cba to read the whole thread, but here's my two cents. You want these to work all the time, no flaws, no errors. So, don't buy cheap stuff. Get good brand stuff, even if it's just the value line of a good brand. Contact whoever you go through and ask for a discount. That's a hella lotta money you're spending there, you deserve some discount. Things to change: -Better mobo. If it doesn't have integ. LAN, it's not a good choice... -Better PSU. It's the cause of so many computer failures and malfunctions, it's a part you shouldn't skimp on. -GET BETTER RAM! RAM is the go-between of your computer. Don't skimp, it'll bite you in the ass. -Try to get a desktop case, rather than a tower. Much better for a school environement. -Get an cd burner as opposed to just a reader. You never know when a student will need/want it, or moreover when a teacher will need/want it. And are you sure it wouldn't be cheaper to go with something like Dell? I know it's a horrid thing, but this way any problem with it isn't your fault at all, you can point the finger at someone else. And building 60 of the same computer will get rediculously monotonous, trust me. Even if you think it'll be fun, that'll last to about the third computer. Then you'll be bored out of your mind and sick of solving hardware issues. By the end you'll start doing things like forgetting to put RAM in, or plug in the mobo, because you're so sick of doing the same exact thing 60 times. Just my opinions
@ Zephyr.. he has 3 more buddies to help him with I think he said that Anyway.. I'd look for a slightly better mobo and watch out for the optical mice since they'll prolly be wrecked very fast like spacehopper said. And if you want to 'give away' the old pc/pcparts I'll be glad to accept one
I disagree with the statements about "not using optical mice for fear of getting trashed;" the bigger problem will be dealing with ball mice getting jacked. Get some sturdy optical mice that work well; and on a side note, I doubt you could get a better deal of any sort going through Dell.
I agree that optical mice are better. No balls to get stolen, and you can get good cheap optical mice for only $2 or $3 more then regular ball mice. I disagree on the part of getting a dell throw dell. This is for a school. Dell will work with schools and buisnesses for bulk orders. Just like any good company or reseller will do. My school redid one of our last old P2 computer labs in fall. They bought 32 systems that were worth $950 each. With the bulk order they came out to only about $775 each. Thats a $5,600 savings + a warrently on all the machines. Thats not bad, definitly worth looking into buying a bulk order from some where (it doesn't have to be dell).
OK. It's still 15 computers a person, and it's still 60 computers to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. Just because they're all the same parts doens't mean you won't get different problems in different machines. And the optical mice won't get jacked or trashed. Have some faith in humanity. Oh, and Dell does amazing educational deals. Don't be all "omgz0rz d3ll 1sn't t3h 1337!!1111oneonesixtwelveeightyfour", they are the best at what they are. Buying through them means that you get the direct-manufacturer OEM deals they get, plus they give you a discount. And all of the warantee is on their hands, not yours.
Even though I dont like Dell I agree its worth giving them a call. From there point of view its more money for them and also free advertising to 1000+ kids who will then tell there parents "we got new Dell computers at school", chances are a reasonable ammount of those parents will consider buying a Dell next time they upgrade. One thing to bear in mind, the person on the other end may be on commision, so just keep reminding them of this £12,000 burning a whole in your schools pocket... Good luck
Thanks for all that advice, I'm gonna try and raise the budget to more of a branded computer, either prebuilt or unbuilt. I have 4 other people who will be helping, so that's 12 computerrs each, but if we do it in a production line way, it will be a lot quicker as you get into the rythem! The budget is already higher, but £130 each has been reserved for new 17" TFT's. Most of the computers at the mo are towers, and people at my school don't trash computers! They are almost in the same state as they were when they were first put in, just add the extra muk on the keyboards! Even the VI form server, internet server and file server are in an open item room, not supervised and open to everyone from 7am to 9pm, including the weekends. And as far as I know, they haven't been turned off by a student yet!
Processor: Celeron-D 320 2.4ghz £45.16 Motherboard: Asus P4P800-MX £41.98 PSU: Generic (Encer/Magna) 500w £11.74 HSF: Retail Intel £0.00 RAM: Crucial PC3200 256MB £19.97 HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB, sATA NCQ 8MB £37.37 Case: Casecom KG-918 £5.87 Mouse: Chic 1330 £2.58 Keyboard: Tension TSK-108A £1.29 CD-RW: Samsung 52x32x52x CDRW £14.09 Floppy: Mitsumi 3.5" FDD £3.67 LAN: onboard £0.00 Case Fan: Generic 80mm £0.70 TOTAL PER COMPUTER: £184.42 (extra £12.28) GRAND TOTAL: £11,065.20 (extra £736.80) EDIT: THIS IS INCLUDING VAT, GRAND TOTAL EXCLUDING VAT IS £9,417.19! Might cost a little more, but consider that you're paying an extra £12.28 for a cpu that will run at 3ghz easily, you're also getting a psu that should last longer than a few weeks and the memory is A LOT better than Ebuyer stuff. You're also getting a mouse that won't need cleaning. Whatever you do, make sure Folding@Home's running on each of them!
Thoughts: DO NOT get that eBuyer RAM its pot luck if it works and you dotn want to have to be sending back 40 anmd then another 10 of those when they come back again etc etc etc get crucial RAM from ebuyer instead not much more. Below you can see for not very much more you could get a machine that (excluding case/pusu) is branded throughout by brands I would trust if i was building that many PC's. Asus A7V8X-X SKT A KT400 8x AGP DDR Sound lAN USB 2.0 Retail Box 049060 20 £26.28 Corsair (VS512MB400C3) 512MB, DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, 184 DIMM, unbuffered, CL3, 32Mx8 DRAMs, Lifetime Warranty 066402 249 £30.49 Seagate Barracuda 80Gb 7200rpm UDMA100 Hard Drive - OEM 036369 207 £30.95 BenQ 52x32x52x Internal IDE Black CDRW Retail Kit 083438 228 £12.49 Casecom KG-828 Black Atx Midi Tower Case With 400w PSU and USB/Audio 056357 217 £24.99 Logitech OEM Deluxe Keyboard Black PS2 063296 704 £6.49 Logitech OEM S96 Optical Wheel Mouse Black PS2 077244 444 £5.49 Sony OEM 3.5 Floppy Drive Black 074629 406 £3.40 AMD Sempron 2400+ (SDA2400BOX) Processor Skt A 256Cache 333FSB Retail Boxed Processor With 3 Year Warranty 065074 118 £39.76 Cart Total: £180.34 Thats without VAT as far as im aware your school wont have to pay it will they? Delivery would be very little per PC on this scale. Deano.
looks like a good spec, although your missing a graphics card, as that mobo doesnt appear to have it on boad.
Would save a bit and get a 40gb hard drive though. I assume that students have filespace on the server so the HDD is only for apps.
Cool, a more reliable system! Although we'll be getting 40Gig HDD cos files are stored on the fileserver with 220Gigs of compressed space on it. The CD/RW's and floppies need to be black to match the casing, and 512MB RAM may be needed. Voodoo2k4, where did you get these prices from? As for VAT, I'm not sure whether schools have to pay them or not, I'll ask. Will be giving proposal version 2 to the school tomorrow, but I'm not expecting any thoughts on them next week cos we got ofsted coming in next week. I'll probably have about 40 computers given to me if I want them, they'll keep the rest for IT coursework I guess. I've already had some requests from F@H member who want some, so if I have spares, some of you can have them if you pay the postage!
voodoo2k4's system is pretty much a perfect lineup, the only change would be the hard drive. However, there may not be much of a price difference between 40GB and 80GB, and it may just be nice to have if it's sommat like a 2-3 dollar difference. Kind've OT, but the school server only has 220GB of space...? That seems low. Oh, and I'd be interested in a few of those desktops to build a folding farm, so I'm registering my interest
I'm interested too! I need a machine so I can make a cool pc to watch movies on and play my old snes games I only have interest in 1 pc though
I know they're school comps, but don't overcheap out on the cases. The really cheap ones have utter crap build quality and you won't want to have to RMA 45 cases because screw holes don't line up and whatnot. yer lucky you dont have a bunch of asses in your school. our computers get trashed faster than we can fix them. I'm lucky because I know keyboard shortcuts and our mice balls are stolen more often than pencils are sharpened
Wonka, prices are from eBuyer the old stomping ground. And if you buy in bulk you will get a slight bulk discount 5% or so. However I am with everyone that the warantee issue dodged by getting a Dell is worthwhile. Why bother downgrading to 40GB from 80Gb to save £3 yes £3, HD storage is so cheap these days. Deano.
What for the next Dell price cockup where they sell a 3gig P4 Dimension 3000 with 15" tft for £230. They always seem to have price bodges on thier website.
Casecom cases are nasty, spend the extra and get a low end Antec. If you attempted to build 12 machines with Casecom cases you'd either have no fingers left due to the sharp edges or you would be dead due to electrocution by the crap PSUs. Really building these yourself is insane, you cannot get a deal anywhere near as good as an educational deal with a company such as Dell who buy in truly enormous bulk. More to the point you and your friends will be solely responsible for fixing the systems and providing warranty, whereas Dell would provide you with next day support and parts replacement.
