Why buy costly hard drives from storage server vendors like Dell/HP/Sun?

The reason most people buy everything from one vendor is simple - support.

I buy HP, we can call them up at any time and know that they'll deal with any problem we have as they supplied it all. Buy bits from here, bits from there and you're giving each vendor a perfectly justifiable 'get out clause' to stop talking to you when you're in trouble.

So it all comes down to how much that safety blanket is worth to you.

Having worked in Dell support, I can tell you that inserting non-Dell drives will not void your warranty on the MD array, but you'll find it very hard to get any support at all.

Suppose a drive fails, and you suspect the array backplane instead of the drive - until you get a Dell supported drive and check the array using that, there is no proof the array is damaged, because your drive was never tested and verified to work with that specific array.

The same goes vice versa as well - you call the drive vendor, and get send to the SAN vendor, you call the SAN vendor - and get sent back to the disk vendor.

Unless you enjoy feeling like a soccer ball, I'd pull out the extra cash, and get the proper support you deserve, if you're already going for a brandname solution.

This may vary from place to place but purchasing a complete assembly, rather than just a bare machine means no matter what breaks you only make one phone call to get it repaired or replaced under warranty.

The custom drive firmware mentioned by gekkz is also important. I've heard of people who have experienced system failures and were told that the use of "non-genuine" drives voids the warranty because the system was not designed to work with them. Even if you win that argument, it takes time which you may not be able to afford.

Don't forget that the list price is only for those people who never ask for an offer. When you buy big name vendor stuff it's most likely that they'll be able to offer special prices which include better support options or other goodies. Ie we have some sun gear (sans, server, etc.) and we have never ever paid the list price no matter how small the order.

I was looking at storage servers offerings from both Dell, HP, Sun, and others a few months ago. In all the quotes and specs I received the vendors offered fairly competitive prices for the drives compared to what I could buy on the street. I suspect if you look closely you will see you were being offered SAS instead of SATA or drivers with higher RPMs.

Look closely at the drives offered. Give your rep a call. Many of the vendors would let you order a system with cheaper/smaller/slower drives if you request them, but they don't advertise it on their sites.