Workstation reliability - any major differences between makes or lines?

I am about to order a new workstation and this is the first time I'm picking specs myself. However, after searching for the past few days, I have come across very few actual user comments on current workstations from HP, Dell, Lenovo or Fujitsu (no other options) so I am hoping to get some comments here, especially regarding reliability. The workload does not benefit too much from a huge number of cores, so I am looking at single-socket workstations. I am however almost totally lost beyond that. Here's what I'm trying to figure out:

• Are there major differences between manufacturers? I ran across a comment that Dell sometimes uses inferior capacitors (on Precision) and is inferior to HP and Lenovo. Anybody have experiences that mirror this? What about Dell going private, has that had any effect (positive or negative) on quality/reliability?
• Would there be noticeable difference in reliability between E3 workstations (HP Z230, Dell T1700, Lenovo E32/P300, Fujitsu W530) and single-socket E5 (HP Z420/Z440, Dell T3610/T5810, Lenovo P500, Fujitsu M730/M740)?
• Any other benefits/drawbacks you've observed?
• I can't realistically justify any E5 beyond the 1620 v2 or v3. Beyond the slightly increased L3 cache and memory bandwidth, does the E5 offer anything worthwhile over an E3-1275 v3 or is the single socket E5 a waste unless one goes for 6C or 8C CPUs? I get the feeling that entry or lower mid-level workstations are getting too competent for an ever larger group of users and I'm simply not the market for anything higher end because my workload cannot be massively parallelised. Is that on the mark?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

One of the factors for the relative lack of user comments on hardware is that a lot of IT professionals end up buying systems from their contacts at Dell/HP rather than through some 3rd party online store. If you're going to be complaining about something, you're going to complain about it to your contact. Of course, who has a better chance of fixing said proble than the normal route of just complaining on some computer hardware forum.

In addition, IT professionals expect hardware to fail at some point. Thus the focus isn't quite so heavy on the actual reliability of the hardware itself but how fast and how well they can get that hardware back up and running with support from their chosen vendor (HP, Dell). Hence why support contracts are big. See this as an example:
http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/services/support-services-speed-of-response

All I can say is that I've had great experience with Fujitsus Esprimo P700 (and above) series. Extremely quiet and no custom hardware when I comes to drivers. You can fetch all from Intels site if you want fresh ones etc. In EMEA generally they also have 3 year on site warranty which is great and without making a huge hole in your wallet. My experience with both Dell and HP have not been so great...
//Danne, running Esprimo series for years...

I would go with the one with maximum guarantee and same/next day on-site repair.
In our case that is Dell (but I don't know about America), we got 5 years guarantee on all our computers and when something fails they will be here with the new parts the same day.
But the only problem we ever gotten with Dell workstations was 1 GPU that failed. Was replaced they same day by a technician that came on site (by a 3x more expensive one btw).

We also let our IT choose their own config if we need to buy new workstations. Most of the time they will find the best balance between cost and improvement for their workload.

I have been building custom CAD workstations for about 4 years now and regularly compare what Dell & HP have to offer. You can build twice the machine for less money. The other thing that the OEM's do is to size PSU's at point just barely over needed watts (mobo/cpu/vid card draw 320 watts and they will install a 325 watt PSU). So if you want to upgrade any component or add another HDD you will also have to install a larger PSU.
If service means a lot to you, you could probably find a local guy or company to build the work stations and service them if needed which keeps your money helping your local economy!

HP contracts a better var for support calls in my area than dell is the biggest difference I have found.
I have seen duds from both dell and hp but the vast majority of them have been fine.
The biggest difference was that hp has overnight shipped a new computer and a newer model at that where dell will not.
Dell will just keep sending parts even to the point everything but the case shell is replaced. PIA sometimes due to the downtime dealing with an unstable machine.

Dangman said:

One of the factors for the relative lack of user comments on hardware is that a lot of IT professionals end up buying systems from their contacts at Dell/HP rather than through some 3rd party online store. If you're going to be complaining about something, you're going to complain about it to your contact. Of course, who has a better chance of fixing said proble than the normal route of just complaining on some computer hardware forum.

Click to expand...

Thank you for moving the thread over, as well as your comment.

I wasn't expecting reviews on Amazon for example, but I was hoping that there was some forum where such stuff had come up. Surely, there must be freelancers running workstations. Searching for stuff on Google brought me to hardforum many years ago but no such luck on this front so far. Years ago, I used an HP Z600 for a while and I definitely had run into related messages on HP's support forum back then. Nothing on the current generation or recent lines however. Even stuff like acoustics that should matter to people working on audio but is of interest to anyone remains a complete mystery. I ran into a single comment that the current model (don't remember which make/line, but that's not important anyway) was noisier than the previous, but given a solitary comment it could be chalked up to anything including a bad fan, for example.

In addition, IT professionals expect hardware to fail at some point. Thus the focus isn't quite so heavy on the actual reliability of the hardware itself but how fast and how well they can get that hardware back up and running with support from their chosen vendor (HP, Dell). Hence why support contracts are big. See this as an example:
http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/services/support-services-speed-of-response

Click to expand...

Point taken. However, for a single user support is nevertheless an unknown because you don't get to have a prior relationship to set your expectations and don't have the clout of future purchases to push for a resolution If there is no failure, I don't have to wonder if support will resolve the issue.

I do get your point, though. Workstations are targeted to businesses and they face a different reality and have a different outlook. I suppose the IT department would simply ask for and receive demo gear for example if they were looking to change vendors in the first place. In the end, they have additional criteria, on which to make their decision.

jrweis said:

I have been building custom CAD workstations for about 4 years now and regularly compare what Dell & HP have to offer. You can build twice the machine for less money. The other thing that the OEM's do is to size PSU's at point just barely over needed watts (mobo/cpu/vid card draw 320 watts and they will install a 325 watt PSU). So if you want to upgrade any component or add another HDD you will also have to install a larger PSU.
If service means a lot to you, you could probably find a local guy or company to build the work stations and service them if needed which keeps your money helping your local economy!

Click to expand...

I'm avoiding that because when you don't have parts lying around, you cannot readily troubleshoot. A few years back, I built a server around an Intel S3420 server board that was lying around but it simply would not boot. It turned out hat it did not have a BIOS that was recent enough to boot with a Core i3 and obviously it could not be flashed to a more recent version because it would not boot. All I needed was a Xeon CPU (admittedly the relevant SKU was discontinued a short while ago) to boot the board so as to flash it but I couldn't borrow one or find a repair shop anywhere (including the company that provides IT services to small businesses, including where I used to work) that had one available unless I was looking to buy. The question then becomes, do you risk getting a new part for an older system, not sure whether that will resolve the issue or simply try with another board, as well as CPU? And of course how much time do you risk for that resolution. That board still is my home server, so nothing was wrong with it, but it had to be shipped to Intel's EU headquarters for a fix and that took quite some time.

diizzy said:

All I can say is that I've had great experience with Fujitsus Esprimo P700 (and above) series. Extremely quiet and no custom hardware when I comes to drivers. You can fetch all from Intels site if you want fresh ones etc. In EMEA generally they also have 3 year on site warranty which is great and without making a huge hole in your wallet. My experience with both Dell and HP have not been so great...
//Danne, running Esprimo series for years...

Click to expand...

Henri108 said:

I would go with the one with maximum guarantee and same/next day on-site repair.
In our case that is Dell (but I don't know about America), we got 5 years guarantee on all our computers and when something fails they will be here with the new parts the same day.
But the only problem we ever gotten with Dell workstations was 1 GPU that failed. Was replaced they same day by a technician that came on site (by a 3x more expensive one btw).

We also let our IT choose their own config if we need to buy new workstations. Most of the time they will find the best balance between cost and improvement for their workload.

Click to expand...

stormy1 said:

HP contracts a better var for support calls in my area than dell is the biggest difference I have found.
I have seen duds from both dell and hp but the vast majority of them have been fine.
The biggest difference was that hp has overnight shipped a new computer and a newer model at that where dell will not.
Dell will just keep sending parts even to the point everything but the case shell is replaced. PIA sometimes due to the downtime dealing with an unstable machine.

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for all this feedback. Experiences differ, but my takeaway is that there are no ex-ante distinguishable differences so I should make my decision on price and how well their support works locally.

Thanks again everyone.

I've had good luck with dell & the precision line going back almost 10 years (probably gone through 150 workstations in that time). Maybe not the cheapest option, but part of that is going to be warranty protection, when it breaks they send a tech to do the work, not just sending me parts. Reliability has been good, most of the issues I've had have been a few PSU's going bad. I think I've only had a couple that have totally gone dead, and that's when they've gotten pretty old (probably 5+ years of use).

We've had decent luck with Dell Precision. But, for the most part we opt for Supermicro systems built by a local vendor, as they offer more for the money, and quicker support.

The HP Z series workstation are awesome through the Z*30 series.

The new Z*40 series is being produced from the new division inside of HP so I 'm not certain. The new Z440 chassis looks like junk.