Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 14:29:03 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> To: Doug White <dwhite@gumbysoft.com> Cc: Eric Anderson <anderson@centtech.com>, Clifton Royston <cliftonr@lava.net>, <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: [long] Server motherboard recommendations for 4.X/5.X? Message-ID: <20020902140418.X89001-100000@ren.sasknow.com> In-Reply-To: <20020901154525.X5949-100000@carver.gumbysoft.com>
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Doug White wrote to Eric Anderson:
> On Fri, 30 Aug 2002, Eric Anderson wrote:
>
> > Has anyone recommended Dell stuff? I'm sure they'll have
> > something that fits you. I use all kinds of their stuff for
> > FreeBSD, and the the RAID controllers are supported in FreeBSD
> > easily.
>
> Not really ... I just evaled a PowerEdge 2650 and a 1650.
>
> [...]
>
> I can't recommend Dell at this time...
Agreed. Last time I talked to one of their Senior Sales Reps (about 6
weeks ago), ready to start an account where I'd be purchasing 10-15
units/month, it was quite a conversation. The last part of it went
something like this:
Dell: "No, we don't give volume discounts on the PE350s. I
don't care if you buy 1,000."
Me: "That doesn't help me sell servers"
Dell: "Why not? [Dell is so good]"
Me: "If my customers can buy one server for the same unit
price I can buy 1,000, why would they buy from me?"
Dell: "[Because Dell is so good]"
Me: "I've received quotes from other system builders for less
than 2/3 of these prices, for better hardware"
Dell: "Probably a 'clone'. [Clones suck, Dell is so good]"
Me: "Your systems use most of the same hardware"
Dell: "Oh?"
Me: "Yeah, many of your hard drives come from IBM, CPUs are
Intel or AMD, and the chipsets on your motherboards
are fairly standard, etc, etc.."
Dell: "We make our own motherboards"
Me: "So they're proprietary"
Dell: "No, they're Dell certified. Maybe Dell isn't for you"
Me: [Laugh] "Obviously. Thanks for the insightful dialogue"
Dell: "Thanks for choosing Dell"
<click>
I am now mostly building my own systems again. :-)
- Ryan
--
Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com>
SaskNow Technologies - http://www.sasknow.com
901 1st Avenue North - Saskatoon, SK - S7K 1Y4
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