Buying laptops wholesale?

jazminkennedy

Hiya,

my friend wants to get into the computer biz, she wants roughly around 20 laptops (shes doin some kind of net cafe)

anyhows, shes after dell, if thats possible but wholesale price, anyone have any ideas?? I'd just ring dell but i know it'd be cheaper buying direct from China.

some help plz,

ta

computerbar

If she wants to run net cafe then I presume that she knows about computer.
why not look around auction sites like e b ay and get some decent spec laptops.
New stuff are expensive and so is Dell.

regards

motorguy

jazminkennedy wrote: »

I'd just ring dell but i know it'd be cheaper buying direct from China.

some help plz,

ta

Dells are built in ireland.

Use www.dmxdimension.com to find the best current dell deal, OR use www.hotukdeals.com to keep an eye out for the best adhoc deal - search for dell using the function down the RHS.

I would recommend making sure they are all identical no matter what she buys so that she can simply mirror image all the machines - makes setup easier.

You can buy a perfectly acceptable Dell laptop new for little over £300 - better that than roaming around ebay picking up 20 random machines.

Why would she want laptops for an internet cafe?

tryingtosave_3

I can't recall seeing an internet cafe with laptops - surely desktops would be better value in the first place? The portability of a laptop isn't necessarily an advantage in this situation.

Also wear and tear on a laptop would be pretty extreme in cafe. If one person spills a coffee over a laptop potentially (not always, I know) that's it for the whole computer. Split coffee on a desktop keyboard, and, well, it's much less costly. Desktops can be upgraded and repaired more easily and usually have higher specifications, i.e. better at games (online gaming can be popular in some webcafes)

Laptops are also easier to steal ... much better off with desktops! Unless this is some sort of clever concept cafe - I guess it'd be cool to be able to rent a laptop in a nice cafe environment rather than the typical "cafe" with row upon row of computers.

cutterschoicenotmine

I suggest using p.c's for the job. A good starter would be on ebay : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Qty-x-10-Job-Lot-P4-Computer-PC-s-Around-7999-CHEAP_W0QQitemZ260234334743QQihZ016QQcategoryZ194QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

These are a little expensive so best looking for auctions. Then you need of course to consider monitors etc. Look for ex buisness stock and buy in bulk to really get the price down. Then think the same for keyboards etc.

My ideal Internet cafe machine would consist of (and this is what i consider the average well run and well used cafe to have-)

P.C 1
Monitor 2
Mouse (2 Button, scroller)
Keyboard (nothing fancy, just a star bar windows key)
Speakers (try and get monitors with speakers inbuilt)
Webcam

(1 around 800 MHZ to 1.4 GHZ should do for flash, IE/Firefox, XP Pro SP3)

2 (flatscreen if your going for aesthetics, or good old CRT for budget, make sure if you go for CRT there are no high cycle screens, they burn images if they've been on for a long time)

Also look to see if you can get a buffer stock from the same suppliers, so maybe buy 20 p.cs, then 5 scrap for parts at a knock down price, 10 more keyboards and 10 more mice, 5 webcams, 5 monitors.

For networking, i suggest using Microsoft Windows Server 2003, putting Windows XP SP3 on each machine or possibly Enterprise Edition. I'm not sure what the licenesing differences are BUT YOU WILL NEED A SITE LICENSE. Then also think about getting a fast internet connection into the place. Imagine every computer using 1 Meg bandwidth down / 128k up. That means you need at least 18 mb bandwidth download and 3 MB upload. Try

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/newnet/package/668.html

Hope this helps!

chilli_dog

Desktops would be better, they are more heavy to run with if they try to steal them.

Your friend will need some good security & some approved locks to tie the things down with.

At our local toys r us they used to grab the laptop / Pc or whatever then run through the fire escape were a a car was waiting for them

topher_2

You wouldn't need 18Mb down/3Mb up; the computers won't all be accessing the internet constantly.

I run a network with 400 machines - we have 16Mb down and (I think) 1.5Mb up. I've not had any complaints about speed (we don't do any video conferencing though).

I agree that you should use desktop computers - we had to replace a keyboard on a tosh laptop recently - it was £116 fitted (to keep warranty alive it had to be fitted by tosh...). An ordinary keyboard costs less than a fiver.

richt71

jazminkennedy wrote: »

Hiya,

my friend wants to get into the computer biz, she wants roughly around 20 laptops (shes doin some kind of net cafe)

anyhows, shes after dell, if thats possible but wholesale price, anyone have any ideas?? I'd just ring dell but i know it'd be cheaper buying direct from China.

some help plz,

ta

Hi,
I tried to import laptops from Taiwan (manufacturers that brand them for major names) about 2 years ago to sell on Ebay. Most Manufacturers minimum order is 40 laptops wih some being 80. You need to also take into account import duty and insurance during transporting (especially from dock/airport o destination).
I think you'd be better calling the sales department of the major laptop companies based in the UK or with offices here TBH.