[Beowulf] A bit OT - scientific workstations - recommendations

[Roland Krause]

--- Douglas Eadline <deadline at clustermonkey.net> wrote:

> >
> > So Joe's observation is apropos.  You engineer for your own
> particular
> > perception of costs of downtime and willingness to accept risks,
> > INCLUDING the substantial cost of your own time screwing around
> with
> > things.
> 
> Sure, my definition of screwing around with things is putting it
> in a box and sending it to the vendor for repair.
> 

This is not how things have worked in my experience. My experience so
far is: First you call the vendor, you spend an hour on the phone
rebooting the machine, checking the BIOS, explaining your problems, bla
bla... Then, maybe, you get a RMA. Most of the time though the vendor
will want to send you a replacement part that you are supposed to put
in by yourself. Btw., DELL is one of the worst offenders I have ever
dealt with in this respect. 

Roland