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  1. #1

    * What brand servers should I buy?

    Hello All,

    I'm going to be tossing EV1 dedicated servers pretty soon to colo my newly bought systems at equinix . I was wondering for the companies that have their own boxes and host them. What brands do you buy?

    THe two options I've been looking at is HP Prolient DL380s and Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers. My config is going to be Qty 2 - Dualcore Xeon 5130s (2Ghz), with 4Gig RAM, RAID controller (Running RAID 5), 3 -- 146Gig Serial ATtached SCSI (SAS) drives 10k, remote console card, redundant power supply, and Red Hat Enterprise ES and Cpanel/WHM. I’m hoping with this config I can fit about 500 web hosting clients per server. Does this sound about right? I'm going to lease the equipment over 24months so I should get a pretty good payment of around $250/month per server. LEt me know if my config needs a little tweaking.

    I'm very knowledgeable with HP systems as I've installed and configured almost 75 Proliant servers in the IT consulting company I am in. But everyone including EV1 is so PRO DELL DELL DELL. Does Dell have some advantages in Linux environments that HP doesn't?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,031
    I would go for HP. My DELL expirience was very lousy - 2 DELL servers with RAID fail and they cannot even send technicals to help me out (and this is on most expensive "Support Level") - DELL asking me to download some test utility from their website and then they will ship me replacements.

    DELL is off my list !

    Also take a look which servers guys from kernel.org using ? Right it is HP

  3. #3
    I setup a ML350 G5 server a couple weeks ago and I must say HP is getting better and better with ease of access to the box and compact design, the power supply is like half the size now, and now you can fit 8 HDs vs the 6 before.

    Hoping to hear from some people on their thoughts.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Reston, VA
    Posts
    3,131
    Quote Originally Posted by steven-v
    I would go for HP. My DELL expirience was very lousy - 2 DELL servers with RAID fail and they cannot even send technicals to help me out (and this is on most expensive "Support Level") - DELL asking me to download some test utility from their website and then they will ship me replacements.

    DELL is off my list !

    Also take a look which servers guys from kernel.org using ? Right it is HP
    if you complain to dell about them not responding in their 4 hour window you will get credited/refunded for things. Dell is strict on their "gold" 4 hour 24/7 support agreement, Just tell the tech that this will be violating the response time and they will transfer you to someone that matters. If you let their techs walk you through their scripts you will get no where, you need to take control and tell them whats wrong and what you need. everytime i have done this i've had my parts with in an hour or two.
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Posts
    1,708
    You can't go wrong with Dell, like any piece of hardware you have to monitor and really run it. They use good quality parts in all of their equipment. HPs are good servers as we have several running back end applications. I am not as fond of them as the Dells due to less interaction by sales reps unless you are buying large quantities. Another good one is Rackmountmicro.com and Supermicro. Just buy a built server and don't get into the whole whitebox thing, it will help in the long run.
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    242
    DELL, i've never had a Dell server but all our computers and laptops are by Dell and only had one problem and that was a battery recall!
    Your reading skill has increased by one point!
    computers are cool now OK!

  7. #7
    Dell, all the way.

  8. #8
    I would stick with the major brands of Dell, HP, SUN, etc.
    Vigabyte.com servers
    Email: sales@vigabyte.com
    Web: http://www.vigabyte.com

  9. #9
    Dell, Dell, Dell
    Very reliable hardware
    Caro.Net: Support is everything
    Offering High Quality Dedicated Servers.

  10. #10
    I've had SuperMicro servers for nearly four years. Three boxes and the only things I've had to replace are one NIC and two SCSI hard drives (all have two drives).

    I've purchased my Supermicro servers from acemicro.com before..

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    31
    I've seen both Dell and HP servers that were much slower with less RAM and less HD space handling way more customers in a shared environment. Both will handle Linux fine -- I think they both handle FreeBSD fine as well, which is my OS of choice.

    I think you'll hear good and bad things about support for each company. If I had to guess, I would expect Dell to have worse support because they're also supporting a massive amount of consumer-grade systems and this might affect their server support. But, that's just speculation as I've never dealt with either before.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    London, England
    Posts
    427
    Dell and HP in my opinion.

    Dell are starting to build up a bad reputation on the support front though. Something to think about
    The MonkeyPC - cPanel webhosting that's vibrant and high in quality. Just say hello to The Monkey!

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,541
    All of ours are Dell

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    AZ
    Posts
    157
    Today I would just build my own SuperMicro box (part of my business is onsite services & small business servers) but in a past life I was in charge of a few racks of servers (mostly Dell)

    On an Oracle database server with a 4hr Gold contract we lost a RAID controller. While I was on the phone with the TAM & Support agent a tech showed up with ALL the parts needed to rebuild the server... a motherboard, four Xeon procs, RAM, controllers, disks, DRAC, and P/S. Everything but a chassis!

    From the start of my call until the guys was in my data center was 90 minutes! I was seriously impressed.

    On a side note... I do like the HP DL380, but is it too heavy duty for shared web hosting?

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    407
    I am going to have to go with Dell and Supermicro boxes. We use Supermicro now for hositng but I have worked on Dell servers for years now.

    Oh these our pricey but IBM servers are rock solid to. I have supported many of these in the past for work they hardly ever failed except for drive failures.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    United Kingdom
    Posts
    1,389
    Go with HP - but don't buy directly.

    Not sure what country you're in but in the UK, we have a business account with WStore. They have an excellent partnership with HP - are actually interested in selling you the equipment - keep you speaking to one account manager - know what they're selling you as well which always helps.

    Once ordered, any support still goes with HP obviously.

    From experience, HP Support is excellent. Their sales isn't particularly good though (hence my above recommendation).

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