Dear Tony:
How stupid can you be! The price that Intel gets it not anywhere near 2.5% of a server price as paid by the customer. Look at what Compaq considers components for a 24-7 box the NonStop Himalaya S servers: nonstop.compaq.com
Look at the maximum configurations on the page 40. 16 CPUs per node (single server in a cluster), 8 system enclosures (filled with expansion cards like PCI in PCs), 32 I/O enclosures (were they put disks, etc. (this proves that servers include storage and networking ports (just look at previous pages))), 25.3TB of disk (at least 1K drives and probably much more), and 152 ServerNet adaptors (networking between servers are included in server revenue). All those peripherals will cost at least 90% of the server cost. The CPU modules will be only 50% of what's left (batteries, PS, the rack, and the internal interconnect). The modules will contain memory, switch logic, plus two CPU chips. Those chips will be less than 25% of those modules and probably half of that again in reality or less than 1% of the total server cost.
Oops, the stuff includes printers, modems, and other such things, so it may be even less than that. They give you an overview in: nonstop.compaq.com The configuration guide is in: nonstop.compaq.com
Granted these show how to configure your server to fit your needs. The prices are not given (probably to save you from a heart attack) in these documents. For those who do not think OEMs do not markup component costs, 1 GB of ECC SDRAM is $11,000 from Compaq while we know that the most expensive memory costs less than a tenth of that (PC166 CAS2-3 or even DDR PC2400). I suspect that the CPU chips enjoy an equal markup (a VMS version of the module costs $3000 more than a Tru64 Unix version). You can get a configurator for Compaq GS servers at: compaq.com .
It should be enough proof against your "oh storage is not included in servers" garbage.
Pete |
