I'm considering co-locating a machine at VDI.

I've read some good things about VDI, however for single servers they charge their bandwidth based on 95th percentile--which I view as a major turnoff. I was, however told in the next month they will offer fixed bandwidth for single machines.

The machine I'm looking to purchase is:
Dual PIII 1 ghz
1 or 1.5 gigs RAM
4 x 18 gig 10k SCSI Hard drives

I've priced this machine at Dell and Gateway. With a service contract, they are both around $6-8,000.

I'm curious as to whether anyone has purchased their server from Dell or Gateway, and how the service was (if needed). They both offer 5x9 or 7x24 4 hour same day service, however it would be rather strange having them work on my machine that's hundreds of miles away---I'd likely have the co-location company do work before they arrived.

My personal experience with Dell's service on a laptop computer was horrible, taking them 3 months to replace it. Obviously, I'm not quite sure I could trust them servicing my server.

I'm sure many of you have been in this same situation. Perhaps someone can offer me some advice as to how to proceed (where to buy the machine, etc.) I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks

Hey

I know a good hosting company. I am currently with them know.

<<ADMIN NOTE>>
If you can't post the URL of the company you hinted at, then please don't ask people to email you either.
<</ADMIN NOTE>>

[Edited by Chicken on 03-23-2001 at 07:29 PM]

Hello,

You may want to think twice about going with a Dell or a Gateway server, or any other name brand company for that matter. You can easily build a system like that for well under $5k, I read a post by Carlos (CRego3D) in the dream server thread in this forum about a server he was building consisting of the following:

Dual PIII 1 Gig
Supermicro 370DL3 Mobo with ServerWorks ServerSet™ III LE Chipset
2 Gig Of RAM (4x 512Mb registered ECC DIMMs memory )
2 x Segate 50 Gig SCA SICI HD's (LVD Hotswappable)
Intel® 82559 Ethernet controller

All that packed in this cute little 1U
http://www.rackmountpro.com/prodimages//AC/1N-SYS.JPG


He said later in the post he built it for less than $5k. As far as the service work goes, yeah he will have to pay if something breaks down but would you rather spend an extra 3k up front and have to wait 24 hours for a Dell/Gateway rep to fix your system or perhaps pay $500 and have VDI fix it if it breaks down? I have always believed that building your own computers/servers is the way to go, you always get a better price and you know 100% what is going in there and you know it was built properly.

Regards,

Mike