Save Money Buying Used Servers (Part 1) - Getting started with used servers out of the box

[@darylmorse]

Great video. I have three old servers at home. Anyone considering doing this should be prepared to spend potentially a lot of time tracking down firmware, bios, drivers, etc. For older servers that are "end of life" can be challenging to find all of the drivers. Also, you should have an air compressor for removing years of dust.

[@wilsmith7173]

Don't forget those storage cards and whether they can be 'flashed' to IT mode so you can run Proxmox, TrueNAS and UnRaid, in software raid mode. I learnt from my first buy that servers don't always have a decent card that you can convert to a HBA. great video though 👍 😀

[@BobPellerin]

Thanks for the info!

[@sairlordmusic]

old SAS drives were never able to reformat in anyway to run proxmox etc, throw them or try and use SATA sad really

[@UnfiItered]

Just a heads up to folks, envision what you want your server to do. I should've bought a 2u server instead of a 1u. I can't fit the gpu i want in my server to run inference and transcoding. So i have to compromise on what gpu i can have. Also look up what os your server supports. If you dont, you're on your own. I had to make a script to go through and find what drivers i need.

[@BobPellerin]

Very good point! I’ll mention that next time I have a 1u to review.

[@evelbsstudio]

In the UK electricity bills are very expensive, i have just upgraded my server and installed promox to virtualize my mini pcs about the same power consumption but better resources

[@BobPellerin]

Thanks for sharing!

[@DanSnipe-k8o]

How do you rate the noise from the various second hand server options? It would be nice to be warned which are more noisy.

[@BobPellerin]

1u servers are very loud. These are meant to be data centres. You shouldn’t put these a shelf under your desk unless you want to work with noise canceling headphones all day.

[@Jacob-og9pz]

That monitor is a monster, which model is it?

[@rongray8934]

I just purchased a Dell R710 and I am going to give it a try. Thanks for all the information.

[@BobPellerin]

Enjoy! :)

[@evelbsstudio]

Tbh you should have gone for the r730, they run cheaper and are generally a better server.

[@4megii]

@@evelbsstudio Expensive though

[@aure_eti]

What i've done with my verry first server and almost with every piece of tech i buy, I inspect visually after buying it, so that i'm more confident that this stuff will run no problem. I search for blown capacitors or visually burned components. I also like to tear them appart if there is dust on them. I bought a Dell R640 for a friend, it was so dirty, i almost fully disasembles it like it was mine, make sure i got most dirt out of there so it can now continue to live a peacefull life

[@TheRoyal911]

I have a 9U 600mm Depth Networking Cabinet. Is hard to find on any servers online what are the specs for depth ? Is somehow encoded or how do I know if the server is gone fit? Thanks

[@BobPellerin]

Just call up the specs of the server you are thinking of buying. They state the dimensions. That's your safest bet.

[@Shylockza]

Bob, serious techs don't use HP printers.

[@BobPellerin]

Thanks for sharing that.. I guess that means I have to show you the printers I personally use? LOL.

[@UnfiItered]

LOL, right... they use a xerox printer that is always broke somehow. Tbh, any brand of printers are a scam.

[@MichaelSmith-mb1gm]

Just got a ThinkServer RD450. Excited to try some stuff with it. Thanks for the vid. Not many of these out there🤓

[@BobPellerin]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@aiki6378]

I wanna try making a server installed on a raid5 with tiered caching ssd, how do I do that? My purpose is to make a server that serves as a NAS, vpn, and photo syncing. I also want to use 3 Hdd + 1 nvme ssd and able to add more drives one at a time Using the lowest budget and low power at idle

[@BobPellerin]

The OS you load must support that feature. I know QNAPs have that built in.

[@mikes.9091]

Enjoyed the overview.

[@BobPellerin]

Thank you!!!

[@sairlordmusic]

when u show details early on u should use cut aways (close ups) and when you use terms like "idrack" what's that?? put up a text title on the screen. Use DaVinci 18 free its easy

[@jordan5163]

Thanks for this!! I am trying to get back to work before school starts so I can buy a 150$ server. I want to start getting into VM and game servers. Got any tips for a beginner like me. Should I buy a used one or spend the extra money on a new one?

[@BobPellerin]

Start by running VMs on your pc to understand the concepts. Buying a new server just to test is expensive. FYI: Tier 2 or 3 servers are fine for “lab” tests.

[@cliffmathew]

As Bob replied, start with VMs on your laptop. If you really need to buy hardware, start with a Dell Optiplex Small Form Factor i5 8th gen or newer, (Eg: Optiplex 5060). Most programming and learning stuff can be done using such a machine. I have a couple of Dell and Sun SPARC servers, but believe it or not, despite owning those, I got the best use from an old Shuttle PC running Linux with only 4GB of RAM and Intel Atom processor. I run Postgres, MS-SQL Server, Informix, Oracle, various programming languages, Kibana, Elasticsearch -- and a whole lot of other stuff on this tiny old atom box. I don't run all databases at the same time, I just start only one, and keep others stopped when not in use. One of the servers I have, I run VMWare ESXi, and I have used it to create VMs to run clustered software like OpenStack, Kubernetes, Cassandra, Kafka etc. Mind you, it is not necessary at all to have a server to run these software. I used it only because I already own these. I keep the servers powered down, and power them on using a smart plug controlled by Amazon Alexa. After powering on, I use iDRAC (for the Dell ones) -- and remotely access from my laptop. I bought these only because my work requires me to be familiar with servers, and I had prior exposure to them. Sitting next to them will make you deaf, and running them 24x7 will make you poor.

[@carcrasher89]

I am looking for a good place to buy a used server. Just manly used for storage. Kinda worried about buying off Facebook marketplace so looking at other options. Do you have any recommendations of any reputable sites I could use?

[@BobPellerin]

I might be able to help depending on where you are and what you are looking for. I'm mainly into Dell PowerEdge servers. Contact me at cobaltium.com

[@carcrasher89]

@@BobPellerin thanks just sent a contact us request on the site.

[@harshbarj]

Idrac is nice, but it's infuriating that dell charges so much for you to use hardware that is already in the box. I have a PowerEdge T320 and really wanted to use Idrac, but found to activate it I needed to pay like $800 USD and I think that was just for a year (could have been longer, I saw the price and closed the window). It was a server I got for free from work as we no longer needed it was was going to simply throw it away (even though it saw no use in the ~8 years we had it).

[@cliffmathew]

I gather from watching Jeff Geerling on KZbin, that there are Raspberry pi based KVMs that you can use to accomplish the same thing that the iDRAC does. You might want to check those out.

[@jdsim9173]

iDrac doesn't have a yearly fee, i got a free r710 with idrac 6, haven't had to pay anything

[@cliffmathew]

@@jdsim9173 That is true, my R410 has an iDRAC 6 which I don't pay anything for -- but still stuck with the Java App, and the web browsers refuse to connect to it due to TLS incompatibility. It is a pain to bring the page up.

[@harshbarj]

@@cliffmathew There are, but you need a system that's compatible. Most servers will not be. You simply do not have access to the power / reset lines as those are on a proprietary connector with no pinouts available.

[@cliffmathew]

@@harshbarj After use, I disconnect the power using a smart plug.

[@mazinga5159]

Thank you for your time, very good explanation.

[@BobPellerin]

Glad you liked it

[@NareshKumar-hf3nj]

How to sell old server give any idea sir ? I am reseller

[@BobPellerin]

We have a site. We also do a lot of startups, so the servers get used to host our labs. Perhaps try the auction sites. What do you have? I’m always looking for R640 and R650s in good condition.

[@Je-kj6yv]

thank you great video

[@NickDoddTV]

Lol I don't know who's buying a server and doesn't know what they're buying. It's a pretty expensive thing to accidentally buy.

[@BobPellerin]

I know of lots of companies that simply stripe the drives and recycle them. There’s not much of a second life for these in some markets. Shipping out of remote areas is too great to make it a common thing. I agree that most people know what they want and what they are getting. I didn’t make this video for them but for the smaller first time people that wonder what they look like. Thanks for the comment!