The University has purchasing agreements with several vendors. These agreements provide the University with a discount and also make ordering of equipment possible via the University's procurement systems.

Currently CDWG (CDW Government) is the University's preferred vendor for computer equipment. So if you are looking for equipment to purchase, consult cdwg.com to determine what equipment is available and at what price.

In some cases, faculty may find that prices on CDWG may be a bit higher than on other sites, but due to the contractual obligation, UVA has determined that this price premium is worth the ease of working with a single vendor. The Dept., in only very rare cases, can purchase items from other vendors, but this is very difficult and should be avoided.

A common mistake is to get a quote for a system from a unapproved vendor, then request its purchase or state that amount in a grant or ETF request. This results in disappointment when approved, high quality, vendors return quotes at higher prices, and the equipment cannot be ordered.

The BEST way to proceed is to send an email to cshelpdesk@virginia.edu and provide exact specifications for the equipment that is to be purchased. We will then get a quote from CDWG and provide it to you for your approval.

We've standardized on the server vendors HP, Dell, Supermicro, and System76, with HP the vendor of standard servers, and Dell, Supermicro, and System76 the vendor for GPU servers. Other vendors' platforms either don't fit into our remote management network, have power or cooling issues, don't provide service options, or have issues supporting common accelerator options (like GPUs).

Standardizing on these vendors allows the system staff to stock spare parts for only these vendors platforms, and also reduces the training needed to support multiple platforms.