Are Dell the best?

richard · 9th April 2007

For mass market value servers surely Dell is the best choice by far?

HP seem overpriced and custom builds are just a disaster waiting to happen?

Do you agree

SynergyWorks · 9th April 2007

I've found Dell to be the least hassle and the most competativly priced and they do seem very stable.

I would like to defend our custom-builds though. If done properly custom-builds are fine. We've still got the original custom-build 1Us running from 2003 that where put into our very first rack in SOV.

fov · 9th April 2007

At work (this is a non server providing work) we have a rack full (well about 28U of servers in each) of HP and a rack full of Dell and the HP is far more reliable. HP hardware has failed once (mobo), dells are often having minor things such as PSU, fans, ram and disks swapped. Plus our dells often dont come back after a reboot, which could be just our dells but the 4 HPs which are on the same reboot cycle (once per 28 days as the are running citrix) all normally come back - touch wood.

SynergyWorks · 9th April 2007

Im very suprised. I'm going to *touch wood* before I start this reply.. but i've never had a Dell fail as yet (bar hard disks going and degrading Raid arrays). Something which I don't blame Dell for as most disks we've fitted so I just blame the hard disk manufacturer.

fov · 9th April 2007

As i say its not really been anything seriouse, the ram took it out of action for a while as we didnt have any for that particular machine, but its really been a steady stream of minor failures but overall the HP stuff has been pretty much bomb proof. Id certainly not be a happy chappy if i was having to visit a DC to replace these parts but as its 20 yards away it no big problem, but as we'd rather not have any source of come back im planning on sticking hp at the moment for expansion.

*me expects a call to say all hps have now died*

ligaya · 9th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by richard

For mass market value servers surely Dell is the best choice by far?

HP seem overpriced and custom builds are just a disaster waiting to happen?

Do you agree

Hi Richard

One of the main reasons I buy Dell - I dont buy many servers perhaps 20~ servers a year but about 400-500 workstations a year - is the support/after care.

Admittedly we pay a premium for the privilage (business support "Gold") but I cant fault their aftercare - four hour response for servers and next day (tends to consistantly be 9:15-10:00 next day) on the workstations - never been let down once in the last 2 years (though I appriciate I may have been lucky!)

Plus pound for pound DELL are cheap as chips!

Ian

ligaya · 9th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by fov

As i say its not really been anything seriouse, the ram took it out of action for a while as we didnt have any for that particular machine, but its really been a steady stream of minor failures but overall the HP stuff has been pretty much bomb proof. Id certainly not be a happy chappy if i was having to visit a DC to replace these parts but as its 20 yards away it no big problem, but as we'd rather not have any source of come back im planning on sticking hp at the moment for expansion.

*me expects a call to say all hps have now died*

Fov

Dell engineers will happly visit a DC - Dell dont care where the system is.

Ian

Karl · 9th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by richard

custom builds are just a disaster waiting to happen?

Not at all, we've seen more failures/issues with Dell servers some customers have than we have with many times more of our own build servers.

[inx]Olly · 9th April 2007

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andyb28 · 9th April 2007

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Superracks · 9th April 2007

What is the reason you would choose ND/NBD/etc. service instead of some spare material on site?

Even with a 4 hr respons, you would be faster rescued with spare material you would have on stock. So why choose a ..hr respons contract with Dell (or others)?

ligaya · 9th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Superracks

What is the reason you would choose ND/NBD/etc. service instead of some spare material on site?

Even with a 4 hr respons, you would be faster rescued with spare material you would have on stock. So why choose a ..hr respons contract with Dell (or others)?

Have next business day on workstations as we keep a few onsite and just swap the base - then broken one gets fixed next day - no biggy.

For servers - why we have 4 hour response "Gold" is down to cost and risk - nearly all our systems (well all critical ones) are clustered with hot fallover secondaries - so unless we have a double failure in one working day we're ok (we consider this a fair residual risk) - Plus the fact that next level up is Dell "Platinum" (onsite parts plus we'll get their asap sub 4 hours) - it is like three times the price of "Gold"!

Best thing always is to have backup's of backups but theirs always a limit you can take it to.

UH-Matt · 9th April 2007

We use custom build supermicro and also Dell, depending on what Dell are willing to do each time we want to purchase a batch of new servers.

If our account manager bothers to return our calls and offer a nice discount we use Dell, otherwise we have supermicro systems built.

I tend to prefer the Supermicro's but cant actually fault the Dell's.

Cranky · 9th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyb28

We have Supermicro, HP and Dell.

None of our Supermicros or HP's have ever required a visit from an engineer, I can not say the same for Dell.

IMO, the prices of Dell's give you a short term win and if you have a good HP account manager, they will play the game if you are considering to buy from Dell.

Do you go direct to HP?

Jon-NC · 9th April 2007

No IMO Dell are not the best.

Netcoms have been using HP kit for 10 years. From what we have seen of Dell servers HP are many times better.

We don't generally deal with low end rack mount servers though.