Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Branded or Build your own?

[daboolz]

Hi,

Just wondering, when you purchase your server, do you usually purchase a branded server such as Dell, HP, IBM, etc or do go and buy each component, and build it yourself?

Regards,
Greg

[gate2vn]

We do not buy from Dell, HP or IBM. We do not build ourselves either Contact Chong at Apaqdigital.com, he can build quality servers for you

Of course, if you can access datacenter, want to build yourself, you can buy parts from NewEgg and play with them

[seankoons]

ThinkMate.com -- ask for Jon Breen. Say ZONE.NET sent you

As far as building your own, the only problem with that is if you miss one tiny screw that goes in that rack-mount server or forget to apply a paste on top of the cpu before you put on the heatsink can bring your server down later on.

Ofcourse, if you build rackmount servers for a living, there should be no reason you are buying a Dell or IBM or HP. Unless ofcourse your just sick of building rackmount servers

-Sean

[RayWomack]

Dell, HP, IBM, go after corporate business. Web hosting is different ball game they do not understand.

I priced an IBM server the other day for a client, and man, it was a good thing I was sitting down.

[VINAX]

Building your own server will give you more options and flexibility, so go with it if you have experience about building and fixing the server.

[Linn_Boyd]

We have all the talent in house and the distributor relationships to build our own or to buy from a smaller company. We see so few problems from the Dell and HP hardware in our facility that it isn't worth it to build our own. Sometimes we will add ram or drives to the Dell or Compaq gear, but otherwise it just isn't worth it to deal with anyone but IBM, Dell or Compaq. Show me who else can have someone here in 4 hours.

[seankoons]

Originally Posted by TheDingy

Show me who else can have someone here in 4 hours.

It's always a good idea to keep many spare parts handy for all of your servers; whether branded or non. Four hours versus 20 minutes can make a big difference when it comes to an outage.

-Sean

[Linn_Boyd]

This is so true and we do keep complete spare servers and hardware onsite. But a lot of colocation customers can not afford to do that.

[daboolz]

Does it take more skill to build a rackmount server compare to building a desktop? Cause I'm used to building desktops, but if by just missing a screw could bring a server down, that's scary.

What sort of spare parts do you usually keep? Can we ask our colo provider to hold those spare parts for us or do you usually keep them at home or the office?

[daboolz]

BTW, I'd love to buy from either apaqdigital or thinkmate, unfortunately I live on the other side of the world.

[seankoons]

Originally Posted by daboolz

Does it take more skill to build a rackmount server compare to building a desktop? Cause I'm used to building desktops, but if by just missing a screw could bring a server down, that's scary.

What sort of spare parts do you usually keep? Can we ask our colo provider to hold those spare parts for us or do you usually keep them at home or the office?

Well, I was exaggerating a bit with the single screw example, but rackmount units are much more tight when it comes to space and wiring versus a big desktop. That loose screw can short your motherboard when you least expect it.

It really depends on your budget as to how many spare parts you can keep. You can keep only a spare disk, or you can keep an entire clone server on standby. It's best to store the spare parts/servers at the colo facility, because at 3:00am I'm sure you'd rather pay the ~$80/hour "hands-on" fee to repair an issue rather than sending out your on-call tech or worse, doing it yourself.

-Sean

[gate2vn]

Originally Posted by daboolz

BTW, I'd love to buy from either apaqdigital or thinkmate, unfortunately I live on the other side of the world.

it doesnt matter You dont need to stay in the US for ordering. We are Vietnam-based company, and our systems are US-based

[vx|brian]

We usually order them from ISTNC (http://www.istnc.com/), They are an Intel Premier Partner, only around 240 of them in the world, always gets me a good price on Intel Woodcrests and all.

Tell him "vexxhost" referred you.

[biggerboy]

Unlike most the other users here I deal with IBM, I work in low volume, and do not have access to the datacenter. I use IBM's onsite support for anything under warranty and boy does it help. They cover most major cities as well. But it is really what you are looking for, if you are going to be building them for clients, custom is the way to go. It is much easier to swap out parts than with vendors like IBM and Dell.

[daboolz]

it doesnt matter You dont need to stay in the US for ordering.

No kidding! Even after adding the shipping cost, the system price still come below what you'd be paying locally? What happens if you need a replacement part?

Tell him "vexxhost" referred you.

Thanks Brian. I'll check on all recommended suppliers, and see if they can give me a better deal compare to local suppliers.

So basically the advantages of branded vs. non-branded is on the level of support. So premium price = support. Much like your choice of managed vs. unmanaged server. You'd be paying more for the managed.

However, can I safely say that performance and reliability wise between branded and non-branded, the difference is negligible or even no difference whatsoever?