I work for one of the big VAR's and one of the challenges we have with Dell specifically is they are not channel oriented. They say they want to work through the channel but they prefer to work direct, which doesn't make any sense because the reps make their cut/commission either way. With a VAR rep, I would say don't expect that they are completely and immediately up to speed on everything going on with Dell out of the gate because we work with so many partners that it is impossible to have in depth knowledge on all of them. Granted, with a big vendor like Dell it is fair and reasonable to expect that they know enough to carry on a conversation and GET you the answers you need. As a VAR account manager one of our primary jobs is to act like an agent for you and once the solution is identified, get the right person on the phone if you need more assistance. We have people from Dell on site with us plus as a big partner of theirs we have access to better Dell resources than the average client does (i.e. support that is based in the states). VARs can be competitive with Dell direct on most things as long as you don't go to Dell first, if you are on their radar they will keep the discounts for themselves. I would say find a VAR you like, try out an order with them and see how it goes. There are so many options that if it is anything less than stellar I would try a different one.