The headache escalates.
It’s a Community Centre run by a handful, so making decisions has to be decided by the 'many' which leads ultimately by one person who has the last say. Who in the nicest way possible I can say is one 'clueless numpty' and takes his own decisions anyway regardless of the opinion of others.
Take make matters worse this one person hasn't a clue about computers and their practical and effective uses for the RIGHT setting.
He is most certainly not fit enough to make decisions in regards to this, hence why my dad tried to bring me in. But even being a bit clueless myself I have confidence I can do this, rather this than them pay some guy £1000+ who'll be running happily to the bank.
So what's happened is this 'boss' of the Centre, saw a set up of 'laptops' in another 'Community Centre' in a different city. And is now boasting that "
If they can have laptops, then so can we!". Yes this is what I have to deal with now :s
He didn't know what the uses for these laptops were
Was it for educational/learning use?
Was it just a temp gathering for gaming/meeting?
All he saw was probably a bit of 14" portable eye-candy, and thought it would be the bee’s knees to have it at the Centre as well.
But apparently what he said at the most recent meeting which he considered his strongest argument for having laptops was........"
They can be stored away easily".......*sighs*
So my father has asked me to construct a list (without calling the head of the place a 'moron') why laptops is a very bad investment, especially for ICT/IT training for beginners.
Nothing against laptops myself - I'm guilty of buying an Alienware m18x back in 2011 (though what a waste of money that was - typing from it right now :d).
But for this....No.....just NOOOOO to laptops.
This isn't meant to be a PC vs laptop war though this may kind of look like it. This is meant to somehow convey to this ‘head genius’ of the Centre that for practical learning and cost use = laptops aren't a viable option.
This list needs to be short and simple, because this person doesn't know what a CPU, HDD etc. is.
Specific values like differences in GHz, rpm etc. won't make sense to this person either. You have to talk in simple terms like 'twice as fast/cheap' etc.
LIST:
- Yes laptops can be stored conveniently, but can also be stolen just as easily. It is very unlikely someone will get away with a monitor, PC Unit, keyboard and mouse VS a laptop in a matter of seconds.
- Complete PC workstation VS Laptop. PC's will always be cheaper, faster, easier to use and more reliable;
- For the same price of a complete PC workstation vs a laptop, you will only probably get a 3rd of the performance from a laptop(?????)
Someone please correct me on this, not sure what the general say is on these things are.
- Learners and general users want clear visibility without making learning any more difficult. Looking at a smaller sized screen laptop won’t be practical and eye straining to that of a full sized PC screen. We need to make learning as easy as possible, not impractical at the expense of ‘portability’.
- Laptops are more likely to have faults/breakdowns, and more likely the unit as a whole will have to be sent back, rather than fixing one component in a PC and having it up and running again more easily and quickly.
- Once warranty has expired, fixing a laptop
WILL be extremely more costly with parts harder to find, to that of a PC.
- The feel and quality of laptop controls don’t sit well with everyone and vary very differently for different brands. They can be very impractical again especially for those trying to learn to use computers.
ANYONE PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THIS LIST, but has to be very simple reasons otherwise it will just go over this persons head.
Not sure also how a network of laptops would compete against a network of PC’s (both wired)??
Also please correct me on anything I’ve said (even horrible grammar used in the list :d). I’d like to make a list for this person as to how wrong he is and have it handed in within a day or so.
Again I apologise to laptop users, this isn't a dig at them. But I feel the head of the Centre is ‘killing’ it for new learners with his ‘vision’ of a room full of laptops.
@ RCoon.
Thanks once again for you input, you’ve been more than helpful!
Just realised the forum changes the amazon links yikes.
Now I’ve had time to have a better look your suggestion sounds good:
Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard and Optical Mouse
+
Intel Pentium Dual Core G3240 Zoostorm system
+
Crucial MX100 128GB SSD
Although it would require some work from me which I lightly touched up on before, but I may actually go the extra mile to put those SSD in.
Which HDD cloning software would you use?
What’s your take on the system having w8.1? Then I should simply purchase ‘Stardock's START 8’ licenses to make the systems more user friendly to as close as W7 as possible. They’re only $4.99 a license anyways.
Could I ask. Would combing a SSD with your recommended Intel Pentium Dual Core G3240 system, perform better than an Intel Core i3-4130 system with a standard HDD say like this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/643321-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7260-8002
I’m just weighing out if it’s worth going through the extra hassle of buying SSD’s, cloning etc, if the performance difference won’t be that different. On the bigger positive side least the SSD won’t fail in the long run VS HDD…yup???
These people at the centre wouldn’t appreciate my time and effort put in for free, which puts me off from doing this at the same time
but least my dad will.
I just hope I can convince this one lunatic at the Community Centre not to go for laptops *sighs*
It wouldn’t surprise me if he questioned as far as to why the PC systems don’t have optical DVD drives, and not knowing what USB sticks are at the same time :s
Said it before, but yes... This is the craziness I have to deal with
Feel free to add to a list of things as to why they shouldn’t go for the room full of laptops route, over PC set ups. Considering the sole purpose of their use.
Again many thanks
I just hope I can still hold a good deal with ebuyer after messing them about already saying I would order from them within the day :s.
First things first, to deal with the top guy at the community centre. If there’s no logic getting through to this person then I give up…
The lengths I go through to help an old man out/dad
