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| Thread ID: 25106 | 2002-09-26 05:11:00 | Hewlett Packard/Compaq PC's | Jock (2020) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 83410 | 2002-09-27 06:01:00 | Don't waste your money on a name brand computer, a mate of mine had his BIOS trashed by a virus, the computer was a HP pavlova that was 9 months out of warranty. a replacement motherboard was $1100 but with taking the motherboard out and sending it back you got a $500 rebate. Take note that any thing that a primary school child does to a computer is not covered by wty. i.e. stick things in holes because you can... easiest way to check is to ring HP and say that your computer got a virus and killed the motherboard, how much for a new one? after you choke you know what we are saying about it, don't forget to add 50% to the price now, so that when you try to get the part once out of warranty they would be harder to get |
Wayne H (1736) | ||
| 83411 | 2002-09-27 10:58:00 | When you say that you have a friend that is responsible for the PCs. How much does he know about PCs. Or is it a case like some primary schools where they just pick out the person that can navigate the Start Menu and give the postion to them. Are the computers going to be used by the pupils? Will the teachers use them? If the pupils are using them are there going to be competent (with computers) teachers nearby keeping an eye on them? What are the pupils like, school reputation? I assume that you are after PCs running MS Windows, not after Apples or Linux boxes or other variants. What I imagine you are after is 15 identical PCs. I've talked to my tutor about this before. He has gone down the local manufacturer route before and found that it was just not worth the hassle. As they wouldn't be exactly the same. With their begin slight variations in the motherboards or some other component which would prevent the ability to easily image from one computer on the others. HP do make good quality computers that work well. The college I'm at runs solely on HP (admittedly there is some sponsorship, but I'm not biased) apart from one or two other computers. When problems have happened they've been there to replace the motherboard, HDD and what not. This college is for Yr13 students that are interested in computers so generally they do get treated well. But the night-classes and the like may not be quite the same. The computers have not broken down for what would be HPs fault. But all components are likely to have the odd break down. Also with computers being the same it makes it very easy if you do want to teach the pupils how to use linux at some stage. Or just for installing software. As if it works on one it should work on the others. Another consideration maybe leasing the computers. This can be a very good alternative as the computers are maintained by other people and after 3yrs (or whenever) they will be replaced with a fresh bunch of computers. This way you don't end up with an aging heap of computers at a school (my high school was like this). When I first went there they had 386s running win3.11 with Novell. |
-=JM=- (16) | ||
| 83412 | 2002-09-27 12:18:00 | Been there, read the book, seen the movie, yada yada yada. I run the I.T. dept of a large primary school and have had experience with Compaqs and clones in the hands of children and teachers alike and from experience the compaqs will cost you more in time and replacement parts than than clones. A clone goes down and you can swap in parts in very short time. A compaq goes down and if it is anything more serious than a dud cd, it's basically not worth repairing due to price and non availability of parts. Take a power supply for example. One blew on a classroom presario. The p/s was a cute little handcrafted sucker, customed designed to fit into a crevice in the undersized case with the added bonus of non standard wiring on the connectors. Compaq refused to sell me one on the grounds it had to be fitted by a compaq certified techy then really put the icing on the cake by then informing me after 5 minutes of passionate discourse that non were available in the country anyway but one could be imported for the princely sum of $385 gst inc (including freight) and could be available in ten days. Needless to say this 2 year old presario went into the parts bucket. The longevity of the components is no different from clone components and in many cases worse, especially hard drives. They skimp on cooling options, have cases that make getting at even basic components a marathon effort and have the lovely restore cd (chocker full of useless compaq cpu cycle sucking utilities ) which is marvellous until the hard drive goes down. Then,unless you are lucky and the emergency floppy you created for the compaq bios to recognise another clone drive works ( yet to happen for me) then you are stuck with buying a compaq formated drive at twice the price of a clone to enable your ever so handy restore cd to work. Could go on for hours on the subject of compaqs, hate them loathe despise them, don't even make good boat anchors. Buy clones and whatever problems you have will fade into insignificance next to those of using compaqs. |
the highlander (245) | ||
| 83413 | 2002-09-28 02:44:00 | Well said highlander. > ...don't even make good boat anchors. They make good landfill tho. :) |
antmannz (28) | ||
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