>
> I was able to get the MD1000 with 10 15k 450GB SAS disks plus
> PowerEdge R200 servers (w/memory and processor slightly bumped from
> the default) for about $7,500 a piece, not $3,500.
Ah, that sounds more realistic. Ironically though, A 66% discount
would bring Dell equipment more inline with normal prices.
> It was then quoted to us by our education sales rep at $9,000
> initially, including the server. I sent a second "Request For Quote",
> mentioning we're needing to upgrade two campuses, indicating that
> $18,000 was a little more than we were hoping to spend, and asking her
> if she could get us a deal.
>
> She replied with a quote at about $15,000.
Such a huge discount just reinforces the fact that their stuff is
grossly overpriced. Hard drives that they quote on their site as
costing $600 are actually $150 elsewhere. I've been told by people from
Dell that those drives are specially certified, but they aren't anything
special. If they don't last longer than the same model hard drive
bought someplace else, then they aren't worth 4 times the cost.
Where I work during the day, we bought a large SAN (7 figures) and
bought a bunch of drives for $1500 each. They are just 146GB SAS drives
that you could buy for like $300-$400 off CDW at the time. Dell and EMC
are really good at ripping off large enterprises. Support isn't a
factor in that pricing either because every time we've had someone from
Dell come over, its been at extra cost.
Let me suggest to everyone reading this that its really worthwhile to
learn how to install computer hardware yourself. From the case,
motherboard, CPU all the way up to the hard drive and installing the OS,
you will save LOTS of money. And its really not that hard once you learn
some of the basics. Maybe there should be a BLUG meeting on how this
works. Anyone putting a workstation together sometime soon?
> When I went back to ask to buy some of the drive enclosures so we
> could put some SATA disks into the array (wanted to add a cheaper,
> slower, less redundant backup partition) they informed us that Dell
> does not sell those pieces of plastic and steel that way; that we
> would need to buy the hard disks from them in order to get the little
> box that holds them right for insertion into the array.
>
> As they charge way too much for the hard drives, I went and found out
> I can get those enclosures on eBay and such for $20-$40, and go buy my
> own RAID-level SATA drives from newegg or wherever and save at least
> 50% over the Dell price in some cases.
If you care about your warranty and issues like having a Dell
consultant visit your site, you might want to think twice about using
components that you didn't buy from them. They won't support you if you
use non-certified components.
> P.S. The array seems to be able to be plugged into two separate RAID
> controller cards on two separate servers at the same time. Joe
> mentioned something about sharing the storage across boxes; I didn't
> know if you meant just over the LAN or with something like this or a
> SAN.
Its been a while since I've worked with one of those enclosures, but I
think you can only hook one side (left or right 7 drives) into one
computer and hook the other side into a second computer. But like I
said, its been a while so they might have made them work better for
shared situations. They probably expect you to buy a NAS or SAN if you
want to share RAID groups.
Another thing that annoys me about Dell servers is that their
motherboard revisions are really specific. Even if you have a specific
CPU socket on your motherboard, the motherboard revision (not BIOS) may
not support a newer CPU like quad core or something. They expect you to
buy a whole new motherboard for like $1200. Meanwhile, the Supermicro
servers I use at my business happily support most CPUs I would care to
upgrade to within the same socket category.
Supermicro makes great servers and they are reasonably priced. You
could actually buy a 24 SAS drivebay Supermicro server with plenty of
RAM and 10 450GB SAS drives 3ware RAID controller for less than $8000.
And that would be much more than just a drive enclosure and could be
expanded to 24 drives. And then just run FreeNAS on it as someone else
mentioned.
--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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