On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 2:20 AM, Lasse Osterild <lass...@unixzone.dk> wrote: >> On 01/26/11 09:50 AM, Lasse Osterild wrote: >> That's an odd comment. I've used a fair bit of SuperMicro kit over the >> years and I wouldn't describe any of it as "low-quality". > > Nothing odd about it - I've had three SC847E26-JBOD cases and they've all > been faulty in one way or another, looking closer at the circuit boards I see > bad soldering in a lot of places, components which have clearly been exposed > to too much heat during soldering. And SuperMicro being less than helpful & > competent in solving the issues.
I think it depends on what you're used to. SuperMicro is great whitebox gear, and if you go through a VAR that assembles and tests it can be as reliable as anything else. It can be a huge hassle to handle RMA and parts if you're buying the gear from Provantage or Newegg though. For home use, I'd buy Supermicro, ASUS, etc. through Newegg, etc. and assemble it myself. For a small business, I'd buy HP or Dell, since they have great deals for SMB and decent support. For a small to medium business that can afford to have good sysadmins, I'd be fine with SuperMicro systems purchased through a VAR. This is probably the category that many people on this list fall into. Purchasing though a VAR adds to the cost, but you can often get same- or next-day turnaround. (Obligatory plug: A friend has had good luck purchasing through Silicon Mechanics and recommends them, especially if you're in the Seattle area.) For large enterprise shops, there is usually sufficient volume and negotiation that you're tied to a particular vendor. My current employer uses Netapp and in-house systems. Previous employers have been 100% HP, 100% Dell, or 100% Sun depending on the purchasing agreements in place, and I've found them to all be about the same. -B -- Brandon High : bh...@freaks.com _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
