Rolling Your Own Business Desktops?

mike asks: "I'm mulling the logic of my company building its own desktop computers. As the IT Manager (plus sysadmin, janitor...) of a struggling-yet-thankfully-still-alive dotcom, money is really tight. We have around sixty ~400MHz desktops which are increasingly showing their age. Acceptable P4 systems from the big guys run at least $1000. By recycling the OS (Win2k), case, cdrom, floppy, and K/V/M, I figure I can assemble a good AMD system for about $600. That's a 40% savings. Is it worth it? The cost difference could very well determine whether this project proceeds or gets put on the back-burner again."

"Some negatives about rolling my own:

• Management: I won't get the special business features offered by some manufacturers. Dell's OpenImage, for example, looks awfully nice. But how much does that really buy me in a company of 60 machines? I don't use such stuff now; am I missing out on nirvana?
• Time to build: Even though we'd leverage Ghost wherever possible, handmade systems nevertheless take time to build, load, & configure.
• Supporting different platforms: Because money is so tight, I can at best afford a capital replacement rate of 25%-33% (15-20 units) per year. That means I'm committing to the support of 3 or 4 different platforms. Having just one platform is great, but how many companies, even ones that actively strive for it, truly enjoy that luxury? I inherited two platforms (Micron & Gateway); support isn't that bad. With proper planning, I don't see why we can't support four.
• Hardware quality: How much can I trust a popular Athlon chipset in a business environment? I feel silly bringing this up because I have a few Athlon systems at home, each with a different chipset, and they've been nothing but rock solid. But I know the lack of a really good chipset has been a large contributor to why AMD's aren't more prevalent in the business world. (well, that and long term bullying by Intel).
• I don't get a proven, prepackaged system that works right out of the box.

Positives of rolling my own:

• Cost savings. Plain & simple.
• Increased horsepower per dollar spent.
• By choosing my own equipment (mobo especially), I suffer fewer OEM shortcuts.
• I have to admit that I'd enjoy the pure geek satisfaction of rolling out 'my' creation to the company.

So is it worth it, or am I setting myself up for disaster?"

For those that are curious, Ask Slashdot did an article on the AMD issue, here.

Comments

Go for it

[SoCalChris]

Maintaining all of them would give you plenty of job security.

Re:Go for it

[vladkrupin]

... or, since you are already a "struggling" dot-com, this will end your struggles :) (or :( - you choose)

Re:Microsoft allow it?

[KFury]

But when your motherboard gets fried, MS doesn't make you buy another copy of windows for the new motherboard...

So just make sure you snap each of those old MBs in half before installing the 'replacement parts.'

License transfer questions answered!

[rworne]

Please send us:
Your company name, address, phone number, and you and your manager's contact info. We will be glad to assist you in any licensing issues you may have, especially in the area of OEM licenses. Glad to be of assistance.

Sincerely,

The Business Software Alliance

Re:Why upgrade?

[j09824]

Have you ever tried using even DreamWeaver on a 400MHz machine? What about VisualCafe? Or deploying an app with a few dozen EJBs and servlets to WebLogic, running on the same machine as the Cafe?

What does any of that have to do with web development? ;-)

Re:Microsoft allow it?

[Fizzlewhiff]

Will Microsoft even allow you to recycle your Win2k license on a new computer?

They let me recycle my XP license on a new computer. They asked if I removed it from the old computer and then gave me a new code. The lady on the other end of the phone was very polite too. They didn't ask about any first born children and I could barely here the voodoo drums in the background.

Re:Microsoft allow it?

[Tackhead]

> If I understand the parent poster correctly, the case of beer is for after the upgrades are finished... or at least after the boxes are back together. Hardware issues aside, the effects of alcohol impairment couldn't be much worse than the effects of a bunch of stupid users...

ROFLMAO, yes, precisely.

The ideal plan is that you throw the beer in the fridge at 5pm and start upgrading. You order the pizza later on at night when you're partway through. (Or when you've "got the easy ones working, but have to remove the dead fan because there's half a pound of dust in the case.") Ideally, you finish the last PC when the 'za arrives, and the brewskis are nicely-chilled.

Worst case, you take a break, eat some of the 'za (the key here is to order more than the three of you could possibly eat in a single sitting), finish the remaining upgrades, then drink the now-very beer and reheat the now-cold pizza.

(Do not, under any circumstances, chill the pizza and reheat the beer. That would be bad. Once you're sufficiently drunk, you can always reheat the pizza, bite-by-bite, on the old CPUs by using the pepperoni slices as heatsinks, and the pepperoni grease as transfer paste. Just make sure you clean the CPU off verrrrrrrrrry thoroughly first.

(Fun beer + upgrade story -- I've seen someone build up a "wall" of hot-glue around the edges of an Athlon chip whose die got chipped during a botched heatsink installation. You really can fry an egg on one... *burp*)

Re:Roll Your Own PCs in Bulk

[miracle69]

You forgot the most important step - the tinfoil hats!

Re:Roll Your Own PCs in Bulk

[Illserve]

Real geeks assemble mobos next to their Tesla coil.

New boxes, new licence, new OS?

[leonbrooks]

No, he's building new boxes. Even if he wasn't, no MS OS licence has allowed `recycling' after Windows 95, so changing the CPU would axe the licence.

Mandrake Linux's licence allows you to recycle an installation. Come to think of it, you're also allowed to copy an existing installation, install as amny times as you like from the Download CD set, benchmark it against other things, use an unlimited number of seats, and comes with OpenOffice.org 641D. Oh, and even if you spot Mandrake $50 a machine, that works out at around 1/10 of the cost of MS-Windows+MS-Office, and no free viruses.

Re:Microsoft allow it?

[esper_child]

my best beer + upgrade story was a friend dropped a chip into the pizza and went to clean it with my beer. I was pissed at him for using my beer and the owner was pissed because it frigged up the machine.

Also, when drunk, dont' EVER under ANY circumstances use a sharp knife for a screwdriver, THEY DON'T WORK THAT WELL, and you can put it through your hand easily (as I found out the hard way).

Also, the computer doesn't want any beer, no matter how much you think it does. NEVER, EVER feed your computer beer, it doesn't need it and is probly too young for it anyways.

Re:anti-static isn't over-hyped.

[The Panther!]

Hear, hear. ESD isn't a myth, but it's largely *not* responsible for failures. I worked at one of the big microchip manufacturers for a couple of years in back-end test, where cpus get run through their paces before shipping to customers (bulk, not consumers). I probably handled on the order of a half million chips a year. We had ground straps and special shoes with metal woven into the rubber soles ($150/pair), metal weave smocks like the stereotypical scientists wear, etc.. In all the time I was there, only one obvious case of ESD came up. One guy worked all day without a good strap and everything he touched zapped. He fried about 20,000 cpus that day. Man, it was a bad scene. It's because he was wearing a thick wool sweater under his smock. But you're quite right, ESD is largely not a problem if you take minor precautions.

• Unplug the power cable to the motherboard, so it's only grounded!!
• Leave the case and power supply plugged in.
• Touch the power supply (not the case, they're usually painted and often poorly grounded) before, after, and during handling of components. Or hold it constantly if you can manage.
• Work on tile or wood floors, and have bare feet if you prefer. Rubber soles insulate. Even this is only for the very paranoid.

That's it. I've only fried a single component ever, an old hard drive, and it was because I drove around with the components rubbing against the cloth seats in my car in the sun in mid-winter, sliding around. I reached out and picked it up and felt the shock. uh-oh. Sure enough, it was toast. But it's still pretty rare.