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So, you’ve got a budget of £350 per laptop and you’re weighing up whether it’s better to buy new or buy refurbished. Right now, HP have got some cracking deals on. You can pick up a brand-new, and imaginatively named, HP Laptop 14” with Windows 11 for around £340 ex.VAT. Meanwhile, at ICT Direct we’ve got a refurbished HP 14” Windows 11 laptop priced at £310 ex.VAT. (Left/Top) NEW HP Laptop 14" (14-ep1010nax) £340.83 ex.VAT | (Right/Bottom) REFURBISHED HP Elitebook 840 G9 £310 ex.VAT £30 more for a brand-new laptop? It’s surely a no brainer, right? They have the same size screen, they both have Intel CPU’s, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage. At first glance, they’re almost identical, and even photos of them look the same. But one is a 4-year old business class laptop, and the other is a brand-new consumer laptop. So, for comparison’s sake, let’s throw in the most affordable, new, HP Business-Class laptop money can buy too, again with an Intel Processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB Storage: NEW HP 250R G10 £555.99 ex.VAT Eek! That price is a fair way beyond our budget! All because we added “business-class” to the description? This is taken from Misco’s website, as HP are only selling their most premium business class devices directly, but it is still a readily available budget business device. Unlike the other 2 devices, this has a 15.6” screen – the new 14” business-class laptops available all cost more than this, so I deemed the 250R a good comparison machine regardless. Somehow, you have to navigate which of these options is actually best value for money, so I’ve thrown them head-to-head (to-head?) in a breakdown based purely off HP’s datasheet’s and website, and third-party CPU performance benchmarks, and ranked them 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Surprise, surprise – in a blog written by a refurbished IT Salesperson, the refurb unit wins! So, don’t just take my word for it based on this chart alone, let’s get into the details of what this all means. Screen: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 14” 1366x768 TN Panel 250 Nits Brightness 3rd 14” 1920x1200 IPS 400 Nits Brightness 1st 15.6” 1920x1080 IPS 250 Nits Brightness 2nd The HP Laptop 14” is the biggest loser here – IPS displays are far superior to TN Panels, and the Refurb 830 G9 unit pips the 250R with its extra screen real-estate, pixel density and much brighter screen. In fact, it has over double the number of pixels of the HP Laptop 14”! As I mentioned the 250R does have the larger display and if that is important to you, then it’s worth keeping in mind. CPU: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 Intel Core 3 – 100U 3rd Intel Core i5 – 1245U 2nd Intel Core 5 – 120U 1st This turned out to be very close; there is not a lot of difference between these three. They all have a TDP of 15W; both the Core 5 and i5 have 10 cores and 12 threads; both the newer CPUs Turbo higher, but the Refurb has the higher base clock speed. Based on comparisons on cpubenchmark.net and technical.city, these are our results. Table data taken directly from https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/5948vs4733vs5892/Intel-3-100U-vs-Intel-i5-1245U-vs-Intel-5-120U RAM: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 8GB DDR4 3200MT/s Not user-upgradable 2nd 8GB DDR5 4800MT/s Upgradable to 64GB Joint 1st 8GB DDR5 5600MT/s Upgradable to 32GB Joint 1st Another clear loser here – despite being 4 years newer than the 840 G9, the New HP Laptop 14” is using slower DDR4 memory, plus it’s not upgradable and is soldered to the motherboard! Given the RAM shortages of 2025/26 this is a tactical way to keep costs down. The 2 business-class devices are tied in 1st place as they both use much faster DDR5. If you need 64GB of RAM, the 840 G9 wins. If you don’t, the 250R supports faster RAM, so comes out on top. Storage: A 3-way tie! They all have 256GB M.2 NVMe drives, they’re all user-upgradable, they all support PCIe Gen 4. Ports: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 1x USB Type-C (10Gbps, Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4b) 1x HDMI 1.4b Joint 2nd 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C (40Gbps, PD, DisplayPort 1.4b) 1x HDMI 2.0 1st 1x USB Type-C (10Gbps, Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4b) 1x HDMI 1.4b Joint 2nd They all have 2x USB Type-A (5Gbps) ports, and they all have a headphone/microphone jack too. But the 840 G9 has the higher spec HDMI port, and 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports, that’s double the USB-C and quadruple the speed in each! Wi-Fi: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 Realtek Wi-Fi 6 3rd Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6e 1st Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 2nd This one is straight forward. Intel Wi-Fi cards are better (and more expensive) than Realtek ones, and Wi-Fi 6e can support faster speeds than Wi-Fi 6. HP don't actually do us the courtesy of including what model of Wi-Fi card the Realtek one is! Build Quality: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 Plastic Chassis MIL-STD-810H Tested Joint 2nd All-aluminium chassis MIL-STD-810H Tested 1st Plastic Chassis MIL-STD-810H Tested Joint 2nd Both new laptops are built of plastic – they’ve got a lovely silver coat of paint to look much like their EliteBook counterpart, but the 840 G9 is all Aluminium and built to last. It’s a premium feeling product, and there’s no paint to chip off. Charging: NEW HP Laptop 14” Refurbished HP EliteBook 840 G9 NEW HP 250R G10 45 W AC power adapter (recommended, sold separately Joint 2nd 45 W AC power adapter INCLUDED IN THE PRICE 1st 45 W AC power adapter (recommended, sold separately Joint 2nd I honestly hadn’t realised the whole laptop market was onboard with charging extra for power supplies and lucky for you, ICT Direct still isn’t onboard with it. All our laptops come with a charging brick. Price: HP Laptop 14” HP EliteBook 840 G9 HP 250R G10 NEW RRP: £499.17 Offer Price: £340.83 NEW RRP: £1000 Our Price: £310 NEW RRP: £555.99 Misco Price: £555.99 The RRP should tell you all you need to know – it may be 4 years old but the 840 G9 was valued at around the price of the other 2 laptops combined. It remains a top-end business class laptop, and the clear winner. HP’s top-end laptops today will set you back at least £1000, if not more, but they’re designed to last. That’s why we provide a 3-year Advance Replace Warranty to our managed customers, also included in the price, rather than as a paid return-to-base add-on from new. So, is the EliteBook 840 G9 the best offering for you? It’s the cheapest, and it wins by far the most categories when put head-to-head against new alternatives. It’s the toughest, with an aluminium chassis designed to survive the daily combat of school warfare. It’s easily customisable both at purchase and once in your hands – we can configure it to more RAM, or a larger NVMe; or you can upgrade it yourself further along the line. It feels daft to be typing this but... IT COMES WITH A CHARGER. There is only one more question to ask. How many can I put you down for?

I love finding out about new websites that are useful or software that isn't that well known but hugely helpful. In that vain i would like to know about what sites or software you feel are worth sharing and why. My contribution ninite - lets me install software with little to no hasstle chocolatey - command prompt system to update/install software on a machine. Wox - really useful search tool for windows that acts a bit like macs spotlight

Hi any one here using Link2ict for Internet. we are looking to move away anyone have any suggestions on a new provide?

Dear All - I seem to had been volunteered to write my own brief for today's ideal infrastructure for a new free school. The whole thing from the internet connection to the WiFi to the printers to the record management system - from soup to nuts as our American chums would say. Some of the ideas in this video from Apple - Apple (United Kingdom) - Essa Academy - resonate strongly with the education team on the project and to be honest limiting the time spent on antivirus alone is worth the cost. As school IT professionals and my fellow geeks I'd value your opinions, thoughts and input. Ask any questions - I'll do my best to answer. Many thanks Mouse

ICT Network Manager Grade 7, SCP 27 – 32 (£33,820 to £38,296) Full time (36 hrs 40 mins per week), full year Permanent, to start ASAP The Brian Clarke CE Academy is looking to appoint an experienced ICT professional to lead ICT functions in our new 11-16 Church of England comprehensive school. A post at a new school is an opportunity for a Network Manager to develop the systems and procedures for IT among a founding body of committed staff that are growing a school from Year 7 up; the Network Manager will support the development of the new school’s ethos and embedding that in IT functions of the school and having the benefit of a brand-new building with all new facilities and supported by a local, successful and experienced trust. The purpose of this role is to: · Support the transfer of the school from its current temporary site to the brand-new, purpose-built school, due for completion in April 2023. · Lead a school and trust-based team of technicians in delivering operational support and projects. · Play a key role in ensuring trust-wide network security and connectivity, meeting the need of curriculum and trust / school priorities. We are looking for someone who is: · Qualified and/or has significant professional experience and strong technical background with experience of designing, configuring and managing networks. · An excellent team manager and people person. · Positive, open and has a friendly attitude to customer service, improvement and delivery. We are continuing to recruit to our team of exceptional staff to achieve our vision and work together to create a genuinely outstanding school. As Network Manager you will shape the Brian Clarke IT function which will directly impact on the experience for our young people. Working for The Brian Clarke CE Academy means that you would be part of the Cranmer Education Trust, a successful, growing Trust which prides itself on looking after its people and offers a high level of support and access to expertise. This is an excellent time to join the team, as we develop collaborative structures and systems to enhance and support our growing family of schools. Alongside The Brian Clarke Academy, the Trust is made up of The Blue Coat School, Oldham, recently judged to be Outstanding by Ofsted, St Anne’s Academy in Middleton, and two primary schools - East Crompton St George’s and Mayfield Primary. The Trust also incorporates a teacher training school and the East Manchester Teaching Hub; both of which support the training and development of new and existing teachers across the North West of England. For further details please visit https://careers.cranmereducationtrust.com/. This position will be based at The Brian Clarke Academy but may from time to time require travel as necessary to collaborate with other schools which are all locally based. We offer: · Opportunities for professional development in a growing Trust · LGPS career average pension scheme including life insurance and dependent's pension · Generous holiday entitlement and sick pay scheme, increasing with length of service · Central Oldham location close to good transport networks The Cranmer Education Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The Cranmer Education Trust follows safer recruitment practices. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975,2013 and 2020 and appointment is therefore subject to a satisfactory enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure & Barring Service. For further information please refer to: The Cranmer Education Trust’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy Trust Policies | Cranmer Education Trust. The Trust’s statement on the employment of ex-offenders, in the job details’ documents section. The job description and person specification for further information regarding the safeguarding responsibilities of the role. For further information and to apply please visit the Cranmer Education Trust careers site. Please note CVs are not accepted Closing date for applications: 9 am on Monday 27th February 2023 Interviews: Friday 3rd March 2023 Start Date: As soon as possible **APPROVED** Statement re Employing Ex-Offenders.pdf ICT Network Manager JD and PS.pdf IT Network Manager Advert February 2023.pdf

Hello Guys, I am planning my summer holiday project of moving our existing SIMS server to a completely new fresh install on Windows Server 2016 and onto a new piece of hardware. The SIMS server is currently joined to our old ADMIN DOMAIN and I will be putting the new server on our curriculum domain, with a different server name. So, today I have being playing in a test environment. I got the installable version of SIMS for Capita, and I installed it on Server 2016, and upgraded SQL from the express to our licenced edition due to the size of our SIMS DB. As I was installing SIMS, I told the installer I didn't want to create a DB, and that I would mount one later. After the SIMS 2013 Installable version installed, I ran the 2018 Spring Upgrade to updates the file server to the new files, and our current live SIMS DB is on Spring 2018. I used DBAttach to restore a SIMS DB from a backup, I copied our latest backup file from our live SIMS server onto the new test one which ends in a .bak file. It restored, but error-ed regarding creating SQL User Logins for all my users. I opened SIMS, and I couldn't login, just get Wrong Username/Password. I do apolagise, I am completely new to SIMS and my knowledge is limited, which is why I am experimenting now and documenting as I go along. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Many Thanks James

Saw this in the corridor this morning: Seems like a good idea, but with our students, not so sure...

Morning All, I was just wondering if anybody had any good idea's for a new project for us to have a go at...? For example, we have setup wireless printing from mobile devices, airplay to our desktops, digital signage, remote access etc. but what have you guys done that you have been really proud of? What have you implemented that made a real difference or maybe you just did just to show off Would be great to know what other people have been up to?

Hi all, I am new to this so forgive me if someone has already covered this topic. I have just graduated and have started as a technician at a local school and we have just had Meru Wireless installed. 40 AP's with really good coverage. We have Smoothwall running for our proxy with is really good and i have setup a transparent Proxy so it will pickup anything on the network on port 80 and filter it. We had tendered for our wireless and the company who has done all of the work so far has got stuck on configuring the meru wireless to point to the proxy. Does anyone know where this is in the Console? or would we even need to point it to the proxy? We need the proxy to be pushed to all third party devices that are not on the domain such as phones tablets etc. is this the best way around it? Any ideas would be cool Thanks