Dell PowerEdge or Fujitsu Primergy?

[serverseeker]

These are the 2 makes and models of server I'm considering:

Dell PowerEdge 2600
Fujitsu Primergy TX300

Price is comparible and my intention was to go for the PowerEdge until a colleague said 'have you considered the Primergy TX300?' He advised the build quality of the Primergy is better (can't say myself as I've never seen one first hand) and that its standard feature list is slightly better.

Now I'm struggling to decide, and as I'll be buying around 70 of them it's an important decision! Any advice or other thoughts on what way I should go would be appreciated!

Mike (UK)

 

[NickFerrar]

We've got quite a few 2600's here and I can't fault the build quality. They're pretty solid, the cabling is neat and the air-flow through the system is well directed. The only hassle I have is the front bezel catch can be a bit stiff which makes them a pain if you're opening the front daily to remove and insert tapes.

No clue on the Fujitsu's build quality but I'd be much more concerned about the relative levels of support than the relative build quality.

We've had some issues with the 2600 (mostly the default configuration of internal LTO connecting to the PERC which was causing occassional server reboots overnight). I know some people have had issues with the on-board network adapter as well but I think this was resolved in a motherboard revision so you should be fine with a new system.

If you're buying 70 of them Dell should be giving you at least a 35% discount to (off the web price) you can also get free racks, TFT rack screens etc thrown in to give you some more incentive if you hassle them, they react very well to competitive quotes.

If it were me I'd go with Dell but only because I have a lot of experience with them and I know the issues and how to deal with the tech support people. Buying 70 servers from a manufacturer you'd never dealt with before would be pretty risky IMO.

If you have some time to make the decision then get eval units in, Dell for sure should give you one on a sale or return basis for a month, I'd guess Fujitsu would do the same if a 70 unit order was at stake.