PowerConnect vs Procurve - On the Fence

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Striker109

Weaksauce
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Nov 4, 2009
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94
Evening:

I'm tackling a new client and I'm on the fence regarding equipment. I normally deploy Procurve equipment if the client has 20 or more employees. With smaller operations I usually opt for the Dell switches. However, I'm starting to wonder about the economics of my recommendations.

Most of my clients just need basic switches. A few use link aggregation and even fewer use VLANs. I can purchase two PowerConnect 2824 switches for the price of one Procurve 1810G-24. Obviously the choice is situation dependent (ie basic file sharing vs. enterprise data storage).

I like to deploy equipment that has room for growth down the road. You never know when a client decides to expand an office or has to incorporate a change in the network. They may not need VLAN or link aggregation support, but who knows in a year or two.

Is the 1810G-24 really worth the extra $200.00 per unit over the Dell switches? The Procurve has a lifetime warranty while the Dell has a one year warranty. The three year extension on the 2824 is only $59.00 so worse case it is $238.00 vs $380.00.

I look forward to seeing everyone's input. Thanks!
 
Having been where you are I can say go with HP.

Small operations are mostly better served with the warranty , which is pretty hassle free with HP if you register your equipment.
I myself work for my own business with HP gear and even price wise there are smaller switches that could be more cost effective maybe.

Also contact HP about a reseller deal maybe , is what I did saves up to 25% per device for me.

I must honestly say in the last 5 years installed various brands (including dell and HP) and mostly the customer was happy with the HP equipment where most others, excluding cisco and a couple of others, have always come back with issues in the end.
 
I've used both. For clients where I believe they'll be pushing things hard...and probably grow down the road, I tend to stick with HP ProCurve switches. Like one client of mine...near 70x clients, 5x servers, down the road I see them growing and growing and growing.

For smaller clients...those well under 50....more so those under 25...I've used Dell switches, and I have to say I haven't had a problem with them. I believe (could be wrong) SMC makes most of the hardware for Dells switches...the SMC Tiger series. For even smaller setups..the under 20 size networks..you're being a bit more budget conscious so yeah they help there. Once you're dealing with a 100 dollar switch...I suppose worrying about a life time warranty or not isn't really an issue.
 
never had problem with powerconnect gear. use it exclusively. 8 port to 48 port.
 
I've used far more powerconnect gear than procurve, but neither have given me any issues. The lifetime warranty however, is useful for down the road.

I also personally use a lot of 3com switches, also very stable (some may differ) and quite fast.
 
Nacho said:
I also personally use a lot of 3com switches, also very stable (some may differ) and quite fast.
Click to expand...

Used to use those almost exclusively back in the NT4/Win9X days....they were hugely popular. Seemed to work well for me back then. Seem to have died down in popularity recently. OfficeConnect..for smaller ones. And what was the higher models...SuperStacks?
 
We had a company that we bought with mostly 3COM switches and ripped them all out. They were nothing but problems. This was 6 years ago though. Our standard is Cisco (which we put in), but I haven't had any problems with HP either. YMMV
 
Thanks for the input. I think with this client I'll go with the 2824 switches instead of the Procurve. Cost is a concern as they want to do quite a few things. The money saved can be put to better use such as a better backup system for the network.
 
the lifetime warranty makes me think about this:
if i have a client whose swtich dies, which is rare, and it is usually an outdated 5+ year old switch. there is usually no reason you would replace it under warranty.
the client would have to pay approx $100 an hour for me to get the RMA, the overall process could take a good 2-3 hours between contacting them, boxing up the old one, sending it off, etc..
so in the long run it cost the same to just throw a temp switch in there for them, order a new one and take the old one back to the office and RMA it on my free time to get a switch.

i had a client whose monitor died, it was a 1
 
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