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Work IT Outsourcing Rip off?

j0n

j0n

j0n

Associate
Joined
21 Feb 2004
Posts
63
Hi!
At work we outsource our IT to another company. Someone here needs a new 3d card so she can have dual monitors.
They want to charge us 140 for one of these
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/p_series/p690pciex16/

Now I know their price is too high for that card, but can't I just stick in any 3d card that has 2 dvi / vga outputs? I can fit it myself, so I could get an MSI 8600GTS and use that?
I presume they picked the matrox as it has lower power consumption/ is quiet but there is really no need for that here. Am I missing anything?
(just thought, maybe the pc has a low power psu? So I need a low power consumption card?)

thanks for the help!
 
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I find outsourced IT support companies somewhat annoying, they seem to want utter control of your systems, then take hissy fits when you don't buy from them. At the company I work for, we got some new IT equipment, and our IT support provider almost cried down the phone at us because we bought something from an online store instead of them, 'so, why didn't you buy it from us??'. :rolleyes: :p

Personally, I see no reason why they're trying to fob you off with that matrox card for dual screens. You wouldn't even need an 8600GT, that would be a bit overkill for just dual screens, depending on what you do of course.

One of these would be sufficient for dual screens HD 3450 :)
 
If you buy and fit it yourself, are you then also willing to support the machine for any issues it might have in the future? Or will you be moaning down the phone to the IT support people?
 
Thanks for the suggestion kylew. They didnt seem to mind too much when we cancelled the engineer they were sending out just to install my 3d card.

layte - you have a point. I'm capable of installing supporting this but wouldn't want to be responsible on a larger scale. I'd hope we pay them to support our IT regardless of whether they installed it, we've got some old kit which they have never touched and they have to support that.
 
yep - they are ripoff merchants because business customers pay it

i personally work with two monitors as do many of the accounts department

i just got 5 HD2400 cards - passive cooling and do the job

cost around £30 each at the time!

and all run off the slot not a psu connector

our support company wanted £100+ per machine to upgrade to dual monitors

it really is outrageous tbh

its not like they needed workstation class gpus either just standard low end htpc cards were enough to sort the problem

you do have to read the fine print in your support contract though
 
j0n said:
layte - you have a point. I'm capable of installing supporting this but wouldn't want to be responsible on a larger scale. I'd hope we pay them to support our IT regardless of whether they installed it, we've got some old kit which they have never touched and they have to support that.
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In a business environment where the IT is outsourced you cannot have users making hardware or software changes bypassing IT support and then expect them to support it when things go wrong. This will more than likely be out of scope of the contract.

Existing systems will all be covered by the afore mentioned contract.
 
You sound very bitter layte, do you work for an IT outsourcing company?! :p
I agree, if you outsource your IT then you should let them be responsible for things that could cause support issues. But giving them this responsibility shouldn't allow them to rip you off as in this case.
I will suggest a cheaper card to them and see what they say.
 
as long as all the machines have pci-e slots - there shouldnt be a problem

thing is - they may not have a supplier for anything of that nature
 
i just bought 2400 cards for the two machines we needed doing, but then again i do all the internal work here :p
 
I just stuff my own gear into work pc's, and if they go wrong and need to be exchanged, I just whip out the gpus/HDs/memory etc before they come.
 
they work via usb from what i remember

ok for things like my works pc which is integrated gfx and has no pci-e/agp slot

i guess usb would be the way to go
 
layte said:
In a business environment where the IT is outsourced you cannot have users making hardware or software changes bypassing IT support and then expect them to support it when things go wrong. This will more than likely be out of scope of the contract.

Existing systems will all be covered by the afore mentioned contract.
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+1
I've found that there are significant savings in outsourcing our IT as oposed to an in house dept
 
It depends on the solutions you need for your company.

My company couldn't operate any other way than we have it now, we run a very tight ship with very specific needs and setup.

We looked at outsourcing (Even to india, since 99% of the management is done remotely anyway) but the lowest quote was still 2.5x more than our IT guys do it for. As a result they pretty much have a blank cheque when it comes to projects to improve efficiency.
 
Whats the point of having a Configuration Management Database if there is no Change control for the Configuration Items? I understand that it sounds like too much paperwork but when you give them the asset tag of your machine they will be expecting the configuration originally detailed, not some new ubber machine made ad hoc. Support is all about standardisation and control...
 
danielanthony said:
Whats the point of having a Configuration Management Database if there is no Change control for the Configuration Items? I understand that it sounds like too much paperwork but when you give them the asset tag of your machine they will be expecting the configuration originally detailed, not some new ubber machine made ad hoc. Support is all about standardisation and control...
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Absolutely, change control is *vital* in any IT organisation, and particularly when it comes to your CMDB. How do you think Dell got so big? They knock out simple, easily maintained PC's by the million, and that is vital when it comes to any large IT firm's 'standard build'. Repeatability. Unpack PC, load system image, switch on, unpack PC...
 
The picture quality of Matrox graphics cards is well known. The cards do offer better signal output than our 3d gaming cards. They are expensive, they are built for reliability and quality.

Our gaming cards do offer fantastic value for money, but notice the amount of posts regarding driver errors and blue screens. It's not acceptable in a critical work environment, hence quadro, matrox etc cards are used.
 
layte said:
If you buy and fit it yourself, are you then also willing to support the machine for any issues it might have in the future? Or will you be moaning down the phone to the IT support people?
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Will the IT people provide free support for issues related to graphics cards they supply? I doubt it!

Usual practice is to charge you over the odds for over the top hardware and then charge you by the hour to fix any issues that arise, whether they're a result of the hardware they've supplied or not.

Personally I'd get the hardware yourself and then demand the IT company support it. If they're charging you for support then they should support whatever you want them to.
 
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