Best server company (hardware)

Awwent · #1 05-09-2011, 03:49 PM

Hi!

I'm considering buying a few servers and put them in co-location but I have no idea of where I should buy the servers. Dell, HP or what? Who's the "best" and what pros and cons do they have?

Thanks,
Awwent

24x7group · #2 05-09-2011, 03:57 PM

Where are you located exactly?
We mainly work with Supermicro, also a very good brand for servers

Awwent · #3 05-09-2011, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ServerBoost

Where are you located exactly?
We mainly work with Supermicro, also a very good brand for servers

Sweden, Europe. I'll take a look at Supermicro.

24x7group · #4 05-09-2011, 04:37 PM

You can have a look at ahead-it.eu, they are a Supermicro supplier and do a very good job!
They can also ship to Sweden.

HivelocityGM · #5 05-09-2011, 04:59 PM

Supermicro offers great hardware at a good price. Dell offers really great hardware but their pricing leaves a lot to be desired. HP offers a great product but I am not privy to their pricing lately.

CompuSite · #6 05-09-2011, 05:29 PM

Yeah, definitely agree... Supermicro is the way to go in my opinion

swiftnoc · #7 05-09-2011, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ServerBoost

You can have a look at ahead-it.eu, they are a Supermicro supplier and do a very good job!

They are also incredibly expensive and many of our colocation customers that went with Ahead have serious issues with their RMA procedures. In most cases they end up to RMA trough one of our vendors.
They come not even close to th superior service we see from various UK, Dutch and German Supermicro suppliers. Supermicro as a server brand is definitely recommended !

**beastserv** · #8 05-09-2011, 05:48 PM

we used a mix of hp dell ibm and supermicro servers, all have proven as great machines.

lately we are getting new dells and are quite happy with them due to the SLA we get directly from dell.

swiftnoc · #9 05-09-2011, 05:56 PM

Our experience:

Hammer PLC (UK) good RMA and good pricing. European businesses with decent track record can get decent 30 days supplier credit (25000 to 500 000 Euro what we have seen from both direct as indirect experience). Negative: their delivery times for large orders are pretty slow. http://www.hammerplc.com/

NCS (NL) this Dutch distributor is the largest Benelux distributor http://www.ncs.nl/

<< snipped >>

We do not use the above mentioned suppliers anymore, as we moved over to the next level. But both of them are highly recommended from experience for medium to larger accounts and even those small account that value good after service and decent pricing. They will not be as aggressive on pricing for small purchases, but what i have seen, they will match smaller vendors on pricing.

If you need some USA vendors - we have experience with a very wide range of them in various states.

swiftnoc · #10 05-09-2011, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beastserv

lately we are getting new dells and are quite happy with them due to the SLA we get directly from dell.

Until you will need that SLA and find that the 4 hours SLA means, that they send some subcontractor that does not have the part with him that was broken. This is usually causing a +24 hour downtime for your client before that engineer returns with the correct part. If that was a high profile client, you will very likely lose the client or end up paying a large reimbursement fee.
Nothing beats on-site engineers. Dell also has decent programs that trains your engineers as Dell certified engineers and dell will give you free onsite replacement parts. Unless your a small operator, i can recommend this program, if you have a large amount of Dell servers in your datacenter.

**net** · #11 05-09-2011, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swiftnoc

If you need some USA vendors - we have experience with a very wide range of them in various states.

Why not post it here so it can help others and the OP?

swiftnoc · #12 05-09-2011, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by net

Why not post it here so it can help others and the OP?

No problem- all vendors have positives and negatives so lets honestly review them:

APAQ Digital (http://Apaqdigital.com)
Very knowledge people - but we had a very bad run with them. Had to RMA over 50% of all disks due to chassis problems and spend a lot of time and money to pad the servers.
Still would recommend them, they send us the HDD disks for free and acknowledged the problems.

Positives: Extremely knowledgeable, good service, good RMA procedures, fast delivery.
Negatives: had a bad batch of HDD with them. We spend at lot time and money to correct the chassis with padding and replace the HDD delivered by them and this put us somewhat off. I have somewhat the feeling that this might have been bad luck and would work with the again in the future for datacenters close to them.

Amadi Systems (http://amadisystems.com) -
Very solid servers. We use them for our Chicago facility and they do not disappoint.

Positives: good service, fast delivery
Negatives: relatively slow quotes, higher prices then Apaq and Bonavio

Bonavio (http://www.bonavio.com/)
They are the best of our USA vendors by far. Too bad their website does not represent their quality but they go above and beyond - and have the best pricing in the USA we have seen so far.

Positives: Extremely knowledgeable, extreme service, very good RMA procedures, lowest prices of all mentioned vendors
Negatives: Slower response on Saturday and Sunday.

**net** · #13 05-09-2011, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swiftnoc

No problem- all vendors have positives and negatives so lets honestly review them:

APAQ Digital (http://Apaqdigital.com)
Very knowledge people - but we had a very bad run with them. Had to RMA over 50% of all disks due to chassis problems and spend a lot of time and money to pad the servers.
Still would recommend them, they send us the HDD disks for free and acknowledged the problems.

Hmmmm.... we are using them too.

What kind of drives we are talking about?