Need Pc's for rural school

Wex1

Now that we have broadband in my sons' school the teachers have found that some of the ancient machines bought with Department of Ed money are obsolete!!! - surprise surprise. Now Im not sure this is the correct forum (move me to a better place please mod if im out of line) but the principal asked if any of us new of anybody getting rid of PCs through upgrades etc. So a colleague of mine got some stuff a couple of years ago through the boards and I thought i'd give it a try too!!
Specs as follows: Firstly - have to be somewhere in County Wexford, or even Waterford city, secondly would have to be able to handle mulitmedia educational applications, the higher the specs the better obviously and of course we'd observe all legal licencing laws too. I use a lot but am no means very good at anything above basic technospeak and I'm still probably as well equipped in this department as any other parent involved in the school - but we're willing to learn!!! Even one machine would be good!! Please..... and thank you (as my junior infant would say)

Ruu_Old

Have a look under adverts.ie->For Sale Adverts->Free Stuff. There is often people giving away computers that might be some use to you. Good luck.

Wex1

Hey thanks,

never looked at the adverts and didn't know for sale also had free stuff!!

TerrorFirmer

Firstly, what are they going to be used for? I assume basic use like word, internet, and all the usual office type applications?

I doubt, that these computers you already have, are actually "obsolete" for the purpose you'll need them for unless they are quite literally 6-7 years old. Any more specs on them? They may be alot more useful then you would think.

Again, of course, unless they are geuninely years upon years old. In my old school though, they still had alot of old Pentium mmx PC's (maybe 8 years old if not more) - they were absolutely fine for ms word, excel, internet, etc.

generalmiaow

you might also look at http://www.jumbletown.ie's computer section from time to time.

You could also try going round local factories, tell them what the PC's are for and they may help sort you out.

Wex1

HavoK wrote:

I doubt, that these computers you already have, are actually "obsolete" for the purpose you'll need them for unless they are quite literally 6-7 years old. Any more specs on them? They may be alot more useful then you would think.

Again, of course, unless they are geuninely years upon years old. In my old school though, they still had alot of old Pentium mmx PC's (maybe 8 years old if not more) - they were absolutely fine for ms word, excel, internet, etc.

The problem is that the teachers use a lot of multimedia educational software such as Maths Circus, Who nabbed Sam, etc and they are so slow for these applications its frustrating for the children. The other point is that with 106 pupils they only have 8 computers, a laptop that the teachers use, a dig camera and an office computer! that's not much per child and they also have sat broadband which is not near as fast as wireless or DSL and is always going down, so we really need to get some more reliable IT gear. The idea of going to local factories is good. however we're so rural there aren't a lot of factories around!!!! but I'm sure we'll find one somewhere....

Bogus

Isn't it wonderful that free education costs parents so much time and money, zipping around trying to replace obsolete school equipment that that the Dublin Tightwads should have sorted automatically with the vast sums that they have collected from us tax-paying suckers.

Sorry, I'll now go and have a chat with my therapist!

gamer

get in touch with pc recycling centres, look at www.electronicrecycling.ie ,theres 2 or 3 in dublin, they may give you pentium 3 pcs free or very cheap,look at freetrade on dublinwaste.ie,a few p3s can be used for webrowsing or ms word etc,openoffice is a free download ,its very similar to ms office ,reads ms word format too.look at free trade pc videogame section,pcs free to collect.Put an ad in the local paper 2nd hand pcs wanted.