> stephen wadlow wrote: > > That sounds more like bad luck with motherboards instead of > a vendor > > problem. > > Agreed. I wouldn't fault PCFE for a bad batch of hardware, unless it > seems like a chronic problem due to them using poor quality suppliers.
I don't entirely agree. This is what burn-in periods are for. And while PCFE does burn-ins, I think part of the issue is that they don't always build/supply the equipment themselves, and thus QC is inconsistent. The last rack system we bought from them came with a burn/test report from a different vendor (and it tooks about 4 weeks to receive the system). After deploying it at a customer site, a drive failed within 3 weeks, and now we've got to deal with fixing the issue. > > I've done well with PCFE, and have dozens of rackmount servers from > > them. ... Sure, I've had problems, but that's true of any vendor... > > I've used PCFE to build custom systems for clients over the > years, and > while the systems have always worked, there have almost always been > small problems with them, such as the wrong components installed, > bundled software not loaded, or mechanical problems with the assembly. I've had the same problem. I've bought from them on/off for about 8 years, and in that time I've had a half dozen systems fail, and two cases of wrong parts being installed. > (If you're buying systems for in-house use, these small > problems may be > no big deal, but if you're providing them to clients, the added labor > costs negates any cost and convenience benefit to using PCFE.) Very true. > > Service is _much_ different if you approach the place as a > > business, and establish a relationship, instead of walking > in off the > > street. > > I attempted to do this, and did have a specific sales rep. I > dealt with > for a while, but I found response from their sales staff - at > least via > email - to be sporadic at best. Same experience here. The biggest recurring problem is being misled about inventory and delivery/ship times. In any event, we've gone ahead and ordered from serversdirect.com out of California. From order date (today), they committed to shipping 3 Xeon boxes on May 2 (next Tues). If there's interest from the group, I'll provide a post-hoc report about product quality, follow-through, support, etc. cheers Eric _______________________________________________ bblisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.bblisa.org/mailman/listinfo/bblisa
