[TriLUG] Cheap Dell Server

[Jason Tower]

i agree with jonathon completely.  for a small business, they're 
terrific.  i bought four of the previous version servers from dell 
(poweredge 500sc) at a similar "stupid cheap" price.  that way i can 
deploy three at customer sites and have a fourth available as a 
standby.  lose a power supply or motherboard goes bad - just swap out 
the disk and you're back up within minutes.  way cheaper than even the 
lowest-end hp/compaq or ibm server.

jason


On Tuesday 22 April 2003 21:19, Jonathan Hassell wrote:
> These servers, I'm sure, are meant primarily for the SMB market, not
> for enterprise use.
>
> I don't think you do the machine justice: it does have the
> well-respected ServerWorks chipset, a solid chipset found in most
> server-class machines. There is also:
> * 64-bit PCI slots
> * a more well constructed case
> * ECC RAM
> * -three- embedded IDE channels (for software RAID)
>
> I don't see how my five person consulting company needs 15k SCSI
> drives and Gigabit networking and multiple hotswap PCI cards on
> independent busses.  I do see that my five person consulting company
> needs a reliable machine that can withstand some high loads, is a
> name brand, and has a solid motherboard behind it.
>
> For $349, you get a machine that is (admittedly, but still usefully)
> a value-level server class machine, and not a "desktop with a server
> sticker."
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kevin Flanagan" <kevin at flanagannc.net>
> To: <trilug at trilug.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 8:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Cheap Dell Server
>
> > On Tue, 2003-04-22 at 11:55, Jonathan Hassell wrote:
> > > For those of you looking for a cheap but reliable name brand
> > > server, I recommend the following.
> >
> > I wouldn't call that a server, it's IDE, no RAID, no mention of if
> > you can get a redundant power supply.
> >
> > > Dell has a deal where, for $349 plus shipping and tax, you can
> > > get:
> >
> > This kind of offer just confirms that Dell is still driving servers
> > to the bottom of the market.  You can get as good a system that is
> > in a desktop chassis, but has better video, about the same kind of
> > price.
> >
> >
> >
> > If you need a server, you generally need things like
> >
> > Hardware SCSI RAID
> > Hot Swap disks
> > Agents that will predict failure of components
> > Multiple PCI busses may be good if you have lots of I/O
> >
> > The most common exception to that would be a farm of low end
> > servers, for web or the like where you have several of the same
> > system, then you have fully redundant configurations at the system
> > level.
> >
> > If you have a desktop system, call it that, not a server.
> >
> >
> > I know that it comes off kind of snobbish at times, but don't
> > expect a desktop system with a server sticker to do the job of a
> > server.  Call it what it is, that's not to say that there isn't a
> > market for this kind of thing, but they are driving smaller
> > businesses to be short sighted in purchasing this kind of system
> > when they really need a server with higher end features.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Just my $.02
> >
> >
> >
> > Kevin
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Kevin Flanagan <kevin at flanagannc.net>
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