Who do you Sys Admins use for Vendors?

[gmc8757]

Where you do guys buy your hardware? We currently deal with CDW and Staples only because we have accounts with them and they're real easy to order from. Prices may not be the best tho. Is there any company you guys are happy with where you can set up and account and be set?

 

[HannibalX]

New PCs, notebooks and servers we buy direct from HP, as they are cheaper then any reseller.

Accessories and parts gennerally come from CDW.

 

[gmc8757]

Oh yea? An HP shop huh? We go Dell for all the pc's laptops and server. As of now, we use CDW and Staples for everything else. Just looking for maybe a cheaper reseller.

 

[HannibalX]

We don't use HP my choice. Our parent company has massive service contracts with HP so thats who we buy from.

I like HP for desktops but prefer Dell for notebooks and servers.

Lately I have been buying a lot of spare parts on Newegg with my corp amex card. They seem to be cheaper than CDW on certain things.

 

[tweekah]

CDW has value added service into their business model. I love their selection, however it may be taxing at times finding the correct or compatible part. PC connection is pretty much phased out due this fact.

 

[HannibalX]

Nice thing about CDW is that they are flexible on pricing and their sales staff work hard to get you a good deal.

Last time I ordered new routers I went with them because they hacked off %10 from another vendor's price.

 

[Kwaipie]

Dell direct for servers
Enpointe and ComputerTech as VARs for most everything else.

 

[amdskip]

Dell shop here, I convinced them to get thinkpads for all new laptop orders though. Also a good share of MAC users (annoying!). Overall they are stupid, they spent $400 on 2 gb of memory from Dell.

 

[gmc8757]

Holy cow...400 on memory..unreal.

Enpointe and ComputerTech, never heard of them. I'll have to look into them. THey have good prices and easy to deal with for accounts?

 

[DaiShan]

Dell for all desktops and servers (although this may change, had a nightmare of a time with our latest round of boxes as Dell switched all Dimension models to Vista only. Upper management decided that the best time to begin integrating Vista was the day 12 new vista machines showed up from Dell for a batch of new hires. 160 man hours and 12 clean installs of XP later they decided that we *might* actually know what we're talking about when it comes to roll-out decisions ) For misc parts we use Newegg, good prices, good customer service, and they're willing to work with you some on the price if you do a lot of business with them. (I've even had them give us bundle pricing on items when we don't technically qualify for it)

 

[gmc8757]

Hey DaiShan. Thanks for the reply. That's some vista story, what about ghosting the 12 machines to XP instead of doing a clean install?

Can you setup a business account with Newegg? Where it's quick to order the stuff but we can let our finance dept pay even after we get the hardware? Do they do Purchase Orders?

 

[DaiShan]

The computers don't share all of the same hardware so imaging isn't really an option, although vista's file based imaging will be a help when we decide to roll that out You can reference a PO with Newegg and it is printed on the packing slip, I'm not sure if they offer credit terms we just pay with the CC that we have on file. Their sales reps are quick to answer anyquestions, and they're open now, give them a call!

 

[Steve]

Where I work now, old notebooks are Dells and new ones are ThinkPads. Desktops are still all Dells. Servers are a mix but mostly IBM.

At my old job it was HP all the way, and CDW for minor purchases.

 

[ValuedCustomer]

IBM for laptops. HP for Desktops/Dev boxes. IBM, HP, EMC & Sun for the raised floor.

 

[gmc8757]

I like CDW, but they're prices aren't impressive. Anyone can look at pricegrabber and find cheaper prices than CDW offers even with our discount. It's mainly purchases other than laptops/PC's where I'm looking for a vendor. We're set with Dell all the way, PC's, laptops, and servers.

 

[ValuedCustomer]

you can certainly find cheaper prices than CDW (understatement) but the problem is do you really wanna spend x-amount of dollars to have someone take the time to shop around? I can think of a few other uses for someone being paid 75k+ a year other than shopping around for a printer in the hopes of saving 50 or 60 bucks off the purchase. - CDW sux but it's a one-stop shop. I think that's why so many use them.

 

[gmc8757]

very well put. I totally agree. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any other one stop shopping places they like better than CDW. It looks like CDW is the place and we'll probably just stick with them.