building servers

[mpdickens]

roger schmeits wrote:
 >  Would the savings be enough to justify going down this road?
> 

Thats an open ended question.... It comes down to how much is your time 
worth? If you build your own system, you *are* hardware support. I 
suppose if you break it down, it becomes:

1.) I am / I am not familiar with the hardware I am proposing to use in 
this server. If I am familiar with it, I can support now without a 
learning curve. If I am not familiar with it, I have a learning curve
that could be expensive regarding time and money.
2.) If the system goes down, how quickly can I get replacement part(s)?
Can I get replacement parts on my own as fast or faster than 
compaq/IBM/whoever?
3.) What happens when I am on vacation or otherwise not in the office 
and the machine fails?

Personally, in a business environment, I do not want to hork around with 
hardware. If it fails, don't call me, call the hardware dude at the 
company we purchased it from.


Best

Peck