[Beowulf] Third-party drives not permitted on new Dell servers?

[Lux, Jim (337C)]

> >> The 3 year cycle is driven by in large part by IRS depreciation rules which call computer equipment
> a "5-year" piece of gear, but
> >
> > On the other hand many of the Beowulfers are in the govt. / university
> > / higher-ed. domain where things run somewhat "tax free"? Not sure if
> > then these IRS writeoffs then factor much into decision making or not.
> > All the more reason to avoid getting locked-in to 3-year vendor
> > cycles.
> 
> At MY University, and in all my grants, I plan a 3-year depreciation
> cycle (regardless of the grief I gave Jim privately). You've gotta have
> a plan. That said, however, I also get to beat the inventory folk
> senseless when they tell me I've got a $100k computer on inventory
> that's 8 years old and is listed as a '386.

How else would you be able to find ads for surplus equipment: widget $5; original government cost $50,000.  (note carefully government cost != government value)

And yes.. every year, we get to fight that same battle.  What do you mean you can't find that 8" floppy drive! It's in the property database as costing over $5000 (when we acquired it in 1981).  I'll bet we have some Apple IIs around still in inventory.

Jim