Choose Between Refurbished Tower, Rack, and Blade Servers

I know when I have to choose between too many options, it inevitably delays my decision. Narrowing down your selections to what you need works best, whether we're talking about server form factors, or ice cream flavors.

With that said, here is a breakdown on the options between refurbished tower servers, rack servers and blade servers:

Refurbished Tower Server Options:

Tower Servers are of great benefit to users that need to quickly deploy a system to stand up underneath, on top of, or next to their desk.

A tower server is a desk-side system very similar in size to a personal computer. These systems can support any application that requires only a single server to deploy that software, either to the organization or a set of users. A single tower server could also be deployed in a remote location where a very small number of users are serviced and a dense, hyper-scale environment is not required.

Rack and blade servers are the refurbished servers of choice when an IT user needs to have an immense amount of computing power in a dense space. Dozens of servers can be racked into a single 72U server rack / cabinet, on-site in a server closet, or in a server room operated by the corporation.

These rackmount systems or blade center installations have the capacity to scale to meet the growing needs of the organization. Additional rack servers can be stacked on top of existing systems within the server racks, or deployed parallel in a new server rack - in order to quickly expand the resources of an enterprise IT environment. Additional blade servers and blade modules can be installed into an existing blade center chassis, in order to expand on the shared resources of the blade server environment.

Which is the Most Cost-Effective Server Solution / Form Factor?

When choosing between refurbished tower, blade, and rack mount servers – it really comes down to your personal requirements and use case. With a wide variety of options on the secondary market, it pays to do your homework and decide based on the options available.

Sometimes, a large corporation such as a Fortune 50 retailer might have recently upgraded all its systems, meaning that there are now hundreds or thousands of particular server models available on the secondary market.

As a result, a great bargain could be had on rackmount or blade servers, allowing you to install a server that is much more scalable for the future at a lower price point than even a tower server of comparable specifications.

In general, if you have a single application to deploy, a tower server may be the most affordable option, but it really depends on what's available in the market at that moment.

There are additional costs required for rack mount servers to consider, if you're deploying your systems into a server rack with extensive cabling, cooling, heating and data center flooring involved.

Now, all of these options can provide plenty of processing power and certainly can support virtualization environments, but scale plays a role in your decision-making.

If you require more advanced and higher-level virtualization solutions, those including multiple domain controllers, and VM servers, you will probably need a more scalable and dense server environment to support your needs. For most basic virtualization solutions, VMs can be deployed on a tower server, too.

Refurbished Rack Servers and Blade Server Options:

Refurbished rack servers allow you to deploy multiple servers on the front end, yet also scale up as you need more systems for your environment. The maintenance process of refurbished rack servers is easy, because hot-swap options are available for processors, memory, power supplies, and expansion cards, allowing you to expand on your environment without even adding more server chassises.

Refurbished blade servers are highly dense server environments, allowing you to install multiple blade server modules within a single blade server chassis. The space efficiency can't be beaten if you need the densest server environment possible. It would serve the organization well to consider looking at refurbished blade servers for those scenarios.

Summary: This article guides readers in choosing between refurbished tower, rack, and blade servers, providing insights into the unique features, advantages, and considerations of each server type. It empowers decision-makers with the information needed to select the most suitable option for their specific IT requirements.

Questions about Refurbished Servers?

Contact us anytime… we’ve been doing business in the secondary market for IT hardware since 1995.

Last updated: 04/05/2024

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Additional Reading & Resources:

• Article: What are Used Servers?
• Article: Using & Maintaining Used Servers
• Article: Types of Servers
• Article: New vs. Used Servers
• Article: A More Sustainable IT Future
• Article: Separating ITAD Fact from Fiction
• Article: Maximizing Your IT Budget
• Alta: Used Servers for Sale