Further research has shown that if you are buying a T110 with 4 Gb RAM and
expanding to the 3 Year service agreement it is only $22 more for the same
spec in a T310.  The T310 has the following additional features:

Available Redundant Power Supplies
6 DIMM sockets vs 4 DIMM sockets on the T110
4 GB RAM Minimum (T110 is 2Gb)
Minimum 3yr Warranty vs 1Yr minimum for T110

Still not convinced on the Dell server, though it will probably be either
the Dell or a used one... though I am reluctant to buy a several year old
server to replace my current several year old server.

Andy

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 7:49 AM, Andrew Farnsworth <[email protected]>wrote:

> To clarify, it is the PERC H700/800 line that does this... so even the
> entry level PERC controllers will still take any drive.
>
> Andy
>
>   On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 7:16 AM, Daniel Owen <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the followup on that. At the time I was buying Dell servers
>> they all had PERC controllers so I either never realised there was this
>> demarcation line or I forgot it because it was not relevant to me.
>>
>>   On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 6:40 PM, Andrew Farnsworth 
>> <[email protected]>wrote:
>>
>>>   On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 10:00 AM, Andrew Farnsworth <[email protected]
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>>  On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 7:36 AM, Daniel Owen 
>>>> <[email protected]>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm not entirely sure if this is true across all ranges but early last
>>>>> year Dell started to "block" non Dell branded drives from being used in
>>>>> their PowerEdge line. I'm not sure if they backported this into firmware
>>>>> upgrades or it is just for new systems. This is really no different than
>>>>> what HP or IBM have been doing for years. They buy commodity drives and 
>>>>> then
>>>>> flash their proprietary firmware. It's kind of a pain because you could
>>>>> always add cheap storage to a Dell server and parts shortages were not an
>>>>> issue. Anyway this is something to consider if you plan to add your own
>>>>> cheap drives after purchasing a machine. I have no first hand experience
>>>>> with this issue. When I was in an environment where I purchased hardware I
>>>>> always purchased whatever drives I needed with the system. What really
>>>>> bugged me about this was that there were times where parts would go on
>>>>> backorder and it was nice to know outside of a system board or certain
>>>>> controller cards Dells were just standard parts I could buy on the open
>>>>> market.
>>>>>
>>>>> Here is a link to an article from the time:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/10/dell_perc_11th_gen_qualified_hdds_only/
>>>>>
>>>> I'll certainly be on the phone to Dell before buying this server then.
>>>> I have a T110 from about 14 months ago and it does not have this issue.  I
>>>> immediately added 3 1.5 Tb drives to it with no issue whatsoever.  If they
>>>> have done this to to their low end server line, then they have lost all
>>>> future business from me.  I'm not willing to pay $200+ for a $70 hard 
>>>> drive.
>>>>
>>>> Andy
>>>>
>>>
>>> I just spoke with Dell and they confirmed that they are restricting the
>>> use of 3rd party drives, but only on their High End PERC controllers which
>>> are not available in the T110... So that eliminates that worry.
>>>
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
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