Interest in refurbished nodes?

#1

My project has lately been focused on low cost server builds from parts sourced from the used market. As with all parts of my farm, I want it to be renewable and I’m able to put more power forward doing things this way. Lately I’ve been in discussions with mik about some of my builds and the returns have been pretty stellar.

My current build I’m working on I’ve been able to put together a 32core dl180g9 with 256gb of ddr4 ram and 3tb of native pci-e ssd for under 800$, with 12 empty 3.5 sas slots hdd won’t be an issue.

With that being said would there be an interest in some “refurbished” nodes if I set out to build low cost nodes and put them up for sell? I don’t have the resources to setup shop like Nelson, but I could do a couple builds at a time with just a small fee to cover the time spent sourcing the parts and getting it configured.

In my imagination i picture, I could set these up, get them booted onto my farm for presentations, then if you wanted to purchase I can go ahead and make a usb for the buyers farm and boot it in then ship it to yea, obviously with any person to person transaction there is risk but at least this would give some surety.

I want to keep it simple, more just me selling my side projects that I enjoy building then trying to build a business. For now.

Also looking at some mini itx builds.

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#2

What killed this for me was shipping. At least a third of my big servers show up very damaged, even when really well packed. Going a more lightweight route using Hyve’s or supermicro cases could be good, but the age of the board prevents secure boot, and therefore being certified.

#3

Hmm I haven’t had that trouble all five of mine have showed up fine, image image

Most of it been coming fedex/ups in these humongous boxes

So far I’m sticking with building out on the known dell and hp brands, partially because I want to test all the things for helping mik make tutorials, big part of my motivation would be this would allow me to constantly build with and test new hardware.

I’ve seen some huawei servers that could absolutely kill value wise with ddr4 and warranties, but I haven’t had the capital to build a test yet.

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#4

Your delivery men must be more gentle. My last 3 servers had the rack ears knocked off.

#5

I will say I know my delivery guys pretty well because I see them daily when they come for lab specimens image

But these boxes have a lot of open space and reinforcements around the ears.

Just for fun I’m gonna put up one of the current builds’ specs and where I’d price it, just an example but I’d probably sell it too

So we have a dl180g9
2x Xeon E5-2630v3
256gb of ddr4 2133
3.2 terabytes of nvme storage on a true pcie interface
12 terabytes of sas hdd

So that’s 32vcpu, 256 ram, 3.2tb ssd and 12 tb of hdd

I might mention these ssd performance is beyond insane
image

I think for this guy I’d start ask about 1400$ With it configured as a base diy 3Node, with an ilo advanced license

Putting that into perspective, this build on the simulator
image

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#6

$1400 is crazy cheap, that’s pretty much what is costs to build.

#7

Hmm I was thinking I was pushing the markup, what do you think a “fair” price would be given I’m more interested in the work finding more work then profits

#8

That’s a tough thing to decide. Don’t forget Uncle Sam takes his big cut of profit. A box for that is over $10. Packing foam? Shipping ~$100. Skilled labor ~$100 hour. You know what it takes skill wise, configuring a server is not for the feint of heart. Another way to look at it would be pricing it around ROI.

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#9

1400$ for the hardware itself would be a very good price. Add at least 10% for handling/review and ZOS preconfig. Plus shipping and packaging. That’s a more than fair offer!

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#10

I think I’ll finish up the build this weekend and put up a listing on a the garage sale, see what pans on, if not then I have another node lol! Built this one specifically to play with the pcie based ssds.

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#11

That is sad. We’d need to gather information on how to ship servers as safely as possible, or advice/tips by farmers on how to make the process as safe as possible, even if the handlers aren’t careful.