Comments on: Cost per GB of disk for iSeries? Please could some one help me on this.

By: tomliotta

tomliotta — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:26:06 +0000

Not much I can say about the prices paid. They sure seem far out of line in my experience. In IBM's Power 520 and Power 550 support the AIX, IBM i, and Linux operating systems announcement letter, it shows the 4327 installed price as $754. Other, later announcements show even less. TechTarget 'eStorage introduces lower cost 70GB disk drives for iSeries' article from June 2004 discusses costs and gives IBM list for 4327s way back then as $2800, which is a hundred bucks less than I was thinking for that far back. I don't know... maybe I've just been lucky; but none of the companies I've worked for have paid even as high as 'list' price even back when you could buy direct from IBM easily. Tom

By: woodengineer

woodengineer — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:58:26 +0000

Is your management asking why iSeries drives are more expensive than PC drives?
An IBM is rated for a very high duty cycle – one that would leave a PC drive a smoking mass of bits. Also, IBM drives typically have double bit error correction. Perhaps some high-end PC drives have this as well but I don’t know. Most PC drives have single bit error correction.
We rarely have any problems with our IBM drives. Its a whole different story with PC drives.
It is not really an apples-to-apples comparison.

By: whatis23

whatis23 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:19:32 +0000

We just recently paid that amount (2 months ago) which was about in line with the price directly from IBM. 7 months prior to that we also purchased the same amount of DASD for slightly less so the price actually went up $9 per unit. All were purchased new for a FC0595 then the new EXP24.

By: harisudhan21

harisudhan21 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:57:19 +0000

we are currently using a i550 box and the disk types are 4327 all are 70g one’s

By: tomliotta

tomliotta — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:20:59 +0000

…the cost per new type #4327 70.56GB disk unit is $3,490…

Back after April, 2004, the new IBM price for 4327 70GB drives was only approx $2900. When did you pay $3490? Prices are quite a bit less nowadays. (And refurbished today, a 4327 can be had <$300.)

Tom

By: tomliotta

tomliotta — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:44:38 +0000

Anywhere from maybe $1/GB up to maybe $7/GB and more… it depends on what hardware you currently have, what controllers, where you buy, what drive capabilities/capacities you want…

New or used? That can make a huge difference in that kind of ratio. (I’ve never had a used drive give trouble yet, but they’re always a generation behind, of course. Longest set I currently have in use is eight years old; second oldest set is five years old.)

But for this question, I simply did a trivial query of a reseller’s inventory. No comparisons with others, no looking for deals. I won’t be surprised if both upper and lower limits can be stretched by others.

The drives will always be more expensive than what’s available for PC servers, potentially by large margins. The question must be asked within the context of the business need that’s being addressed.

Tom