Xeon rig: Dell, HP, IBM or Fujitsu-Siemens?

[Mistyk]

If you were to get a dual Xeon Placer E7505 workstation from one of the vendors listed below, which would you choose and why? Feel free to advise against any of the four companies if you have had bad experiences with it (or have heard any horror stories).

1. Dell
2. HP
3. Fujitsu-Siemens
4. IBM

Please don't recommend BOXX or any other vendor not present in the list, nor home-built. While great options, they are excluded from this query. Let's also assume that price is not an issue (of course it is, but I'd like to get un-biased views from you).

Thanks in advance!

 

[dullard]

I've run two Dell computers, two HP computers, and two IBM computers (one of each at home and one of each at work) - plus many other computers from brands not listed. I'd honestly say they are all equivalent given you had the same specs. After years of work, only one ever had a failed part on the computers from those companies (the HP used a TNT2 video card which I know now is quite failure prone). The customer service is all about the same as well. I've never had a Fujitsu-Siemens computer, so I cannot comment on that company.

One of those computers is a dual Xeon Dell workstation. It has run flawlessly so far. The only complaint I had was that Dell was out of 256 MB PC800 RIMMS when I ordered it so they sent me the computer with 128 MB of memory and then shipped my 1 GB of memory a month later. However that was when PC800 was relatively new and probably was a fluke that won't happen again. At least I got a free 128 MB of RDRAM out of it (sitting in a desk drawer though). The Dell Xeon computer is built quite well - the case is the best I've ever seen. I'd have to say it's my favorite computer to use.

I know you said price doesn't matter, but I bet the Dell computer will be $500-$1000 less than the other companies (especially when Dell has a deal that meets your needs - I once saw 1 GB of RDRAM/DDR for the price of 128MB saving a bundle for workstation purchasers). To me, that is important. One other thing to save money: consider getting the base model and upgrading yourself. Those companies often charge double or triple for the second processor and for the memory. Those are both snap in parts that are a piece of cake to do yourself.

Edit: Just noticed that Dell has the 3.06 GHz Xeon chips in their listing. I must have missed that processor release.

 

[Mistyk]

dullard,

Thanks a lot for the great info. Did you purchase your second processor separately? Do you know if Dell uses standard Xeon CPUs or some modified proprietary ones? In other words; will Intel's retail Xeons and HSFs fit physically in the workstation? Will BIOS or something else complain (error messages or beeps) if it detects that the CPUs are not from Dell?

How about memory, is it standard or proprietary?

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Mistyk
dullard,

Thanks a lot for the great info. Did you purchase your second processor separately? Do you know if Dell uses standard Xeon CPUs or some modified proprietary ones? In other words; will Intel's retail Xeons and HSFs fit physically in the workstation? Will BIOS or something else complain (error messages or beeps) if it detects that the CPUs are not from Dell?

How about memory, is it standard or proprietary?

I believe the memory and cpus are all standard either retail or oem. Only thing that is proprietary would be case/motherboard/bios I would think. Another good name in the dual Xeon market is SuperMicro.

 

[Mistyk]

Thor86,

Thanks, that makes sense.

Supermicro's Placer boards are awesome, but unfortunately they don't feature fan speed control.


edit: Is there a way to view the poll status without skewing the results by voting myself?