I do IT support for a department at a medium-large university, and we're at our year end, so, as the budget goes, we needed to spend the remainder of our surplus. We need a new student workstation, and we're under contract with Dell, so I recommended an 8400 b/c it uses the P4 6xx series, which has EM64T support and features EIST. We put in a requisition for the 8400 per my recommendation, and some guy from our IT department (separate from where I work) said that he'd reconfigured our req. for something "faster" and "cheaper," meaning the Optiplex GX280. The difference at the time (two weeks ago) was $197 and a little change. My argument was that for an extra $197 we get support for one more version of Windows and a machine that uses less power vs. spending another $1000-1200 to replace the POS GX280 when they get a license for XP x64. The IT guy said that he wouldn't recommend the 8400 since it ships with 32-bit Windows (which is a total scam by Dell...all universities have their own site-wide licenses for Windows, so why not offer universities machines without OS's) and since IT won't "validate" XP Pro x64 until they get a license. Thus, we're not really "gaining anything."
I responded by basically saying that he just proved my point. We gain support for another version of Windows, which he just admitted IT is going to a license for and "validate" (just as they didn't validate any of the machines we currently use for XP SP2). There isn't a chance in hell of our university getting a license for Longhorn when it's 1st released (no hardware on our campus will run it), so XP x64 is the next logical step for the next few years. Thus, why not start purchasing machines with this in mind now that Dell offers regular, non-workstation, desktops with 64-bit support?
He responded yet again by saying that while he admires my urge to get the "latest and greatest," he's concerned about stability. I responded by saying that if stability were an issue, Dell, HP, Sony, and IBM wouldn't offer the P4 6xx as a platform.
He said he'd let my supervisor decide, and my supervisor, of course, went with my recommendation.
I'd just like to add that this is the same IT department that recently purchased about 50 ATX GX280's (the ATX version isn't even offered on Dell's Small Business site any more, only the BTX version, with better cooling and less noisy fans, is offered...so what does that tell you about how Dell values universities...they reserve leftover junk for them) that were to be used for training. These particular GX280's were ordered with SoundBlaster Live 7.1 PCI cards, which Dell charges an extra ~$45 (x 50 machines = ~$2,250), yet not one machine had speakers attached (why would you want 7.1 surround sound going on during a presentation anyway?). This is the same IT department that has ordered Dell Ultrasharp monitors (vs. their E series analog LCD's) with graphics controllers that only have 15-pin D-sub connectors (i.e. no DVI). This is the same IT department that has been recommending 1GB of RAM for everyone (including secretaries and clerks who use MS Office, check email, and surf the Web). This is the same IT department who joins users' desktops to domain controllers so their AV software and Windows are patched automatically (wow, you can't do that with a stand alone workstation, wait, yes you can), yet leave security policies wide open so that users (connected to network drives shared by multiple employees) can install and run whatever they want and are vulnerable to spyware, adware, and an infinite amount of malware.
So, what would have been your recommendation?
I responded by basically saying that he just proved my point. We gain support for another version of Windows, which he just admitted IT is going to a license for and "validate" (just as they didn't validate any of the machines we currently use for XP SP2). There isn't a chance in hell of our university getting a license for Longhorn when it's 1st released (no hardware on our campus will run it), so XP x64 is the next logical step for the next few years. Thus, why not start purchasing machines with this in mind now that Dell offers regular, non-workstation, desktops with 64-bit support?
He responded yet again by saying that while he admires my urge to get the "latest and greatest," he's concerned about stability. I responded by saying that if stability were an issue, Dell, HP, Sony, and IBM wouldn't offer the P4 6xx as a platform.
He said he'd let my supervisor decide, and my supervisor, of course, went with my recommendation.
I'd just like to add that this is the same IT department that recently purchased about 50 ATX GX280's (the ATX version isn't even offered on Dell's Small Business site any more, only the BTX version, with better cooling and less noisy fans, is offered...so what does that tell you about how Dell values universities...they reserve leftover junk for them) that were to be used for training. These particular GX280's were ordered with SoundBlaster Live 7.1 PCI cards, which Dell charges an extra ~$45 (x 50 machines = ~$2,250), yet not one machine had speakers attached (why would you want 7.1 surround sound going on during a presentation anyway?). This is the same IT department that has ordered Dell Ultrasharp monitors (vs. their E series analog LCD's) with graphics controllers that only have 15-pin D-sub connectors (i.e. no DVI). This is the same IT department that has been recommending 1GB of RAM for everyone (including secretaries and clerks who use MS Office, check email, and surf the Web). This is the same IT department who joins users' desktops to domain controllers so their AV software and Windows are patched automatically (wow, you can't do that with a stand alone workstation, wait, yes you can), yet leave security policies wide open so that users (connected to network drives shared by multiple employees) can install and run whatever they want and are vulnerable to spyware, adware, and an infinite amount of malware.
So, what would have been your recommendation?
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