Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers
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@jimmy9008 said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
Well, US or UK, these are probably coming from China or something anyway. So, both have shipping costs.
No, they actually come from Florida. In the US there is no importation costs. I deal with xByte for global logistics and the markup going outside of the US purely due to duties and taxes is 30% - 100%.
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In the US, we also have SuperMicro that is easy to get. I mostly only look at Dell because of xByte. Dell themselves are so rarely competitive with SuperMicro that I would typically not even talk to them, xByte changes that equation enough that we mostly use Dell.
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I have an update on this thread, and more questions, lol. First of all, I got a new quote from xByte:
- Dell PowerEdge R730 Server 3.5" chassis with up to 8 drive bays (1)
- Intel E5-2620v3 2.4GHz/15M/1866MHz 6-Core 85W (1)
- Dell PE R730 Heat Sink (1)
- Dell 8GB DDR4 (2)
- PERC H730 Mini Mono Controller 1GB NV Cache (RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60) (1)
- 6TB 7.2K 3.5" 12Gbps NL SAS Hard Drive (Dell Enterprise) (8)
- Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card (1)
- 4 PCIe Slots, 3 x8 and 1 x16 (1)
- iDRAC8 Enterprise (1)
- Dell 2U Sliding Ready Rails (1)
- Dell 750W Power Supply (2)
- Windows Server 2016 Standard 2-Core OLP (8)
- 5 Year Dell NBD Onsite Warranty (1)
Total with tax and shipping: $6360
My boss had me ask the xByte rep about the hard drive brand/model, and this is what the rep said:
"We have several to choose from, but the one we have most of are cobranded Dell/Toshiba hard drives. The Toshiba model # is MG04SCA60EE."
My boss then had me contact CDW to ask for a quote from them. Here's what I told the CDW rep:
"We're looking to buy a Dell PowerEdge server to act as a storage server. We were initially thinking of an R730, but would be open to an older server if that's more fitting for our needs (520 or 720). We'd essentially like to price out a server with the following bare minimum specs:
- A 8-12 bay (3.5") chassis
- A single Xeon 6-core CPU with heatsink
- 12GB or 16GB of RAM
- One PERC H710P RAID controller with 1GB NV Cache (or equivalent)
- At least eight 6TB 7.2K 3.5" 12Gbps NL SAS drives
- One Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb NIC (or equivalent)
- iDRAC7 Enterprise
- Dell "sliding ready rails"
- 2x 750W PSUs
- Windows Server 2016
- 3-5 Year Warranty
Is that something you guys could put together for us? Our budget is around $6K"
Here's what he replied back with:
"I have the pricing back and am over 10K with this config. I know you said the budget was 6k.
Where can we cut back? The 8 6tb drives are almost 6k alone."I told him we got a quote from another vendor and said that the CDW quote was considerably higher.
The CDW rep said:
"Is it apple to apples or did xbyte use third party memory and drives? We are dell's largest partner so it should not be a large difference if truly apples to apples."
I'm not sure what to think of all this right now....
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@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
I have an update on this thread, and more questions, lol. First of all, I got a new quote from xByte:
- Dell PowerEdge R730 Server 3.5" chassis with up to 8 drive bays (1)
- Intel E5-2620v3 2.4GHz/15M/1866MHz 6-Core 85W (1)
- Dell PE R730 Heat Sink (1)
- Dell 8GB DDR4 (2)
- PERC H730 Mini Mono Controller 1GB NV Cache (RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60) (1)
- 6TB 7.2K 3.5" 12Gbps NL SAS Hard Drive (Dell Enterprise) (8)
- Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card (1)
- 4 PCIe Slots, 3 x8 and 1 x16 (1)
- iDRAC8 Enterprise (1)
- Dell 2U Sliding Ready Rails (1)
- Dell 750W Power Supply (2)
- Windows Server 2016 Standard 2-Core OLP (8)
- 5 Year Dell NBD Onsite Warranty (1)
Total with tax and shipping: $6360
My boss had me ask the xByte rep about the hard drive brand/model, and this is what the rep said:
"We have several to choose from, but the one we have most of are cobranded Dell/Toshiba hard drives. The Toshiba model # is MG04SCA60EE."
My boss then had me contact CDW to ask for a quote from them. Here's what I told the CDW rep:
"We're looking to buy a Dell PowerEdge server to act as a storage server. We were initially thinking of an R730, but would be open to an older server if that's more fitting for our needs (520 or 720). We'd essentially like to price out a server with the following bare minimum specs:
- A 8-12 bay (3.5") chassis
- A single Xeon 6-core CPU with heatsink
- 12GB or 16GB of RAM
- One PERC H710P RAID controller with 1GB NV Cache (or equivalent)
- At least eight 6TB 7.2K 3.5" 12Gbps NL SAS drives
- One Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb NIC (or equivalent)
- iDRAC7 Enterprise
- Dell "sliding ready rails"
- 2x 750W PSUs
- Windows Server 2016
- 3-5 Year Warranty
Is that something you guys could put together for us? Our budget is around $6K"
Here's what he replied back with:
"I have the pricing back and am over 10K with this config. I know you said the budget was 6k.
Where can we cut back? The 8 6tb drives are almost 6k alone."I told him we got a quote from another vendor and said that the CDW quote was considerably higher.
The CDW rep said:
"Is it apple to apples or did xbyte use third party memory and drives? We are dell's largest partner so it should not be a large difference if truly apples to apples."
I'm not sure what to think of all this right now....
They are being crushed by xByte, I'm sure. Bill (can't find his ML handle right now) bought third party SSD drives through xByte. Unfortunately they didn't end up being stable. As far as I recall - xByte did the right thing and replaced the drives with Dell branded SSD drives.
Branded not branded, not sure it really matters as long as you have a vendor standing behind you, which history has shown that xByte has.
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@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
I have an update on this thread, and more questions, lol. First of all, I got a new quote from xByte:
- Dell PowerEdge R730 Server 3.5" chassis with up to 8 drive bays (1)
- Intel E5-2620v3 2.4GHz/15M/1866MHz 6-Core 85W (1)
- Dell PE R730 Heat Sink (1)
- Dell 8GB DDR4 (2)
- PERC H730 Mini Mono Controller 1GB NV Cache (RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60) (1)
- 6TB 7.2K 3.5" 12Gbps NL SAS Hard Drive (Dell Enterprise) (8)
- Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card (1)
- 4 PCIe Slots, 3 x8 and 1 x16 (1)
- iDRAC8 Enterprise (1)
- Dell 2U Sliding Ready Rails (1)
- Dell 750W Power Supply (2)
- Windows Server 2016 Standard 2-Core OLP (8)
- 5 Year Dell NBD Onsite Warranty (1)
Total with tax and shipping: $6360
My boss had me ask the xByte rep about the hard drive brand/model, and this is what the rep said:
"We have several to choose from, but the one we have most of are cobranded Dell/Toshiba hard drives. The Toshiba model # is MG04SCA60EE."
My boss then had me contact CDW to ask for a quote from them. Here's what I told the CDW rep:
"We're looking to buy a Dell PowerEdge server to act as a storage server. We were initially thinking of an R730, but would be open to an older server if that's more fitting for our needs (520 or 720). We'd essentially like to price out a server with the following bare minimum specs:
- A 8-12 bay (3.5") chassis
- A single Xeon 6-core CPU with heatsink
- 12GB or 16GB of RAM
- One PERC H710P RAID controller with 1GB NV Cache (or equivalent)
- At least eight 6TB 7.2K 3.5" 12Gbps NL SAS drives
- One Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb NIC (or equivalent)
- iDRAC7 Enterprise
- Dell "sliding ready rails"
- 2x 750W PSUs
- Windows Server 2016
- 3-5 Year Warranty
Is that something you guys could put together for us? Our budget is around $6K"
Here's what he replied back with:
"I have the pricing back and am over 10K with this config. I know you said the budget was 6k.
Where can we cut back? The 8 6tb drives are almost 6k alone."I told him we got a quote from another vendor and said that the CDW quote was considerably higher.
The CDW rep said:
"Is it apple to apples or did xbyte use third party memory and drives? We are dell's largest partner so it should not be a large difference if truly apples to apples."
I'm not sure what to think of all this right now....
How much time have you put in to this now, including your higher ups time? At some point, you have to just move on and buy the thing...
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@jimmy9008 I hear where you're coming from, but until you've walked 5+ years in my shoes, maybe you should slow your roll a bit. This forum isn't about making sure that people hurry up and make a purchase, right? It's a forum that's geared towards helping other IT pros get the information they're asking for.
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@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
@jimmy9008 I hear where you're coming from, but until you've walked 5+ years in my shoes, maybe you should slow your roll a bit. This forum isn't about making sure that people hurry up and make a purchase, right? It's a forum that's geared towards helping other IT pros get the information they're asking for.
Sure it is, but you've also done something that some around these parts are completely against - you've pitted two vendors against each other.
On top of that you -
but would be open to an older server if that's more fitting for our needs (520 or 720). We'd essentially like to price out a server with the following bare minimum specs:
So now you want CDW to do your IT for you. At least this is how Scott would see it. How is CDW supposed to know what your needs are? Your needs and CDWs needs are on opposite ends. They need to sell you the most stuff they can, your needs are to spend the least while getting the gear that accomplished your need/goal.
Is that something you guys could put together for us? Our budget is around $6K"
Where did this budget come from? It costs what it costs. Is there some wiggle room, sure, you can't say you need a formula 1 race car, then say, oh you have to do it on a $30K budget. I'm guessing the budget number of $6K came from the quote you got from xByte. But if you had started with Dell Direct, you might have thought your budget was more like $12K, making CDW look OK, and xByte look Awesome!
Queue @JaredBusch's music
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@dashrender All I can say at this point is "you have no idea what I'm dealing with at this company in terms of management perspective and expectation". I could spend another several paragraphs trying to defend myself and justify all the stuff I'm dealing with here, but I'm quite certain that none of you guys care to waste your time reading it, and it would actually just create more fuel for the fire that's already burning.
Cue the mangolassi elitist guillotine that lobs off Shuey's head
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@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
@dashrender All I can say at this point is "you have no idea what I'm dealing with at this company in terms of management perspective and expectation". I could spend another several paragraphs trying to defend myself and justify all the stuff I'm dealing with here, but I'm quite certain that none of you guys care to waste your time reading it, and it would actually just create more fuel for the fire that's already burning.
Cue the mangolassi elitist guillotine that lobs off Shuey's head
Wasn't being disrespectful... was just highlighting that deliberation costs money.
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@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
@dashrender All I can say at this point is "you have no idea what I'm dealing with at this company in terms of management perspective and expectation". I could spend another several paragraphs trying to defend myself and justify all the stuff I'm dealing with here, but I'm quite certain that none of you guys care to waste your time reading it, and it would actually just create more fuel for the fire that's already burning.
Cue the mangolassi elitist guillotine that lobs off Shuey's head
Well - Most of us, except of Scott of course, because he'd just quite or fire the client, have to deal with that. So yes I'm very aware of the shenanigans.
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@shuey said in Advice on building "storage servers" with two DL380 G7 servers:
The CDW rep said:
"Is it apple to apples or did xbyte use third party memory and drives? We are dell's largest partner so it should not be a large difference if truly apples to apples."
CDW might be the largest, but they aren't known for passing along good pricing, being very honest and they only deal in new, not refurb. So it is expected that their prices will be way higher.
xByte will use non-Dell parts, but keeps them under warranty. So it remains apples to apples. CDW is just panicking because they want the sale.
