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Im in the market for 350 new machines

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esau

Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2003
Location
Chicago
The 15th International Olympiad In Informatics is being held at my University this coming summer. One of my prof's is in charge and thus i have been recruited to help set up 350 machines when the time comes. But before we can set them up, we need 350 new machines. With the help of a generous grant from Microsoft(who says they are evil?:p ), this is our current task at hand. I thought before we started doing some major research I might post this and see if a solution presents itself. These need to be complete systems, so basically a computer and monitor. As far as specs go, we are looking at just your average household computer(like the ones you see in the best buy and circuit city ads every week that go for about $500). The standard P4 of this day and age.

So let me know if you know of any good deals, or any places that specialize in the selling of mass amounts of computers.
 
My prof said that he was looking at the $500 dells but when you buy them under an educators license(or something to that effect), he said the total was about $700 a machine. "Now that dont make no sense at all". He claims to start a personal vendetta against dell for ripping off educators, but i just laughed. There is no way that can be right, he must have been looking at the wrong thing.
 
I don't have advice for the machines, but I do have a goal for you.... get every single one of those boxes folding :)
 
well im not sure but i think they are all supposed to be networked so i am assuming they will be connected to the net as well. the olympiad is only seven days but by that time(august), it may give us enough of a burst to pass the aussies.
i expect to get a hold of 5 of them for free after the olympiad is done, so those will surely be put to work.
 
don't know about the rigs but if you need a hand setting them up give me a shout, i would be more then willing to give a helping hand setting them up with you (also depends on what my schedual is like at the time but as of now i'm wide open :p )
 
thanks man, im sure we will need a few more hands. so far its just me and my prof.:p the exact dates are aug 20 -27(i think), but setup/tear down would obvioulsy be like the 19th and 28th, or something like that. ill keep ya posted. by the way we still gotta play aa sometime.
 
What will become of the computers after the Olympiad is finished?
 
orion25 said:
What will become of the computers after the Olympiad is finished?

i would imagine they would be donated. MS is donating money to help pay for the machines, and getting a nice tax write off in the process, i would think the university would get comparable tax write off as well. i may be wrong but that would be the most logical thing to do in my opinion.

oh yeah, anytime you want to play a few rounds of AA just let me know which server your on. i'm always up for a few rounds (lol, few=30+ for me) as long as i'm not doing anything.
 
I would talk to your contact at Microsoft and ask if he or she knew of a hardware supplier who might be interested in getting on board.

One candidate that no one has mentioned is IBM.




BHD
 
compaqs are crap but i think they do large order contracts, my schools uses them and im assuming they are getting a nice price on them too.
 
orion25 said:
What will become of the computers after the Olympiad is finished?

they will be sold to local businesses. and unfortunately it looks like i would have to pay for a machine too, no freebies:( . but maybe that will change again when the time comes.


thanks for all the suggestions.

getting macs would be funny.:p but having that many macs assembled in one place at the same time could be dangerous. i would be afraid the anti-christ would appear or something.:p or maybe bill would show up with some of his cronies and trash the place. i saw it happen to homer, and i would like to avoid such a confrontation at all costs.
 
Ever thought about leasing them? Very short term lease but for the lease price of 500/machine you could get some very nice equipment. I dont know if anyone would do a 1 week lease maybe a 1 month lease:p
 
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