Decisions

Ol!ver · 3 Jun 2008 at 21:44

You do know Dell machines are meant to be good for Hackintosh-ing

Dangerous Dave · 3 Jun 2008 at 21:54

You want to maximise your profit so it would be the Dell machines/monitors, the monitors are better than the current Apple ones anyway. You also want a wired network between the PCs (gigabit is now very cheap) as wireless would be slow shared between 12 PCs.

PardonTheWait · 3 Jun 2008 at 21:57

Er... what would be wrong with say 8 20" iMacs and 4 Mac Pros?

Ring your nearest store and ask to speak to the Business Partner, it's worth seeing what they can do.

NickK · 3 Jun 2008 at 22:08

kvfb97 said:
We have calculated everything so far and it has came to £650k. That includes high paid lawyers and financial advisor's.
Part of funding (and input into negotiations for the next round of funding) is what you did with it. So don't go on a spending spree.

True - sometimes you need to spend money to make money.

For capital that's not that much but getting that back from revenue.. well you have your business plan so I'll leave you to it!

I certainly would be a lot less inclined to slosh money around on a depreciating asset. Maybe set yourself a budget and work to that.

kvfb97 said:
We will use Pages + Numbers. If we really need Any office applications we can boot into Windows/Parallels.

The problem really inter-communications between companies. I assume you're doing work for customers? Although PDF works..

Also about the servers- I would go with this comment. You'll not recover if you loose your code bases. Infact I'd be inclined to go Dell with a couple of servers and a good backup & recovery archive offsite.

kvfb97 · 3 Jun 2008 at 22:57

wush said:
Wasting the money on the monitors would be absolutely idiotic. Sounds more like a bunch of lads who've found a bag of money than a business!

Thanks.

Ol!ver said:
You do know Dell machines are meant to be good for Hackintosh-ing

I wish, but not really appropriate.

NickK said:
True - sometimes you need to spend money to make money.

For capital that's not that much but getting that back from revenue.. well you have your business plan so I'll leave you to it!

I certainly would be a lot less inclined to slosh money around on a depreciating asset. Maybe set yourself a budget and work to that.

The problem really inter-communications between companies. I assume you're doing work for customers? Although PDF works..

Also about the servers- I would go with this comment. You'll not recover if you loose your code bases. Infact I'd be inclined to go Dell with a couple of servers and a good backup & recovery archive offsite.

We won't have customers, no. We'll just be working on one large website.

Think we are going for iMac's now.

Still don't know why we would need a server. Obviously we will have a dedicated one somewhere in the world, but not one for the computers locally. All files will be stored online and there would be a backup online and on each of the computers.

teaboy5 · 3 Jun 2008 at 23:06

dont use wireless, get the office cabled.

NickK · 3 Jun 2008 at 23:36

kvfb97 said:
Still don't know why we would need a server. Obviously we will have a dedicated one somewhere in the world, but not one for the computers locally. All files will be stored online and there would be a backup online and on each of the computers.

Well it's more of the configuration management for version control - not a problem when there's three of you but 12 designers/engineers?
An uncontrolled out of control code base is just as bad as loosing it completely. As long as something's in place (even a centralised svn/cvs!).

I'm not being totally negative about macs - believe me.

Spyhop · 3 Jun 2008 at 23:42

kvfb97 said:
Thanks.

Well, really.. Why is it even in contention to spend £1200 on a pair of those for each workstation?

garyh · 4 Jun 2008 at 00:12

wush said:
Sounds more like a bunch of lads who've found a bag of money than a business!

Here, here!

The very fact you're contemplating spending twice as much on equipment to do the same function (if not worse when you regard having to use virtual machines to complete some tasks) is just mind blowing - with an attitude like that I wouldn't expect you around for long, no offense.

Caged · 4 Jun 2008 at 00:43

You will totally clean up with Dell discounts if you purchase PCs, monitors, network switches and a server to run SBS on from them. As far as I'm aware there's nothing that Apple can offer that approaches Microsoft SBS.

Unless you absolutely need to run Mac-only software then I wouldn't think about buying Macs for business - especially as they offer nothing between an iMac and a Mac Pro. You can get quad core OptiPlex machines from Dell for £400 ex VAT if you buy enough of them.

If you don't want to have a server on-site, what have you budgeted to connect your site to the other office?

ThatJoe · 4 Jun 2008 at 01:15

To be honest, there's a big difference between 29k and 11k, but heck, if you think you can make it back, why not. But i'd say go with the dell.

kvfb97 · 4 Jun 2008 at 01:22

NickK said:
Well it's more of the configuration management for version control - not a problem when there's three of you but 12 designers/engineers?
An uncontrolled out of control code base is just as bad as loosing it completely. As long as something's in place (even a centralised svn/cvs!).

I'm not being totally negative about macs - believe me.

We already have an SVN setup on our server.

I still don't quite grasp the point in getting cables as we won't be sharing anything directly with each other. Everyone will be working from the Interweb.

garyh said:
The very fact you're contemplating spending twice as much on equipment to do the same function (if not worse when you regard having to use virtual machines to complete some tasks) is just mind blowing - with an attitude like that I wouldn't expect you around for long, no offense.

As stated before we still have 300k left over from our investment (this is only financial forecasting at the minute), and we have a guide price of around 25k for computer equipment.

The boss has decided we're going for iMac's, however I am completely againist this. Not just because they are double the price for less spec, but because programmers will most likely be more prominent with the Windows environment. His reasoning is because they looks good, easy to move, user friendly. All of which are completely useless in an office environment, really. Mac Fan-boy.

Been on the phone all night with no budge. Stupid. Annoyed, to be honest.

kvfb97 · 4 Jun 2008 at 01:23

teaboy5 said:
where you setting up base?

London.

ThatJoe · 4 Jun 2008 at 01:24

kvfb97 said:
We already have an SVN setup on our server.

I still don't quite grasp the point in getting cables as we won't be sharing anything directly with each other. Everyone will be working from the Interweb.

As stated before we still have 300k left over from our investment (this is only financial forecasting at the minute), and we have a guide price of around 25k for computer equipment.

The boss has decided we're going for iMac's, however I am completely againist this. Not just because they are double the price for less spec, but because programmers will most likely be more prominent with the Windows environment. His reasoning is because they looks good, easy to move, user friendly. All of which are completely useless in an office environment, really. Mac Fan-boy.

Been on the phone all night with no budge. Stupid. Annoyed, to be honest.

Give him dell's no. They'll sure convert him.

ThatJoe · 4 Jun 2008 at 01:24

kvfb97 said:
London.

Central?

kvfb97 · 4 Jun 2008 at 01:28

ThatJoe said:
Central?

Stratford. No idea if that is central or not. Not from there lol.

sid · 4 Jun 2008 at 08:32

kvfb97 said:
Stratford. No idea if that is central or not. Not from there lol.

East London actually.

schnipps · 4 Jun 2008 at 08:37

Utter madness, web development team here of about 14 and we are all PC based, you shouldnt develop websites on a Mac full stop. Im staggered to be honest, grab some Dell machines and a server. Where are you going to run a local .NET testing environment from for the whole team, what about tape backups etc etc. UPS backups, you need all sorts. I would seriously wonder about aboss that wont allow the team to spec their kit, it doesnt bode well for the future imo.

NickK · 4 Jun 2008 at 08:44

schnipps said:
.NET testing environment

Not everything runs because of MS but I see your point. It's sometimes possible to justify a higher cost for better returns but you're right they have to be measurable metrics.

The additional overhead of Parallels or at least windows test environment (this can be come a bottle neck of the developers do not have their own platforms).

Dangerous Dave · 4 Jun 2008 at 10:07

kvfb97 said:
We already have an SVN setup on our server.

I still don't quite grasp the point in getting cables as we won't be sharing anything directly with each other. Everyone will be working from the Interweb.

Wireless banwidth is shared so if you have the normal 54mbps wireless shared between 12 PCs and in use you will have about 4.5mbps ish for each pc. On top of this you will never get the full 54mbps or 108mbps if you go for N so you will have a slow network maybe even down to 2 or 3 mbps per pc, chances are you will get the odd drop out with so many wireless connections not nice when you are uploading critical data to the web. I would assume with so many people accessing busniess critical online data you are going to have a fairly hefty dedicated internet connection of 50mpbs or the likes so it could be the wireless connection will be a bottleneck also.

Its also not as secure as cable how would you like someone to sniff the network over time get your passwords for your online data and wipe the lot ? OK that is worse case but its not impossible.