Desktop manufacturers not offering SSD

[mortstar]

I'm looking at getting some quotes for some replacement desktop machines and, maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but none of the usual suspects seem to offer their hardware with a SSD hard-drive or even the ability to swap out the standard oversized-HDD for a little increase in price. Argh! None of the data is kept on the local machine! I don't need 0.95TB free on that 1TB harddrive. I'd much prefer the performance boost thanks very much.

 

Can anybody here correct me and point out the 'Desktops with SSD for organizations' area of the manufacturers' online stores?

Edited September 4, 2012 by mortstar

[mattianuk]

Not sure if it's on their site, but Novatech just customised 90 machines with ssd hdds for us, at not a lot extra...

[Chris_Cook]

We got a batch from viglen last term with ssds. I think the price was reasonable. We may have had to ask for customised systems rather than the standard ones. You might need to talk to an account manager rather than ordering direct from a website. I didn't do the order myself, so Im not sure of the exact details.

[pete]

Talk to an account manager or a good reseller.

[mac_shinobi]

@Millgate maybe ??

[sidewinder]

Agree that Viglen do a reasonable deal with SSDs, however they are almost insistant on using OCZ drives. I had to go with them in the end, as time was running out and we needed Omnino 4's and they just wouldn't budge on the SSD brand. Out of the box 1 of the 25 we ordered seems to be having problems already So fight with them to get a better brand if possible.

 

Also bought some Zoostorms with Intel SSDs from CP Ltd and they have been amazing so far

[localzuk]

Agree that Viglen do a reasonable deal with SSDs, however they are almost insistant on using OCZ drives. I had to go with them in the end, as time was running out and we needed Omnino 4's and they just wouldn't budge on the SSD brand. Out of the box 1 of the 25 we ordered seems to be having problems already So fight with them to get a better brand if possible.

 

Also bought some Zoostorms with Intel SSDs from CP Ltd and they have been amazing so far

 

Viglen will do Intel drives, but they will add a significant lump to the price.

[K.C.Leblanc]

Am I the only one thinking there must be some sort of cozy agreement between the traditional HD makers and the major PC builders?

 

The likes of HP and Dell don't really seem to have taken to the SSD.

[sidewinder]

Viglen will do Intel drives, but they will add a significant lump to the price.

 

Must have a misinformed account manager then, as he was adamant they would only provide OCZ. Tbh I think they were originally going to charge £30 extra even for those, if that had stood I would have just bought Intels separately and swapped them out myself (in fact I kind of wish I had!)

[K.C.Leblanc]

Must have a misinformed account manager then, as he was adamant they would only provide OCZ. Tbh I think they were originally going to charge £30 extra even for those, if that had stood I would have just bought Intels separately and swapped them out myself (in fact I kind of wish I had!)

 

He probably wanted to sell you the cheaper product since it increased the chances of his quote being the lowest.

[Millgate]

@VeryPC will custom build the pcs to your exact spec so if you dont want dvd drives or whatever, they leave them out. SSDs won't be an issue at all.

 

They can also laser brand the front of the machine with your logo too. Looks really cool! Let me know if you need more info and pricing

 

Luke

Edited September 5, 2012 by Millgate

[bladedanny]

@VeryPC will custom build the pcs to your exact spec so if you dont want dvd drives or whatever, they leave them out. SSDs won't be an issue at all.

 

They can also laser brand the front of the machine with your logo too. Looks really cool! Let me know if you need more info and pricing

 

Luke

 

Do you have any sample images of the laser branded desktops?

[apeo]

Sorry to hijack this thread, what SSDs are you guys putting in? and how stable have they been?

[pcstru]

We've put in Kingston 120Gb (branded SSD Now). We have had no problems so far although it is just the beginning of term! We also use 256 GB Cruical M4's on some staff laptops and again, no problems so far. In both cases, the difference they make is substantial; simply the best upgrade available.

[Millgate]

Do you have any sample images of the laser branded desktops?

 

Yes chap, have a look at these

 

[Millgate]

 

And this one.

[zag]

I know what you mean. I just bought 10 new HP 3300 Machines for £270 quid.

 

HP Pro 3300 XT339EA#ABU | Insight UK

 

We then bought 10 60GB Intel SSD's (I wouldnt touch the other cheaper brands tbh) for £47 quid each.

 

Intel Solid SSDSC2CT060A3K5 | Insight UK

 

Its a simple job to replace when they come in as we image the computers anyway.

 

So thats £317 each for brand new Slim factor SSD desktops. Bargain!

 

I do wish PC manufacturers would catch up though, I mean who uses 500GB Hard disks?? and DVD drives these days??!! At least they dropped the floppy disks now

Edited September 5, 2012 by zag

[Arthur]

what SSDs are you guys putting in?

Four different makes/models so far...

 

• Intel 320 Series
  
• Samsung 830 Series
  
• Crucial M4
  
• SanDisk Extreme
  

how stable have they been?

Zero problems so far. For us, they have been way more reliable than HDDs.

[RTFM]

We use VeryPC for all our machines now, brilliant guys. Love their support, products etc.

 

I'd certainly recommend them

 

<3 @VeryPC

[zag]

Sorry to hijack this thread, what SSDs are you guys putting in? and how stable have they been?

 

We are using Intel 320 Series, Installed over 300 now.

 

Zero problems also.

 

As above, much more reliable than hard disks.

[VeryPC]

The Intel 320 3Gbps have been replaced by Intel 330 6Gbps .

 

Intel have just announced a Price drop and rebate to integrators meaning the 330 are really good value at present.

 

Of the SSD we've seen the most uptake on

 

Intel 330 - Good performance, reliable and warranted for 20GB /write /day

Crucial M4 - Good performance and better value than intel.

OCZ - Great performance , on Vertex and Agility - Firmware on cheaper ssd of Octane and Petrol is flakey and would not recommend even if paid a bung.

 

Andy

[mortstar]

Thanks for the tips, of course I know to get in contact with some Account Managers, but when you're just looking for a quick ballpark figure it is annoying having to go out specifically to get this information.

 

It is really surprising that the big manufacturers haven't begun to offer this on the mid-range units. SSDs have come down massively in price, most organisations don't need masses of local data and the speed boost from an SSD has turned them in to the equivalent advice from about 10 years ago of "stick more RAM in it" to increase a PC's performance. I reckon, as has been mentioned, that they have big contracts with the Seagates and Maxtors of this world and as these guys haven't got a decent offering in the SSD market they are caught in their own bulk purchase contracts.

[crc-ict]

One thing to remember with custom builds swapping HDD for SSD - make sure you confirm that the motherboard being supplied supports SATA 6Gbps. We had to make a late change to a build spec because the original board only had SATA 3Gbps ports. It was sorted no problems but is a gotcha to look out for.

[zag]

Thanks for the tips, of course I know to get in contact with some Account Managers, but when you're just looking for a quick ballpark figure it is annoying having to go out specifically to get this information.

 

It is really surprising that the big manufacturers haven't begun to offer this on the mid-range units. SSDs have come down massively in price, most organisations don't need masses of local data and the speed boost from an SSD has turned them in to the equivalent advice from about 10 years ago of "stick more RAM in it" to increase a PC's performance. I reckon, as has been mentioned, that they have big contracts with the Seagates and Maxtors of this world and as these guys haven't got a decent offering in the SSD market they are caught in their own bulk purchase contracts.

 

The reason is the Manufactures realize SSDs are the biggest performance increase in a generation. It makes the CPU and RAM virtually irrelevant which means less upgrades for them basically. We don't even bother buying core i3's any more as the SSD has a far greater performance increase. Its a race to the bottom and the manufactures know it.

[zag]

One thing to remember with custom builds swapping HDD for SSD - make sure you confirm that the motherboard being supplied supports SATA 6Gbps. We had to make a late change to a build spec because the original board only had SATA 3Gbps ports. It was sorted no problems but is a gotcha to look out for.

 

3gbps and 6gbps interfaces make absolutely no difference in real life testing of SSD's.

 

I've said it before but my 1st generation 4 year old PATA Samsung 20gb SSD has exactly the same OS performance as my top of the range 600GB intel SSD bought last year. There is no difference in real life usage unless your maybe copying over USB3 between 2 SSD computers.