I'm proposing building our own computers at my company

the garynator · Jul 2, 2007

Hi everyone,

Last week I proposed that instead of buying Dells, that we build our own computers instead. We are currently a company of around 100 people. We will be replacing roughly 35-40 PC's this year. I'm considering limiting it to just our IT/Dev department since that is where we stand to save the largest amount of money.

The reason I'm posting this is to get some insight from IT/Network Admins who have worked at a business who custom built their own PC's. I'm also trying to find at least two case studies on this. Please let me know what issues you've run into, any pros and any cons.

My reason for proposing this is that we were looking at new computers for the Developers/IT employees which were semi mid ranged (e6300; 4gb; etc.) and expecting them to last several years. I proposed spending roughly the same amount and getting much higher-end systems (q6600; 4gb; dual 150gb raptors; etc.). Building our own would result in about a 35-40% savings when compared to Dell equivalent. This was including estimated man-hour cost; etc.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Gary

Jon · Jul 2, 2007

Who will handle any warranty issues on all systems?

the garynator · Jul 2, 2007

I would be handling building them along with dealing with warranty issues. We would also have multiple "hot swap" spares in case a computer would fail so that we could minimize downtime while warranty work is taken care of.

Also, warranties would be through the manufacturers since we would select components with good warranties such as PC Power and Cooling and EVGA.

Soichiro · Jul 2, 2007

Well, I really don't think Raptors would be necessary (unless it's a high traffic server you'll be building), or feasible if you're looking to save money, but I think it could stand to benefit your company if you built your own computers.

the garynator · Jul 2, 2007

Raptors are feasible for our needs. We do loads of compiling and other HDD intensive tasks. They were planning on going with a single SCSI 15k rpm HDD, which was "only $40" more...however, what they did not realize is that the HDD required a controller card which added another $150 to the cost.

Dual Raptors in Raid 0 is most likely what we're going to go with if we build our own, the only other option that we would go for would be a RAID 5 array.

Soichiro · Jul 2, 2007

Well, I would recommend RAID 5 for a company over RAID 0, since RAID 5 gives you data redundancy, while RAID 0 actually increases the chance to lose data. RAID 5 typically doesn't have as much performance and requires 3 drives, however (though it's still faster than a single drive). It's your choice. Most companies have important data so RAID 5 is the logical choice, but it's up to you just how important your company's data is, or if you can afford to make backups all the time, etc.

Xaotic · Jul 2, 2007

Avoid RAID-0 like the plague. Your data is valuable, treat it as such. RAID-1 will be your best option. Have you considered OS costs as well?

the garynator · Jul 2, 2007

Xaotic said:
Avoid RAID-0 like the plague. Your data is valuable, treat it as such. RAID-1 will be your best option. Have you considered OS costs as well?

Yes, I recommended the RAID 5 option, it's still up in the air though, and we're currently working out the details to see if we are going to build our own...if we decide to, hardware configurations will be ironed out at that point.

Yes, I have included OS Costs.

For reference, this is the data I've factored in:

Backup PC Cost per PC
(IE: 2 (# of Backup PC's) x $2000 (backup PC Price) = $4000 / 40 (# of PC's) = $100 + $2000 (new PC price) = $2100)

Setup Cost (in manhours x cost per man hour)
(IE: OS install; Configuration; Software install; physical setup; etc.)

Man-hour cost
(IE: yearly salary + yearly benifits cost, etc. calculated into an hourly rate.)

Shipping charges, etc.

mcoleg · Jul 2, 2007

actually, you could probably get away with the newer 7200.10 with higher density platters in raid 5 array as far as speeds go. check here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=512211

also, have you made power consumption calculations yet? what do your current systems draw from the wall?

the garynator · Jul 2, 2007

mcoleg said:
actually, you could probably get away with the newer 7200.10 with higher density platters in raid 5 array as far as speeds go. check here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=512211

also, have you made power consumption calculations yet? what do your current systems draw from the wall?

Power consumption does not enter into this since the machines would eat up roughly the same amount of power whether we went with Dell or Custom assuming they were the same hardware configurations.

Also, as far as the 7200's, the difference in price isn't really a concern, it's a matter of proving that this route is cheaper and better for everyone since we will be able to get better hardware for the same price or less. Money really isn't an issue, except for the fact that it is the primary benefit of building the computers ourselves. It's kind of hard to explain.

Basically, disregard hardware specs, since we have not decided on the configuration yet, I'm mainly looking for any issues that people who have worked in a business who builds their own computers, namely in an administrative IT position.

Thanks for all of your responses so far! :attn:

LilBuddy · Jul 2, 2007

It's a good proposal but do you really want to spend that much time working on the company computers?

the garynator · Jul 2, 2007

LilBuddy said:
It's a good proposal but do you really want to spend that much time working on the company computers?

I'm not worried about it...and if it will save the company $50-$100k, yes.

dudleycpa · Jul 2, 2007

I have long wondered why more companies don't do this. I always assumed that a company could not build computers cheaper than Dell could.

Hopefully that isn't the case. Once built it shouldn't be any harder to support than it would be to support a Dell (Maybe easier since all the bloatware won't be there).

Who in IT is going to build all the computers? Are you going to hire temp help?

Sleepy_Steve · Jul 2, 2007

Any idiot who can pass an A+ cert class can build a computer... Developing the hardware configuration, and getting it all to work as intended takes a bit more skills... But thats why we have IT departments / people.

I think that one of the reasons a lot of businesses don't make their own PC's (although a lot of times servers may be custom made) is that they feel that by letting some one else (dell) deal with them when they break, it frees up their time to go on about expansing and improving the quality of their IT infrastructure, and not just its cost on the quarterly reports. Not to mention with a lot of the more expensive enterprise solutions if something breaks one morning, you can have a replacement in house and on line by days end... Quick recovery like that is very valuable to a lot of firms, even the NPO's.

LilBuddy · Jul 2, 2007

the garynator said:
I'm not worried about it...and if it will save the company $50-$100k, yes.

I would not approve this at my company because if you were to leave the company then I would be out having to hire a computer specialist for $80k a year to do the warranty work on them.

I do agree that our company wastes a lot of money on computers considering the size but the other options can just be a hassle.

Do you really think someone is going to approve $160 power supplies? Why not just chill out on the hardware stuff and just suggest some regular priced good machines. Most retail PC's have horrible PSU's in them and they hold up just fine. I'm betting you want to run dual 8800ultras in them too.

the garynator · Jul 3, 2007

LilBuddy said:
I would not approve this at my company because if you were to leave the company then I would be out having to hire a computer specialist for $80k a year to do the warranty work on them.

I do agree that our company wastes a lot of money on computers considering the size but the other options can just be a hassle.

I would agree, however, what's the worst case scenario, I leave? Then next time they replace PCs, revert back to Dell. And the maintenance wouldn't require another person, because if it did, this idea would get shot down.

LilBuddy said:
Do you really think someone is going to approve $160 power supplies? Why not just chill out on the hardware stuff and just suggest some regular priced good machines. Most retail PC's have horrible PSU's in them and they hold up just fine. I'm betting you want to run dual 8800ultras in them too.

Like I said earlier, the specs were not nailed down. I do, however, have the specs now, and I can tell you, they are not going to have a $160 PSU, etc.

Thanks for the input though guys, I appreciate it!

L

djrussell · Jul 3, 2007

LilBuddy said:
I would not approve this at my company because if you were to leave the company then I would be out having to hire a computer specialist for $80k a year to do the warranty work on them.

this shouldn't matter. they'll pay him or they'll pay somebody else but either way the work gets done.

Thund3rball · Jul 3, 2007

One consequence to building your own is everytime something goes wrong fingers will be pointing at you and you'll get the accountants and sr managers grumbling that they should have just bought dells.

If you went dell instead would you still be buying back-up PCs for "just incase"?

Soichiro · Jul 3, 2007

Thund3rball said:
One consequence to building your own is everytime something goes wrong fingers will be pointing at you and you'll get the accountants and sr managers grumbling that they should have just bought dells.

And when those Dells break, who are they going to point fingers at?

dudleycpa · Jul 3, 2007

Soichiro said:
And when those Dells break, who are they going to point fingers at?

Amen brother Amen!

Stuff is going to have issues no matter who made it. I wager a bet that building them in house would be a much better computer than a dell full of crapware.

I don't see the support but finding enough intelligent temps to put them together to be the most difficult part.

Sorry: End of rant.

I'm proposing building our own computers at my company

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