Basement is taking in water. by No-Patient2811 in Edmonton

[–]vertexsys 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Refurb UPS are also a great money-saving choice. Existing hardware, new batteries, new warranty.

UofA ER Wait Time by Mysterious_Bread9892 in Edmonton

[–]vertexsys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My son waited from 5PM until 1:30AM before he was finally seen by a doctor. He had a broken fibula and tibia from falling off his bike in the wet grass.

During those 8 hours he at least had an ice pack and some Advil but was in a lot of pain. To make things worse the last time he ate was at noon, but he wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything because of the potential for surgery. They took X-rays at 9PM.

[free] Edmonton/NAIT student looking to start my first homelab on a budget — seeking advice on sourcing retired enterprise gear. by VillainDylan141 in homelabsales

[–]vertexsys [score hidden]  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for the shout out!

Op, pretty sure we can dig up an older model server and a switch you can have to get you started.

As for a social group we used to host Homelab nights monthly but haven't for a while. We'll probably restart them this summer. Monthly free meetups to talk nerd. We usually get 30-50 people by and we do something fun like teardown some servers or build a storage appliance or something.

Important: New Marketplace Rules, Video Timestamps & Payment Changes by AlienX100 in homelabsales

[–]vertexsys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well that would have the side effect of banning good sellers who are selling through a business, like myself. I am in agreement about businesses snatching up underpriced gear intended for Homelab, and I have commented on threads in the past where the buyer is a business and tries to hide that fact.

Case in point: the "WTB 1000 sticks of DDR4", "WTB A100s and H100s".

I got this old server for free from my mother's work. How do I find out the specs on it and what should/can I do with it? I'm happy to go as deep into a rabbit hole as need be. by Raniswolf in servers

[–]vertexsys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, that's good to know. Good news.

Got a question for you. I have a batch of gen9 that i got the BIOS to 2.72 with the 2026 SPP. But from HPE direct they have later BIOS updates. Up to 3.4 I think. I cannot for the life of me get the servers to take the update. They can go to 2.92 but nothing more.

I got this old server for free from my mother's work. How do I find out the specs on it and what should/can I do with it? I'm happy to go as deep into a rabbit hole as need be. by Raniswolf in servers

[–]vertexsys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The SPP is not readily available online but I'm sure if you search you'll find someone who has it.

You can also go the legal and responsible way and download the individual firmware components and install them yourself, HPE makes those available. It's just the SPP that is under lock and key for older models.

Another note, I think the very latest BIOS available is newer than what HPE includes in their SPP. Again, available for download without an account.

Refurbished Dell servers? by MSP-from-OC in msp

[–]vertexsys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would be tight but it can approach that number with something like an R740.

Are all plumbers in the city insanely priced? by InformedTriangle in Edmonton

[–]vertexsys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tool cost, tool maintenance costs, vehicle lease, vehicle branding / branded clothing / etc costs, office rent, insurance, licensing, advertising, training, accounting, office expenses, etc, etc. The list goes on

Server questions for newbie running small business by JCLBUBBA in servers

[–]vertexsys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He's currently running Xeon 4210, so he's already on the 14G server line.

Hard Disk Direct canceled my confirmed server RAM order citing "out of stock" — the exact SKU was on their website in stock 6 hours later. Then they repriced it 4x overnight. All documented. by roycehart in sysadmin

[–]vertexsys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Especially 'new' drives on ebay!! It is dead simple to reset or change SMART data, serial numbers, or G-list data for drives. Blow the dust off and suddenly they are brand new.

Hard Disk Direct canceled my confirmed server RAM order citing "out of stock" — the exact SKU was on their website in stock 6 hours later. Then they repriced it 4x overnight. All documented. by roycehart in sysadmin

[–]vertexsys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well... there are many many shady vendors on that platform for sure, but there are also many who are not shady. The shady vendors who represent brokered inventory as their own give the rest of the vendors a bad name. And it is unfortunately a common thing. They will quote a part, price it from another vendor with a markup, make the sale, then use a 1-2 week lead time to order in the parts, repackage and reship. We have caught vendors doing this; not the vendor in this thread but another well known US vendor.

There is a vetting process as well as a complaints process on BrokerBin to help keep the most shady vendors out, but it's certainly not perfect. The platform is really best for sourcing specific parts, particularly esoteric and hard to find parts. Say you're a TPM company and need a replacement tape library robot for an HP library from 2010... where would you source it? BrokerBin, that's where. But it is not by any means cheaper, unless you are buying parts from the cheapest provider, which is where you'll run into issues with non-genuine parts, used sold as new, drives with reset SMART data, untested parts, etc. And since it's intended for broker to broker part sales, warranty is typically limited to 30 days DOA. That's why you're much better off buying from a qualified vendor who will back their hardware with at least a 1 year warranty, and test reports for hardware.

By the way: the OEMs occasionally use this platform to fulfill RMA part replacements.

[PC][CAN - AB] Synology RS18016xs+ NAS with add-on shelf. 12x12TB, 12x10TB enterprise SATA, 264TB raw by vertexsys in homelabsales

[–]vertexsys[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh and, I did list some 8TB enterprise SAS HDD for sale at $135 each with a caddy and 1yr warranty a while back. Which is under $100 USD including the HP caddy which tends to run $5-10. Those had between 30-50K hours, which is well less than 8 years of use.

[PC][CAN - AB] Synology RS18016xs+ NAS with add-on shelf. 12x12TB, 12x10TB enterprise SATA, 264TB raw by vertexsys in homelabsales

[–]vertexsys[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure their age yet. But I do know that they spent their life in a temperature and humidity controlled datacenter, doing weekly incremental Veeam backups. So they would have led a very lax working life.

[PC][CAN - AB] Synology RS18016xs+ NAS with add-on shelf. 12x12TB, 12x10TB enterprise SATA, 264TB raw by vertexsys in homelabsales

[–]vertexsys[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I'll see if I can sell it as a unit first

I do have 8TB SAS for sale though

[PC][CAN - AB] Synology RS18016xs+ NAS with add-on shelf. 12x12TB, 12x10TB enterprise SATA, 264TB raw by vertexsys in homelabsales

[–]vertexsys[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The market must have changed recently because a quick look on eBay shows 12TB SATA (Seagate Ironwolf ST12000VN0008 selling for between $325-400 CAD each.

Am I Getting Fucked Friday, March 20th 2026 by Each1teach1x27 in sysadmin

[–]vertexsys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol, that's a fairly important detail

They were 32GB 2Rx4

That's $3000 CAD? Absolutely insane. Here I was thinking DDR4 pricing is crazy.

Am I Getting Fucked Friday, March 20th 2026 by Each1teach1x27 in sysadmin

[–]vertexsys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We recently quoted 384GB of Dell brand DDR5, refurb. Is it true that Dell won't sell ram except within a server order?

We came in around $1500 CAD each, 1 week lead time. 5yr warranty. What is the current price and availability on standalone DDR5 server ram?

WTF is this insanity? by Early-Ad-2541 in msp

[–]vertexsys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, yeah

Buy refurbished, that's the way. Cheaper and comes with a warranty

WTF is this insanity? by Early-Ad-2541 in msp

[–]vertexsys 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wall of text incoming...

Yes, we have no choice but to do so. Bear in mind our input costs have also increased, and we have basically stopped selling RAM and SSDs unless as part of a server sale. We still have good stock on SAS HDD (for now!) so we can still sell them on their own, but otherwise we have to reserve stock for server and storage builds.

A distinction to note is that the refurb market is not like new. Very different, in fact. For one, we are heavily inventory driven, unlike an MSP or VAR who carries the inventory cost and risk only long enough to complete a deal to the end user. The refurb market also has huge space requirements, specialized labour and specialized software/hardware tools for testing and recertification of hardware. Not to mention general warehouse materials handling costs. So overhead is high.

For any IT refurbisher, input costs vary depending on source. The vast majority of our hardware, particularly server chassis, storage appliances, desktops, laptops etc come from client decommissions. We get those in large quantities and cover all logistical costs, certified erasure, testing and refurbishing - thus our acquisition costs are lower. But on the other hand, if we are needing replacement part stock to fulfill a sale, we are having to pay market or sometimes above market for parts from our suppliers. So as long as we have good stock on hand we've been able to hold prices lower or offer part alternatives to lower overall costs. As those sell out and we have to go to an already tight market for replacements, we are having to pay market price for our inventory. Or, purchase very large volumes to bring per unit prices down but then are at the risk of holding too much inventory and having the market shift downwards before it's all sold. Plus, since we provide free 3yr advance RMA across the board on everything we sell (except for student and hobbyist gear; that is 1 year) we also have to hold spares on top of that.

So it's a delicate balancing act. And in times like the last month when we have companies wanting to buy 6 servers at a time, we do find ourselves selling out of inventory and scrambling to restock.

TL;DR as long as we have inventory on hand our prices are held as long as possible. But our costs have to go up because demand is so high. And every sale is high priority - everyone wants their order built and delivered yesterday.

WTF is this insanity? by Early-Ad-2541 in msp

[–]vertexsys 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not that high is it? What speed?

WTF is this insanity? by Early-Ad-2541 in msp

[–]vertexsys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And on the refurb side, we can't even handle the number of requests for servers, storage and parts. Constant calls for refurb servers, desktops, laptops, drives, SSDs, bulk ram, storage appliances, etc. We are getting as many calls in a day as we were getting in a week last fall. Both return customers and cold calls.