[unclassified] RE: RHEL 5 on a Dell PowerEdge 600SC

[Gaddis, Jeremy L.]

Sorin Srbu wrote:
> <grin> I agree, but what if you want to build your own
> monster-workstation with high-end components? None of the
> brand-names in the industry (Dell, HP whatever) are that
> well-known for providing really fast stuff. So I'm left with
> building my own machine(s). Granted, I found some usable
> hcl-lists on linuxquestions.org but that doesn't feel that
> official, just some geek's word for it, that it will work. Know
> what I mean? 8-]  
> 
> How do you guys do it? Only brandnames in the server-room and on
> the desks? 

That's how we do it.  I work at a .edu so we get decent pricing on both
servers and workstations.  With the servers, sticking with what we
already have means we're already familiar with the hardware and we know
that it works.  For workstations, sticking to the same hardware "family"
means we don't have to build new images for new hardware.  It's
extremely nice to be able to only install the OS and applications once,
make an image of it, and deploy that out to hundreds or thousands of
workstations.  Having similar hardware means we also have spare parts
on-hand in the event of a hardware failure.  In addition, we have great
support from our vendors which comes in handy at times.

Years ago, I had the "build it myself so I know what it's in it, plus I
can do it cheaper" mentality for my own machines, but I don't even do
that anymore.  It's to the point where just about any machine I buy will
support Linux (keep in mind I don't play games, do any high-end graphics
work, etc.) and the price of PCs has came down so much it's not really
that economical to build it yourself anymore.  I don't even have a
custom-built box at home anymore -- they're all machines purchased
direct from the likes of HP or Dell (though I've added larger HDDs and
more RAM to all of them).

My newest workstation, an HP xw4400 (Core 2 Duo, SATA HDDs, DVD-RW,
nVIDIA, etc.), has no problem running XP, Vista, Ubuntu, Fedora or RHEL
out of the box.  We've really came a long way (with regards to Linux
hardware support) in the last several years, thanks in part to companies
like Red Hat.


-- 
Jeremy L. Gaddis
Network Administrator
812.330.6156 (w)  812.391.0358 (m)