Opinions Wanted: Dell PowerEdge Servers ... ?

[Nick Withers]

On Sun, 25 Jun 2006 01:34:45 -0300 (ADT)
"Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy at hub.org> wrote:

> On Sun, 25 Jun 2006, Nick Withers wrote:
> 
> > I tend to think of Dell as a low-end provider that will cobble together 
> > systems based on whatever bits happen to be lying around (don't think 
> > that one PE 2650 is the same as the next!), which in turn are invariably 
> > the cheapest bits available for a particular job.
> 
> 'k, this is exactly the thing that I'd heard about the Desktops ... and 
> was curious about concerning their server offering ... you mention further 
> up in your response that this was 'a little while back' ... how long ago,

Around 2004 was when I got my hands the dirtiest with the
things. This was towards the end of the Dell PowerEdge 2650 run
(I think 2850s are still current...?).

> and can anyone here comment on whether or not this is still the case with 
> Dell?

I think Dell's "low-cost at all costs" policy is pretty well
the foundation for the business...

> Pricing things out through the web sites, Dell is definitely the 'cheaper 
> brand', at least in comparison to HP ... so will I end up "getting what I 
> paid for" with the cheaper Dell, and regretting it, or ... ? :(

Always a risk, isn't it?

To be honest, I'd probably consider the PowerEdge 2650 fine for
my use at home, but I wouldn't be using the remote access
controller at all and would almost certainly be using FreeBSD,
for which there isn't a version of OpenManage, to my knowledge.

As for your usage scenario I can't say, but if it's going to be
at a colocation facility and you're going to be accessing it
through whatever they're calling their ERAs at the moment...
I'd think twice. But heck, I haven't checked up on what the
price difference might be between a Dell and an equivalent from
a competitor, and I'm not at all up-to-date on current Dell
offerings.

> ----
> Marc G. Fournier           Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
> Email . scrappy at hub.org                              MSN . scrappy at hub.org
> Yahoo . yscrappy               Skype: hub.org        ICQ . 7615664
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Nick Withers
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Web: http://www.nickwithers.com
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