>> In terms of RAM costs, we have decided to (as you say) try it and see want happens. But our costs are signifcantly higher than you quoted because IS uses only name brand machines with manufacturers RAM.
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>You're talking about implementing RAID5 arrays, Xeon processor(s), etc. If 512MB RAM pushes you 50% over hardware budget, that implies you're being quoted multiple thousands of dollars for that extra RAM. Could you do us a favour and let us know who's quoting you that price (and what it was), so we know who to avoid when we want hardware?
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>"Name-brand" RAM is a crock - these days anyone in that business has one or more billion-dollar fabs, and total quality control is the only way to make them pay. What do you consider "name-brand"? Dell? Compaq? Neither of those has any fabs, they buy all their semiconductors from others

We use Dell. And you are right. The cost for an extra 512 meg of Ram is around $1500. It may be a crock, but our management says that until recently it was cheaper to overpay for machines and get the on-site warranty than pay for the services of a first rate hardware person. We have grown to the point where management admits that this is not longer the case, and we will be hiring a hardware person RSN.

The idea that sometimes it is better to overpay for hardware than to hire expensive people who would keep you from having to overpay for hardware actually makes some sense in a very small shop. If you pay 40,000 a year instead of 30,000 for hardware where are you going to find someone for less than 10,000 a year to do your buying for you. Of course we could have bought hours of consulting time just as needed, but if you use a consultant only a few hours a year, you won't know if you've chosen the wrong consultant until you get stuck with flakey hardware -- which will cost you lot more than buying name brand did.

It seems form what I've heard that a lot of big shops buy name brands and use all manufacturer brands for internal parts -- same logic reduce the work load for your hardware people through on-site service agreement, so that you don't need as many of them, and save money even though you overpay for hardware. For big shops it has never made as much sense to me. If you have to hire a highly skilled person part time, you will pay a lot per hour, and may end up not getting what you pay for vs. buying labor from the manufacturer. But once you are large enough to hire a full time person, I would think that you will pay less per hour for your own in house person than for buying labor Dell has already bought and is reselling. Also with a full time person, you will know very quickly whether they are competent or not -- you are not hiring them just for key decisions.You can test them on needed but non-critical stuff before they get involved in the buying process.