[HCoop-Discuss] Comments on Semi-Finalized New Hardware Setup

[Adam Chlipala]

Clinton Ebadi wrote:
> At <http://wiki.hcoop.net/Migration2009/HardwareUpgrade#OptionB> I have
> made an alternate shopping list for our new hardware setup. What does
> everyone think?
>   

In earlier discussion, Adam Megacz (may he rest in peace) suggested not 
picking Dell over IBM, because the latter's hardware is much more 
reliable.  Does anyone else agree?

> The final price on this is looking to be around $3500 (but we could
> shave $400 off of that if we went with one processor in each machine
> instead of two). Is this reasonable given our current account balances?
>   

The total amount in our bank account, PayPal balance, and pending 
Checkout transactions is just under $6k, so we could afford a purchase 
like you suggest.  All of this money is member balances, so it's not 
like "the co-op has this money" and is free to decide to spend it.  I 
would feel most comfortable if, before making a big purchase like this, 
we got a set of members to agree to accept certain amounts of the 
liability each, re: possible worst-case scenarios.  (E.g., the whole new 
arrangement ends up as a fiasco and members depart en masse, asking for 
their balances back)