Sell Used and Surplus Servers

The model and generation, the processor part number and count per node, the total memory per node, how many drive bays are populated and with what, and whether the rails and caddies are still fitted. Then the node count, and whether all 40 are the same.

That is enough for a real valuation rather than a range. If the 40 machines are identical, one line describing one node plus the count does the whole job, and you are finished in five minutes.

Where the fleet is mixed, group it by configuration rather than listing 40 separate rows. Twelve of one build, twenty of another and eight oddments is far more useful to us than 40 lines you had to type out individually.

If something is unknown, write unknown. An honest gap is easy to price around. A wrong specification found at collection is what forces a valuation to be revised.

No. Leave them in. A complete node is a straightforward thing to value, and stripping it first creates work for you that does not come back to you in the number.

The reason is worth understanding, because it applies to almost every lot GTR Supply looks at. The parts that come out first are always the ones carrying the value: the processors, the memory, the drives, the accelerators. What is left behind is a chassis, and a chassis on its own is worth what a chassis is worth. The lot does not add back up to the whole once it has been separated.

The same goes for rails, caddies and bezels. We want them, and pulling them out to save pallet space is the one piece of preparation that reliably costs a seller money.

If drives have to come out for data reasons, that is different. Tell us and we will price on that basis.

Yes. GTR Supply buys stripped nodes and completely bare chassis, not only complete working machines, so a lot that somebody has already been through is still worth putting in front of us.

Be straight about what has gone. A list that says complete servers when the processors and memory were taken out months ago produces a valuation that has to be withdrawn at collection, which is a worse outcome for both of us than an accurate list at the start. Say what was removed and roughly when.

Bare chassis are genuinely wanted. Rebuild programmes consume them, and a chassis with its rails, backplane, fan modules, power supplies and caddies intact is a very different item from a shell with the backplane missing.

If you still have the parts that came out sitting in a box somewhere, list them too. They are usually easier to value alongside the chassis than on their own.

Start at the front. Most rackmount servers carry the model name on the bezel or stamped into the chassis ear, and there is normally a pull out tab or a sticker on the front face carrying a service tag or serial number that identifies the exact build.

If the front tells you nothing, check the top of the lid and the back panel near the power supplies. Generation matters as much as the family name, because two machines that read the same on the front can be several years and several processor generations apart.

If the machines are still powered and reachable, the management controller will report the model, the processor and the installed memory without you opening anything, which is by far the quickest way to build a list for a whole rack.

If none of that works, send photographs of the front and back. Model identification is our problem, not yours, and we would rather work from a photo than from a guess.