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Afternoon STW.
Just to make it clear this isn't a sneaky classified advert! But just after some help with regards to some older generation IT kit, that we don't how to deal with.
Long story short, we have just upgraded our server systems to HP Gen 8 kit, so we are left with quite a large amount of seemingly unusable stuff. A brief stock take is the following -
110 x HP BL460C Gen 1 Blades.
10 x Dell 2950 Rackmount Servers
20 x HP Gen 5 DL320/DL360/DL580 Rackmount Servers
Plus some NAS Hard Drive Array kit
Now looking at eBay we could probably shift it over a period of time. However can anybody recommend a place to get rid of it all?
Obviously we would like to make some money back, but i'm not expected too much!
Any help would be great 🙂
Thanks all,
J
we just dispose of it to a WEEE specialist (Stone in Stafford, they collect), as selling it would potentially cause too many nightmares.
Your kit might actually be worth something (I've no idea) unlike the majority of ours, but is it worth the time that will be involved to sell it (or deal with the ebay idiots/returns..)
Looked at REL previously for some redundant Solaris kit, didn't use them in the end but details here:
[url= http://www.rel-group.com/re-marketing-solutions/ ]http://www.rel-group.com/re-marketing-solutions/[/url]
Z1ppy
we just dispose of it to a WEEE specialist (Stone in Stafford, they collect), as selling it would potentially cause too many nightmares.
Exactly what i'm thinking, but I don't want to just scrap if it does have some value..
but is it worth the time that will be involved to sell it (or deal with the ebay idiots/returns..)
This is the key factor in our argument against ebay!!
what zippy said.
Ebay is hassle, its specialist kit so finding a buyer could be long winded (what company wants to buy second hand gear from ebay?)
A good WEEE specialist will shred the discs for you so no worries about data loss.
I normally end up paying for it to go away :-/
WEEE specialist all the way, it's off your books and conscience then. I thought there was a gap these days for a charitable group to reclaim such equipment to reuse for other charitable groups, but few groups want to own their own infrastructure these days :-/
A quick google shows places selling refurbished blades and servers of those models, probably worth approaching them first and see what they'll offer.
Computer DIsposals Limited are a good company, used them for years.
Stone computers are another.
Both will collect the kit, destroy it and then issue certificates or spreadsheets showing what was destroyed including serials.
Make sure you compare that against one of what you sent and then submit to audit to show it was all safely destroyed.
We've bought a few 2nd hand bits off Ebay. Quite handy for compatibility / integration testing etc. Plus you get some great bargains eg multi £k routers for £50 you can then just try something out on...
I can't actually remember who we last used but was just one of the various outfits that deal in second hand IT kit. We just gave them a list of all the kit, they came back with a price (pretty low but considering the second option was paying for it to be removed and disposed of it was free money...). They provided a document listing all the kit and that they had purchased it from us (to cover us from it getting dumped somewhere later and us being liable).
The above was only for kit up to Official level, beyond that classification we shred the drives, remove any config information (e.g. IPs and account info in the ILO and BIOS) and then send them off for secure disposal.
It will either go for buttons on ebay (plus the hassle involved) or you end up disposing of the kit to a weee specialist.
No professionals want kit of that age as it's a liability. Your market is for folk who are looking for spare parts or for folk who want to "play" with a server.
seems a shame as we get rid of functioning kit all the time. Currently got 3 dell servers and 2 HPs sitting waiting for uplift.
I don't suppose you've got a C-class chassis to go with those Blades?
Cupboard out of the way for a few years so one quiet afternoon when you need something at the back of the cupboard, you can trip over the old kit and wonder why the hell you kept it.
Reputable WEEE specialist, if they're not reputable take out any storage and chuck it in a drawer.
Worked near a traveller camp once and you could put stuff outside and it woulld magically vanish in 48 hours, just had to make sure you took any identifying lables off.
Cheers for the replies all.
I think the best bet might be ebay, so we can get even a small amount of value from the kit.
Thinking the best idea is probably to strip down the processors and memory, and sell it as individual parts.. These bits seem to sell pretty well online..
Then it will just be scrapping, unfortunately 🙁
Give to charity?
The Turing Trust collects old kit, refurbs it and re-uses in Africa.
WEEE company I used recently did free collection on 15x poweredge and certs of data destruction, job done.
Depends how busy you are, but after helping the 4th nerd lift a 2950 into his mum's micra I'd be ready to dump the lot in a lay-by.
Indeed. You (or your team) has got enough spare time, that isn't better spent on other things, to list 150-odd items and deal with shipping and/or collections of it? And then you're wanting to compound that by stripping them for parts?
Turing Trust (and similar charities) don't want obsolete enterprise kit, they don't have anything that useful to do with it. Small tower servers maybe, not rackmount and certainly not blades that need a special chassis.
Bin/recycling for the most part. So much of the old stuff is so power hungry that it's cheaper to buy new in a lot of occasions as the power savings over the lifetime cover the cost.
There should be a charity in your area that represents other charities (possibly called a Council of Voluntary Services). They could help you find a well-appreciated home for it and maybe some good publicity?