Score:-1

Server

Tier 1 OEM Grade Memory?

Brad

11/8/23, 1:07 PM

We need to buy some memory for some servers. I have three quotes in total. One for memory from dell, one for Kingston memory and one for Crucial/Micron memory.

The one for crucial memory and Kingston memory are half the price as the same memory from Dell.

I inquired with Dell why their memory is 2x more expensive than alternatives and the answer I got back was that:

"Dell memory is more expensive as it is tier-1 OEM grade, which is a much higher quality grade of RAM. The warranty for Dell memory also goes through Dell tech support."

The warranty part totally makes sense to me - I get that purchasing through Dell means I get 4 hour turnaround time on replacement memory.

However, what is "Tier-1 OEM grade memory"? Is there such a thing? And if there is - is it a "much higher quality" of memory? Or is this all a lot of malarkey to justify charging twice as much?

I can't find much about tier one OEM grade memory so I'm inclined to think this is nonsensical double speak but I'm wondering if they know something I don't.

1 + 2

hardware

memory

Davidw

11/8/23, 1:40 PM

@RomeoNinov That article has very little to do with memory or what Dell is even alleging here (that their memory is the highest quality memory). It's about storage, i.e. long term vs quickly accessed storage, and storage types (SSD vs traditional hard drives that are appropriate for different tiers of storage).

diya

11/8/23, 1:53 PM

IMHO *"tier-1 OEM grade"* sounds like marketing jargon. AFAIK it's not like Dell memory (or any other brand) comes with specific Dell firmware that offers specific benefits or the absence of such particular firmware will prevent interoperability. The right type of memory from another vendor, especially when guaranteed by that vendor, will simply work.

Score:0

Server

Chopper3

11/8/23, 1:57 PM

If you pay for support on your servers then only buy memory that that support organisation supports - otherwise they may well refuse you support if they realise the servers have non-supported components. Generally speaking serverfault is for pro-sysadmins who inherently build and maintain supportable , production-grade, platforms - so things like supportability is key to us, your situation may differ and the value of the savings that can be had might outweigh the supportability benefits.

+ 6

Brad

11/8/23, 2:32 PM

This memory is being used in dev/test/staging systems so while availability and performance are important we're trying to balance/juggle that against cost being a small organization. When we see an option half the price we have to wonder if we're being gouged and/or taken advantage of. When I google "Tier 1 OEM memory" nothing seems to come up. Am I googling the wrong thing?

Brad

11/8/23, 2:36 PM

Also to clarify I've no preconceptions that if we bought memory from another vendor Dell would support it. Of course, Dell wouldn't - we'd either have to rely on the warranty that came from the vendor we purchase from (in this case Crucial or Kingston) or re-buy new memory. But at 2x the cost even if we had to rebuy every single stick we'd still only break even with Dell's cost. How likely is it that every single stick will fail or that memory prices will increase in the next 5 years. Probably pretty low.

Brad

11/8/23, 2:38 PM

My primary concern is if there would be any difference in performance between the two or reliability. If it performs at half the speed or fails after 6 months of use then sticking with the more costly option would be better

Chopper3

11/9/23, 10:28 AM

Dell, HPE, Cisco etc. all rebadge other manufacturers memory, they don't make their own - they do pick good manufacturers, and test/qualify ever single DIMM, but they don't have some magical supply that nobody else can get. Often they'll switch manufacturers if they feel it's worth it for cost or reliability but it's just regular memory. So long as you stick to a good known manufacturer then you'll be 99% sure of getting the same as going through Dell etc. I particularly rate Micron memory but Samsung is good too - if you've never heard of the name on the actual chips then maybe don't use them

Brad

11/9/23, 12:28 PM

if you want to propose this as an answer I'll accept.

Chopper3

11/9/23, 12:32 PM

It's a comment on an answer so you can just accept this answer and it's, genuinely rather interesting, comment chain :)

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Tier 1 OEM Grade Memory?

Post an answer

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