My shift on used enterprise servers

I thought they were too power hungry and noisy. Learning about their life and how data centers use them changed my view. Now I suggest them for small biz to cut down on new gear waste.

3 comments

3 Comments

shah.evan26d ago

Grabbed a decommissioned R730 last year for my friend's auto shop. Honestly just stuck it in their storage room and dialed down the fan curve in the iDRAC settings, now you barely hear it. Tbh the performance for their camera system and invoices is overkill in a good way. Saved them a ton versus new server hardware and it's been solid for ten months now.

linda36826d agoMost Upvoted

Wasn't there an article a while back about how these servers are built to run for like a decade but most companies ditch them after only three years? That's what got me looking into them too. It's kind of crazy how much perfectly good hardware gets tossed just to keep up with leases or whatever. For a small office that doesn't need the latest thing, grabbing one of those three-year-old beasts is a total win. You get way more machine for your money and it's already been through its shaky newborn phase in some data center. The noise is a fair point, but you can usually tweak the fan settings if it's not in a full rack.

casey78711d ago

Man, I have to disagree on the reliability. That "shaky newborn phase" you mentioned? In my experience, that's when you find the weak parts. I've had a few of these ex-data center servers, and the used drives are a huge gamble. One had a controller fail six months in, and finding a real replacement part was a pain. They're built to last, but they've also been running full tilt for years. You're not getting a fresh start, you're buying someone else's marathon runner.