Question Low cost Windows 10 PCs for Rural Andean School

[stuartoswald]

Good day all. I'm a local in a rural part of Colombia. The community are getting together to do up the local school. Resources are tight and we want to kit a class room our with PCs. I am thinking of setting up Raspberry Pi as the main platform. But everyone has agreed that the school should have Windows 10. We can budget £80 / $100 per unit max. I have some old monitors that use VGA only. I can run windows 10 copies without activating them (right?). Anyways, I would really like to have some advise from you as to what PCs we should go for? It will need to be on Amazon or eBay as locally IT hardware is hard to find and very expensive. Looking forward to hearing and suggestions. Big thanks,

 

[USAFRet]

Windows 10 can absolutely be run without activation.
A couple of small restrictions - no customization of the desktop or Taskbar, and a sometimes appearing watermark at the bottom right.

Other than that, it runs just fine.
I have a 2+ year old Win 10 Pro install to test exactly this. Installed Dec 8 2016, runs just fine over 2 years later.

Also, maybe contact Microsoft. They usually have huge discounts for schools.

 

[geofelt]

I recently bought Lenovo ideapad 100s for <$85 on ebay.
My particular need was for a small 11" laptop that could run windows 10 32 bit.
But, such a laptop could probably be bought in bulk from refurbishers.
Here is one listing.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Ide...3145266023?epid=218481778&hash=item36488a6f67

The reviews I have read on the raspberry pi with windows 10 says it is abysmally slow.
While the Celeron process or on the 100s is no speed demon the performance is reasonable.
I wanted one so I could play civilization 2.42 on a long airplane flight.
The size fits on a airline tray and the battery will last some 10 hours.
I had occasion to have to replace the battery and I found that the laptop was simple to service.
If you had several identical units, you probably could maintain them yourself.

Or, perhaps some even older Lenovo T61 units like this for $20
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thi...h=item1a76f8b130:g:fsYAAOSwtOZcaiMs:rk:7:pf:0

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Many collages, hospitals, and companies upgrade their hardware every few years no matter the computer. You usually can find used older refurbished i3 and i5 pcs with no operating systems for under $100. Unactivated windows 10 can run on these well. Microsoft may sell bulk keys for schools for very cheap.

 

[USAFRet]

And I just bought a refurbished Asus Transformer 2 in 1 laptop/tablet.
4GB RAM, 64GB drive, Atom processor, Win 10 included.
$180 is a bit over your budget, though.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5E68HK3023

Possibly good for schoolwork.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Here is a good example of a refurbished hp sff desktop with a powerfull 4 core 3rd gen i5, hd graphics, 4gb ram, and a blank 250gb hdd for $90. It has a vga port and dvd drive. Since most places usually upgrade all at once, newegg probably has a lot in stock. This would be a good computer to buy in bulk and install win 10 on, that way all of your computers are identical.
https://m.newegg.com/products/9SIAD...rjSNd0l0XlRXHPXtNEOzJk5kZDzqUbQwaAlfYEALw_wcB

 

[USAFRet]

I'd also suggest contacting one of the major retailers. Dell, for example.
Possibly you can do a bulk buy of a dozen or so older systems, incl the OS, for $100 each.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Thats why i suggested the above. Likely you can buy these in bulk. Likely windows 10 had already been on this system. Would it be possible for windows to sense the mobo and activate. If not, you could get a bunch of bulk keys or unactivated win 10.