Hi everyone!,
I¡¦m relatively new here and don¡¦t expect you to trust me, but I am a verified papal business member if that helps with the trust issue, anyway let me get to the point. I can build just about any server you need, including rack mounts. I was just wondering if anybody here would be interested in custom build servers? I see there is a lot of talk regarding hardware, but no real offers on it. If any of you would be interested in such please e-mail me at: bellatlanticcxr@aol.com. I can handle just about anything including dual processor systems. I see that this forum is based highly on user recommendations and I am hoping to build a relationship with everyone. If you happen to be interested just drop me an e-mail and include the specs on what you need including case, and if possible links to other servers you have considered so as I might compare what I can make, as well as trying to beat the price ƒº Well anyway, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will enjoy the new year. Thanks!

Are you a computer store/hardware vendor? Or just some guy putting the pc's together? what type of warranty on parts/labour do you give, and can you give us some prices, examples, etc?

Well in response to what exactly am I, well im basicly a guy who builds pc's locally, and normally get sales by word of mouth, however I have been looking into opening a retail outlet, I know i know real assuring right..lol, thats why I figured this post would be a waste, trust is a big issue. The only re-assuring thing I can tell you is that my home address and phone number will be provided to every customer. Now as far as warranty, I will offer 1 year parts and labor, and also 3 years labor, either using my parts or parts that you provide, which most other reatilers will not permit because thats how they make money on the "labor" only part of the warranty. Now as far as pricing, post me sample specs on what you want and I would be happy to post my price for that configuration, hope this answers your questions. Thanks!

For the following config, I'd appreciate if you gave an estimation, as well as the upgrade price to get each part in a higher config (I know sometimes parts are very cheap to upgrade to the next level, and in that case wouldn't want to miss out doubling the RAM or something for $30, you know what I mean) :)

1 ghz+ AMD processor
512 MB+ RAM
20 GB+ Hard Drive
FreeBSD (Possibly something to work with freevsd)

And the rest of the config would be basically standard, or bare bones if it's not used in hosting (no video cards like many server building sites try to sell or anything :)).

This will give us all an idea on pricing.

I'd like to see the price (estimate) for the above in a 1U case.

Do you have your own source to get parts at wholesale price?

Yes, we have our own parts suppliers, give me a little time to get the pricing together and iwill post here. I will price a regular case, as well as in a 1u case. All of my servers will be custom built at time of order, we dont stock any pre-configed stuff, so you will always get the latest hardware updates. Will get back to you guys soon, hopefully later today. Thanks!:stickout

*****UPDATE*******

AMD SYSTEM
-512 pc 133 ram
-Mini-Tower case
-CD-ROM
-Floopy
-1.1 GHZ AMD Duron
-Motherboard
-100/10 NIC
-Video
-USB
-20 GIG 7200RPM ATA/100

About $700

As far as a 1u amd system, this is hard to come by, motherboards for the 1u amd are expencive, however just using prices from a pc i just buit here goes:

-Dual 1GHZ PIII CPU's
-1GIG RAM PC133
-RAID with 2 20GIG 7200 RPM ATA/100 DRIVES
-Dual NIC 10/100
-Video
-In a 1U rackmount case

About $1400

These prices are not exact but close, depends on market. Also these are not cheap OEM component PC's. The AMD system is buit without using a cheap all-in-one motherboard, and used seperate cards for video and nic, the 1U system is ingegrated, but you must do that, however all components are retail (exept maybe CPU, but we can change that) and all are name brand not generic, you must be careful when buying a pc, these geneic OEM parts are of lower quality then retail, hard drives especially. If anyone has any questions on price, or anything just post here or e-mail me and I will try to answer all of them. And remeber all pc's are hand built to order, so they will take a little time to complete.

What motherboard does the 1U come with?

you can fit most 1u cases with a normal motherboard, just check the dimensions of the case and the dimensions of the motherboard to make sure you dont grab one that wont fit in the case properly. Most 1u cases will state either their internal dimensions, or what motherboard dimensions they support.

It is true that most motherboards will fit into a 1u case, however I prefer to use boards which were designed to fit into 1u cases, they tend to have a better build quality, as well as features designed for rack mount applications.

The board that I use in the 1u server above is made by tyan.

No offense to your offer, but it's just not economical for most of us to go with you i think, because think about it like this, for $1400 usd, you can pick up a nice raq server, with its own control panel and the works, and i bet you can get it cheaper if you buy in quantity. Control panels on their own are a few hundred, and your 1u unit would not offer that.

Also, raq's are the more expensive servers, personally i could assemble an amd xp 1600 + 1/2 gig of ram (pc150), + 40 gig hdd (maxtor), + 3com nic for, 3 extra case fans for optimal cooling < $400 usd, and sure it might have onboard video, sound, etc. but it's not a desktop gaming system, so really the quality on the onboard video + sound dont matter whatsoever (or usb for that matter).

Also, what about shipping to the customer, my estimates there included shipping (to myself), or did you include that in yours, and taxes too (because you can't resell legally without taxing).

Might wanta think about those a little, or perhaps you already have.

Hey, all I did was make an offer, im very pleased that you can assemble a system for that price, now did you include labor, and warranty service in that? I think not. And tax will only be assest to NJ residence, as far as shipping I will split the acctual cost with the buyer. If no one wants it, dont take, I just wanted to see if anyone needed servers, thats all, i dont advertise myself as a business nor will i ever, just wanted to see if there was an interest in this sort of thing.

My price estimate included tax, and labour, a warranty costs nothing because either the labour is correct or it's not, and the parts are all warrantied from their vendors. I'm not too sure what you mean by service (when you mention labour as well), but anyhow, as i said, i wasn't trying to dodge your offer, im sure some centers that only have high tech staff that demand 100$+/hr might benefit from this, but generally any tech can be trained to assemble hardware within a matter of days.

Originally posted by porcupine
No offense to your offer, but it's just not economical for most of us to go with you i think, because think about it like this, for $1400 usd, you can pick up a nice raq server, with its own control panel and the works, and i bet you can get it cheaper if you buy in quantity. Control panels on their own are a few hundred, and your 1u unit would not offer that.
Have you quoted what that server would normally cost? Here is one from a company I like:

http://www.online-spectrum.com/rack_sys/r175.htm

It's almost identical to his offer. True, if you build it yourself it might cost a little less, but you won't get the support and you'll have to spend time building it, which could be spent on configuring it. Some people prefer not to build them just because of the time involved. I know I'd rather get a pre-built one and spend my time doing something I'll get paid for.

Also, you cannot compare a Raq to the beast he quoted. That's like comparing a Pinto to a Mustang. Sure, the Raq comes with a fancy control panel, but for those of us who don't need them, why use them or pay for them?

soontohost: your 1U is well priced, if not a deal. If you can provide fast turn-around times and good support for them, you'll probably get some good customers from this board. :)

Thank You Allera.

Originally posted by porcupine


Also, raq's are the more expensive servers, personally i could assemble an amd xp 1600 + 1/2 gig of ram (pc150), + 40 gig hdd (maxtor), + 3com nic for, 3 extra case fans for optimal cooling < $400 usd, and sure it might have onboard video, sound, etc. but it's not a desktop gaming system, so really the quality on the onboard video + sound dont matter whatsoever (or usb for that matter).

Where could I send the check? ;)

LOL, i'm not in the business of assembling hardware for others, but if you would like me to assist you in assembling inexpensive servers, i could help of course =) theres a lot of cheap hardware places on the net, you just gotta know where to find them (assuming you're in the USA of course)

You know what'd be neat is if you posted a tutorial on here about how to do it, from buying to assembling. I'm sure you'd help hundreds of people over time :).

Im sure this sounds very selfish, and I'm really feeling selfish right now for my own reasons, but I have very little intent on helping my competition. No offense to anyone, but with my facilities still being developed, it would be a real kick in the pants for me to help someone build cheaper servers and undermine my business goals. I'll give you a tip though, whenever you buy something, buy 5,000+ of them so you can get a discount! :stickout

Ok, how about you just help me :D.

sure, send me an email (or meet me on irc if you irc) and we can talk.