My new favorite spare parts vendor for old Dell Poweredge Servers

(Yes, this post is going to be a vendor plug as you should deduce from the title.)

We all have them lurking in our data centers, those old servers that you just can't seem to kick the users off of and retire gracefully. Inevitably, that server will suffer a hardware failure and if it's a Dell and more than 3 years old the chances are that after a half hour on the phone bouncing around they'll finally just admit that they don't have the part and have no idea when it'll ever be in stock again. Oh, but if it ever did magically appear it'll cost $800.

While digging through the forums I noticed another user had recommended Velocity TechSolutions http://www.velocitytechsolutions.com/ I'm always a little skeptical of new sites but being in a pinch I wasn't going to be picky. After a quick search through the site I found the parts kit that I needed for $99. I went ahead and ordered it with overnight shipping and had a fedex tracking confirmation within a few hours and the parts were here the next morning. Overall I've got a good first impression of them.