Meyer discusses laptop choices, requirements
Seniors Tia Grover, Austin Belden, and Dakota Zimmerman use their school computers to work on an English assignment.
Black metal and plastic encase arguably one of the most expensive items in a student’s backpack—a school laptop.
“Currently the students use the HP ProBook 4420s model,” assistant system administrator Zach Meyer said. “We have a warranty on the computers through four years, but they were purchased on a three year lease.”
This means the laptops will be around for one more school year before they are upgraded. Meyer said the school has not begun looking for replacements, but plans to start the process after the start of the 2014-2015 year.
“You can’t look at computers too far in advance because they only sell each model for a certain length of time,” Meyer said. “If we set our sights on any models that are currently in production now, they would no longer be making that model in July 2015 when we would be purchasing the computers.”
Meyers said choosing what kind of computer to buy comes down to deciding what the computers will be used for.
“We look at the software we are using or will be planning on using and look at the hardware requirements for each of those pieces of software,” Meyer said. “Also, we look at what physical requirements we need from the computers. For instance, does the computer need a battery that lasts up to three hours? We also plan on getting hardware that will support any possible updates to any current software that will come out.”
Meyer said if there was a major issue with the type of computer purchased, it would not necessarily mean the school would get another set of computers ahead of schedule.
“If it was a big enough problem, the company that manufactured the computer would either do a recall on the computer or send us replacement parts to repair the defective computers,” Meyer said.
Meyer said the biggest problem with our current computers is durability.
“The computers will hold up if you take good care of them, but it is pretty easy for a student to set their book bag down too hard and break the casing on the laptop,” Meyer said.
Meyer said if students want to keep their laptop nice, the main thing is to just be careful with it, especially when setting their backpack down.
“There’s people who have never been in [the CCU] for the past three years we’ve had these computers, and others we see in here two or three times a year,” Meyer said. “Just be careful.”
