Additional Storage for DELL/EMC CX3-10c (Using SATA Hard Drives)
We have recently purchased an additional DAE for our Dell/EMC CX3-10c SAN. This DAE currently contains 3x 1TB SATA II hard drives, and we are looking to expand this further. However, we have received a quote from Dell who is quoting us about $2200/1TB drive. I find this a little farfetched as these are just supposed to be SATA II hard drives.
Is this just Dell inflating their prices, or are they genuinely this pricey? If so, for what reason?
If this is just Dell charging too much, is there an alternative way of fitting hard drives into the unit or is it possible to buy drives from a different supplier?
Thanks for your help in advance. Much appreciate any advice.
Is this just Dell inflating their prices, or are they genuinely this pricey? If so, for what reason?
If this is just Dell charging too much, is there an alternative way of fitting hard drives into the unit or is it possible to buy drives from a different supplier?
Thanks for your help in advance. Much appreciate any advice.
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Thanks for the points!
>so yes they are playing their usual game of agressive pricing for a new installation
They're not. List price for CLARiiON 1TB SATAII drives is about $3,000 each. As I said in my post, yes, they're SATAII drives, but they are modified for use in a CLARiiON. I am no fan of Dell by any means, but it is not Dell that sets the drive prices.
>so yes they are playing their usual game of agressive pricing for a new installation
They're not. List price for CLARiiON 1TB SATAII drives is about $3,000 each. As I said in my post, yes, they're SATAII drives, but they are modified for use in a CLARiiON. I am no fan of Dell by any means, but it is not Dell that sets the drive prices.
The point i was trying to make is that storage vendors typically charge less per spindle when bundled as part of the initial sale and then hit you with a higher price when you add additional drives, (its about recovering the lost margin when they price to be competitive on the the initial sale).
You say that Dell don't set the disk prices, but i can buy a generic 1TB SATA drive for $300 and somebody is making margin on that, somebody like Dell will be buying the same drive for a lot less, but are still charging 10x for it (coz they can), you are now locked into their world and as you say you cannot use generic drives as either the firmware wont accept them (firmware specifically excludes any drive without appropriate EMC identity) or they wont work, or are unreliable (incompatible firmware between drive and controller).
This is not just specific to EMC its common across the whole Storage Industry.
G
You say that Dell don't set the disk prices, but i can buy a generic 1TB SATA drive for $300 and somebody is making margin on that, somebody like Dell will be buying the same drive for a lot less, but are still charging 10x for it (coz they can), you are now locked into their world and as you say you cannot use generic drives as either the firmware wont accept them (firmware specifically excludes any drive without appropriate EMC identity) or they wont work, or are unreliable (incompatible firmware between drive and controller).
This is not just specific to EMC its common across the whole Storage Industry.
G
>This is not just specific to EMC its common across the whole Storage Industry.
Very true. Has to be said, tho', that I'd rather have critical data on a CLARiiON than on a SATA drive in my PC...
Very true. Has to be said, tho', that I'd rather have critical data on a CLARiiON than on a SATA drive in my PC...
Yes, I agree. There are SATA drives and then there are SATA drives ....
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This particular DAE is going to be our storage for backups. It will hold a backup of our entire virtual machine environment as well as files from various data stores from interstate sites. So speed is not so much as an issue as space. Ideally it would have been good to go for larger hard drives as Dell pushed the fact that SATA II is significantly cheaper than FC, however at these prices, its like paying for FC drives (albeit they have more spare, though they are much slower).
I was hoping to some how retrofit the SATA hard drives into this unit, but I don't think that is going to be possible. I was suspecting that the price was inflated due to the possibility of a FC converter (or something of sorts) being attached to the SATA HDD to allow it to connect to the FC backbone, however even if this was the case, I dont think that it would account for the additional $1500 charged on top of the HDD.
I'll leave this question open for a little while longer and see if anyone has suggestions.