RE: IBM System i guidance on disk drives not manufactured by IBM

I believe somebody has stated this before, but I don't remember if it
directly addresses both aspects of the following question.

Are the drives going into System p's identical in hardware and "software"
configuration? I have heard it mentioned that System p and System i
machines are in general the exact same except for the OS loaded before it
leaves the factory.

Could you theoretically load a System p harddrive into a System i?

The subject interests me because I will be buying HD's in the first quarter
of next year most likely (unless I upgrade my 520 to a 515 :-). I would
rather not pay $1k per drive if I don't have to, but in the same breath I
would rather pay a couple hundred extra to ensure I am not going to get
these "parity errors" said earlier in the thread. I guess that kinda states
the intention of IBM and the System i. They provide solid hardware and
software so you don't have to waste personnel hours on dumb things like
drive parity errors. In the end I would rather pay IBM a higher cost for
hardware/software than hiring somebody and maintaining them in my staff for
a purpose of trying to find price breaks for hardware and doing appropriate
reconfigs every 6 months. The warm body would cost $30k to $40k plus
benefits - a lot easier to simply pay a few more thousand for hardware. I
am such a fence rider! ;-)

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lukas Beeler
Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 7:24 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: IBM System i guidance on disk drives not manufactured by IBM

On 12/3/07, Al Barsa <barsa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

IBM has recently observed cases at our IBM System i customers where disk
drives have been procured on the open market and modified to look like IBM
drives. These modifications include false labels that look like IBM labels

I think this is understandable as long as IBM is charging unreasonable
prices for their System i drives.

e.G.

System i: 4328, U320 Attachment, 15kRPM, 147GB Capacity, 3098 CHF
System x: 40K1044, U320 Attachment, 15kRPM, 147GB Capacity, 760 CHF

Noname U320, 15kRPM, 147GB Drive: ~300 CHF

While the System x drive is market priced (HP, Dell charge somewhat
the same amount), IBM is milking it's System i customer base on System
i disk drives.