Re: MIDRANGE-L digest, Vol 1 #359 - 12 msgs

[rob@xxxxxxxxx]

And there are several of us who've had to replace several AS/400 drives
lately.

Rob Berendt

==================
A smart person learns from their mistakes,
but a wise person learns from OTHER peoples mistakes.



                    "Dennis Lovelady"
                    <dlovelady@dtcc.com       To:     midrange-l@midrange.com
                    >                         cc:
                    Sent by:                  Fax to:
                    midrange-l-admin@mi       Subject:     Re: MIDRANGE-L 
digest, Vol 1 #359 - 12 msgs
                    drange.com


                    10/03/2001 12:53 PM
                    Please respond to
                    midrange-l







Interesting analogy.  :)

However, I don't think this is properly analogous to our discussion here.
I think that this started out as a question of why IBM charges so much more
for their parts than the rest of the industry... or in particular, the PC
industry.  If the answer is that the less expensive parts (tires, engines,
etc.) cannot be made to fit - or if you'd lose
function/reliablity/performance by making them fit, then your analogy
applies.

However, particularly in the case of disk drives, the argument quickly
disappears in the muck that is IBM salesmanship.  In fact, the quality of
IBM AS/400 drives (based on MTBF data) is about the same as for good SCSI
PC drives that cost a fraction of the /400 prices.  The /400 drive
performance tends to drag a little (sometimes more than a little) behind
the PC industry, as does capacity.  And there's really no good reason
(that's been demonstrated to me) for these things.

I have some AS/400 drives that I ripped out of an older system.  Slapped a
Differential SCSI card in a PC, put those drives in, and now they're
driving a Linux system.  It doesn't make sense to me that that process
cannot be inverted.  But what do I know?  I'm an idiot.  I ask these kinds
of questions.

Dennis





Gwecnal@aol.com@midrange.com on 10/03/2001 01:36:50 PM

Please respond to midrange-l@midrange.com

Sent by:  midrange-l-admin@midrange.com


To:   midrange-l@midrange.com
cc:
Subject:  Re: MIDRANGE-L digest, Vol 1 #359 - 12 msgs


At 09:12 AM 10/03/2001 -0500, Wills, Mike N. (TC) wrote:

>Still, with the price of computer hardware these days, there isn't much of
>an excuse to sell hardware at astronomical prices (a 100GB IDE ATA66 hard
>drive sells for $300 USD at Best Buy, how much for that much disk space in
>an AS400?). For the price of an AS400, a cluster of Linux servers could be
>built that would be just as reliable, and possibly even faster in
processing
>power, more disk space, and just as secure. Granted, it would take up much
>more space and need more cooling.

You are comparing a Peterbuilt to F150 pickup and saying 'Geez, I can get
a bigger engine (CPU) cheaper for the F150, tires cost less, and the F150
goes 0-60 faster when empty.  Plus, you can get Ford parts cheap
everywhere and mechanics are a dime a dozen'.  All true.  And if you can
run your long-haul trucking business with F150's, you should.  But imagine
you call yourself a trucking professional and all you know is F150's so you
suggest that Viking convert its fleet; now you know how you sound to us.



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