At the time, every HP reseller. They had some kind of gold/platinum/bronze partner system where specific resellers could only order certain parts. I don't know if this is still the case, but honestly the whole thing was an immensely frustrating experience.
I could order direct, but was very limited in what I could customize. We worked with a couple different resellers, but they were also limited (each in different ways), and ultimately did purchase through one of them.
I don't remember all the specifics now, but the main factor was the database servers which had high storage and very high I/O requirements. I think the only way to get the drive config we needed was to get something with 4 or 5x the CPU, and the cost accordingly skyrocketed. These days a couple SSD's could easily beat the performance of the 12 or so drives we had at the time, but in 2009-ish the limited SSD stuff on the market was out of reach.
I could order direct, but was very limited in what I could customize. We worked with a couple different resellers, but they were also limited (each in different ways), and ultimately did purchase through one of them.
I don't remember all the specifics now, but the main factor was the database servers which had high storage and very high I/O requirements. I think the only way to get the drive config we needed was to get something with 4 or 5x the CPU, and the cost accordingly skyrocketed. These days a couple SSD's could easily beat the performance of the 12 or so drives we had at the time, but in 2009-ish the limited SSD stuff on the market was out of reach.