General & Financing 
What is a Fnord and how do I pronounce it? 
I don't see a server that fits my needs.  Can you design a custom spec for me?
What operating systems run on your servers?
Can I order servers or accessories online?
Is equipment leasing or other financing available?
Do you offer quantity discounts?
How long is the burn-in period?
How are Fnord servers shipped?

Warranty / Tech Support 
What is the standard and technical support package?
What hours are technical support available, and what is the phone number?
Does Fnord provide free software-related tech support?

Extra Services 
What additional services does Fnord offer?
Do servers ship pre-configured with an operating system?

What is a Fnord and how do I pronounce it?
It's somewhat of a running gag in geek culture, and features in the science fiction book "The Illuminatus Trilogy". For our purposes, the Fnord is only a memorable corporate logo and company name. Its pronounciation is similar to Fjord.

I don't see anything that fits my needs. Can you design a custom server for me?
Definitely, this is what we do best! Our standard server models are meant to meet the most common needs. We prefer to work one-on-one between systems engineers and customers, to design a high performance yet low-cost server package.

What operating systems run on Fnord servers?
Fnord servers are designed from the ground up to be operating system agnostic, and will run equally well with Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and Windows Server 2000 / 2003.

Can I order servers online?
Every client's requirements are different, and we prefer to cultivate a personal one-one-one relationship between Fnord's engineers, sales staff, and clients. Every server is unique, and built to the customer's needs.

Is equipment leasing or other financing available?
We offer competitive lease rates through a third party financial services firm. Please inquire with a sales representative for more details.

Do you offer quantity discounts?
Quantity discounts are an integral part of our clustering packages, and are highly competitive with others in the marketplace. Standard quantity discounts can be applied to orders as small as five servers. You can mix and match custom configurations, all servers in a bulk order do not need to be the same.

How long is the burn-in period?
We pride ourselves on the exhaustive burn-in process, which involves complex benchmarks of the CPU, RAID array, memory, and networking systems repeating in a loop for 72 hours. We will never ship a system that has not passed our rigorous 72-hour burn in period. By discovering and replacing faulty components during burn-in, we keep the number of DOAs minimal and costs low.

How are Fnord servers shipped?
We prefer to use FedEx Ground and Air for domestic shipments. Bulk shipments of five or more servers may be more economical to ship via palletized freight. Typically shipping costs range from $25 per 1U server for ground service to $135 for a large fully loaded NAS unit. If you are located outside the United States, Canada or Mexico and require custom shipping arrangements, please let us know before ordering.

What is the standard Fnord server warranty?
Fnord Datacenter Systems offers a two year parts and labor warranty on all new servers. Certain components may also be covered under a 3 year or lifetime manufacturer's warranty. All Seagate hard drives as of May 2006 are offered with a five year unit replacement warranty.

What hours are technical support available, and what is the phone number?
Regular hardware-related technical support is available Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 6 PM (Pacific time zone) at 206-219-9059.

Does Fnord provide free software-related technical support?
For the most part, we do not. Fnord Systems is a hardware commodity vendor, and Fnord servers are equally capable of running FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, or Windows. We do not offer free in-depth technical support of any operating system issues, but will gladly assist customers in finding the appropriate documentation online. Likewise, for Windows installations, it is assumed that ours customers are already familiar with the documentation from Microsoft. All software directly related to Fnord hardware is fully supported (e.g: device drivers for RAID controllers, video cards, NAS devices, network interfaces, etc)

Does Fnord offer onsite setup services for large installations?
See our services page for more info on Fnord's consulting services.

Do servers ship pre-configured with an operating system?
Various distributions of Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, or OpenBSD can be pre-installed for no extra cost, at the customer's request. Please mention which operating system you prefer at the time of purchase. If you prefer a certain partition layout and filesystem, please provide it to your sales rep prior to your server's construction.

Windows 2000 Server / 2003 is also available, with licenses sold at-cost to customers. We do not sell Windows licenses seperately from servers.

For security reasons, many customers choose to buy their server with a blank hard drive. If you prefer this, your server will be wiped after the burn-in process is complete.