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(eBay+Colocation) vs Dedicated Offers ?
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(eBay+Colocation) vs Dedicated Offers ?

goexodusgoexodus Member
edited March 2013 in General

I have few dedicated servers but was wondering whether it makes sense to start buying used servers on ebay like dual L5420 configured with 2x128G SSDs or 4x1TB, max memory 24GB, ship it directly to a collocation facility and get a nice VMWare node for around 400$ + colocation costs. Can such exercise beat current dedicated offers that seem to always miss a second drive or IPs or Memory or something !!!?

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Comments

  • Don't get servers (or server equipment) from ebay.

  • earlearl Member
    edited March 2013

    Problem is finding a complete set on ebay is hard to find, when there is they are asking way too much!.. probably cheaper to lease a new Dell considering you can finacne for $21/m or just buy @ $700 for a 1U R210 II with an i3 CPU

  • @goexodus said: 4x128G SSDs

    @goexodus said: around 300$

    Not goign to happen :)

    If you are going to buy old servers from ebay at least have them shipped to your home / office, then do a lot of stress / burnin testing before sending them for colo.

  • @goexodus said: max memory at 32GB

    Those L5420's only support 6x DDR II, so 24GB max

  • earlearl Member

    @rds100 said: If you are going to buy old servers from ebay at least have them shipped to your home / office, then do a lot of stress / burnin testing before sending them for colo.

    Yeah probably better to do the upgrades yourself before sending it out to the DC, unfortunatley for me shipping to a DC in the US would be too expensive!

    I wonder if the DC has any server that they would like to sell.. then you could add basic stuff to it like adding memory, it would not be so bad shipping memory/hard drive to them

  • fislefisle Member

    Would not recommend buying used stuff for colo, especially from eBay.
    You're gonna end up like Dewlance when he sent HDDs from ebay to DC and they were faulty.

    @rds100 said: If you are going to buy old servers from ebay at least have them shipped to your home / office, then do a lot of stress / burnin testing before sending them for colo.

    If you are gonna do it though, listen to this man.

  • earlearl Member

    @fisle said: Would not recommend buying used stuff for colo, especially from eBay.

    Eh.. I bought ton's of stuff from ebay and generally the description is pretty accurate.. but a HD is something that I would prefer to buy new.

  • fislefisle Member

    @earl said: Eh.. I bought ton's of stuff from ebay and generally the description is pretty accurate.. but a HD is something that I would prefer to buy new.

    Really? Do you mean you've bought server parts from there or just general stuff? I know it's a good place to get some things but I'd imagine it's a bit too high of a risk to buy important stuff like that. I'd be pretty paranoid with them but if it works for you that is good.
    Depends on the seller too I guess.

  • earlearl Member

    @fisle said: Really? Do you mean you've bought server parts

    yes, I've bought lots of parts for my servers or just electronics in general, some new some used and probably only had one or two bad experience compared to the hundreds of positive.

    I actually use to work for a computer broker and my boss would buy/sell palettes of computer probably in the $10,000-100,000 figure per transaction and generally had no problems.

    Also I've found quite a few shops that is local to me that I have found from ebay.. so while shipping a whole server is too expensive for me I have found bargains on ebay that I just end up picking up locally.

  • necsnecs Member
    edited March 2013

    I would recommend leasing from new from Dell than risk it with something you're unlikely to have spares for within 24 hours. At least with new machines you can get next day (sometimes same day) for Warranty Repairs especially from Dell, getting from ebay could be ~3 days for parts (if available). However, that said eBay is really good for buying good used servers for R&D, therefore putting no customers/reputation at risk.

    @rds100 said: If you are going to buy old servers from ebay at least have them shipped to your home / office, then do a lot of stress / burnin testing before sending them for colo.

    >

    +1 for this. In fact, even for new machines get them sent to home/office for a burn in, avoids remote hands dealing with anything that goes wrong prior to colo.

  • goexodusgoexodus Member
    edited March 2013

    was thinking of course about new drives and SSDs along with a descent raid card to increase IOPS and MTTF. Some of the ebay sellers can do that and ship directly to the DC. The whole point of the exercise is to minimize cost and maximize the performance of used hardware without compromises. I checked the leasing deals at dell and i don't see the need for a new server to be honest. I can get the benchmarks i need at 300$ - 500$ from ebay without sweat. The cherry on the cake: no taxes or re-shipping costs paid if you are located in EU or Canada ...

  • earlearl Member

    which model did you have in mind?

    I was looking at the Dell cs24-sc and Hp DL360 G5.

  • goexodusgoexodus Member
    edited March 2013

    An R320 6 core will be around 3000$ vs lets say 500$ for 8 cores plus the upgrades on ebay. Ok you pay for better benchmarks, support and reselling value. But in terms of performance/dollar for the next 2-3 years it makes no sense ... Can please someone indicate some good colocation deals.

  • earlearl Member

    I think it's a good deal, but seem to be a lot of complaints about them having a bad network?

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1234991&highlight=dacentec

  • goexodusgoexodus Member
    edited March 2013

    @earl thanks! 9U for 150$.Thus with 150 per month you get 9x8x2.5MHz/3600$ CPU or if you are hardcore you can build 1x4U CUDA number crunching machine with 4xNVIDIA cards for bitmining and paying the rent and 5x8x2.5Mhz leftover horsepower for free .. kidding ...

  • hyaohyao Member

    @goexodus: Is bitmining still profitable? Thanks

  • earlearl Member

    I doubt you could run 9x 1U servers on 5 Amps, but you can buy additional 1Amp @ $10/m. Still not too bad I think.

  • bitmining no way. if you have GPUs you might just pay for the Amps.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    http://www.unixsurplus.com

    Just throwing that out there.

  • DamianDamian Member
    edited March 2013

    Not sure of your location, but you could contact a local corporate computer recycler. Our first 4 nodes were used from such a thing, and while they were kinda terrible (dual core, dual processor with 12gb of ram and U320 drives), they were $50 each with drives and spares included.

  • dnwkdnwk Member

    I would rather rent a dedi than buying a server. I have bought a server last time(lease to buy option) and when I no longer need that server and I am not sure where to put it and it end up in trash.

  • @dedicados said: 2TB ram

    You can build four E5 nodes with 512GB RAM for around $10k, that is overpriced Dell garbage

  • @dedicados said: buy this one:

    Memory: 2TB MEMORY (SUPPORTS UP TO 1TB OF MEMORY TOTAL, 64 SLOTS)
    

    not sure what is that mean.

  • dedicadosdedicados Member
    edited March 2013

    i know, thats is weird.

    i just look to something extrange on EbAY, but i would never buy something like that.

  • earlearl Member

    @dedicados said: buy this one:

    I think he put one too many zero's the average seems to be going for around $20-$30K, not $200K..

  • DamianDamian Member
    edited March 2013

    I'd also like to point out that AMD Opteron processors use a bit more power, but aren't crippled to address only 32gb of ram like Xeon E3 processors.

    You may have to overcome the stigma regarding Opterons, though.

  • @Damian said: I'd also like to point out that AMD Opteron processors use a bit more power, but aren't crippled to address only 32gb of ram like Xeon E3 processors.

    E3's weren't designed for VPS nodes, E5's were

  • @BronzeByte said: E3's weren't designed for VPS nodes, E5's were

    I'm pretty sure neither Intel or AMD designs any of their CPUs especially for VPS nodes.

  • danodano Member

    I have rolled the dice a few times with Ebay hardware, and have so far had 2 problems, and both were rectified by the seller. The first time, the machine arrived at my door, and it looked like it fell off a cliff -- when I opened it, the machine was damaged on one corner. I e-mailed the seller, and was told they are shipping a replacement now, and will ensure to reinforce the box more this time. Otherwise, another machine I ordered from the same seller came in and was fine, but after running it for a few hours, I noticed the power supply fan was dead and the machine was running the fans in a higher speed to compensate. I e-mailed the seller, and was told that they are going to ship me a replacement power support for that model.

    I have bought 5 or 6 machines from this seller, and only one machine has actually shown an issue shortly after arrival(other than Fedex damage).

    If your going to go this route, please do as I do and others above said:

    @rds100 said: If you are going to buy old servers from ebay at least have them shipped to your home / office, then do a lot of stress / burnin testing before sending them for colo.

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