Starting a school - need computer advice

Hello,

Just get some Dual Core or Pentium 4 Windows's box's install everything you need put deep freeze on it and call it good. Deep Freeze can help when you restart the computer it restores back how you setup the computer.

I 2nd Deepfreeze as a super-great way to reset computers every day- always back to how they were the day before...

As far as where to get them-

I work in retail electronics. One of the common ways for people to purchase without laying out cash is to do a rental/lease of the equipment.

What I suggest is contacting a few of the companies that do this. The idea with those places is that, after the computers are 2-3 years old (though still perfectly viable)- the rental companies basically write them off- or offer to sell them outright to the customers.

I know, for a fact, they will take just about anything for them (even $50 will usually get one). See if you can hook up & get them to donate. You get good machines for nothing, they get a tax write-off...

Good luck!

I'd like to point out that you could have a network of 16-20 computers, let the kids do whatever they wanted and periodically run imaging software that would overwrite all the drives with exact images of what you want the kids to be able to use.

If you have Windows machines, you will have what most people at home will have. If you install Macs, you will be teaching the kids to use what their parents at home are less likely to have.

You are, however, looking at significant investment if you are looking at Windows server software. Good luck. Maybe you can get a sponsor. Talk to some local network consultants, sometimes they can get used routers at a discount.

I would purchase a bunch of off lease computers. You can find them for about $150 a piece through sites like tiger direct. Only problem is that they do not come with monitors and some don't come with an OS.

If you are having trouble deciding if you should go with Mac or PC gather some information about what kind of computers the schools in your area use. That's just a thought. I like the idea.

You should get netbooks because kids love the idea of a ""Laptop""

If you were to go Mac, I would get all Mac Mini's and get some nice decent monitors nothing to fancy. You could either run a mac server or just use carbon copy or similar software and clone the hard drives back to your standard image.

If you were to go Windows, I would also say use Deep Freeze and if the kids wanted to download something have a networked hard drive that they save everything in their folder (Name of Kid) and start teaching them the basics of either system get them used to the basic software. Personally I would go the Mac route just because the kids wouldn't have to deal with a lot of windows things they are not ready for, the Macs would be simple for them to use and if you were so inclined use VMware, Parallels, or Virtual Box to show them Windows a bet. But I think that Mac would be a "cleaner" use for kids of that age simple, works, and let them have fun and learn early.

I think these may be good. They are small and have a pretty good price. They come loaded with Ubuntu.

You could maybe have a network set up where there is one main computer that "steams" the os and you can then make a Admin account on it and download programs and set it up on there. Then you can log-in on the other computers and have everything installed and just like how it was on the other computer. That is similar to what we do at my school. And we use the same computers. I would not recommend them for gaming though. :) (insert intentional laugh here.) (Sorry for any typos I typed this up very quickly.)

http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=91