Selling my FreeNAS server....

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exos

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Oct 14, 2014
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Hey all. Time for me to move on from my FreeNAS server. I am selling the following system:

6x Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB SATA III 64 MB Cache
Fractal Design Define R4 Black Silent ATX Midtower
SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600
SeaSonic G Series 550-Watt ATX12V/EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD
Intel Xeon E3-1230V3 Haswell 3.3GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1150 80W Quad-Core Server Processor
2x Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3L 1600MT/s (PC3-12800) DR x8 ECC UDIMM 240-Pin Server Memory


I used the system as a massive transcoder for about 30 people. Works extremely well, it's just an overkill now that it's just me using it. I am not affiliated with anyone but myself. Looking for around $1250, not including shipping. Would do a local sale if anyone is located around central MS.

IMG_0533 (2).jpg
 
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Ericloewe

Server Wrangler
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Uhmm, the PSU in the picture is clearly a Seasonic G-Series, not a Cooler Master unit.
 

joeschmuck

Old Man
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Just some friendly advice to assist you in selling the system, but it's going to sting a bit...

I don't think you will get any bites on this sale because you are offering it as if it's a new system when you purchased it, not current prices. I priced the parts (correct me if I'm wrong) for new items (I rounded the costs) and here is what I got:

MB = $185
RAM = $180
CPU = $230
PS = $70
Case = $120
==============
Sub Total = $785
Hard Drives = $98/ea x 6 = $588 (New 3TB WD Reds are only $110 right now)
==============
Total = $1373

As for the hard drives, since those are used I would suggest you perform a SMART Long Test on each of the drives and provide the full SMART output using smartctl -x /dev/ada0.

And then you should discount the price for the fact that it's all used. If it were me selling a unit (but I'm not), here is what I'd do...

$785 x 20% discount = $628

The hard drives should be sold based on the warranty left of each drive but I suspect that since these are 2 year warranties that you have nothing left. Also the price of new WD Reds are running $110 each with a 3 year warranty. If the stats from the drives are good then I think you could sell those for $15 each for a total of $90. Or you could offer the system to be sold without the drives. Additionally without the drives would drop the shipping costs.

Total cost = $718 which I feel is reasonable, again if it were me, but I use the he77 out of my hardware until it's so old that I couldn't pay someone to take it.

Lastly, if you do sell this unit, do it through something like ebay for example. This protects both the seller and the purchaser, especially when you are talking this type of money.

I told you it would sting but if you desire to sell the device it will have to be at a reasonable price otherwise you will not see anything coming your way. Listing it on Ebay is likely your best bet as well for a good sale and you may get more money this way. If you do list it on Ebay or some other location, place a link in this thread for someone to follow. You never know, you could get some good bucks for it.

Best of luck!
 

exos

Cadet
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
5
Just some friendly advice to assist you in selling the system, but it's going to sting a bit...

I don't think you will get any bites on this sale because you are offering it as if it's a new system when you purchased it, not current prices. I priced the parts (correct me if I'm wrong) for new items (I rounded the costs) and here is what I got:

MB = $185
RAM = $180
CPU = $230
PS = $70
Case = $120
==============
Sub Total = $785
Hard Drives = $98/ea x 6 = $588 (New 3TB WD Reds are only $110 right now)
==============
Total = $1373

As for the hard drives, since those are used I would suggest you perform a SMART Long Test on each of the drives and provide the full SMART output using smartctl -x /dev/ada0.

And then you should discount the price for the fact that it's all used. If it were me selling a unit (but I'm not), here is what I'd do...

$785 x 20% discount = $628

The hard drives should be sold based on the warranty left of each drive but I suspect that since these are 2 year warranties that you have nothing left. Also the price of new WD Reds are running $110 each with a 3 year warranty. If the stats from the drives are good then I think you could sell those for $15 each for a total of $90. Or you could offer the system to be sold without the drives. Additionally without the drives would drop the shipping costs.

Total cost = $718 which I feel is reasonable, again if it were me, but I use the he77 out of my hardware until it's so old that I couldn't pay someone to take it.

Lastly, if you do sell this unit, do it through something like ebay for example. This protects both the seller and the purchaser, especially when you are talking this type of money.

I told you it would sting but if you desire to sell the device it will have to be at a reasonable price otherwise you will not see anything coming your way. Listing it on Ebay is likely your best bet as well for a good sale and you may get more money this way. If you do list it on Ebay or some other location, place a link in this thread for someone to follow. You never know, you could get some good bucks for it.

Best of luck!


Hey I appreciate the honest feedback. I've never sold anything quite like this before.... especially considering the specialty of the build. I tried to look up the current prices for the individual items but it may have brought me to the price that I paid when I originally purchased the items a couple years back. I originally created this system as a content distribution center for 30 of my buddies while we were stuck on a deployment a couple years back. Other than the first 6 months it has essentially sat unused. I am negotiable on the price, I would just prefer to sell all in one vice farming out the components on /r/hardwaretrade or something similar. Honestly, I'd almost prefer to keep it than sell for sub $700. Any suggestions on what I can use it for other than a plex server and a backup server? Seems like a waste to sell and a waste to keep to use .1% of the storage/hardware capacity.... I use some systems like Home Assistant, Graphana... I'll have to learn more about potentially setting up a jail for these.
 
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joeschmuck

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Sorry for giving your the harsh reality of resale. I felt that pain many years ago and desired to keep the item I was trying to sell, it just didn't feel right but then again I wasn't thinking like a business person, it was just too personal for me. It ended up in the garbage years later.

As for uses, well if you're a computer geek you could run ESXi on it and run VMs of say FreeNAS, Windows, Ubuntu, whatever. I'd say Bitcoin mining but that is cost prohibitive using a regular computer. You spend more in electricity than what you gain in bitcoin money. You need a ASIC (or 160+ ASICs) to make any real money.

My advice, if the system is just consuming space, sell it before it drops in value and recoup some of that money. If you planned to use the money to build a smaller replacement system to run Plex or something else then just hang on to it, it's of more value to you this way. And it doesn't need to be a server, it could function just like any normal computer so you could pop Windoze 7 on it. (I don't care for Windoze 10)

Also, you might want to update your first posting to state that you have 32GB RAM Total, someone my not put the two kits together if you still plan to sell it.
 

Jailer

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Unfortunately that's the world of used computer components and @joeschmuck is spot on in his assessment. You'll likely have better luck parting it out on ebay but you still won't get near what you are asking.
 

Robert Trevellyan

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At least split it into disks and everything else. Serious server buyers don't want WD Greens.
 

maur

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Agree with Robert, at least split on disks and the rest.

Also agree with joeschmuck.. After buying new macbook, I decided not to sell the old one (bought for $2500, after 3 years I had buyers for $400...). Now it's garbage in my closet. Business approach should be - not planning to use? Sell. No matter for how much I bought it. Especially when I used old macbook to work. I has earned it's value in those 3 years I used it.
Probably you have similar situation, since you mentioned 30 people using it I assume it was not used at home ;)

I may be wrong, I don't know much about server components. But I'm trying to learn as I'm looking for some machine to use as nas+vm at home. Anyway, estimation of joeschmuck is: $785 x 20% discount = $628
Right now I'm looking at HPE ProLiant ML10 Gen9, xeon e3 1225 v5, 8gb PC4-17000, 2 x 1TB hdd for $440. Refubrished by manufacturer, with warranty. Sell disk, buy more memory and full cost would be, what, $500? With newer cpu, ram, warranty.
 
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I agree with all. Not using, sell. Stuff depreciates so fast in this disposable world. If its worth 700 today, a year from now it wont be worth half that.

Id put it up on eBay. You have agreed upon reasonable figures of 6 and 700, to go by. Set the reserve or start price to that, and see what happens. You never know. Also figure that eBay and paypal nab about 12.5 percent I think. A fully built 100% vetted, and working FreeNAS rig for a home user in a sharp mid-tower case, with all the proper components? I can imagine lots of people being interested in that. The hardest part about freenasin' is the hardware ordering/assembly/vetting process. To some users that alone might be worth paying a little extra for. Plex and Kodi are more popular than ever now and all kinds of people are looking to store more data than ever before. If they plan on using FreeNAS or a similar product or even a VM machine, they will be combing the forums for which parts to use, best practices, etc. Your machine has all the main components I would recommend a friend to basically use--give or take, as do these very forums--with green drives probably causing the most argument (WDIDLE).. I almost never buy new myself, BESIDES drives. I have RMA'd lots of drives.

I think you will not have any issues getting rid of it for 700+ this month. Be up front about the as-is nature of the drives and post SMART data or even better yet since the machine is sitting doing nothing anyhow, post photos of a badblocks test (data destructive!), SMART test and a memtest with time-stamps. It will all take you a bit of time, but seeing the full results of those types of tests would prove to me that the system is at very least somewhat legit and further MY possibility of buying it.

Another angle would be to run the listing for longer to accumulate "watchers", then as the end of the auction happens the bids start flying. I like to start at a dollar, because what do people do? They sort by price, lowest to highest. In this scenario you will be at the top of the list for a long time and accumulate watchers, and also some bidders. Bit of a gamble going that route. It works so very well with lower priced items and seven days, seems like it may also with a several hundred dollar item and more time, 10, or even 30 days. Just make sure your auction doesnt end at 4 in the morning. Ive found between 9 to 11pm Central is pretty good.

This went on a little further than I expected but I would also add a craigslist post. Cant hurt, this type of rig is definitely easier sold locally depending on locality. Figure shipping, the vig owed to eBay and Paypal, and time. With CL once you get away with the CASH, thats it, 100% yours. I wouldnt even list a price on CL and just solicit offers for it. At the very least you should get a feel for real world value and who knows you may get even more than WE think. But you will have to deal with dingbats asking the same stuff over and over until you sell it.

Any route you go, best of luck!!
 

Stux

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I'd suggest setting up a 6 drive FreeNAS server with plex for the home and keeping it ;)
 

Robert Trevellyan

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You have agreed upon reasonable figures of 6 and 700, to go by. Set the reserve or start price to that, and see what happens.
No! Reserves and high starting prices are poison. At best you will get one bid, which means you should've listed fixed price.
start at a dollar
Yes! People are looking for a bargain. The early single-digit bidders ramp up the bid count and make the item look hotter.

Here are my off-topic rules for selling on eBay.
  1. For an item of non-trivial value, do your homework. Search for the item and check the "Sold listings" box. Asking prices are meaningless, selling prices are what count. Search for the same item on other outlets too.
  2. If you see that your item has a known value, and you just need to wait your turn for a buyer, list it fixed price for 30 days and be patient. Re-list if necessary. You don't have to be the lowest price if you have good feedback.
  3. If an item is in demand and not over-supplied, list auction-style for 7 days starting at $0.99. Don't panic if you don't get high bids immediately, your listing will rise to the top right before it expires. Only the final few bids matter.
  4. Include an expedited shipping option, even if it seems prohibitively expensive. Some people are in a hurry.
  5. Offer unconditional returns for at least 14 days.
And if an item isn't worth much and you just want to get rid of it/keep it out of landfill, just list auction-style starting at $0.99 and be glad that someone paid to take it off your hands. Give and get good feedback, build your brand.
 
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