{"id":641,"date":"2024-07-15T23:04:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T23:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/objc.net\/?p=641"},"modified":"2024-07-16T17:21:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T17:21:04","slug":"scrapping-70-rack-servers-and-3000-hard-drives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/objc.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/scrapping-70-rack-servers-and-3000-hard-drives\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrapping 70 rack servers and 3,000 hard drives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TLDR; Scrapping electronics isn’t a very lucrative hobby, but when you have a giant pile of hardware you need to get rid of it may be more cost effective than paying someone to take it away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I decided to buy a large lot of surplus computers online I had one part of my plan in place, as a small number of them were worth Crazy Xserve G5 valuations<\/a> , but the rest of my plan was not. The first problem was moving this stuff, the machines were only a couple hours away but when doing the math on the total weight I needed a bigger vehicle. How much does a 1U server weigh? Well like 40 lbs. How much does a 2U server weight? Like 60 lbs. How much does a small moving box full of 3.5 hard drives weigh? About 90lbs. How much does all this weigh? like 5000 lbs. One U-Haul van later, a lot of lifting and I had most of it moved, one more trip with our minivan and I got the rest of the hard drives. 12 boxes of 3.5″ hard drives was near the weight capacity of the minivan, this stuff adds up fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 3,000 hard drives were the first problem, the original listing said they were scrap and some random testing revealed that was in fact true, they didn\u2019t work and I was not looking to fix or eBay 3,000 20 year old hard drives. Hours of googling later I found Northeast Precious Metals<\/a> and verified that I could in fact just bring in one or a thousand hard drives and they’d pay me for them. If I had a better plan I would have gone straight to Northeast Precious Metals from the server pickup and got rid of the drives that day, but moving them twice was a small learning experience in logistics. $395 in hand I had unloaded half a ton of hard drives. I was paid 30 cents a lb as scrap for precious metal reclamation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was hoping the Dell, HP and Cisco servers would be worth something on eBay, but as I researched the exact models and saw that the condition of many of them was pretty bad due to dust I had to develop another plan. I could have brought all of the servers whole to Northeast Precious Metals, it would have taken several trips in my van or I’d be paying for another U-Haul, and it’d be mostly moving a lot of low value steel. I decided that disassembling the machines would be more fun and easier to fit into my schedule. I didn\u2019t have to allocate multiple 4 hour round trips, I could unload most of the steel nearby and do one run with all the CPUs, memory, boards and remaining hard drives. I could also get everything into less heavy individual pieces. The steel isn\u2019t worth much but I can get rid of it free very close at a recycling center or get paid a little further. I tried the paid place once but the time and extra distance were not worth the little amount you get, I got about $30 for several hundred lbs of steel (“light iron”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HP servers were definitely the worst to disassemble, a lot of screwed in layers, a few cordless drills setup with the different bits definitely made this easier. The Dells were the most fun to take apart, they had a lot of quick release fasteners so I could pop them apart very fast. The Cisco stuff was half and half, some of it came apart fast with a few screws but the front of the machine was a lot of wiring all threaded through and held on with plastic glued in fasteners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all the steel gone and everything sorted into boxes, I made one last trip to get rid of it all. For about 70 servers 20 years old, about 20 2U and 50 1U, broken down:<\/p>\n\n\n\n