Server buying experience
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008My recent server buying experience has been interesting. I contacted a local company, ServerWare, seeing that they had some interesting servers - 4 disks, in a 1U configuration? Mmrm. To my dismay, they were trying very hard to not sell me parts, but complete systems, with prices that were about 30% greater than what I could get at Dell. The clincher, was when I was told that server SATA2 disks are different from desktop SATA2 disks, and there was no way I was going to get these disks so cheaply. Ahem, on Saturday, I took a trip to Low Yat, and picked up a couple of 500GB SATA2 disks, remember?
So, it was down to calling Dell. Found my regular sales consultant whom I dealt with about a year ago, got the quote brought down from what the website said (I love how you can haggle with Dell, to get a bargain). Demanded a quick delivery (Friday, they tell me). With a nice 3-year next-day-on-site warranty. For 30% less than ServerWare. Without the hassles of being treated like an idiot.
On IRC, I mentioned that I was going to blog-mouth ServerWare. Consider this, just that. Its interesting to note that on the LUV lists, there is also chat about getting a 1U server. A lot of recommendations for Sun and Dell hardware. Apparently, Sun can provide even cheaper hardware than Dell! HP is also in the mix. No mention of off-the-shelf local companies in Melbourne though.
Friday, can’t come any sooner. Already booked a slot to be in the data center on Saturday morning, I’m hoping all services are up and running by then. And in future, I’ve got to think about backups - any recommendations for Xen instance hosting that is affordable? Purely for emergency use…
Technorati Tags: crass commercialism, serverware, dell, 1u