Sorry - one more comment - DON'T resist the urge to get in and start playing...
Its often a good idea, if you have the time, to build the server to understand how it works, how the Dell drivers and utilities work etc. Then do a final "production" install using that new knowledge so that you end up with a more optimised setup. It may well be that some of the extras are extraneous rubbish that are not required at all and end up giving you better performance.
I never use the manufacturers install disk either - I use the standard Microsoft install disks and build my ultra reliable lean and mean server from there - not a single bit of extra software gets installed unless it adds some value. IBM provide excellent documentation on building each of their machines this way - Dell might do something similar.
Sorry - one more comment - DON'T resist the urge to get in and start playing...
Its often a good idea, if you have the time, to build the server to understand how it works, how the Dell drivers and utilities work etc. Then do a final "production" install using that new knowledge so that you end up with a more optimised setup. It may well be that some of the extras are extraneous rubbish that are not required at all and end up giving you better performance.
I never use the manufacturers install disk either - I use the standard Microsoft install disks and build my ultra reliable lean and mean server from there - not a single bit of extra software gets installed unless it adds some value. IBM provide excellent documentation on building each of their machines this way - Dell might do something similar.
Just a thought!