scholes99 Posted January 21, 2013 Posted January 21, 2013 We are currently looking at upgrading one of our ICT suites. We have a really tight budget and are looking at ZooStorm PCs as they fit the spec and price requirements. I was just wondering if anyone has bought from Zoostorm before and if they could give me some feedback good or bad. thanks
eddyc Posted January 21, 2013 Posted January 21, 2013 We are currently looking at upgrading one of our ICT suites. We have a really tight budget and are looking at ZooStorm PCs as they fit the spec and price requirements. I was just wondering if anyone has bought from Zoostorm before and if they could give me some feedback good or bad. thanks We bought 10 machines when we replaced the admin office on a budget - we got Core 2 Quads with 4GB Ram, 2 years on they are still going strong, although we had to replace the power supplies as the factory fitted power supplies are quite loud.
free780 Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 Last summer we brought over a hundred . I5 8gb ram . We have had to use the warranty for various things.
RTFM Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 Don't know what your budget is or what spec your after but we use @VeryPC and are really happy with what we get from them (they do 5 year warranties too so might be worth a look?). Just thought I'd mention an alternative perhaps. 1
scholes99 Posted January 22, 2013 Author Posted January 22, 2013 Don't know what your budget is or what spec your after but we use @VeryPC and are really happy with what we get from them (they do 5 year warranties too so might be worth a look?). Just thought I'd mention an alternative perhaps. Thank you. I will take a look
twin--turbo Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 Had a few of them in another roll, The build is quite flimsy and as mentione the PSU's a noisy and we had a couple fail. I would not deploy them in a school as I don't belive they would still be in a decent exterior physical state after a couple of years. Rob
Achandler Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 We have 40 of them here, in 3 years we have replaced 3 main boards (1 under warranty). Never had a duff PSU. Our look fine, and have stood up fine to the use of students, but ours are in wooden holders under the desks (so proper ICT furniture) which in my opinion dramatically extends the life of any computer. You get what you pay for, when you save nearly £3k across an ICT suite for an equivalent spec from HP or Dell for example then replacing 1 or 2 mainboards a year is still a massive cost saving.
SimpleSi Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 100% failure rate here But only bought 2 about 3 years:) (Bursar wanted to try out a firm that was doing "a good deal" ) Lasted about 15months - canabilsed 1st one to keep second one going and then that failed as well The people we bought them from wanted about 1 manday of diagonsis effort before they'd repair them so they've never been fixed. Simon
markcuk Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 They are part of VIP in Warrington now they moved from Liverpool! I had an interview for support with them a year back and they use whatever cheap parts they can get there hands on. I walked out of the interview they came across like they couldn't care less what parts they used and if there were any good or not!!
sidewinder Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 I bought about 10...touch wood so far had no problems with them since the summer and all decent parts used, but as mentioned they are flimsy. I'm unsure whether I would go for them again
VeryPC_Tom_B Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 Thank you. I will take a look Hi scholes99, Ill send you over a PM with some details
featured_spectre Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 There was a school in Bedfordshire when I was working in the area, that used them for a suite, within 2 years all of them had issues. Whilst I was not the driving choice behind the use of them, I've since recommended they go elsewhere as they're not economically viable as end user products as you will have the warranty team out more often than any other brand I have come across.
Millgate Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 I've had mixed reviews to be honest. The one that stands out the most though was a client that bought around 100 of the machines, had issues with about a third of them and said the support wasn't the best. But then I've had people rave about them so I suppose it just depends on who you deal with
Smee Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 In the past couple of years I've purchased 20 pcs from them. 16 for a ks1 suite, 4 to try out in ks2. The 16 I got first are quite noisy , the fan seems to dislodge but is easily fixed. Haven't had very many issues with the actual hardware, a couple of power switches have been stick but that's it (rapidly touches wood!) The latest 4 seem to be a better build quality, they seem more solid if you get meaning. Any issues I have had have been sorted pretty quickly by their support team. I haven't had to call them out but email support seems quite fast and helpful. If I'd had more money in the budget I probably wouldn't have gone with them as I wouldn't have even thought to look down that avenue but that's more to do with my issues regarding unknown suppliers. But we had/have a very tight budget and were able to get the spec we wanted with the warranty we wanted. hth
synaesthesia Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 You get what you pay for, however it's worth considering self builds if time and ability allow. We're a fan of the RM g series cases with PSU (very cheap yet very sturdy and not at all loud) with i3 mobo & ram or pentium G630s, 4GB of ram and an SSD.
HTCPCP Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 We have probably over 100 of these so far, mostly to replace RM Ones, and yes, we have had a couple of problems, but not really anything out of the ordinary. The odd dodgy stick of RAM, 1 faulty power supply, 1 dead motherboard and 1 dead hard drive so far, and all are currently out in heavy use. They aren't hugely noisy, and seem quieter than the old RMs that we have got rid of. The motherboards tend to be Asus or Gigabyte motherboards and the RAM is just generic value ram. Support wise, all seems to be fine, yes you do have to give them some diagnostics, and you do have to pay postage for sending stuff back, but they are willing to let you do things like change the power supply, RAM, Hard drives etc. For most networks, if you have a Windows site license, then for £170 for a base unit, there's not much wrong with that. Yes, the parts are entry level, but you aren't paying 3-400 for the same computer! Another plus for Zoostorm is that they provide you with a keyboard and mouse with it too. On the otherhand, the cases aren't the most robust in the world, and the thumb screws can be a lot easier to get into than most schools would like. After a fair bit of discussion we have also replaced out workhorses to new Zoostorm units too, so if in a couple of months I start moaning then you know that they dont cope well with really heavy use. However under normal use, the oldest machines are now over a year old and still working nice and smoothly.
shadowx Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 We have about 80 in use since the summer as staff machines in classrooms and so far so good. Yes they are cheaply built, the cases are lightweight metal but the facia is, IMHO, very nice and looks good and sturdy. The buttons are also solid enough, they only depress a millimetre or so to turn on so they cant get stuck etc... Hardware is fine so far, we replace all of our own PSUs, HDDs, RAM etc... too much bother to send it off. If the CPU or mobo goes then we would call them up but so far we haven't had to replace anything. Usually we get 3 years before PSUs start dropping then it's a fiver a pop. Fans in our units are silent, no noise whatsoever. Machines are quick and work as you'd expect. Only issue was the fact that the PXE ROM chips weren't flashed correctly so they all presented the same "unique" identifier to our imaging server and hence wouldn't image. They were really good over the phone and tracked down a firmware upgrade for us which we then did ourselves (pretty sure they offered to do it for us though). We will be replacing our kid's machines probably this year at which point we need to decide Zoostorm or someone else... It's not a clear decision though, the Zoostorm machines are great but the build quality is lower than Stone etc.. but we will see how these current ones hold up. Bottom line is if the machines are protected by desks/cupboards or if they are staff machines then yes, Zoostorm are great. If they are for kids and you think they will be treated roughly then perhaps get a demo unit in first if you can!
Kyle Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 We had an issue creating an image for these after buying one for testing. Did anyone else have an issue or a work around to this?
HTCPCP Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 ShadowX, we haven't had any problems PXE booting them, except from finding the right drivers for them. we use them in 2 ICT suites that get some fairly heavy use, and they don't seem to have had much in the way of damage, except kids have pushed bits into USB slots and microphone jacks, but that can happen to any other computer. I'd suggest putting them on the desk rather than underneath them though... I think one might have had someone trying to prise the front panel off, but it seems to still be intact though.
Scottyboy99 Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 (edited) We have been buying Zoostorm computers for about 3 years. We currently have over 300 of them with varied specs (the latest ones have an i5 CPU and 8GB RAM with 500GB HDD for only £300 ex VAT!) Only had a few failures but its usually just the power supply or the HDD and they failed before the warranty ran out so we just claimed for replacements. The oldest ones are still going strong and I have to say I'm quite impressed with how rugged they are for the money. As others have said, you get a decent keyboard and mouse in the box too! We've never had a problem imaging them with SCCM or WDS and they come with CDs with all the drivers on them, although if you are still running XP you may find it hard to get the correct drivers. I would recommend them if your on a budget. Try Millgate or Millenium Computers for the best deals on them, we specify them without CD/DVD drives so they students have nothing to play with. Cheers. Edited January 22, 2013 by Scottyboy99
Kyle Posted January 22, 2013 Posted January 22, 2013 SO you got them to image with the drivers on the CD?
scholes99 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Posted January 23, 2013 We have about 80 in use since the summer as staff machines in classrooms and so far so good. Yes they are cheaply built, the cases are lightweight metal but the facia is, IMHO, very nice and looks good and sturdy. The buttons are also solid enough, they only depress a millimetre or so to turn on so they cant get stuck etc... Hardware is fine so far, we replace all of our own PSUs, HDDs, RAM etc... too much bother to send it off. If the CPU or mobo goes then we would call them up but so far we haven't had to replace anything. Usually we get 3 years before PSUs start dropping then it's a fiver a pop. Fans in our units are silent, no noise whatsoever. Machines are quick and work as you'd expect. Only issue was the fact that the PXE ROM chips weren't flashed correctly so they all presented the same "unique" identifier to our imaging server and hence wouldn't image. They were really good over the phone and tracked down a firmware upgrade for us which we then did ourselves (pretty sure they offered to do it for us though). We will be replacing our kid's machines probably this year at which point we need to decide Zoostorm or someone else... It's not a clear decision though, the Zoostorm machines are great but the build quality is lower than Stone etc.. but we will see how these current ones hold up. Bottom line is if the machines are protected by desks/cupboards or if they are staff machines then yes, Zoostorm are great. If they are for kids and you think they will be treated roughly then perhaps get a demo unit in first if you can! thank you for the advise
scholes99 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Posted January 23, 2013 We have been buying Zoostorm computers for about 3 years. We currently have over 300 of them with varied specs (the latest ones have an i5 CPU and 8GB RAM with 500GB HDD for only £300 ex VAT!) Only had a few failures but its usually just the power supply or the HDD and they failed before the warranty ran out so we just claimed for replacements. The oldest ones are still going strong and I have to say I'm quite impressed with how rugged they are for the money. As others have said, you get a decent keyboard and mouse in the box too! We've never had a problem imaging them with SCCM or WDS and they come with CDs with all the drivers on them, although if you are still running XP you may find it hard to get the correct drivers. I would recommend them if your on a budget. Try Millgate or Millenium Computers for the best deals on them, we specify them without CD/DVD drives so they students have nothing to play with. Cheers. Thank you. I will look into the companies that you have recommended too
scholes99 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Posted January 23, 2013 Have you tried to find any Dell refurbs? No, Where would you recommend looking for them?
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