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I was wondering if anyone could help me out. I have a used 10 rack server (see pics) complete with power supplies, hard drives, basically complete with everything except for the actual power cord. I was told that it works, it is in great shape, but I can't test it to be sure so I was planning on scrapping it since it will be hard to sell. My question is, do you think it would be more beneficial to take it apart and sell the boards & CPUs separately or do you think i should just take the whole thing as in to the scrap yard?

Recycleny,

Hi, this is my first post here on the Boardsort forum. I have been lurking for a couple of weeks because I've been thinking about scrapping computer equipment, but haven't taken the plunge.

Although I'm new to scrapping, I have over 20 years of experience in IT, working with networks and servers.

You might be able to get a decent amount by selling the parts on eBay. This system is about 10 years old, but there might be a few small or medium sized businesses still running these units who would like spare parts. Enterprise systems often run long past their "obsolescence" threshold because of the difficulty and expense of cutting over to something newer (i.e., the expense is not just in the equipment acquisition, but also the engineering, labor, software licensing, business down-time and dependence on legacy software or data--those could far exceed the cost of the physical equipment itself, so sometimes they just keep using the old stuff).

I can't quite tell from the photo, but it looks like this is a PowerEdge 1855 (I can't quite make out the lettering on the front of each blade). The chassis is compatible with the PowerEdge 1955, which is about a year newer. A quick look on eBay shows at least a couple fully populated 1955 systems that sold for $150. Or you could pull the parts and sell them individually. The power supplies are going for $25 to $40. I don't see many 1855 blades on eBay, but the 1955 blades seem to be going for around $50 each.

All the major assemblies in systems like these (hard drives, server blades, power supplies, Ethernet switches, etc.) are designed to come out easily with the pinch of a retaining clip, the pull of a lever, or the twist of a knurled retaining screw. They're designed to be quickly hot-swapped while the system is still powered. If you decide to eBay the server blades, leave the CPU and heat sink in place. System admins don't want to buy server blades with no processors. RAM would be ok to pull and sell separately, but the blade might be easier to sell with a token amount of RAM left in it.

I can see why you are unable to test it, as the power supplies appear to take 208 volt input, and for keyboard/video/mouse, you need a special dongle which you probably didn't receive.

Even if you find more value in scrapping the circuit boards of the server blades than selling complete assemblies on eBay, at least the power supplies and the chassis itself could be eBay'd for more than the scrap value of those parts. The steel from the chassis is going to be pennies per pound at the scrap yard; the chassis might go for between $50 to $100 on ebay (don't pull the backplane if you're going to eBay the chassis!).

I don't know what to say about the hard drives. On one hand, 70GB SCSI drives don't have much value, but if someone really needs a spare to replace a failed drive in a mission critical system, and they need to be sure they're putting in one that was designed to go with that system, they might be willing to pay a little more than the typical market value. The hard drives might be more of a scrapping item. Even if you disassemble the drives themselves for scrap, the hot-swap trays they are mounted to might be worth eBay'ing (they might be compatible with other PowerEdge models).

The RAM from these units seems to fetch good prices on eBay. I'm seeing sold listings for 1955 memory: 32GB for between $40 to $60. The fact that the RAM is a clean pull from a known working unit is a selling point, rather than being from some unknown source like a technician's junk box.

If any way you can get that tested;
Working I'd part it down. You're looking at 50-$100 per tray, $15-30 for the power cubes;
Depending on size each ram stick can run 10-400, again depending on what's in it. Etc etc etc. some real value in direction of a working blade unit.
Whole you'd be lucky to get $200-$300 on ebay. I don't know why; and it doesn't make sense. ;)
For recycling: again break it down. FAR more value in individual boards and depending on the rack connectors even power cubes can get peripheral.
Good catch!

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Btw I wouldn't suggest selling a working hard drive as working ever.
Too much can go wrong.
SCSI controllers (the drive boards) should be unscrewed and sold online though. SCSI and SAS boards are in very high demand.
A 70gig scsi board will fetch you $10-$30 and a whole lot of trouble if the buyer's an arse. But an SCSI board from a 70gig drive will fetch $10-$30! Without the Risk of it having issues during shipping.
See my point!

As Jared pointed out this stuff stays in use far longer than home systems do. My focus point is maintenance and repair on stuff far older than yours (back to 80s era and earlier still in use).
Not a hard sell at all for individual components. As much as its a delayed sell. You'll sit on it a while but the components WILL sell.
Like Jared I agree; leave CPUs in, and I'd suggest 1 8 or 16-gig ram stick. Ram makes it easier for someone like me; pick one up to swap in temporally for a customer to keep on keeping on while a repair or replacement is found and carried out.
And most PE equipment is interchangeable, mixing not just series components but class and even generation.

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Thank you both for all the advice. A lot of great info. Now to start the eBay listings. Thanks again. Very informative.