Broadberry Servers
- Thread starter casperjr
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We inherited a few from a company we bought, wasn't terribly impressed and they went in favour of HP soon after.
That said we didn't run them for very long so I can't comment on reliability (we had one fail but it was a disk issue). They just seemed like rebranded supermicro boxes to me and didn't have the design or quality of the big name boxes.
Don't know what they cost so I can't comment on value.
That said we didn't run them for very long so I can't comment on reliability (we had one fail but it was a disk issue). They just seemed like rebranded supermicro boxes to me and didn't have the design or quality of the big name boxes.
Don't know what they cost so I can't comment on value.
They definitely look like rebranded Supermicro servers from the details on the website.
There's plenty of good products from the big server vendors (HP, Dell, IBM and my current fave - Sun) so I would need a very strong reason to look at anything else. If you negotiate and pitch them against one another, you can get some VERY good pricing
There's plenty of good products from the big server vendors (HP, Dell, IBM and my current fave - Sun) so I would need a very strong reason to look at anything else. If you negotiate and pitch them against one another, you can get some VERY good pricing
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They're very cheap. Which is fine if you can deal with the downtime. They also don't benchmark terribly well or look great in terms of power consumption compared to the big name brands.
On top of all that, if I have a failed anything in an HP server I know I'll have a replacement fitted within 4 hours, can't guarantee anything like that with the small vendors...
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Another vote of confidence in Sun here actually, turning out some really good kit. High density, low power consumption, good quality x64 boxes. We still use HP for most things for support reasons (4 hour fix) but otherwise I'd use Sun without a second thought.
I've got 2 Sun boxes now, only had 1 problem so far (a duff DIMM) - engineer turned up about 2 hours after calling them. You cant really go wrong with a company that big.
The main reason I chose them is for the X4440 range - I've never seen another 2U server with quad CPU support, or any other server in that price bracket either! The DL580 and Dell R905 are a lot more expensive and power hungry.
The main reason I chose them is for the X4440 range - I've never seen another 2U server with quad CPU support, or any other server in that price bracket either! The DL580 and Dell R905 are a lot more expensive and power hungry.
They buy direct from SM and hold the spares themselves. Fix time is probably as good as HP.
A quick comparision on the power from a PC Pro lab test:
I do like HP servers and have several DL380 G5s (amongst other ProLiants) in my racks but SMs focus on servers does mean they produce (IMHO) good and innovative products.
If you're in a position to keep a decent stock of spares then thats another considertation, but most people wouldnt be. The support would be my main area of concern, but if they were significantly cheaper than the competition it might outweigh that potential risk.
From what I've seen though, the supermicro based servers arent any cheaper, so I cant really see a good reason to consider them.
From what I've seen though, the supermicro based servers arent any cheaper, so I cant really see a good reason to consider them.