I choose CentOS because I believe it is the most stable OS in commodity machines. But I don't know how to do when facing the trouble.
The difference lies in that I patched a PF_RING patch in original kernel and recompiled the kernel to run my machines. I wonder whether the patched kernel crashes the CentOS because PF_RING automatically downloads the kernel codes from www.kernel.org, but not the one from www.centos.org? Or, the centOS holds the bugs in its distribution?
When you use a custom kernel, you usually get to keep the pieces.
Go buy a new car and change the engine and then see if they honor the warranty.
We stopped using Dell machines some time ago. For some reason there reliability has been steadily falling. I don't know if they are doing non-standard stuff in their bios's or just using less than optimal hardware to cut costs, but I probably won't go back.