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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 | ||
| 83400 | 2002-09-26 05:11:00 | I have a friend........ who is responsible for a primary schools computer system. The school intends to purchase 15 new pc's, and want to buy Compaq......because they offer all sorts of support etc....... My suspician is that they are better off buying factory built pc's based on the fact that compaq parts and technical services are extremely pricey........ What they appear to save in the short term is probably very expensive in the long term.... Am I right???/ OR are they indeed better off with the BRAND NAME??? |
Jock (2020) | ||
| 83401 | 2002-09-26 05:17:00 | The Compaq could well use better quality components: they buy in bigger quantities than any local assembler . But anyone buying 15 is going to ask for a special price . . . and that might be the determining factor . A local machine is not going to have "much" worse quality . |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 83402 | 2002-09-26 06:58:00 | Compatability of all components will be better with HP or Compaq than assembled to order units, and overall reliability will likely be good. If you are not going to upgrade them for gaming, then the brand names are probably not a bad choice. | godfather (25) | ||
| 83403 | 2002-09-26 07:37:00 | I have to disagree .... I never, ever recommend anyone to buy Compaq/HP PCs. I guess for a school it will finally come down to purchase price, but one should always try to purchase a 'non-name' brand. Compaq/HP's support is pretty lousy if you ask me ... you can't ring them until after 10am NZT because the call-center is based in Australia, not too good for a school if they have a problem at 9am. A wee story ..... One of my clients recently had both his Compaq PCs die (one a m/b, one a h/d) at the same time, both were under warranty (the full-service add-on type) and yet the quickest official response - from Australia - I could get was "sometime within the next 2 days, if we can land the components". These PCs were crucial to running his business (of the big chain fast-food restaurant variety), so I commented: "Huhh, I could drive 5 minutes down the road and purchase so said components myself if it wasn't for the warranty, why can't the contracted technician do that?" The reply I got was that the parts would not be "official Compaq components". After several phone calls to the local technician and his boss, I finally got a "24 hour" response time, which I still consider shoddy. Jock, if I was your friend, I would purchase a bunch of locally-built PCs. |
antmannz (28) | ||
| 83404 | 2002-09-26 07:51:00 | Agreed Antz . My 15 years experience says for schools, buy generic . PC tend to get bashed a lot and need to be able to be fixed / upgraded etc for as cheap as poss . You definately won't get the cheapest option with HP/compaq due to their 'proprietry' hardware etc . Why not, as part of the education, get the students to build a PC each according to necessary specs . Give 'em good experince as well as providing the guff ! Unless you're talking about a primary school . But then again . . SiK |
SoniKalien (792) | ||
| 83405 | 2002-09-26 23:35:00 | as far as im concerned ur better off with HP/Compaq.. why?? because in a primary school kids tend to do sumthing stupid like erase files!! or uninstall programs that can damaged the PC's if there is someone gonna look after it like maintain all the integerity of the computers then i suggest u buy those custom made PC's they're a lot cheaper but hav to install everything.. manually! Where as those company based PC's HP etc.. they hav these recovery cd's that u can just pop in ans install everything for ya! so i guess its up to you! Cheers |
kunatchi (1484) | ||
| 83406 | 2002-09-26 23:45:00 | if they make 15 pc's the same its easy enough to make a restore disk off the first one and use it to install on to the rest. compaqs are usually pretty well sorted machines so there is less risk of dodgy hardware. however the drawback is you are stuck with compaq parts which will make it real fun to upgrade/repair at a later date. the school IT department/person proberly deals with a computer firm on a regular basis. i would start looking there first. at least support is not far away. |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 83407 | 2002-09-27 02:35:00 | Why buy new PCs? I think as far as schools go they are much better off to purchase a cheap clone or refurbished PC and run terminal services. That way you can create individual identities for each student (or user) and there is less chance of them stuffing the PC up by trashing the whole thing because *they can*. You can buy refurbished PCs for around $300 to $400 - likely to be a PII 300 w/ 64mb, NIC and a HDD under 8GB. Terminal services needs hardly any memory to run.. and the specs of the PC are irrelevant because it's a thin client.. MTCW. |
honeylaser (814) | ||
| 83408 | 2002-09-27 05:43:00 | Hewlett Packard/Compaq spare parts prices will make you realise where they make their money I recently had a mate that had a compaq with a dodgy floppy disk drive...now a generic one costs less than $20 but it wouldnt even fit the case! Had to purchase the Compaq FDD which was $179!!Needless to say the owner was not too pleased!! |
Ferroshus (842) | ||
| 83409 | 2002-09-27 05:54:00 | the good thing about brand name is that they have good safety standards. locally built pcs are not that safe, if some kids open the case and cut their fingers. and in the worst case, the power simple blow up smashing some glasses. |
yang11 (170) | ||
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