New Server Build - How Much Risk is there in Buying Server Parts from eBay

[mantis_man]

Hi All,

I'm a new poster but a long term user of these excellent forums.

I've been running freeNAS since back in the early 9.2 days, on a succession of retired desktop systems. Over time I've increased the number of drives and then had to add one, and then a second IBM M1015 RAID controller. Your excellent forum taught me how to flash my RAID controllers into IT mode and have now seen me progress to the point where I have 16 x 4TB WD Red drives in two Z2 RAID groups.

I have recently started getting ZFS Scrub error messages that I suspect are related to the memory in my current server getting a bit dodgy. Being Desktop, non-ECC memory, (I know, not recommended) it got me thinking that it might be time to build a new server using the build guidelines as a platform.

My research shows that a shiny new Supermicro X11SCL-F motherboard isn't outrageously expensive, nor is a Xeon E CPU. DDR4 ECC U-DIMMS are not cheap though.

When I look at eBay, I can buy a Supermicro X9SRL-F, an old E5-2670 (or the like) and lots (and lots) of DDR3 ECC R-DIMMS for not too much at all. Obviously, lots of memory would be nice and the old DDR3 R-DIMMS appear to be cheap and readily available.

I'm not running a hell of a lot of load on my current server - I just serve files to my family and run a Plex jail that rarely needs to support more than two transcodes from 1080P to mobile devices. Given that this isn't a production environment, 100% availability isn't a critical factor for me, but it is important that the server just runs.

I'm interested to know what level of success people have had buying secondhand parts from eBay and getting them to work without too much hassle.

Given that I'm in Australia, returning parts is a bit of a drama so I'd be interested in learning of other's success (or otherwise).

Thank you for you assistance and advice.

 

[ethereal]

i use second hand parts all the time with no problems - just make sure your system is tested fully

 

[onceler]

Hi! I'm also from Australia (and also a long-time-lurker, rarely poster here), who started tinkering with a home FreeNAS server last year, and I have had almost no problems buying most of my parts (for this and other systems) from ebay (one time I was sent the wrong part (quickly sorted out with the seller), and one time I found a deal that was too good to be true (seller's account had been hacked), and ebay refunded me).

Ebay has very good customer protection policies - if an item doesn't arrive, or doesn't match the description given, they guarantee a refund if you can't sort it out with the seller. If you buy from an Australian business, you are also covered by our excellent customer protection laws (and the cheaper/faster shipping usually makes up for any price difference anyway).

 

[ank0m]

I also only use second handed parts, except HDDs/SSDs, for my FreeNAS servers and have had no issues till now.

 

[Velcade]

I used eBay for my latest FreeNAS build (except the HDDs) and it worked out great. Buy from a store front or someone with a lot of feedback. eBay has great buyer protection. I even got a couple second hand SSDs for boot drives that have been working great.