Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 83
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    688

    rack server builders? best one?

    I'm looking for a cheaper alternative to Dell's poweredge rackmount servers.

    Which other server provide do you recommend for reasonable quality and better pricing then Dell?

    How many servers have you bought from them and how many hardware parts failed out of these?

    Thanks.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    627
    I recommend RackLogic. We have bought a bunch of systems with them over the past year ( ~15 systems) and all have been great. No hardware failures yet. We did have one small issue with 1 of the 2 ethernet ports on a supermicro server motherboard not working right, but we had that replaced.
    Senior Network Architect
    Managed Network Services for Hosting Providers
    www.ipexperts.net
    | https://anycastvpn.net

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    688
    racklogic.com?

    There site is shot, no info. Nothing.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    627
    yes that is the website. contact them via email or phone for whatever server you are looking for.
    Senior Network Architect
    Managed Network Services for Hosting Providers
    www.ipexperts.net
    | https://anycastvpn.net

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    California
    Posts
    142
    Interpro Microsystems - interpromicro.com ask for Andy they are a Super Micro shop (and I consider super micro superior in their chassis, power supply and motherboards to all other enterprise server providers).
    Ripple Web
    RippleWeb.com
    Dedicated Servers - Private Cloud Services - Colocation

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    963
    Quote Originally Posted by Calibaba View Post
    I'm looking for a cheaper alternative to Dell's poweredge rackmount servers.

    Which other server provide do you recommend for reasonable quality and better pricing then Dell?

    How many servers have you bought from them and how many hardware parts failed out of these?

    Thanks.

    I've always been a proponent of sticking with name brands, the quality is just far superior due to the available engineering resources. However, you might check out pogolinux.com. I've been working with Paul Bibaud @ pogo, and his pricing is nothing short of phenomenal. Paul's contact information is paul.b@pogolinux.com, 206-753-2249 and I can't recommend him enough.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    490
    You should probably ask this in the colo forum to get more input.

    We have used apaqdigital.com for our supermicro servers. The owner is active on these boards. I have been involved in the purchase of over 20 servers from them and the prices are always good and the shipping fast. If I recall we had one server in with a flaky controller but he sent us a replacement quickly.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Server cabinets
    Posts
    43
    Quote Originally Posted by mkc View Post
    You should probably ask this in the colo forum to get more input.

    We have used apaqdigital.com for our supermicro servers. The owner is active on these boards. I have been involved in the purchase of over 20 servers from them and the prices are always good and the shipping fast. If I recall we had one server in with a flaky controller but he sent us a replacement quickly.
    another recommendation for apaqdigital.com

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    5,073
    Recently we were ordering all of our hardware from 8anet, but after issues with delivery times and simply bad communication, we decided to go with someone locally.

    After our move from alphared to steadfast, Karl put us in contact with a local company, amadisystems.com. Their prices were a heck of a lot better than what 8anet gave us and I liked the fact it was local so all work we've needed, he simply went to the DC to check up for us. Setup time was very good, 3 days from order -> in rack, quite good considering half of the parts were supermicro.

    We've since then ordered another 2 boxes with him, all have gone well.

    :-)

    ~Francisco
    BuyVM - OpenVZ & KVM Based VPS Servers - Chat with us
    - All popular VPN methods supported
    - Affordable offloaded MySQL & DDoS protection
    - 5GB backup space, unmetered private LAN bandwidth & native IPv6 included. All with a strong serving of pony

  10. #10
    Andy at Interpro is top notch to deal with.
    Slicehost - Xen VPS hosting
    Community - Forums, wiki, chat and technical articles

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    New York, NY
    Posts
    4,618
    Quote Originally Posted by bluelion View Post
    I consider super micro superior in their chassis, power supply and motherboards to all other enterprise server providers
    I'll second the recommendation for Supermicro servers. They put a lot of thought into the engineering of their solutions. A good Supermicro chassis stays cooler, using less power for fans, when compared to a Dell.
    Scott Burns, President
    BQ Internet Corporation
    Remote Rsync and FTP backup solutions
    *** http://www.bqbackup.com/ ***

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    FreeBSD 6.2
    Posts
    474
    I couldn't be happier with my SuperMicro machines from http://www.apaqdigital.com/. Chong is the best. Great service, reliable hardware and reasonable prices.
    George Donnelly / Systems Administrator
    High Speed Rails inc. / FOSS Hosting
    http://highspeedrails.com
    "Linux is Luke. FreeBSD is Yoda."

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Atlanta
    Posts
    1,170
    Supermicro boxen from ApaqDigital.com - no failures in any machines over 4 or 5 years of doing business. Quick, prompt service and super fast shipping on spare parts. Highly recommended!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    688
    I checked apaqdigital and they have this motherboard

    Foxconn 946GZ7MA socket 775 desktop board

    Is Foxconn any good? the supermicro mb models are a heap more expensive.

  15. #15
    In my mind nobody can beat the prices, and quality support that Rob and Don give at Rack Mount Specialists (http://rackmountspecialists.com/)

    I have been using them exclusively for a few years now.
    Fiberhub- Affordable Colocation Services in Las Vegas, Dallas, Miami, and Seattle
    Versaweb - DDoS Protected Cloud and Dedicated Server Hosting

  16. #16
    I really think you should go with Dell especially for colocation. Every server comes with 3-year on site support. If something happens to your server they will go right over to the DC and fix it.

    In addition, right now you will likely get a price better than a Supermicro given the specials Dell is offering. Free processors, free RAID card, $850 off $2800... etc etc. If you're purchasing a bunch of servers you can get a business account with them and receive even better discounts. I really have to say I've had great experiences with Dell.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Chicago, IL
    Posts
    6,957
    Quote Originally Posted by sly596 View Post
    I really think you should go with Dell especially for colocation. Every server comes with 3-year on site support. If something happens to your server they will go right over to the DC and fix it.

    In addition, right now you will likely get a price better than a Supermicro given the specials Dell is offering. Free processors, free RAID card, $850 off $2800... etc etc. If you're purchasing a bunch of servers you can get a business account with them and receive even better discounts. I really have to say I've had great experiences with Dell.
    I can't find pricing on anything even close to what I can get from Amadi Systems (Yes, I know they don't have a site up yet, but they're great to deal with, just contact curt@amadisystems.com) and with the Supermicro boxes you can get more drives in the same space, they use less power, etc. as well. I'd rather pay the local colo shop, or stop in myself, to replace bad RAM or a hard drive if something were to happen then pay Dell an extra several hundred to do it. Your colocation facility would also likely be much faster to respond than Dell, especially with Dell's standard 10/5 next business day offering.
    Karl Zimmerman - Founder & CEO of Steadfast
    VMware Virtual Data Center Platform

    karl @ steadfast.net - Sales/Support: 312-602-2689
    Cloud Hosting, Managed Dedicated Servers, Chicago Colocation, and New Jersey Colocation

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ashburn VA, San Diego CA
    Posts
    4,615
    apaqdigital.com for fast east coast deliveries

    rackmountspecialists.com or go-pcn.com for fast west coast deliveries.
    Fast Serv Networks, LLC | AS29889 | DDOS Protected | Managed Cloud, Streaming, Dedicated Servers, Colo by-the-U
    Since 2003 - Ashburn VA + San Diego CA Datacenters

  19. #19
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Posts
    3,872
    Quote Originally Posted by Calibaba View Post
    I checked apaqdigital and they have this motherboard

    Foxconn 946GZ7MA socket 775 desktop board

    Is Foxconn any good? the supermicro mb models are a heap more expensive.
    for budget server builds, we have extensive experience with foxconn boards in last 12 months, and found that they are extremely reliable. 0 return for the few hundreds we have installed thus far. in fact, we have seen more failed supermicro/tyan boards than desktop boards from foxconn/asus/gigabyte/intel.
    C.W. LEE, Apaq Digital Systems
    http://www.apaqdigital.com
    sales@apaqdigital.com

  20. #20
    Amadi Systems can beat this?!:

    Dual Quad Core E5420 Xeon's 2.5 GHz 1333FSB 2x6MB Cache
    8GB 4x2GB RAM w/ room for 4 more chips
    3 146GB 15k RPM Raid-5 w/ room for 3 more drives

    This can be had for $2900 at Dell w/ 3 years on site support. I find it hard to beat. Can it be beaten?! Say it isn't so?

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Chicago
    Posts
    285
    Dell has gotten quite aggressive with their 1950 (1u) and 2950 (2u) pricing recently. This is of course if you want a server class motherboard, ECC ram, decent raid controller, the three year NBD warm and fuzzy support, and excellent Linux/Unix support.

    I have no problem building your own but if you are looking for a server class machine make sure to stick with server class hardware and ECC ram. Asus, Supermicro, and Tyan boards are going to be more reliable 99% of the time. Using anything less than ECC ram is a big no no.

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    490
    The Dell servers I have worked on had pretty dysfunctional RAID controllers. Once I had a bad drive but the controller did not realize it. When trying to manually break the mirror or remove the drive, it refused to do any operations on the array (even after unmounting in the OS) until I reboot.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Posts
    1,239
    Quote Originally Posted by sly596 View Post
    Amadi Systems can beat this?!:

    Dual Quad Core E5420 Xeon's 2.5 GHz 1333FSB 2x6MB Cache
    8GB 4x2GB RAM w/ room for 4 more chips
    3 146GB 15k RPM Raid-5 w/ room for 3 more drives

    This can be had for $2900 at Dell w/ 3 years on site support. I find it hard to beat. Can it be beaten?! Say it isn't so?
    Evening:

    Try sending out a few feelers to the suppliers recommended here and see what they offer you. You never know until you ask.
    TradeViceroy

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    963
    Quote Originally Posted by bqinternet View Post
    I'll second the recommendation for Supermicro servers. They put a lot of thought into the engineering of their solutions. A good Supermicro chassis stays cooler, using less power for fans, when compared to a Dell.
    Comparing with Dell is like comparing a $500 hooker against hooking up with your 50 year old aunt selma. Of course it's going to be better.

    Supermicro makes good commodity servers, but they're just that, a commodity, whitebox manufacturer. Compared to something from HP, Sun, or IBM they're weak, especially on the on-board diagnostics, and management side.

    For dedicated servers where you don't need much (any) sophistication, sure Supermicro is fine, but for more intensive applications, give the big 3 a chance, they'll surprise you. Looking inside some Sun servers is like peering into a work of art. I'm especially fond of Sun's latest round of LOMs, which have embedded Linux in them.. It's lightyears ahead of Supermicro's IPMI implementation.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Ashburn VA, San Diego CA
    Posts
    4,615
    Quote Originally Posted by mhalligan View Post
    more intensive applications, give the big 3 a chance, they'll surprise you.
    So the big 3 will run my applications better and give better uptime/reliability, ect? Qualify that one...=)
    Fast Serv Networks, LLC | AS29889 | DDOS Protected | Managed Cloud, Streaming, Dedicated Servers, Colo by-the-U
    Since 2003 - Ashburn VA + San Diego CA Datacenters

Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •