keyboard & mouse.
  
• All machine as standard support dual output display
  
• The PC and monitor requires 1 power cable
  
• The stand really tidies cables up.
  
• Full support with imaging, include all WinPE drivers
  

Edited October 12, 2012 by FN-GM

[Oaktech]

Stone all the way here... like RM, only cheaper and less grief.

[Little-Miss]

I use Dell a lot..

 

Now, i have no personal experience but get a quote off @VeryPC too....interesting

[Dos_Box]

Moving to Hardware forum.

[alan-d]

Edit: just looked at Stone's website, no prices. I'm always suspicious of companies who can't/won't put their prices on their website.

 

Normally I'd agree but I have 2 exceptions, one is Stone, who by the way will build bespoke machines for you too, and Computer Products Ltd.

[north-ict]

I am currently talking to stone and in the past have bought a few laptops off them and there prices are pretty decent. So don't let the thing about no prices on the website put you off.

[FN-GM]

We're currently buying Novatech with 2 or 3yr RTB warranty's. So far no complaints. They've been known to send us the replacement parts before now for us to swap out and send back rather than sending the whole unit back, which I much prefer.

 

Edit: just looked at Stone's website, no prices. I'm always suspicious of companies who can't/won't put their prices on their website.

 

There is no point really, we pay a fraction of the prices with dell compared to whats on the website.

[hardtailstar]

we are currently looking at stone, so all the good reports here are making my job easier.

[aleach2]

We have used Viglen now for the last 3 years and they have been really good. Five years NBD warranty seems to be fine for us. Have a look:

 

Viglen - Product Range - GENIE

 

Adam

[shadowx]

Stone are a brilliant supplier and I would highly recommend them.

 

This year we went with a company called Zoostorm that make custom builds, I am not going to tell you that they are of the highest quality, the cases are lightweight and what not but actual components are all top notch intel type stuff and at £245 a pop for 4gb RAM, decent dual core CPU and 160gb-ish HDD you can't really go wrong (Can get actual specs off our quote sheet if anyone is interested)

 

As for hardware support let's face it, 99.99% of hardware failure is either a DVD drive or a power supply. PSUs cost a fiver each and within the space of literally 5 minutes you can whip a machine out, replace PSU and put it back again. DVD drives in student machines *shrug* they dont use or need them so we don't bother replacing or repairing those, on staff machines again it's a fiver a time and 5 minutes in the office.

 

i wouldn't bother sending off machines or getting an onsite repair unless it was something pricey like a processor or mobo. Everything else we have "in stock" and repair in house.

 

We went with zoostorm due to the price, frankly if price was not an issue whatsoever I would always go with stone. If price is an issue go for Zoostorm.

 

I wouldn't use Dell as personally I see them as a home desktop solution (and even then I would avoid them like the plague) and RM I have only heard bad things but each to their own really. I also hear that dell PSUs are a nightmare to get hold of...

[sonofsanta]

Stone and Novatech, used both here, both great machines at great prices built to (exacting!) specifications, we have 5 year RTB warranties on them all and get free hot swap units with the order - so a machine breaks, we swap it out within ten minutes, ring up support and get the part on advance replacement. Fix that at our leisure over the next couple of days, send broken part back, swap machine back in for the hot swap.

 

As far as the end user is concerned, they never have more than a quarter of an hour of downtime. Beat that

Edited October 12, 2012 by sonofsanta

[RTFM]

@VeryPC

 

Love them guys.

 

They dont deal in horrible plastic cheap cases, they have great warranty and are nice people.

Edited October 12, 2012 by RTFM

[Millgate]

@VeryPC have my vote. Awesome products, support and price. Let me know if you need more details

[sonofsanta]

PSUs cost a fiver each and within the space of literally 5 minutes you can whip a machine out, replace PSU and put it back again.

 

If you only pay a fiver for your PSUs, I might have a suggestion as to why they account for 99.99% of your hardware failure...

[glennda]

Stone and Novatech, used both here, both great machines at great prices built to (exacting!) specifications, we have 5 year RTB warranties on them all and get free hot swap units with the order - so a machine breaks, we swap it out within ten minutes, ring up support and get the part on advance replacement. Fix that at our leisure over the next couple of days, send broken part back, swap machine back in for the hot swap.

 

As far as the end user is concerned, they never have more than a quarter of an hour of downtime. Beat that

 

They will also do 5 year on-site warranty's.

 

At my previous place I payed less then 300 quid a pop for Core I3, 4Gb ram and Corsair SSD's.

 

The New cases from stone are very good and the chance of breaking is quite hard. The school i recently left bought a load of NovaTech machines which appear to be very plasticy cases from what they have said.

 

I used to have over 750 stone desktops and can't fault them in a single way!

[OPSDanni]

I would personally recommend going for a branded machine. HP are in the fortune 500 top 10 so are a pretty save bet and although I'm not a massive fan Dell are up high as well. Both offer a 5yr warranty and depending on how many you are after can do custom machines to the level you'll need. Unless they are being used for massive graphical work

[FragglePete]

Stone here, have done for the last 3 years - moved away from Dell.

 

Support from Stone excellent, engineers carry pretty much every part in the back of their cars. So if the problem is something else, they at least have the parts.

 

One thing I would say with Stone, never accept the first price. I'm sure your following your own financial guidelines when obtaining quotes, but I have to get at least 3 competing quotes and use these as bargaining. Just when you think you've got the best price, Stone always seem to come back with a better offer; so, never accept the first price.

 

Pete

[glennda]

I would personally recommend going for a branded machine. HP are in the fortune 500 top 10 so are a pretty save bet and although I'm not a massive fan Dell are up high as well. Both offer a 5yr warranty and depending on how many you are after can do custom machines to the level you'll need. Unless they are being used for massive graphical work

 

In terms of Cost HP/Dell never compete like for like IMHO plus the support can be a nightmare - with Stone I just called through said x was broken engineer turned up and fixed it the next day normally. Meanwhile I swapped out the machine with a temporary one.

[RTFM]

One thing I would say with Stone, never accept the first price. I'm sure your following your own financial guidelines when obtaining quotes, but I have to get at least 3 competing quotes and use these as bargaining. Just when you think you've got the best price, Stone always seem to come back with a better offer; so, never accept the first price.

 

Pete

 

Don't you love companies who try their best to rip you off to begin with, then after many harassing phone calls and emails finally give you the right price