[TriLUG] Flaking PSU?

[Brian Henning]

That's fair, and I'll answer it honestly.

Partly, it's due to my inexperience and shortcomings as a salesperson.  At
this point, I'm not very good at making a convincing argument for a $3,000
machine that, on the surface, appears to do no more than a similarly-spec'ed
$500 machine.  (Yes.  What I described is essentially a desktop-grade
machine in a server case.)

The second factor is the person to whom I have to make the sale.  In this
particular company, the concept of opportunity cost is almost unknown.  If I
spend $500 on parts, and yet end up devoting 100 hours out of the next year
to direct service of said parts, he still feels like he's come out ahead.
(and in fact, at my current pay scale, compared to a $3,000 capital
investment, for those numbers he does come out quite a bit ahead,
opportunity cost notwithstanding).  In this company, for example, we buy
Dimensions instead of Optiplexes except in the case of incentive programs
such as UPS' Customer Technology Program.  This company would rather spend
two weeks to a month every year cyclically creating new QuickBooks company
files and jumping through the hoops necessary to carry critical data over
(as well as creating the headaches of tracking previous transactions) than
put down the up-front cost of a financial system that can better handle the
stress of a business which lives largely in the retail market (where we can
easily have a customer list that grows by 15,000 in a year).

Gradually the mentality of the company is changing.  We now have a proper
2500VA UPS system in our network closet, rather than the two or three
desktop UPSes that used to live in there.  But the closet (which now houses
six computers, the UPS, and our PBX equipment) is still being
(ineffectively) cooled by a mildew-filled sputtery 20-year-old window-unit
air conditioner, despite my continuing suggestions that the A/C can't keep
up with the heat output of the equipment.  It's a smallish company, with a
strongly-entrenched small-company mentality.

So there's the long answer.  The short answer is "it's what makes the boss
happy right now."

Cheers,
~B


> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On
> Behalf Of Kevin Flanagan
> Sent: Monday, June 19, 2006 7:09 PM
> To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Flaking PSU?
>
>
> So,
>
>
>     I've got to ask the question, if you wanted a server, why didn't you
> buy one. I don't see anything that you are doing in the system you
> listed out that couldn't be done in a desktop.  If you pay the premium
> you get quality and service.  If you add up all of the parts, and your
> time, will you really end up saving dough over buying a "name
> brand" server?
>
>
>
> Just my $.02
>
>
>
>
>     Kevin
>