this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
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Hello all, I have been directed to this subreddit because I have recently acquired around 10000lbs of "scrap" computer servers from a friend's father who retired and didn't want to spend the time to sell the equipment.

I have 20-30 old sun r220s, a few r420s, around 8 sun storedge a5100 and a5200 some dell poweredge 1750s, some ibm poweredge xa35s, all the associated equipment to run the stuff - firewalls, battery backups, networking chips, server racks, 200+ loose drives (used and new) excluding what was already installed in the equipment, software install discs, manuals etc.

As far as I was told everything is functional aside from two of the storedge arrays, which are marked and separate.

I have not finished picking everything up, I still have two truckloads to go (I've already picked up four), i don't know the market and am making a genuine effort to understand what I have, and why it would still be relevant due to its age.

I will not be selling anything until I have a better understanding of what I have, and have spent the time to catalogue everything. I work in construction, I am not a tech guy, but I was hoping this sub could point me in the right direction on how to educate myself as to why this equipment would still have value, and what people still use it for.

Thanks in advance!

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[–] mousebluud@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah like others have said the sun servers you might be able to sell for some amount of money. That green server looks sick though, might be worth it to see if you could sell it and any other “cool” looking chassis you have. I know I’d be willing to buy older unique server chassis like that to put modern shit in. Makes the rack more fun to look at

[–] decstation@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

The E420's would be interesting since they can be quad cpu. Basically an Ultra 80 motherboard in a server chassis. I also had an E220R and E280R. Debian Linux is still being worked on so they could be used for that. Likely the NVRAM battery is dead.

[–] kuozzo@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Fl1pp3d0ff@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Stop Gatekeeping. Most of that equipment is still good for learning new concepts on, especially the Dell x20 servers.

[–] MrB2891@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Sandy/Ivy machines aren't worth plugging in to an outlet. Unless your power is free and even then it's questionable. I junk v4 Xeon's at this point.

[–] decstation@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is also a Solaris sub reddit where people may want to grab some of the Sun hardware.

[–] scrapper3805@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] bananaj0e@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

/r/retrobattlestations

/r/vintageunix

/r/vintagecomputing

/r/vintageconputers

/r/retrocomputing

[–] kY2iB3yH0mN8wI2h@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

why this equipment would still have value, and what people still use it for.

well the truth is, it does not. I have a 25 years old battery powered drill here, can I sell it to you for $50? I mean it works fine, its of course useless compared to anything new, that have better battery time, higher mhA, universal charger and all that but come on, I have 100 of the, I must be rich!!

[–] scrapper3805@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Mostly I was wondering if there were any unique software applications specific to these servers. Also drills aren't full of gold and don't cost $20000 new.

[–] kY2iB3yH0mN8wI2h@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

some did In 2000

[–] zeptillian@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Servers aren't full of gold either.

Unless you are a commercial facility who already has the necessary supplies, it will cost you more for the chemicals and equipment necessary to recover that gold than the gold is worth. They are some nasty chemicals too. Nothing to fuck around with if you don't know what you are doing.

[–] cubic_sq@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Has more value to the extreme extended warranty companies. Like world wide supply. Nordic computer. Verticom. And others around the globe.

Ans they will arrange shipping and transport

[–] Fl1pp3d0ff@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Where are these located?