1

We are in the market for a new server. We have always been an HP shop, but times are tight and the owner wants me to look around.

I priced out what I “believe” is an equivalent Dell server - it’s nearly $4,000 cheaper. That can’t be. What am I missing? Is Dell that much cheaper? Is Dell cheap? (Quality.)

I know I spec’d them out right. Both with a Xeon E5-2603v3, both with 64GB RAM, 8 - 300GB 12GBps SAS’s, 1GB FBWC, etc.

The HP is $8,638. The Dell is $4,896. ???

HP is a 350g9, Dell is a T430.

@HP @Dell_Technologies

52 Spice ups
2

Is there a support contract difference between the two quotes? I prefer Dell over all and HP only over IBM and Cisco (UCS). I worked a help desk for a company that provided systems that were HP and only saw the troubles with them - their support for getting new drives sucked.

My guess is there is a support/warranty difference between the two quotes (HP has one and Dell does not).

13 Spice ups
3

Be sure that the warranty/support is the same on both. That’s the main thing to look for anyway, pro level support. I have not dealt with HP in many years, but Dell Pro Support has been fantastic (I like to use chat vs phone to avoid language barriers). I believe we have NBD replacement for parts, so we keep spares onhand (good strategy regardless of support).

9 Spice ups
4

Personally I favor Dell as well. Just from good experience and been pretty reliable.

My old gig and current one are heavy HP shops, I have not been too happy with HP.

So if money is no issues and I could pick, I’d go with Dell.

I am however surprised at that price difference, as as far as I remember Dell was usually a tad more expensive than HP.

Maybe that changed…

Also as others have stated, hardware price is one thing, 4 hour replacement service (warranty) is an other thing so consider, especially if it is business critical.

7 Spice ups
5

Check if the HP quote has an extended support on it. I prefer Dell over HP primarily because of the quality of their support. I don’t want to sound racist here but in my experience, I got most of my support calls from India and I cant understand a word they’re saying sometimes. Again, sorry if I sound racist, just sharing my opinion.

2 Spice ups
6

Doesn’t sound right, they should be very close to each other. Care to post a detailed comparison?

2 Spice ups
7

Depends where you are exactly located. In the Netherlands I would never ever go for Dell for something even remotely critical. Not even with superduper emperor level support. Been burned to much in the past.

The difference is very big I must say. Could be support and warranty, could be memory. I know Gen9 has relatively expensive memory.

But that much difference on 64Gb is a lot.

8

That is a surprising difference. What country are you in?

3 Spice ups
9

Are those direct prices or from resellers?

5 Spice ups
10

If I do a quick calculation with my normal supplier without carepacks and 8 1k disks like you without the 1GB FBWC and 8 x 8 GB I come in at € 4114,42 excl. VAT that is about $ 4628

776971-425 Rackmounted server
737261-B21 Disks
726718-B21 Memory

A SmartArray P420/1Gb FBWC comes in at € 448,56 about $ 504

So it must be a carepack somewhere

3 Spice ups
11

Direct prices. No reseller involved. Going right to their websites. I’m in the U.S.

1 Spice up
12

Thanks for all the good suggestions, things to check. I will check and get back to you guys…

13

Ahh now it’s clear.

If I do that in the Netherlands I pay € 200 for the single memory stick. Reseller charges € 113,76.

That explains the difference.

Check out a reseller!!

2 Spice ups
14

Ah, that could do it. HP does full price on their site and discounts from the resellers. Dell does lowest price on their site and normally same price from resellers. Not a good practice, but it is how it often is.

9 Spice ups
15

Ok, I just triple checked, and I did have some stuff not apples for apples. I had 6GBps SAS’s on the Dell, HP I had 12GBps’s. Also the memory was single vs dual rank. I changed and fixed everything to match.

I’m in the U.S.

Same warranty, I picked basic 3 year for both. NOT 4-Hr, Just standard NBD 3yr.

Dell is now $6,112, and the HP is $8,051.

I can’t figure out how to post a detailed invoice, but here’s the breakdown on key specs:

Dual (2 processors) Xeon E5-2603v3

64GB RAM

8 - 300GB 12GBps SAS 2.5 Hot Swap

Dual power supplies

1GB FBWC

No OS installed

1 Spice up
16

So that looks a little bettter. But still a big chunk a change. What do you guys think? Is this worth the savings? We’ve always been happy with HP. I don’t want to buy at Walmart vs Nordstroms just to save 2 G’s.

17

Call your CDW (or any other reseller) rep and have them price it out with your specs. If he comes in high then tell him the Dell price and see if he will at least match it. If they can’t, then go Dell.

12 Spice ups
18

I prefer Dell to HP so HP would have to come in significantly lower for me to go with them. I would do as lhatsynot stated.

5 Spice ups
19

That $2K price difference is why I switched from HP to Dell. Same equipment from specifications and same service contract, but Dell consistently came in 1 to 2 thousand less than HP.

Another reason to go with Dell, so far they don’t charge you to download hardware driver updates if your support contract has ended.

14 Spice ups
20

Good call Mike. That really pissed me off when they started doing that. Maybe we will go with them after all.

1 Spice up