If you’re interested in buying used servers, you’re in good company; many people opt for refurbished servers for the savings, to reduce their business’ carbon footprint, or for many other reasons. The benefits of buying refurbished servers are many, while the disadvantages are pretty limited. The biggest risk is buying a faulty product from a disreputable seller, but that’s easy to avoid.
Once you’ve found a seller you can trust, the main obstacle will be picking the right kind of server. You can count on the servers you buy to deliver functionality and performance, but every organization has different needs. The question is, what do you need your servers to do?
Here’s the good news: top-notch sellers will help you find refurbished servers that’ll fit your organization’s needs perfectly. Buying a specific brand of server may be a priority for you, but even more important will be finding a server with relevant features. Once you start discussing your options with a knowledgeable sales rep, you may discover choices you never even knew existed.
Even though refurbished servers may not have all the latest bells and whistles, they’ll still provide robust features. To learn more about what your options are, just keep reading.
Dell PowerEdge Servers
Dell is a popular brand, whether you’re talking about laptops or servers. Their PowerEdge line offers a variety of options, no matter what the business requires.
- Dell PowerEdge R940
Its 4-socket Xeon Scalable solution offers consistent power, but it isn’t too bulky. If your organization needs something a bit more vigorous, the R940xa can supply additional oomph.
- Dell PowerEdge R740
As a part of their 2017 refresh announcement, Dell unveiled this particular server family. The baseline R740 appeals to more mainstream users, while the R740xd (a.k.a. the “extreme disk” version) puts more of an emphasis on flexibility in both performance and capacity. Its 2U chassis also has a remote management act, which ensures comprehensive storage abilities.
HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers
HPE’s 2017 refresh included these servers, which emphasized improved security and manageability, particularly where firmware was concerned. This included customized HPE silicon, iLO firmware, and an integrated iLO offering. The idea is that the design will defy firmware attacks, and stop servers if they’re about to execute corrupted firmware code.
- HPE ProLiant DL580 Gen10
Here is HPE’s “workhorse server”, the 4U expandable option; it comes with a flexible drive cage and processor tray. The drive cage has a capacity for 48 storage devices, and the processor tray is equally impressive. It can support up to four Intel Xeon Scalable processors, with six TB of memory and 28 cores per processor.
- HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10
This server is able to serve files, anchor the core of a virtual machine network, take part in Big Data functions, become part of a cloud, house database apps, and more. The Smart Array RAID controllers are uprated with this model, so you’ll get additional storage and interface options compared to its predecessors. One of the biggest differences from older models is the storage department, which now has a modular design.
- HPE Apollo 6000 Gen10 System
According to HPE, this server offers the final word in secure HPC systems. The huge commercial HPC platform is designed to deliver over 300 teraflops per rack, and it’s air-cooled as well. Both the rack-scale efficiency and the price performance are thought to be exceptional, according to consumer reviews.
Lenovo ThinkSystem Servers
Historically, Lenovo hasn’t necessarily been one of the movers and shakers compared to other server manufacturers. However, a few strategic decisions over the past several years have led to their competitors taking them much more seriously. Their 2014 acquisition of IBM’s x86 server put them in a better position where the enterprise server ecosystem was concerned; plus, they became more agile in comparison with Dell EMC or HPE. Lenovo has established their territory in the hyperscale market.
Lenovo’s ThinkSystem line was released in 2017; it made waves immediately. The hardware (Intel Xeon Scalable processors) has hit benchmarks that set new records, so you can expect a high-performance product.
- Lenovo ThinkSystem SR670
Instead of using PCIe slots, integrated modularity is provided through flexible PCI lanes. The system doesn’t use a static motherboard, but instead has the functions located throughout the system. Overall, it’s been optimized for access, cooling, and performance.
- Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650
It’s well designed, delivers good value, and is highly expandable. When it was first unveiled, experts said that it was a significant step forward for the brand’s server offerings. The xClarity Controller is one of the products that has cemented Lenovo’s spot in present-day server management.
- 1U Lenovo ThinkSystem SR570
Here’s a good all-around server, covering bases like the average cloud, visualization, and IT workloads.
- 2U Lenovo ThinkSystem SR550
This option is designed for all sizes of enterprise, especially those who are looking for economical solutions for their workloads.
Quanta Servers
Because they function as both OEM and ODM, Quanta is getting plenty of positive interest. Their many server options include 1U servers, multinode servers, GPGPU servers, microservers, and cluster servers. They’re a great choice for organizations who don’t require a full service suite, like what you’d get from Dell-EMC.
Supermicro Servers
Unlike many other options, the servers you’ll get from Supermicro are made to be included in the company’s whitebox service. They may not be as glamorous as some other servers, but they’re preferred by many companies because of the low acquisition costs. If you’re just interested in basic functionality, their servers will get the job done.
One advantage of purchasing these servers is that Supermicro’s support contract stipulates a response time of just 4 hours for urgent cases. Without this type of support contract, your best bet is to maintain a cache of spare parts, and trust the clusters to keep going if one of the servers stops functioning.
The takeaway
Shortages and shipping delays are affecting the supply chains worldwide, so refurbished servers are more economical than ever. They let you use your budget effectively, without sacrificing performance or capabilities.