The Ultimate Guide to Refurbished Servers

TLDR: Refurbished Servers are typically decommissioned from data centers just like yours, in great working condition and need little work, other than reconfiguring them to meet your exact needs. The word "refurbished" can have many different meanings from used and working to upgraded, to fully repaired (rare). Work with long-standing trusted providers offering guarantees, documented standards, and years of expertise, to be guided towards the sustainability and savings benefits of refurbished servers and parts.

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Beginning in the 1970s, IT users began trading previously used servers and parts from one institution or business to another.

What began as informal barter and trade, has exploded into a billion dollar industry of resellers and marketplaces, with tens of thousands of IT environments taking advantage of the benefits of refurbished server equipment. 

Do you want to learn more about what to look for in refurbished hardware, how the industry works and to know more about the great reliability and savings you can find when buying refurb? You’ve come to the right place!

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Used & Refurbished Servers Are Important Because:

  • Refurbished server equipment allows IT departments to maximize their budgets, and complete projects on time, often with even more compute and storage capacity available to deliver to users.

  • They offer an alternative supply chain when the manufacturers are facing raw material shortages and shipment delays.

  • You can meet sustainability goals.

  • Reuse is the highest form of recycling. By keeping another server from being manufactured, huge energy savings are realized.

  • By acquiring used or refurbished servers, you're able to extend the life of the equipment that is meant to be used and have a life capacity of as many as 15 to 25 years, according to manufacturer specifications.

  • Used IT equipment allows for legacy equipment to be extended, used and maintained for a longer time cycle.

The manufacturers may only wish to service computing equipment for five to seven years from the date of release but having the availability of secondhand parts not only supports the manufacturers but also independent maintainers to continue to either support their own equipment or to buy third-party maintenance contracts that will support their legacy hardware.

Refurbished servers can come in refurbished tower server format, rack mount server format, blade servers, or other form factors. These systems are going to be available in used or refurbished condition. Sometimes equipment can be available refurbished within six months of its release and then a decade or more. The secondary market for used equipment can support both the latest and greatest systems as well as legacy servers equally.

 

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What Is A Server?

A server is a physical piece of hardware that is very similar to, in some ways, a personal computer, but with enterprise manufacturing and capability, great processing power, extended space for disk drives, enterprise-grade motherboard and system bus capabilities, IO capabilities to serve heavy-duty workloads in a company (or for a specific purpose or software application).

Software applications and enterprise workloads are deployed and installed onto these physical servers to serve a specific organizational purpose. Servers may also be scaled up into server farms, data centers, and server racks in order to support the heavy-duty computing capacities required by a corporation, the central network, the central data center, or a server room of that company - to support all of their users and the software that is needed to run that computer network.


What Are Server Requirements?  

Server requirements are a list of requested specifications for the physical hardware required, in order to run a software application or business computing workload.

Oftentimes, the manufacturer, provider or author of the software application will provide a set of server requirements which are meant to be minimum server requirements.

While useful, these minimum requirements are just that, and not optimal or ideal server requirements, meaning a list of the memory, CPUs, hard drives, and other components of the server that an administrator should consider when ordering or building up a system to deploy their application on. These optimal configurations are designed for the best use of the hardware systems when paired with the application and/or business use case.


Understanding Server Location and Maintenance

Servers may be located at the desk side as a tower server configuration for a single application, or perhaps in a remote office.

A server may also be one of dozens or even hundreds of thousands of servers in an extended server, data center, or server farm, depending on the capacities required, the size of the organization or function of that server.

Servers could also be found inside of a blade center, as a blade module in a dense computing capacity format, typically installed in a server rack. Rack Mount servers also would be found in a server rack when an IT user is looking for a dense, scalable server environment. These server racks are typically placed in dust-free, climate-controlled environments, in order to maintain the long-term, optimal capacity, and performance of the physical server hardware.

Servers may also be deployed in the cloud as virtual instances deployed on platforms such as AWS in order to serve the compute or data storage requirements of a business. There are reasons why the latency or throughput may become a concern, and many mid to large size businesses, who have the capabilities of hosting on-premise server rooms, server racks, and data centers, do just that in order to achieve optimal speeds and performance for their users.

With physical servers comes a requirement for maintenance. The manufacturers provide a warranty with any server, and even refurbished servers will come with a standard warranty from credible suppliers. Users opt to upgrade their maintenance plans, whether they're buying new servers or refurbished servers. The manufacturers will offer one year, two years, three-year maintenance plans with service guarantees of anywhere from eight by five by the next business day, meaning that calls can be taken for support during normal business hours and parts provided by the next business day. Higher level maintenance plans may include 24 X seven X four or 24 X seven by two, which means that phone support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and then any replacement parts and or local support can be provided within either a four hour or two-hour window. Thus, the trailing by four or by two at the end of the descriptor.

Third-party maintenance companies have become incredibly important to the refurbished server landscape. These maintainers are heroes to IT users using either legacy equipment, refurbished servers, or new servers. Because the third-party maintainers can support equipment at a fraction of the price of new hardware from the manufacturers. They not only support new hardware but legacy equipment that would be no longer supported by the manufacturers, as well as refurbished servers, which the manufacturers may not decide to recertify.

In 99% of cases, though, the manufacturers will support used equipment, and most major manufacturers will support used equipment in every situation. In order to qualify used equipment, they typically just need to verify that the equipment is authentic, original equipment made by the manufacturers. As you see, it's important to deal with established, credible resellers of refurbished server hardware such as Alta Technologies.


Calculating the Budget for Refurbished Servers

When calculating a budget for your servers, you start with the application and then the specifications needed for the physical hardware. This is where the budgeting begins. Of course, you could go online or request a quote from an authorized partner for new servers. In reality, that should only be the place you choose to begin. Anytime that you're budgeting or pricing out a server, you should always compare any available discount server options, and that includes new open box and refurbished server offerings.

Many users will find they can save 80% to 90% off of the price of new, whether that is on an identical model or perhaps a very comparable model, one which would serve the specifications of the application similarly.

So, when calculating the budget, take time to explore all hardware options, because it may allow you to do more with that budget available to you, and provide better long-term capacity to your users, for your company's growth.

 

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What Is a Refurbished Server?  

A refurbished server is simply a server that has been used by another user and is now available for reuse.

Some would say that refurbished servers are items that have been damaged in the past and then fixed, but we find that is not typically the case. The vast majority of servers have just always worked, needed a bit of cleaning, maybe some reconfiguring to meet the new users' needs along with testing and diagnostics. But generally, it's a piece of equipment that's always worked great, has been under a maintenance plan at another user, and is ready to be deployed to a new home.

Now, there are those who have differing opinions. They will say refurbished servers are only those that have been reconditioned and fixed. But generally, we find that the terms refurbished server, used server, and secondhand server are interchangeable and can mean different things depending on the individual that you speak with.


Are Refurbished Servers Any Good?  

When properly sourced, absolutely!!

In many cases, refurbished servers can outperform the reliability of new servers. A typical new server acquired from a manufacturer has a failure rate of approximately 1% right out of the box. Used servers from reliable providers like Altatech can be delivered with failure rates well below a half of 1%.

Why would that be?

Well, equipment that has been used in the past has already had experienced an initial burn-in period, especially during the first 90 days, where equipment typically fails.

These systems have already passed those key dates, and they continued to run and get pampered (maintained in a data center, or in an enterprise environment) - this equipment has been proven to be enterprise-grade and reliable. After this phase in, the refurbisher will buy the equipment from that user, gently and carefully package it for delivery to our technical center, test it upon receipt, and fully break it down to its base CTO chassis for quick deployment in the future.

At time of sale, the equipment then will be reassembled to meet the new user's specifications and tested once more. Ultimately, not only has the equipment been field-tested, it's been tested twice in our technical center, proven to be ready for deployment without fail, with full diagnostics run.

Our users find that the equipment they receive from Alta just works, and in fact, the majority put the refurbished equipment directly into production. Some users prefer to use refurbished equipment simply for test or development environments, or emergency spares or backups, or sometimes disaster recovery as a backup vault. Over and over and over again, we the majority of users deploying refurbished servers and upgrades into production environments.

 

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How Do You Refurbish a Server? 

Depending on who you speak with, a refurbished server HAS to be a system that has been fully reconditioned, yet to others, it could just refer to a used piece of equipment with no extra work done. The terms “used” and refurbished” are used interchangeably, but for this section, we'll refer to a refurbished server as one that's been cleaned and reconditioned.

When Refurbished Servers Are Cleaned:

The first step in the refurbishment process is that the servers are cleaned. Most resellers perform this step every time. All stickers and residues are removed from the outside server case. Any dust or dirt is removed that may have built up from its months or years of use in a server room or data center.

Then, the equipment is broken down to its base configuration, often called a CTO chassis, which stands for “Configure to Order”. Next, each of the broken-down components is bagged in antistatic bagging and placed on inventory shelves for quick deployment - either for parts replacements, spare kit purchases, or to be used in another server build, configured exactly to the customer's requirements / specifications.

They Are Reset To Factory Settings 

After equipment is cleaned and broken down to its base components, the base systems are reset to OEM factory settings. This means a reset to the original equipment manufacturer’s original settings for that refurbished server. This reset allows the user to configure the server to their exact requirements and start with the piece of equipment, as if it had been purchased brand new.

Used Servers Are Supported by a Warranty

All refurbished servers sold from credible refurbished server resellers are delivered with at least a 90-day warranty (unless posted “as-is” or “for parts”).

The manufacturers themselves may have a remaining warranty on certain systems, depending on age. Always ask your provider.

Extended warranties, otherwise known as maintenance plans, may also be purchased for very little money. You can upgrade the warranty to a one-year, two-year, or three-year maintenance plan on that system for full peace of mind in your purchase, and ongoing support of your equipment.

 

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Choose Between Refurbished Tower, Rack, and Blade servers, and Their Benefits

Tower Servers are of great benefit to users that need to quickly deploy a system to stand up underneath, on top of, or next to their desk.

A tower server is a desk-side system very similar in size to a personal computer. These systems can support any application that requires only a single server to deploy that software, either to the organization or a set of users. A single tower server could also be deployed in a remote location where a very small number of users are serviced and a dense, hyper-scale environment is not required.

Rack and blade servers are the refurbished servers of choice when an IT user needs to have an immense amount of computing power in a dense space. Dozens of servers can be racked into a single 72U server rack / cabinet, on-site in a server closet, or in a server room operated by the corporation.

These rackmount systems or blade center installations have the capacity to scale to meet the growing needs of the organization. Additional rack servers can be stacked on top of existing systems within the server racks, or deployed parallel in a new server rack - in order to quickly expand the resources of an enterprise IT environment. Additional blade servers and blade modules can be installed into an existing blade center chassis, in order to expand on the shared resources of the blade server environment.

Which is the most cost-effective server solution / form factor?

When choosing between refurbished tower, blade, and rack mount servers – it really comes down to your personal requirements and use case. With a wide variety of options on the secondary market, it pays to do your homework and decide based on the options available.

Sometimes, a large corporation such as a Fortune 50 retailer might have recently upgraded all its systems, meaning that there are now hundreds or thousands of particular server models available on the secondary market.

As a result, a great bargain could be had on rackmount or blade servers, allowing you to install a server that is much more scalable for the future at a lower price point than even a tower server of comparable specifications.

In general, if you have a single application to deploy, a tower server may be the most affordable option, but it really depends on what's available in the market at that moment.

There are additional costs required for rack mount servers to consider, if you're deploying your systems into a server rack with extensive cabling, cooling, heating and data center flooring involved.

Now, all of these options can provide plenty of processing power and certainly can support virtualization environments, but scale plays a role in your decision-making.

If you require more advanced and higher-level virtualization solutions, those including multiple domain controllers, and VM servers, you will probably need a more scalable and dense server environment to support your needs. For most basic virtualization solutions, VMs can be deployed on a tower server, too.

Refurbished Rack Servers and Blade Server Options:

Refurbished rack servers allow you to deploy multiple servers on the front end, yet also scale up as you need more systems for your environment. The maintenance process of refurbished rack servers is easy, because hot-swap options are available for processors, memory, power supplies, and expansion cards, allowing you to expand on your environment without even adding more server chassises.

Refurbished blade servers are highly dense server environments, allowing you to install multiple blade server modules within a single blade server chassis. The space efficiency can't be beaten if you need the densest server environment possible. It would serve the organization well to consider looking at refurbished blade servers for those scenarios.

 

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The Difference Between Used and Refurbished Servers  

The answer to this question depends on who you ask. To many, the words “used”, “refurbished”, and “second hand” are all basically interchangeable. To these folks, all terms essentially describe a server that has been used before and now is available for reuse at another organization. Use & Re-Use.

Other individuals prefer that we get more granular with our definitions, though. A used server then is one that is in the same condition it was from the previous user - it has not been reset to factory defaults, tested, nor reconfigured, and is just available to be used again. “Used” in general seems to be an all-encompassing term that describes all types of uses, so we reject that narrow definition of non-reconditioned equipment. But for some, they believe this to be the meaning for “used”.

Refurbished servers, for some, means equipment that has been fully reconditioned, reset to factory defaults, tested, and reconfigured for future use. Yes, that is the case for many refurbished servers, especially almost all that come through a professional refurbisher… But, for many, “refurbished” servers just refers to a second-hand server available for reuse again.

Ultimately, it's important to realize that these differences and definitions are fuzzy, and to make sure that you're asking questions to understand what has been done with the server, in terms of testing, diagnostics and reconditioning - whether labeled “used” or “refurbished”, as you're purchasing.

So, Is Refurbished Considered Used?  

Yes, in general, I would say that used is the over-arching definition of all equipment that is available for reuse. And, while refurbished is an interchangeable term for many individuals, it is always a subset of used, meaning equipment that has been used before. To others, it specifically means equipment that is reconditioned or fixed.

Which Is Better, Refurbished, or Secondhand?  

Again, these definitions are often used interchangeably, but if one were to consider that refurbished had been fully reconditioned, reset to factory default, tested, given throughput with traffic testing, and cleaned and run with the full diagnostics, then refurbished may be better than secondhand as a general term. Again, these terms are broadly interchangeable.

What's the Difference Between Refurbished and Original?

Well, this is confusing to some users because many used online tech sale listings will be stated as “original”.

Original is important. It's not really a condition term, but a marker of authenticity. When a system is said to be original, the advertiser is stating that it is not inauthentic nor counterfeit.

There was a period when there were multiple counterfeit items floating around the market, often imported from overseas.

After tariffs entered the marketplace in the 2010s, this appears to be much less of an issue, as it is now expensive to import from countries where many of the fakes came out of.

Nonetheless, users should be looking for original, authentic equipment. Any professional refurbisher will only provide equipment that is 100% guaranteed original hardware. Manufacturers won't put inauthentic equipment under maintenance, so selling and acquiring original/legitimate/authentic equipment is of the utmost importance and why many use a short list of suppliers for refurb.

Equipment Can Be Original and New or Refurbished

By stating it's original, we are only stating that it is authentic and manufactured by the manufacturer it is represented as. Original equipment can be new, and original equipment can certainly be used.

The Difference Between Refurbished and Replacement  

Again, refurbished is a statement of condition whereas the replacement is a statement of its process in the ecosystem.

Replacement means that the equipment is a product that is being sent out as a replacement to some equipment that has been purchased. A replacement part could be a refurbished component or a brand new product, just depending on what the independent refurbisher has on hand. In the case of a manufacturer, what they would have on hand (new or used).

Replacement parts from manufacturers, maintenance companies, or independent resellers can be new or refurbished, depending on the stipulations of the maintenance plan and/or or warranty purchased. Refurbished equipment, of course, is used equipment and can often be used to provide a replacement to a customer, but new equipment is often used for replacement parts as well.

Difference Between Renovated and Refurbished  

Renovated is a term that is not often used when it comes to IT hardware. The term reconditioned, remanufactured, or refurbished is typically used in place of the word renovated. Renovation or renovated is a term more frequently used for homes or buildings, but not enterprise IT servers.

Refurbished Servers Provide Guaranteed Performance

That is certainly the case when it comes to buying equipment from a responsible, reliable, independent refurbisher of IT hardware such as Alta technologies. Refurbished servers are guaranteed to perform because of the warranty that's provided with the equipment, the promise of excellence in the reliability of the equipment, and the extended maintenance plans available for putting used servers under hardware maintenance.

Refurbished Servers Provide Factory Settings

When a server is sold by a large and trusted refurb server reseller, the settings will be reset to factory defaults. This way you're able to deploy the server and customize it exactly in the manner needed by your organization or server application.

Proper Testing for Refurbished Servers  

Refurbished servers should be fully tested by any organization you are considering for purchase.

  • Equipment should first be cleaned and broken down to its base components.
  • Data is erased from the existing systems and drives to a DOD standard.
  • Those components should be tested thoroughly for any faults.
  • Upon sale, the equipment should be reconfigured exactly to the user's needs and tested once more, running diagnostics across the system.
  • A test report is created and can be provided to the buyer.

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Buying Refurbished Servers:  


How to Choose the Best Refurbished Servers

Making a great server choice begins by working with a trusted provider.

You should check the background of any organization offering refurbished servers.

  • Have they been in business for multiple years?
  • Do they have a book of repeat business?
  • Do they have industry associations to back them up, such as the ASCDI or UNEDA? These organizations ensure that their members operate with the utmost ethics.
  • Is there a product manager or expert who can provide you with guidance and price quotes on demand?
  • Finally, and possibly most importantly, do they have an extensive inventory available with parts and components ready to ship, fully tested, and the engineers who can support and back those warranties and ensure that all equipment is original?

When looking at refurbished servers, it's useful to set a budget based on initial price, research, and comparison to the new systems being considered.

One might stick with one specific brand that they're looking at, such as comparing HP Proliant servers, but another approach could be to look at two to three similar types of servers from, say, Intel-based processors, comparing Dell HP and Cisco UCS servers or similar.

If comparing Unix systems to price out, perhaps look at both an IBM Power System server and an Oracle SPARC Solaris server, or an HP Integrity system based on HP-UX

Where to Buy Your Server Equipment?

Well, jumping on eBay may seem like the easiest solution, but it can be extremely difficult to tell who the reliable resellers are on an open marketplace.

Establishing partnerships, and doing research to find the companies with the most extensive inventory of refurbished servers would serve a buyer well. Looking for organizations with large engineering teams, technical centers, expansive inventories, and the ability to ship carefully and pack responsibly are all pluses. This work will lead you to organizations with years of experience and a professional solution that will not only provide optimal direct pricing, but also the assurances that you need for reliable, refurbished servers.

Always make sure to buy from reliable sources, companies with years of experience, extensive inventory, teams of engineers and product experts, and the industry associations to back them, including organizations like the ASCDI and UNEDA.

 

Who Sells Refurbished Computers?

Companies in the re-use industry take great pride in what they do. Many consider reuse to be the highest form of recycling.

It's not only a career but a mission and a passion to extend the life of IT equipment. There are thousands of companies around the world that deal in reused servers, storage and networking, but there are only a handful that have the scale of inventory capacity, engineering and product expertise to truly serve the most important customers.

 

Why Buy Refurbished Servers?

In the end, buying refurbished servers is a great choice for the IT user not only for the incredible savings on equipment to stretch your budget or allow you to get your projects done on time, but it also means you're getting a reliable piece of equipment and extending the life of a system. Due to supply chain shortages on the market, oftentimes a server or component might take weeks or months to be delivered new from the manufacturer. So, many companies will turn to the refurbished server market in order to get equipment delivered immediately. Some projects just can't wait.

 


Pros and Cons of Refurbish Servers  

Pro: Discounted Price

Con: Have to be careful whom you buy from - do your research to make sure that you're working with an established, long-time reseller.

Pro: Available with a lifetime warranty, extended one year, two years, three years, and even lifetime warranties can be purchased for the assurance of buying equipment that's just going to work and work forever.

Con: The market may lack the latest and greatest technology, although oftentimes equipment is available within months of its initial release, even on the used market.

Pro: Helpful for maintaining a legacy system.

Pro: equipment is available to be delivered immediately even if the manufacturer has supply chain shortages.

Pro: Allows you to extend the life of your current equipment by using the availability of secondhand equipment for upgrades.

Server and Storage Bundles

Many users bundle storage solutions with their server purchases, and this is no different when it comes to refurbished equipment. Large resellers of used enterprise IT buyers can sell bundled solutions such as refurbished Dell server and storage bundles, HP, IBM, Oracle or any combination of system paired with storage options from the likes of Dell EMC or NetApp as well.


When and Where Sre Refurbished Servers Deployed?

Many are surprised to hear that used IT equipment is purchased and used by companies of all sizes – from Fortune 50 companies and hyperscale environments to small businesses and home labs. Some companies will buy thousands of servers at once, while others purchase their only server used, or perhaps parts upgrades for that system.

Refurbished servers are deployed for many purposes, from test and development environments, to backup redundant systems, to backup vault destinations and labs.

Most commonly though, used servers are deployed into production. Users trust reliable resellers to have tested and vetted equipment from prior users, not to mention the built-in redundancies of modern systems, to fully support their compute and storage needs. Enterprise servers will built to last, and companies increasingly are taking advantage of the cost savings and reliability of quality refurbished servers.

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What Are the Best Refurbished Server Models? 

Always a moving target, the best server models available on the used market are tough to pin down. While equipment can be available immediately after release, or years down the road… the sweet spot is often the equipment available just prior to a new launch, or one generation behind. This is equipment that still has huge demand and is becoming plentiful in supply on the secondary market.

Whether you are looking for the latest HP tower server refurbished, a refurbished Lenovo server or Cisco UCS, IBM, HPE or Oracle systems, there are many models we could choose for the “best” server models available today on the refurbished market.

Let’s focus in on the Dell PowerEdge models, first.


Top Refurbished Dell PowerEdge Server Models: 

We’ve chosen some of the top Dell server models available today below. These are the top models because they are heavily in demand by users, yet also have strong availability on the used server market, as a whole.

Refurbished Dell R740 

The Refurbished Dell PowerEdge R740 server offers the ideal combination of accelerator cards, storage, and computing resources on a 2U, 2-socket chassis to improve the performance of your applications. With up to 16 x 2.5" or 8 x 3.5" drives with iDRAC9, the Dell R740 refurbished can scale to meet demand while also simplifying the entire IT lifecycle.

Dell R740 Maximum Configuration

The PowerEdge R740 system supports up to two Intel Xeon Processor Scalable Family processors, up to 28 cores per processor. The total number of DIMM for the Dell R740 refurbished is 24 slots. The Maximum amount of RAM the refurbished Dell PowerEdge R740 server can hold is 1.5TB of Registered DIMM memory (RDIMM).

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R740

Improve the performance of your applications with the refurbished Dell Poweredge R740 server, which offers the ideal combination of accelerator cards, storage, and computing resources on a 2U, 2-socket chassis. The Dell R740 refurbished has the flexibility to adapt to nearly any application and is the best platform for VDI deployments thanks to a wide choice of GPU and FPGA options. With up to 16 x 2.5" or 8 x 3.5" drives with iDRAC9, the R740 can scale to meet demand while also simplifying the entire IT lifecycle.

 

Refurbished Dell R630 

The Dell R630 is the most popular 1U server from Dell's 13th Generation.  The R630 is an ideal server for running transactional, analytical, and enterprise-level applications and can also be used for virtualization. With the R630’s network features you can tailor network throughput to match any application needs and enable I/O performance. 

Dell R630 Maximum Configuration

The refurbished Dell R 630 is powered by two Intel Xeon E5-2600 V3 or V4 series processors with up to 18 (Eighteen) cores, speeds of up to 3.2GHz and cache of up to 2.5MB per core.  There are 12 DIMM slots per CPU. There are four memory channels per CPU and each memory channel controls three DIMM slots. The memory of the Dell PowerEdge R630 refurbished is expandable up to 768GB in a dual processor configuration.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R630

Dell PowerEdge R630 Server maximizes data center efficiency with an ultra-dense virtualization or database engine that supports up to 24 flash SSDs in a 1U chassis.  Based on DDR4 memory, this server has 24 DIMMs slots and dual Intel processors.  Speeds include 2133, 2400 and 2666MT/s. This refurbished dell R630 1U server also has three PCIe 3.0 capable expansion slots. This server has the expandability to handle loads for both small and large environments.

 

Refurbished Dell R640 

The Dell PowerEdge R640 is a 1U server with hyper-dense memory. It's optimized for high performance across a wide range of workloads, making it ideal for general-purpose systems in data centers with minimal space. With the R640’s network features you can tailor network throughput to match any application needs and enable I/O performance. 

Dell R640 Maximum Configuration

The refurbished Dell Poweredge v640 is equipped with Intel Xeon Scalable processors, up to 24 DIMM slots, and up to 28 cores per processor.  With 24 DIMM slots available, the PowerEdge R640 can utilize up to 3TB RDIMM/LRDIMM 2933MT/s. Up t0 12 NVDIMM 192GB or up to 12 Intel Optane DC persistent memory DCPMM, 6.14TB max. This Dell server R640 1U server also has four PCIe 3.0 capable expansion slots. 

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R640

The Dell R640 combines performance and scalability to optimize applications and data center density. Ideal for data centre computing, the dual-socket, 1U chassis supports up to two 2nd Gen Intel Xeon scalable processors which adapt based on your specific workload requirements. Up to 10 NVMe drives or 12 2.5 inch drives deliver fast performance and reduce latency. 

 

Refurbished Dell R730 

The Dell PowerEdge R730 server's exceptional adaptability allows it to deliver outstanding capabilities in under 2U of rack space. The R730 excels in a variety of demanding environments thanks to its mix of powerful processors, huge memory, quick storage options, and GPU accelerator support. For SMBs and large enterprises, the Dell PowerEdge R730 Gen13 server provides an industry-leading, cost-effective solution. This two-socket server is adaptable and powerful, taking full advantage of the newest Xeon v4 CPUs and DDR4 memory.

Dell R730 Maximum Configuration:

The R730 provides the processing cycles, threads, and big memory footprint required to enable more, larger, and higher-performing virtual machines for data centers and cloud platforms, thanks to the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 product line and up to 24 DIMMs of DDR4 RAM. With up to 16 x 12Gb SAS SSDs and the high-performance 12Gb PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC9), your virtualized environment may benefit from highly scalable storage. The R730 also has the option of using SanDisk DAS Cache application acceleration technology for significantly faster data access.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R730:

Designed to be highly scalable and energy efficient, the refurbished Dell Poweredge R730 servers offer top notch server consolidation, management features, and excellent build quality. As for storage, the R730 can scale up to 16 x 12 GB 2.5” of SAS drives. It also comes equipped a high performance 12Gb PowerEdge RAID Controller (PERC9). For reliability and efficiency, the Dell R730 supports redundant and hot swappable power supplies. Also hot swappable, are the HDDs and fans for maximum cooling.

 

Refurbished Dell R440 

The Dell EMC PowerEdge R440 is a 2-socket, 1U rack server with highly scalable memory, I/O, and network capabilities for running complicated applications. The systems include the Intel Xeon Scalable Processor family (Skylake-EP), up to 16 DIMMs, PCI Express 3.0 expansion slots, and a variety of network interface technologies for NIC and OCP.

Dell R440 Maximum Configuration

The Refurbished Dell Poweredge R440 system uses the Intel C620 series chipset. It is a 2 chip platform - CPU and PCH. The Server has 16 slots to install memory, already with Basic factory installed standard memory installed. For best PowerEdge R440 Server performance use the maximum amount of 256 GB (with a single processor), 512 GB (with a dual processor), fill all the slots with the max allowed memory per slot for your Server. Designed with high-density deployment in mind, the Dell PowerEdge R440 Server can be upgraded up to a maximum of 384 GB.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R440

The PowerEdge R440 provides value in a tiny package. With twin 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs, up to 16 DIMMs, and scalable storage that enables you mix SSDs and NVMe PCIe SSDs, you may benefit from platform flexibility and maximum performance. The R440 uses embedded diagnostics and SupportAssist to ensure maximum uptime in a worry-free environment. The PowerEdge R440 also provides extraordinary storage capacity options, making it well suited for data-intensive applications that require greater storage, while not sacrificing the I/O performance.

 

Refurbished Dell R430 

The refurbished Dell R430 server is among the best-of-the-best when it comes to utilization of compute power and reduced power consumption. The Dell Poweredge R430 server is a powerful, two-socket entry rack server delivers outstanding performance, configuration flexibility, high availability and intuitive management in a short-height (1U), short-depth (24-inch) chassis. Delivering peak 2-socket performance to space-constrained data centers, the PowerEdge R430 is a short-depth (24") entry rack server. It is an excellent fit for a wide range of workloads, including high-performance computing (HPC), web serving, infrastructure scale-out and surveillance and site security. The R430 is also highly attractive as a dedicated backup or development server.

Dell R430 Maximum Configuration:

The Dell PowerEdge R430 Server can be powered by two Intel Xeon E5-2600 V3 or V4 series processors with up to Twenty-Two cores. In a two processor configuration the server will support a maximum of twelve DIMM modules and a maximum capacity of 384GB using 32GB registered DIMM modules (RDIMMs). A single processor will support up to 256GB of memory using eight DIMM slots, while the second processor controls the remaining four memory slots. This enables SMBs to get the most out of the system with a single processor configuration and minimal expenditure. DDR4 memory also offers 15% greater bandwidth and uses 30% less power than the previous generation DDR3 memory modules. Storage is taken care of easily, with the R430 allowing up to 10x 2.5" (SFF) SAS, SATA or SSD drives.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R430

The refurbished Dell PowerEdge R430 is a dual-socket, 1U rackmount server offering the balance of processing power, storage capacity and redundancy, making it a perfect piece of kit for virtualisation, web hosting or a mail server. Multiple chassis configurations, PCIe 3.0 slots, and DDR4 memory offer performance options to administrators and the ability to adapt as your business grows.

 

Refurbished Dell R340 

The Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 with Intel Xeon E-2200 CPU is a scalable server designed for productivity and data-intensive applications for remote offices. It is a scalable server that promotes corporate growth through enhanced flexibility and daily task automation. It allows your customers to focus on business innovation by simplifying IT and management responsibilities while controlling operational costs.

Dell R340 Maximum Configuration:

The refurbished Dell Poweredge R340 delivers the flexibility to increase compute, storage, and memory capacity. Customers can choose a 4- or a 6-core Intel Xeon E-2100 processor to increase compute performance and the ability to run multiple applications at the same time. The refurbished dell poweredge r340 has 4 Slots to install memory, already with basic factory installed standard memory installed. For best PowerEdge R340 1U Rack Server Server performance use the maximum amount of 64GB, fill all the slots with the max allowed memory per slot for your Server.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R340:

The Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 is a single-socket 1U rack server designed for productivity and data intensive applications for remote office/branch offices. It offers features to support your demanding and growing business needs. The Dell EMC PowerEdge R340 increases company efficiency, scales easily, and automates routine activities.

 

Refurbished Dell R730xd 

Dell's PowerEdge R730xd server is a powerhouse suitable for a number of different compute applications.  In a two-socket, 2U form size, the Dell PowerEdge R730xd offers an ideal balance of performance and flexibility. This server can easily handle mission-critical operations thanks to its excellent storage and memory.  With two processors, paired with massive amounts of storage and memory, the Dell R730xd delivers impressive performance. 

Dell R730xd Maximum Configuration

The PowerEdge R730xd with improved networking throughput and the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 product family delivers the performance necessary for your SharePoint, Lync, Exchange and consolidated collaboration environments. The latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v4 product family, with up to 22 cores per socket, provides the cycles and threads necessary to support today’s diverse workloads in virtual environments, including virtualized local storage.  The system supports DDR4 memory and when used with certain E5-2600 v4 processors, can provide a data transfer rate of up to 2400MT/s. Each processor supports 12 of the 24 total memory sockets. There are three memory sockets per channel that support either registered (RDIMM) or load reduced (LRDIMM) modules. In a two processor configuration, up to 3.0TB of memory is available using 128GB DIMM modules.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R730xd:

The amazing PowerEdge R730xd, part of the new 13th generation of PowerEdge servers, maximizes server-based storage versatility and performance. With an optional in-server hybrid storage architecture that supports tiering and capacity for up to 28 drives in a 2S/2U system, including up to 18 x 1.8" SATA SSDs, the R730xd provides an optimal mix of storage utilization, performance, and cost. The Dell R730xd refurbished server can easily handle mission-critical operations thanks to its excellent storage and memory.  With two processors, paired with massive amounts of storage and memory, the Dell R730xd delivers impressive performance. 

 

Refurbished Dell R740xd 

The Dell Poweredge R740xd servers can transform your data center for modern applications and operations. The 2U two-socket platform is ideal for software defined storage, service providers or as virtual desktop infrastructure. The R740xd versatility is highlighted with the ability to mix any drive type to create the optimum configuration of NVMe, SSD and HDD for either performance, capacity or both.

Dell R740xd Maximum Configuration

The refurbished Dell Poweredge R740xd features up to two Intel Xeon Scalable processors, and up to 28 cores per processor. It offers up to 32 2.5” bays, 24 of which can be NVMe. The R740xd also offers some unique storage layouts versus the typical front-loading bays, including mid- and rear-loading bays to fit all the extra storage in the same 2U footprint. Designed with high-density deployment and virtualization in mind, the Dell PowerEdge R740XD Server can be upgraded up to a maximum of 1.5TB with RDIMMs, 3TB with LRDIMMs and 7.68TB with Intel Optane persistent memory.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge R740xd

One of the most powerful of the Dell 14th Generation Servers is the Dell PowerEdge R740xd Rack Server. The scalable system architecture behind the refurbished Dell Poweredge R740xd with up to 24 NVMe drives creates the ideal balance between scalability and performance. Accelerate workloads with up to 3 double-width 300W GPUs, up to 6 single-width 150W GPUs or up to 4 FPGAs.

 

Refurbished Dell t330 

The refurbished Dell Poweredge T330 is a powerful and expandable 1-socket rackable tower server for small and medium businesses (SMB) and remote office/branch office (ROBO). The Dell PowerEdge T330 is an excellent first server or replacement server for driving collaboration and productivity applications in SMB. It also supports the full-feature remote management of the Dell integrated Remote Access Controller (iDRAC8) with Lifecycle Controller.

Dell T330 Maximum Configuration

Dell Poweredge T330 tower server delivers tower server (5u when racked) chassis, 1 processor from the following product families: Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 v6 product family, Intel Pentium, Intel Core i3 and Intel Celeron. It provides 4 slots: 1x8 PCIe 3.0 (x16 connector), 1x4 PCIe 3.0 (x8 connector), 1x4 PCIe 3.0 (x8 connector) and 1x1 PCIe 3.0 (x1 connector).  The refurbished Dell Poweredge T330 scales up to 64GB of DDR4 memory.

Benefits of the Dell PowerEdge T330

The Dell PowerEdge T330 is a high value, entry level single-socket tower server. The Dell PowerEdge T330 system is a rackable tower server that supports one processor based on the Intel E5-1200 v5 processor family, up to four DIMMs, and storage capacity of up to eight hard drives/solid state drives. The server Dell T330 offers great internal storage capacity (8 HDDs vs. 4 HDDs), hot-plug HDDs and redundant power supplies.

 

Summary: As the market for refurbished servers continues to evolve, so will this guide. Bookmark this page to check back for updates in the months and years ahead.

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Author: Corey Donovan

Corey is a reuse advocate with 20 years experience in ITAD and serves as President of Alta Technologies, the gold standard for quality in testing and refurbishing servers, networking and data storage hardware, since 1995.

An active member of the Right-To-Repair movement, Corey also serves on the ASCDI Board, is a member of the Forbes Business Council, Vistage, SIA and UNEDA. He enjoys local adventures with his family and dog, Freya, near Minneapolis, MN.

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