Desktop manufacturers not offering SSD

[VeryPC]

The big OEM's will have supply contracts with Seagate , WD , hitachi etc which means they commit to a volume and get guaranteed low cost and delivery . During the HDD crisis this is why HDD price went crazy and availability scarce. The HDD vendors had to supply stock under contract at pre flood prices to the big OEM's meaning the remaining free HDD stock went up to cover the cost.

 

This meant independent System integrators suffered with availability and price post flood era - the flip side is that now independent System integrators can react quicker to the increased SSD demand whilst the Large OEM's will be stuck with HDD until the supply contract is up.

 

In the meantime we'll enjoy the SSD party - I'm sure it will only be a matter of time until the big boys join the SSD battle.

 

Andy

[zag]

The Intel 320 3Gbps have been replaced by Intel 330 6Gbps .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

 

I just looked on Insight but couldn't find any VeryPC's to buy with SSD drives. All have old school 250gb Hard disks or don't even mention the size!!

 

Will you be making some available at some point?

[VeryPC]

Zag ,

 

I'll PM you some info and reviews - We run HDD and SSD skus. Insight operate a lot of their feeds through CNET - CNET costs £4000 to be a member - unfortunately until sales volumes justify through partners who need CNET subscription for VeryPC.

 

As we're education focussed most is custom build but there is a range of pre-set example skus

 

There's a new review out in PC PRO's ICT in Education magazine in a for a SFF Allinone I7, 8G, 120GB SSD, Quadro 600, 24" Workstation week or so with SSD.

 

Please slap me if this is breaking advertising rules ?

[VeryPC]

sorry - meant to say no CNet subscription for VeryPC!

Andy

[Duke]

Dell are being about this. They'll sell you a desktop PC with an SSD, but they'll charge you 2x-3x the standard cost of the SSD for it. I bought some Dell Optiplex 390's this summer with basic HDDs and we sourced and fitted our own OCZ Agility 3 drives.

[gshaw]

Have had similar frustrations when speccing up machines here as even the smaller OEM builders were charging a premium for the SSD drives compared to what I can buy them for on eBuyer or any other consumer site for £10-20 \ unit less.

 

We put Crucial M4 SSDs into some of our older laptops as the HDDs were painfully slow. Even on IDE mode it still knocks a minute and bit off the boot \ logon times and makes them lightning fast opening programs.

[zag]

I've bought some Shuttle XH61 Barebones with 4gb of Ram, i3 CPU and an Intel 60GB SSD. All for £305!!

 

They take a couple of minutes to build and look great. Also can be fitted to the back of monitors.

 

I won't be buying any pre configured systems until they are reasonably priced and available to buy from web shops.

[VeryPC]

Gshaw - Ebuyer do some great pricing as they have good buying power. Some of the SSD/memory vendors will do a deal directly skipping wholesale distribution .

 

This means the ebuyer SSD sometimes can sell even be below small Integrators cost .

 

I'll drop you a PM .

[VeryPC]

That's a good price for the shuttle . Did they come assembled with, OS and Optical for that price ?

 

Andy

[zag]

That's a good price for the shuttle . Did they come assembled with, OS and Optical for that price ?

 

Nope. But thats the beauty of the barebone Pc's, you just add Memory and a CPU. We don't need Optical drives or Operating system licenses.

 

I had a look at your Broadleaf PC's and they looked really good as well. I love the service to mark them with the schools name. Will definitely check them out in the future.

Edited September 6, 2012 by zag

[teejay]

Nope. But thats the beauty of the barebone Pc's, you just add Memory and a CPU. We don't need Optical drives or Operating system licenses.

 

I had a look at your Broadleaf PC's and they looked really good as well. I love the service to mark them with the schools name. Will definitely check them out in the future.

 

Are you sticking Linux on them then? If installing Windows you'll need an OEM licence supplied with the machine or a full retail version, volume licencing are upgrades from these.

[localzuk]

I've bought some Shuttle XH61 Barebones with 4gb of Ram, i3 CPU and an Intel 60GB SSD. All for £305!!

 

They take a couple of minutes to build and look great. Also can be fitted to the back of monitors.

 

I won't be buying any pre configured systems until they are reasonably priced and available to buy from web shops.

 

Its great that you have the time and inclination to do this, and also are happy to take on the warranty management - ie. having to fully diagnose which component is broken if something odd happens (meaning that you have to either have spares in stock or swap with a working machine). I've yet to find a school where they have enough staff time to do this though...

[VeryPC]

Hmm.... I guess there are arguments to both sides .

 

The trick would be to partner with a hardware supplier that could provide competitive pricing on parts and quality/durable/long warranted complete systems.

 

If you then chose to just buy the hardware - Ideally the supplier would be able to advise on which parts are quality components, have a good warranty / low failure rate .

 

And..

 

Assist with any returns or diagnosis issues if you purchase the hardware from them.

 

Shall I send anyone a PM ?

[zag]

Its great that you have the time and inclination to do this, and also are happy to take on the warranty management - ie. having to fully diagnose which component is broken if something odd happens (meaning that you have to either have spares in stock or swap with a working machine). I've yet to find a school where they have enough staff time to do this though...

 

Well we already dismantle a PC to put an SSD drive in it. I found that installing RAM and a CPU took less than 5mins. It was surprising to me how easy it actually is. Bear in mind I'm talking about bare-bone pc's here not building them from scratch. There is a big difference.

 

As for broken PC's, I haven't used a warranty in the 2 years since we have had SSD drives. Nothing has gone wrong any of our with 150 desktops in that time. Amazing really!!