[Asterisk-Users] ultra-cheap asterisk box -> sorta OT, more a bout Dell

Fri Jan 16 11:22:15 MST 2004

FWIW:

I order a lot of Dells. My boss is cheap. That being said, I *like* Dell,
it's a very well designed box. It's been said many times that Dell does not
innovate, instead they copy and improve and I firmly agree with the
"improve" part - they are a dream to work on. 

Some things to watch out for with Dell:

1. They typically tack on a shipping charge of $139 Cdn (yes they are using
the shipping charge as a profit center) - the shipping charge is not
negotiable, *but* once in a while they waive the shipping if sales are slow,
so it behooves you to check and order *just* before the end of the month
when there is an internal push to meet sales targets and move boxes

2. Don't bother ordering RAM from Dell. Configure the box w/ 128mb of RAM,
and as soon as you get the RAM, rip it out and buy 3rd party, which is as
much as 50% cheaper and in most cases is *exactly* the same RAM as the Dell
box. Your box dies? Take out your RAM, stick in your original 128mb, then
call Dell.

As an example, on the 400SC mentioned here, I can get a 512mb stick from a
Vancouver place that I order from (ncix.com) for $102 Cdn!!!

3. First thing we do when we get Dells is throw away the driver disks
because they are useless. Instead, we open up the box, determine what
chipsets they use, and download new drivers from the OEM. Typically, they
are more up to date, and in the Windows world, they aren't tied to a
specific OS like XP (you can't install a factory Dimension broadcom Dell
driver on Win2K, because it is XP-only, for example)

4. Dell loves to do hidden partitions on hard drives for their BIOS setups,
like Compaq Deskpros, Prolineas and Proliants of yore. That means you can't
press Del to enter a BIOS setup like you can on a clone AMI bios. You press
F2 and the system boots from the hidden partition. This presents a problem
if you re-image the drive with GHOST or install a distro and specify to re
partition the HDD. What I do is GHOST the factory HDD to another HDD,
re-partition it or re image it, and carry on with life. If I ever have to
change the boxes BIOS, I pop in the original imaged of the HDD and boot off
that. What makes this work well is Dell's killer design - you don't need
tools to get in the case or remove the HDD. Takes all of 30 seconds to do a
drive swap. 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Mynatt [mailto:dmynatt at mortgagemfsi.com]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 7:08 AM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] ultra-cheap asterisk box

That's really good.  Can you share the Dell contact info?

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Paul Mahler
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 6:54 PM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] ultra-cheap asterisk box

I have a Dell 400sc sever on order. It will be shipped on the 27th. It
is a 2.4GHz P4 with a 533 MHz front side bus, a 40GB disk, 128MB of
memory, sound card, ethernet, and year of on-site next day maintenance. 

It is $318 delivered after rebates. Yes, $318.  

This is a real server, by the way, not a desktop machine. It also makes
NO noise. I can't hear a thing with my ear right next to it. 

Why would you even THINK about getting anything else? 

Paul

Paul Mahler 
mail:pmahler at signate.com
phone: 650.207.9855
fax: 877.408.0105

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Chris
Albertson
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 9:32 AM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] ultra-cheap asterisk box

I'm looking to do about the same thing, build very low cost systems.
(I'm looking at putting Asterisk at some
non-profit organizations.)   but one thing you can't make
a compromise on is reliabilty.  It has to work and keep working for
years to come.  I was able to keep the price of a new PC to about $300
ad still use an ASUS mainboard and an AMD XP2600+ The trick is to add
absolutly nothing not needed.  No floppy, no CDROM so you can run off a
200W P/S.  Next I'll experiment with a notebook sized IDE disk drives
and to see if _underclocking_ the CPU reduces it's power comsumption
enough that we can save one fan.

Ideally Asterisk will be ported one day to Linux/ARM or some other very
low cost platform.  for VOIP you do not need the PCI slots.  In theory
Asterisk could run on a Lynksys router box with re-flashed EEPROM.
After all Lynksys' latest wireless router runs Linux inside

Low cost to me means "low total cost of ownership"  To get this I don't
think buying the lowest priced parts is the way to go. I want quality
mainboard, and a quality power supply and, this is importernt:  A low
internal case temperature.  for this reason I'll spend the extra $50 to
go with Antec cases and ASUS mainboards over the generic ones.

What I'm finding is that the PCs are so cheap that the cost of electric
power to run them is now a large part of the cost. (assume 0.20/kwh
times 200W times 365 days = $350.  So you pay for the PC again every
year in electric power to run it. Worse.  In an office with
airconditioning _all_ of that PC's 200W goes to heat and your A/C unit
will use about 220W of power to remove that 200W of heat.) and at a
small office they will not have a server room so noise from the fan is
an issue.

--- Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk <roy at karlsbakk.net> wrote:
> hi all
> 
> what about this...
> I just put together a box on a web shop (komplett.no) that will cost 
> me NOK ~1850 (¤ 216) plus a small ¤50 drive and cables, so say ¤300.
> This
> consists of a cheap MB with a duron 1400, 256MB SDRAM and two HFC-PCI
> cards (if capijod will finish off the zaptel-driver soon). This is
> all
> in a cheap PC case.
> 
> What do you think? Should this be doable? as a product? With only IP 
> phones and potentially a fax solution? any ideas?
> 
> thanks
> 
> roy
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com 
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

=====
Chris Albertson
  Home:   310-376-1029  chrisalbertson90278 at yahoo.com
  Cell:   310-990-7550
  Office: 310-336-5189  Christopher.J.Albertson at aero.org
  KG6OMK

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus
_______________________________________________
Asterisk-Users mailing list
Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

_______________________________________________
Asterisk-Users mailing list
Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

_______________________________________________
Asterisk-Users mailing list
Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users