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

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Bob Pellerin (CTOBOB) covers what to do when you just bought your first used server. A lot of people have asked the proverbial "now what?" after opening the box. Bob discusses what to do first before you install the Operating System, such as VMWare ESXi on the server.

Reasons for buying used are easy. You save money if you don't need the very latest technology or the very best processing throughput. In many cases, you will get more (Processing power, memory, drives) for your money.

General recommendations:
* Get something that is not too old. Operating Systems like VMWare ESXi prevent using older processors and systems. This will affect you if this is for a production environment and it will limit the usability down the road.
* Buy new SSDs. The processors and the RAM can be used, but we generally only use SSDs (SATA, SAS, NVMe drives) that are new or that we know have not been worn out. Remember it's your data that counts in the end.
* Buy a brand that continues to provide firmware updates for their products without having to pay for extended support or having to open a service ticket and waste a whole lot of time.
* If this is going to end up in production, consider getting the remote management module. It's most likely very inexpensive with the used server.
* If this is going to end up in production, get a higher-end RAID controller. This will save a lot of time and provide a much better experience. The base model can be really slow in a degraded RAID situation.
* Get TPM 2.0 if that's an option. You'll thank me in the future. :)

Be sure to check out the VMware ESXi installation videos Bob did previously on a variety of server brands and models.
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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.

darylmorse
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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 👍 😀

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

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

MichaelSmith-mbgm
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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

evelbsstudio
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Bob, serious techs don't use HP printers.

Shylockza
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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

aure_eti
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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

TheRoyal
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That monitor is a monster, which model is it?

Jacob-ogpz
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Thank you for your time, very good explanation.

mazinga
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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

sairlordmusic
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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

aiki
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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?

jordan
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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).

harshbarj
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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?

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

NareshKumar-hfnj
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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.

NickDoddTV