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Buying a used workstation : worth it?

Larry Philips
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Hi,

 

I was wondering, do you guys think it's a good idea to buy a used workstation?

 

I know a company here in Japan, with a shop in Osaka, that sells tons of used computers. Among them, quite a few Dell or HP workstations.

Deals are often interesting, start rather low for 4C/4T or 4C/8T Xeon + 16GB Ram a Quadro and new SSD (about ¥40,000~¥50,000), up to quite a lot more for a Dual 10C/20T Xeon + 128GB Ram a Quadro and new SSD.

They also offer a 3 years warranty, which is totally unheard of around here for second-hand computers.

 

My worry is, well, for what I know all these computers might have been ON 24/7 for years and could just stop working anytime.

 

Can't make up my mind. It's tempting, but is it really such a good idea to go the second-hand path...?

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3 minutes ago, Larry Philips said:

Hi,

 

I was wondering, do you guys think it's a good idea to buy a used workstation?

 

I know a company here in Japan, with a shop in Osaka, that sells tons of used computers. Among them, quite a few Dell or HP workstations.

Deals are often interesting, start rather low for 4C/4T or 4C/8T Xeon + 16GB Ram a Quadro and new SSD (about ¥40,000~¥50,000), up to quite a lot more for a Dual 10C/20T Xeon + 128GB Ram a Quadro and new SSD.

They also offer a 3 years warranty, which is totally unheard of around here for second-hand computers.

 

My worry is, well, for what I know all these computers might have been ON 24/7 for years and could just stop working anytime.

 

Can't make up my mind. It's tempting, but is it really such a good idea to go the second-hand path...?

I mean if they have a warranty you shouldnt have to worry about if it stops working for a while

Big nerd. 

 

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I used to do this all the time, usually with the old silver box Optiplexes. These mostly came from yard sales, and were occasionally in really rough shape. I can think of exactly once that one just up and died on me, and that was a matter of a dead PSU that wasn't worth the cost of replacing. Workstation PCs were (and still are from Dell and Lenovo) built to last, because they always came with warranties for the companies buying them. The last thing Dell wants to do is send out technicians to replace hundreds of motherboards at no cost, so they use better components in building them.

Aerocool DS are the best fans you've never tried.

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9 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I used to do this all the time, usually with the old silver box Optiplexes. These mostly came from yard sales, and were occasionally in really rough shape. I can think of exactly once that one just up and died on me, and that was a matter of a dead PSU that wasn't worth the cost of replacing. Workstation PCs were (and still are from Dell and Lenovo) built to last, because they always came with warranties for the companies buying them. The last thing Dell wants to do is send out technicians to replace hundreds of motherboards at no cost, so they use better components in building them.

Thanks!

 

I noticed that some of these PCs come with a RAID configuration, which is something I neither want nor need.

Is it difficult to reconfigure a workstation to get rid of RAID?

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32 minutes ago, davemc said:

I mean if they have a warranty you shouldnt have to worry about if it stops working for a while

It's still quite annoying when the computer is on the second floor, and you have to carry it downstairs, then to the car etc.

These workstations are heavy beasts.

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1 hour ago, Larry Philips said:

Thanks!

 

I noticed that some of these PCs come with a RAID configuration, which is something I neither want nor need.

Is it difficult to reconfigure a workstation to get rid of RAID?

Disable it in BIOS. You'll lose whatever's on the drives, but you were going to wipe and clean them anyway, right?

Aerocool DS are the best fans you've never tried.

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1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

Disable it in BIOS. You'll lose whatever's on the drives, but you were going to wipe and clean them anyway, right?

Indeed! Though, I think they wiped the drives already anyway.

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5 minutes ago, Larry Philips said:

Indeed! Though, I think they wiped the drives already anyway.

I'm curious why they would go with multiple drives in RAID. Is it something like a pair of 160GB drives, or did you hit the jackpot and land a crap-ton of 500GB+ drives?

Aerocool DS are the best fans you've never tried.

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45 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I'm curious why they would go with multiple drives in RAID. Is it something like a pair of 160GB drives, or did you hit the jackpot and land a crap-ton of 500GB+ drives?

Just one model (out for the many, many models) they sell has RAID. Can't remember which one. I think it was HP workstation.

It's (or was, if it's been sold) 2TB (4x 500GB) configured in RAID 0.

 

Anyway, the one I'm eyeing is this one

https://www.pcwrap.com/item/detail/1222899

I'm curious what they used it for, as it comes with DOS/V.

No big deal as I'd put Linux on it.

I'm simply wondering what one can do with DOS in 2014...

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-> Moved to Laptops and Pre-Built Systems

^^^^ That's my post ^^^^
<-- This is me --- That's your scrollbar -->
vvvv Who's there? vvvv

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