[TriLUG] Flaking PSU?

[Kevin Flanagan]

Brian,

    It's a common thing, and I didn't mean to give you a hard time, but 
rather a good conversation.  It seems like you are thinking along the 
right track.  There's nothing like a bad experience to focus the minds 
of management. ;')
I think that you'll find that you can get a fairly decent server for 
much less than $3K, the pricing isn't here, but I would expect this kind 
of system to be under $2K, this is likely a lot more horsepower than you 
built as well.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/ss/WF05a/15351-241434-241475-241475-f78-446006.html
- Use the vendor web sites language to your advantage, it's not 
plagiarizing when you are using their words for the same purpose ;') 
- Search out other info from non vendor sites, Mean Time Between Failure 
numbers for branded servers should be out there.
- Use desktop type hardware for your test environment, I know, that's 
another sales job.
- There's plenty of folks here who will be glad to help you with making 
that case to management for the better gear.  Perhaps we could work to 
help you put together a presentation that will help set new course for 
future stuff.

It'll take time, but you'll make progress.

    Good luck,


          Kevin


Brian Henning wrote:
> That's fair, and I'll answer it honestly.
>
> Partly, it's due to my inexperience and shortcomings as a salesperson.  At
> this point, I'm not very good at making a convincing argument for a $3,000
> machine that, on the surface, appears to do no more than a similarly-spec'ed
> $500 machine.  (Yes.  What I described is essentially a desktop-grade
> machine in a server case.)
>
> The second factor is the person to whom I have to make the sale.  In this
> particular company, the concept of opportunity cost is almost unknown.  If I
> spend $500 on parts, and yet end up devoting 100 hours out of the next year
> to direct service of said parts, he still feels like he's come out ahead.
> (and in fact, at my current pay scale, compared to a $3,000 capital
> investment, for those numbers he does come out quite a bit ahead,
> opportunity cost notwithstanding).  In this company, for example, we buy
> Dimensions instead of Optiplexes except in the case of incentive programs
> such as UPS' Customer Technology Program.  This company would rather spend
> two weeks to a month every year cyclically creating new QuickBooks company
> files and jumping through the hoops necessary to carry critical data over
> (as well as creating the headaches of tracking previous transactions) than
> put down the up-front cost of a financial system that can better handle the
> stress of a business which lives largely in the retail market (where we can
> easily have a customer list that grows by 15,000 in a year).
>
> Gradually the mentality of the company is changing.  We now have a proper
> 2500VA UPS system in our network closet, rather than the two or three
> desktop UPSes that used to live in there.  But the closet (which now houses
> six computers, the UPS, and our PBX equipment) is still being
> (ineffectively) cooled by a mildew-filled sputtery 20-year-old window-unit
> air conditioner, despite my continuing suggestions that the A/C can't keep
> up with the heat output of the equipment.  It's a smallish company, with a
> strongly-entrenched small-company mentality.
>
> So there's the long answer.  The short answer is "it's what makes the boss
> happy right now."
>
> Cheers,
> ~B
>
>
>   
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On
>> Behalf Of Kevin Flanagan
>> Sent: Monday, June 19, 2006 7:09 PM
>> To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
>> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Flaking PSU?
>>
>>
>> So,
>>
>>
>>     I've got to ask the question, if you wanted a server, why didn't you
>> buy one. I don't see anything that you are doing in the system you
>> listed out that couldn't be done in a desktop.  If you pay the premium
>> you get quality and service.  If you add up all of the parts, and your
>> time, will you really end up saving dough over buying a "name
>> brand" server?
>>
>>
>>
>> Just my $.02
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     Kevin
>>
>>     
>
>
>