Re: Dell vs. SuperMicro: Reliabilty and parts availability

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Russ, I'm on the East side of Portland, off I-205. Any idea who might
carry SuperMicro in the greater Portland metro area? I could possibly do
one of their SuperServer packages, especially if there was some local
support.

Thanks, David

"Russ Grover" <russ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:O%23jKL20eFHA.616@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> I'd have agree on Building your own.
> Of course I'm Biased there.
> It's not rocket science to build a server.
> Most components have a Manufacture warranty also.
> Just keep the receipts.
> Heck on Hard drives you don't have to half the time
> You can check your if your Current HD is on Warranty online
> Plus they will Hot ship you one if you give them your CC #
>
> Make sure the parts you buy are locally available if possible (Hard
> for some locations)
> I Like NewEgg for a lot of stuff fast and good support (if you have to
> ship)
>
> Although Dell does good support, most of them will have you jump
> through hoops
> (And the smarter of you will have already jumped through those hoops)
> It really depends on who you get on the other end of the phone.
>
> Heaven forbid you get someone who just follows a script (Which is most
> of the time.)
> A good Tech will think outside the box.
> (Not too outside because one told me to do something, I said Uh? won't
> that blow the CPU?
> He said no, Of course The @#@# it Blew the CPU.)
>
> Buy a system as if you were on your own. (Because sometimes you are.)
>
>
>
>
> --
> Russ Grover
> Small Business IT Support
> Portland\Beaverton OR USA
> Email: Sales at SmallBusinessITSupport.com
> Website: www.SmallBusinessITSupport.com
>
>
> "James B" <nospam@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:OO$TJi0eFHA.1288@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> If you want a box built to your specs then build one yourself and
>> using the
>> SuperMicro whitebox servers that just need CPU's and RAM (ok hd's
>> too) is a
>> good choice in my book. I use to use only Intel Server cages and
>> boards or
>> even the Intel pre-assembled systems however the price is very high
>> and
>> overall I cannot see any quality difference between them and
>> SuperMicro
>> which is sad to say actually. I have actually had major issues with
>> some
>> Intel servers that took weeks working with Intel to fix but that said
>> I've
>> also got some Intel servers that have been running 24x7 for 7 years
>> with no
>> issues or failed HD issues which would nto be an Intel problem.
>>
>> Everytime I hear about Dell servers and "always get Gold support" I
>> just
>> laugh. First off in other words these folks are saying hey get a
>> server that
>> you know your going to need support for which is going to suck unless
>> you
>> pay extra for it. Second off I've used Gold support which is suppose
>> to have
>> a replacement part on site in 4 hours I think it was well there is
>> something
>> they don't say about that. Before they will send a replacement you
>> have to
>> get Dell to agree the part is broken and in my case I was on the
>> phone with
>> them for 6 hours about a two week old server going thru this and that
>> all
>> the while an entire plant is down waiting on the server to come back
>> up.
>> After 6 hours they said, "well we don't think it's a hardware issue
>> but to
>> test we want you to reload the OS from scratch and then if it fails
>> again we
>> will replace it." What a freaking joke! The error code clearly
>> pointed to an
>> issue with hardware not to mention it was an out of box solution with
>> no
>> changes made except for joining a domain and network so if the OS
>> load was
>> screwed then they did it. So here sat my customer, 12 hours down, 6
>> hours of
>> billable time on my part telling him Dell wants me to reload the OS
>> and
>> start all over just to test things so that's another 4-6 hours so
>> what good
>> was buying Gold Support?
>>
>> So key points I look at and present to customers when I look to buy
>> servers:
>>
>> 1. Dell: Big name, good support cost extra, decent hardware, you'll
>> still
>> pay me to fix it no matter what you pay for support to Dell.
>> Replacement
>> parts are usually stocked and onsite the next day.
>>
>> 2. Intel: Biggest name, certified parts means Intel will back it up
>> that
>> everything works together but they will push you off to other vendors
>> if you
>> have problems with say a tape drive connected to the onboard SCSI,
>> next day
>> replacement if bought from an Intel Product Dealer.
>>
>> 3. Supermicro: Solid parts, nice package plus extras, good price,
>> support is
>> good however I've never had to get replacement parts.
>>
>> 4. Complete whitebox solution: generic parts so replacement is
>> usually not
>> an issue however this does not mean each part is meant to work with
>> another
>> so thermal considerations and such can become a problem. No single
>> source
>> for support and maybe not any support if it's an integration issue.
>>
>> BTW anyone that would sell a $499, Celeron 2.0Ghz, 256MB ram, single
>> HD, no
>> OS "server" is not a company I would want to buy a real server from.
>>
>>
>> "David F" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:%23AQuiideFHA.2420@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Anyone have experience with these mfg for servers? Comments?
>>>
>>> I'm tired of dealing with Dell's way of delivering parts--sometimes
>>> slow, sometimes unreliable, often poor communication via India.
>>>
>>> If SuperMicro any better?
>>>
>>> Thanks, David
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>


.

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