Workstation Recommendation

We have a medium sized client who is growing. They recently hired us on to modernize them. This is the first time my input has been asked for this kind of thing. So I am hoping to cover all my bases.

Part of the project is to get their desktop's standardized. Currently they are mix of hardware including Windows ME, 2000, XP, Vista and a few old G4s. Although the mostly they are dell and Hp Windows XP machines.

We need to set their "standard" machine for the next year. Both Desktop and Laptops.
1) I am looking for something with Hard Drive and possibly memory diagnostic on the BIOS to make supporting remote users easier.
2) We are going to install XP pro on them for now
3) The machines will just be used for Office and Citrix. Nothing else, so we're using software restriction policies to lock them down.
4) They are interested in Bitlocker for their remote users. So the board should support that for down the road, when they upgrade to 7.

Given their low system requirements we are hoping to get away with $500 a workstation and $800 a laptop. Input?

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Comments

Tyrant1919

If you'll be running MS office, that'll be a chunk of your $500 workstation budget.

Minimum specs I would go for:

any Core 2 Duo
2GB Ram
80GB HD

I'd recommend Dell.

Optiplex 360

It's a decent model. Base price $439 without Office. depending on how many you order, I guess a dell rep could give you a slight discount, not sure how their ordering works.

mbarra

Consider volume license instead of OEM for OS and Office. Will probably save good chunk of change.

Daniel333

Thanks for the input.

Office... Windows already paid for. I am talking just hardware. Not so much specs, but specific models you know to have those BIOS features and are Windows 7 ready.

someeh

You can also try HP, my company recently purchased a large order from them.
core 2 duo
3gigs ram
80gig HDD
etc etc. for $500 but then again we're non for profit

I would go with Dell though, you won't have to worry about tech support on Dell's end.

Tyrant1919

I will always recommend dell to any business. Any Optiplex model would probably do you good.

What's your reason for using hard drive or memory diagnostics in the field? Considering it's a good option to do first, my primary concern is getting the user back up asap. If it's a suspected memory issue, I just bring some extra RAM. If it's motherboard related I just swap the hard drive into another computer of the same model. If it's a hard drive problem, I image up another HD for them. Just curious that's all.

Lee H

Do you require an extended warranty, for $500 I dont know what you will get

If you wanted the best possible PC for you money you would have to go down the route of building them yourself

Why give Dell or HP 100% profit when you can build them and either save a massive fortune or build much better spec PC's

Worth looking into your options to see exactly how much you would save and if its a feasable(spl?) option to build them yourself

Therhino

The only thing for a small business warranty plays a pretty good role. Sometimes if you can get them to give you the 3 year warranty it is worth its weight it gold. Rather than tracking individual vendors for warranty you just call them. I had them hand deliver a hard drive for my raid in less than 3 hours.

Lee H wrote: »

Do you require an extended warranty, for $500 I dont know what you will get

If you wanted the best possible PC for you money you would have to go down the route of building them yourself

Why give Dell or HP 100% profit when you can build them and either save a massive fortune or build much better spec PC's

Worth looking into your options to see exactly how much you would save and if its a feasable(spl?) option to build them yourself

Lee H

You say small business, how critical are your machines. If one of your machines were down for a few days would you lose profit

not sure exactly how much the increase in price is per machine when you opt for an extended warranty but as a rough example

PC cost $400, +warranty $600, you buy 20 PC's total cost =12,000

an extra $4000 to cover hardware faults for 20 PC's is a lot of money

Is it not a possibility to remove the extended warranty and spend $1000 on spare parts that may go faulty, some mobos, hard drives and cpu's

The only thing you gain from extended warranty is peace of mind, large initial pay out and no further cost to have them repaired, or save money and do the repairs as they happen with stock items already bought, how many of us IT people cant actually replace a CPU or swap out a mobo

pogue

Lee H wrote: »

You say small business, how critical are your machines. If one of your machines were down for a few days would you lose profit

not sure exactly how much the increase in price is per machine when you opt for an extended warranty but as a rough example

PC cost $400, +warranty $600, you buy 20 PC's total cost =12,000

an extra $4000 to cover hardware faults for 20 PC's is a lot of money

Is it not a possibility to remove the extended warranty and spend $1000 on spare parts that may go faulty, some mobos, hard drives and cpu's

The only thing you gain from extended warranty is peace of mind, large initial pay out and no further cost to have them repaired, or save money and do the repairs as they happen with stock items already bought, how many of us IT people cant actually replace a CPU or swap out a mobo

Ima have to disagree STRONGLY with you here.. I have personally worked in businesses that have the Dell Gold support or whatever it is called, and it is truly worth it.

Yeah..I can change out a motherboard.

But sure as heck not as fast as I can change out a hard drive. The customer REALLY appreciates it when Dell is called for a hardware issue and they bring out a whole new computer and just swap the hard drives.

No additional work space required for working on the PCs, BTW.

No additional payroll for PC technicians, BTW. If your support guys (mainly geared towards providing software support) have time to spend replacing motherboards, network cards, hard drives, etc, then you need to fire one of them and make the others work harder.

And right there you've saved way more than the overhead cost of buying the warranties.

Also, if you buy your own repair parts, YOU have to arrange the testing of the parts.. That's a few hours a week. YOU have to deal with the hassle of calling up the vendor and arranging returns od DOA equipment. There's a few more hours a week.

Not to mention the fact that your warranty cost will NEVER be $200 on a $400 machine.

So, for the additional cost of $100 per PC (MUCH more reasonable), you do not have to have a workspace specifically for working on repairs. You do not have to pay an employee for 2 1/2 hours total to drive to the PC, repair it, test it, and drive back.

You do not have to pay for additional wear and tear on your company autos. You do not have to pay additional unnecessary fuel costs.

You do not have to pay shipping costs for parts. You do not have to pay for storage space of repair parts/extra PCs.

You develop a positive relationship with your customer by not having a technician disassemble a PC at the customer's place of business.. Or, on the flip side, you are not taking the PC out of their business for hours at a time.

I think you have a very unrealistic view of what the OP's business model is. I am thinking his company makes 10-15% on hardware/software purchases, and makes the majority of their profits on contract services.

Asking them to do their own PC repair is possible, but totally ignores their business strengths.

Russ

tiersten

Buying it from Dell/whoever means the box will be tested and they'll come out and fix it for you. How much is your time worth? Sure, you can go and do it yourself for cheaper maybe but do you really want to have to deal with it? Do you want them to call you up and insist you come and fix some crucial machine when you're away on holiday?

Building your own PC at home is fine but if it is for business use then you should always buy in.

astorrs

I fully agree with warranties for servers, but for desktops/laptops there comes a point (quantity) where it is just cheaper to buy a bunch of extras and toss them (err... recycle them) if they break after the initial 3 year, or whatever comes included, warranty expires.

Plantwiz

astorrs wrote: »

I fully agree with warranties for servers, but for desktops/laptops there comes a point (quantity) where it is just cheaper to buy a bunch of extras and toss them (err... recycle them) if they break after the initial 3 year, or whatever comes included, warranty expires.

Agreed.

Waiting for a Dell tech to eventually show up isn't worth the time and hassle of dealing with them.

Keep 2-3 systems ready-to-go and you can change out a bad system in 15 minutes or so...maybe 30 getting profiles setup, but the employee can 'work' once again and you can now fix their regular box if it can be fixed without anyone sitting around without a machine.

In some instances, it may make sense to buy their warranty.

Psoasman

Dells aren't bad. We use a few laptops, mostly latitudes for the managers. We order several computers each month and load the OS and configure them for the various departments. Most of our techs have extensive hardware experience, so we fix or mod most everything. I think the extended warranties are good for the larger-ticket items, but a waste of money for the basic workstation.
As far as remote maintenance, Boztech VNC is awesome for that, we use it for most of our remote work.