White Box, Or Big Names for Lower-End Servers?

LazloToth asks: "Those of us who manage small- to medium-size networks face the decision all the time: for the run-of-the-mill web, print, or storage server running on i386 architecture, should we buy HP or Dell, for example, or build it ourselves from commodity hardware and save some bucks up front? In my operation of fewer than 50 servers, one will see a mix of the two. For servers that take more abuse, I tend to buy the proprietary stuff. But not always. I wonder what experiences other admins and managers have had with do-it-yourself servers in a production environment, and whether they feel that white-box servers perform as well - - and last as long - - as anything else? What is the mix in your network of big-names to no-names?"

Comments

White box all the way

[linuxwrangler]

The contents of the box are pretty generic for most purposes. Motherboard from Asus/Intel/..., BIOS from Phoenix/Award/..., Processor from Intel/AMD/Motorola/...

What really makes a difference is the vendor. I have a local guy who I can call and ask for recommendations and advice. If I tell him I want a Dual Opteron with 12 gig RAM, mirrored 74 GB hot-swap drives, dual hot-swap PS and a rack-mount case of my choosing he personally delivers it a couple days later.

Drive in my raid-array dies? He brings by a replacement the following day.

Oh, and the only number he gives me is his cell phone. And he answers it. Always.

With the exception of some specialized telephony equipment (actually a different white-box vendor specializing in that market - Dell et. al. wouldn't have a clue about this stuff), he is always my first call.

I've been using him for years. When the company he worked for ceased operations he started his own and service has remained outstanding.

I guarantee that nobody who uses the "name brand" machines can come anywhere close to the responsiveness and support that I get from my local vendor.