Best use of school equipment

[01001010]

They're not made for eye candy. They're made industrial use.

 

[Half Evil]

Durability ftw.

 

[root]

Originally Posted by alvino
Not really. Schools do get educational discounts. No one wants to build over 100+ custom computers for one school. It's just too much work.

My school pays far more for computers than I personally would.

We use IBM as our supplier, and we pay $1300 with taxes for each computer.

Pentium 4 3.0GHZ
512 meg DDR2 SDRAM
Intel 915 based motherboard
Integrated Sound, LAN, Video
80 Gig Hitachi SATA drive
CDRW / DVD Combo drive
17" IBM CRT
3 year On-site warranty (However it takes them up to a month to come)
Keyboard, Mouse
XP PRO (The cd key is located on the chasis, however these CD keys DO NOT work and instead all the computers use a Microsoft VLK)

An exact same spec dell costs $821 with tax.

Schools sometimes get jipped, as our entire board gets screwed.

You're getting F'ed in the A at those prices... the educational discounts that I get sees a pretty much exact spec system, with the exception of we demand firewire on all the computers and flat screen monitors all for £495) (~$967USD)...

I wouldn't pay that much for my own system either, (certainly not one that is a basic stock system)...

the reason that schools don't build PC's is (amongst other reasons) because they have no warranty.
when I first started here, I suggested that we could easily half our upgrade cycle if we built machines, without spending any more, we could also get better machines, more taylored to what people needed,
everyone was happy with the idea that more people could get newer machines each year, until finally it got to the top awaiting aproval and was shot down, basically it's not comecially viable for schools to build their own.

it takes too much time, (apparantly),
there is no warranty,
and in the case of a lot of places like the one where I work. it'd break suppliers contract.

*most* schools and universities are actually tied to suppliers by what is known as UPC (universities purchasing consortium), basically, educational establishments (as a group)sign contracts with a group of suppliers saying that they will buy exclusivly from them, in return the educational establishments get a hefty discount.

therefore, if the establishment buys outside of contracted suppliers, (without great reasons, that have to be documented), they've broken contract, and are leagally liable for fines/leagal action etc...

 

[alvino]

IBM's are way too chunky and non-stylish if you ask me

Actually, the IBM Lenovo ones are pretty sleek. Sleeker than IBM's older laptops. Becides, they're designed for durability and reliability, not eye-candy.