[Tfug] Server purchase

[Claude Rubinson]

Just to followup... I inquired with a number of Linux vendors
(Monarch, Penguin Computing, R Cubed, Pogo, and pretty much every
vendor that advertises in Linux Journal).  Either they didn't stock
tower servers and/or they didn't respond to my inquiries.  I was
finally able to speak with someone at Monarch Computers (only after I
called their number; apparently, they don't respond to their online
form).  However, when the sales rep sent me a followup email, it got
tagged as spam and I didn't see it for 2 days.  (And it didn't inspire
confidence that the sales rep typoed "Monsrch" for "Monarch" in the
subject header.)  I responded to his email requesting a detailed price
quote and never heard back.  I don't know if these vendors are too
busy for a single server purchase or what, but the overall experience
was not good.

So, I ended up back with IBM.  A fantastic website and when I
requested an in-person phone call to discuss some customizations, they
were back in touch with me the next day.  The rep connected me with
Jeskell, an IBM partner in Phoenix who were able to answer all of my
questions and had two price quotes to me the next day.  I spoke with
them over the phone today about my various options and the rep
concluded that my best deal would be to purchase from an online vendor
(or the IBM website).  So I got a decent entry-level server online for
a bit under the $799 retail price with free shipping.  It would have
been a few hundred bucks cheaper but I sprung for IBM's 3 year
warranty over the 1 year warranty (so I'm covered through the
completion my dissertation).  Added 4 250GB SATA drives with 5 year
warranties (for half a terabyte of disk space under Raid5 with a
spare) for a total of a bit over $1000, significantly less than I was
prepared to spend.  And it's IBM with the incredible IBM service to
which I've grown accustomed.

I may have been able to pull together something a bit more powerful
and with a bit more disk space for a bit cheaper if I had built it
myself.  But this is far easier and gives much greater peace of mind.
So I'm content.

Claude


On Mon, Oct 09, 2006 at 12:31:12PM -0700, Claude Rubinson wrote:
> I'm looking to order a file server and am looking for recommendations
> for vendors.  Primarily, I'm looking for good customer service,
> someone who has experience building machines that will be running
> Linux, and will be willing to work with me even though I'm a grad
> student who's looking to keep costs relatively low.  (For what it's
> worth, the server will primarily be acting as a remote backup, so I'm
> looking for good drive reliability---I'll be running software
> raid5---but don't care about speed and RAM, which is where I'll be
> looking to cut costs.)
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Claude
> 
> 
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