Server configuration to order

What a configuration actually fixes

A server model name is a chassis and a set of options, not a computer. The configuration is where the order becomes specific: processor model and count, memory size and population, drive models and layout, accelerator cards, power supply rating, rail kit and management options. Two quotes for the same model can differ by a factor of two on configuration alone, which is why this site quotes configurations rather than posting model prices.

Configuration-to-order is the company's stated way of working — server builds are assembled against the order, and the after-sales service that follows is tied to the configuration supplied. The written configuration is therefore the contract: it is what gets built, checked and shipped.

How to send a configuration

Three formats work. A target specification: model, processor, memory, storage and accelerator targets in plain text. A bill of materials: your BOM file or list, which we price line by line and flag where an item needs a decision. Or a workload brief: the application, the user or job count and the growth expectation, from which the desk proposes a configuration for your approval.

• Send your target configuration — model plus the five numbers that define it.
• Send your BOM for a quote — priced line by line, substitutions flagged, never silent.
• Or send the workload — the desk proposes the build and you approve it before pricing.

The decisions that move the price

Processor generation and core count move it most, followed by memory population — a fully populated memory configuration can cost more than the processors it serves. Accelerator cards dominate GPU builds. Drives are the quiet line: the difference between a capacity tier and a performance tier is a drive decision, and it is cheaper to make it on the quote than after installation.

Power supplies and rails rarely move the total, but they decide whether the machine installs cleanly. Name the rack standard and the power feed in the inquiry, and both are settled on the quote rather than at the rack face.

Before the crate closes

Ask for serial numbers and condition photos before shipment. On a configured build that check confirms that the machine inside the crate is the configuration on the quote — the same habit this site recommends for refurbished units, applied to new builds.

A worked example of the route

A mid-size virtualisation order shows the route end to end. The brief arrived as a workload — forty guests, a stated memory total, an existing storage array — with the model named but the configuration open. The desk returned a host configuration with the memory population drawn out slot by slot, flagged the one decision the brief had left genuinely open (drive layout for the local cache tier), and priced both answers to it. The buyer chose, the quote was reissued as the final written configuration, and the machines were checked against it before the crates closed.

Nothing in that sequence is remarkable, and that is the point: configuration-to-order is a clerical discipline before it is a technical one. The remarkable purchases — the ones retold as cautionary tales — are the ones where a step was skipped: the configuration assumed, the substitution unflagged, the serial numbers unchecked. The route exists so that none of those skips is available.