Hardware sources
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Hey... my company has been relying on http://www.thinkmate.com/ for their server needs. This isn't a company I know much about when it comes to server hardware. Do any of you know much about them? Are they any good? What is your hardware brand of choice? I've used dell in the past, and have loved them, but I'm not sure if it is worth trying to make the change.
#servers #thinkmate #dell #hp -
ThinkMate is primarily a SuperMicro builder. That's what you really want from them. They are pretty well known in that space.
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Gotcha. What's your preference for hardware vendors? The biggest thing for me, is that I miss the Dell iDrac, especially when it came to monitoring hard drives in raid configurations, though I believe we should be able to work something out similarly on thinkmate. I was always impressed with dell support too. I thought it was awesome that they would have a parts and repairs done on site within 24 hours. That came in handy more often for laptop / desktop repair than servers, but it was nice all the same. And when I had to deal with their support techs, I generally felt like they knew what they were doing, which was nice.
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These days, nearly everything is either Dell via xByte or SuperMicro. HPE is good, but expensive and very limiting. IBM left the market. Oracle and Fujitsu are overly specialized. Cisco is acceptable quality and price but with silly overhead to manage it that rules it out from any serious use and I've never heard of a viable business that actually auditioned it and kept it - it's just not on par with gear like SuperMicro, which is expected as this mirrors their low quality networking gear to a t. That's pretty much the entire field of enterprise players today except for really niche stuff. Huawei is up and coming, looks good but hard to get in the US.
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I had a sales guy reach out to me about Synology. Have you had any exposure to them?
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@bj said in Hardware sources:
I had a sales guy reach out to me about Synology. Have you had any exposure to them?
I like their NAS. Use them in a couple of clients.
Just had one fail and they easily did an advanced RMA (yes credit card hold required. this is SMB, that is normal).
Had my on site hands swap drives and it all came right back up.
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@bj said in Hardware sources:
I had a sales guy reach out to me about Synology. Have you had any exposure to them?
A lot. They are great for low end "SMB" secondary storage. What use case did you have in mind for them? They are the best of the SMB storage category - but that doesn't change what they are. If you need that kind of storage, they are great. We recommend them often as backup targets. But they have no place in your primary storage world.
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@bj said in Hardware sources:
The biggest thing for me, is that I miss the Dell iDrac, especially when it came to monitoring hard drives in raid configurations, though I believe we should be able to work something out similarly on thinkmate.
Supermicro has OOB management as well, it's really rather a low cost item too. Like $20 bucks one time.
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So where do you guys go to get your web / db rack-mount servers (and why)?
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@bj you already asked that question. You buy them from same vendors just spec them differently
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Sorry @Texkonc, I'm just trying to decide if it is worth switching vendors, or if it doesn't really matter. Thus far, I've got the impression that people might prefer dell, but they haven't exactly come out and said it. I don't want to change vendors just because, but I don't want to stay on the same vendor just because either. I get the impression there are people here who have exposure to a wide variety of setups. I was hoping to get feedback from them if they prefer one vendor over another, or if either would do. I'm just trying to make informed purchasing decisions.
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@bj said in Hardware sources:
So where do you guys go to get your web / db rack-mount servers (and why)?
xByte. Because refurb makes the most sense 99% of the time and they give great prices and service.
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@bj said in Hardware sources:
Thus far, I've got the impression that people might prefer dell, but they haven't exactly come out and said it.
I prefer Dell because I can get it refurb with full warranty through xByte. I've been hinting to them that we'd like them to offer SuperMicro as well, though.
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Dell is what I use. HPE has been upping their game with support too. I have used Xbyte and a lot of people here also have used them and they are good quality.
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@dbeato said in Hardware sources:
Dell is what I use. HPE has been upping their game with support too. I have used Xbyte and a lot of people here also have used them and they are good quality.
And they are active here in the community, too.
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@bj said in Hardware sources:
Hey... my company has been relying on http://www.thinkmate.com/ for their server needs. This isn't a company I know much about when it comes to server hardware. Do any of you know much about them? Are they any good? What is your hardware brand of choice? I've used dell in the past, and have loved them, but I'm not sure if it is worth trying to make the change.
#servers #thinkmate #dell #hpDell Direct?
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@scottalanmiller said in Hardware sources:
@bj said in Hardware sources:
Thus far, I've got the impression that people might prefer dell, but they haven't exactly come out and said it.
I prefer Dell because I can get it refurb with full warranty through xByte. I've been hinting to them that we'd like them to offer SuperMicro as well, though.
xByte is an excellent option if company doesn't need new!
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@bj said in Hardware sources:
I had a sales guy reach out to me about Synology. Have you had any exposure to them?
SOHO units.
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@KOOLER said in Hardware sources:
@scottalanmiller said in Hardware sources:
@bj said in Hardware sources:
Thus far, I've got the impression that people might prefer dell, but they haven't exactly come out and said it.
I prefer Dell because I can get it refurb with full warranty through xByte. I've been hinting to them that we'd like them to offer SuperMicro as well, though.
xByte is an excellent option if company doesn't need new!
They sell new as well now.
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I'll have to take a look at xbyte. I was trying to get quotes from SHI, but haven't been too impressed with them thus far.
