From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Sep 2 13:29:26 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F0B937B400 for ; Mon, 2 Sep 2002 13:29:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ren.sasknow.com (ren.sasknow.com [207.195.92.131]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B20A743E65 for ; Mon, 2 Sep 2002 13:29:21 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ryan@sasknow.com) Received: from localhost (ryan@localhost) by ren.sasknow.com (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g82KT3d93161; Mon, 2 Sep 2002 14:29:03 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from ryan@sasknow.com) Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 14:29:03 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson To: Doug White Cc: Eric Anderson , Clifton Royston , Subject: Re: [long] Server motherboard recommendations for 4.X/5.X? In-Reply-To: <20020901154525.X5949-100000@carver.gumbysoft.com> Message-ID: <20020902140418.X89001-100000@ren.sasknow.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org 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" I am now mostly building my own systems again. :-) - Ryan -- Ryan Thompson SaskNow Technologies - http://www.sasknow.com 901 1st Avenue North - Saskatoon, SK - S7K 1Y4 Tel: 306-664-3600 Fax: 306-244-7037 Saskatoon Toll-Free: 877-727-5669 (877-SASKNOW) North America To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message