Reliable preowned vendors for homelab hardware

I've had good experiences with https://aonecomputers.in/

They're still new to the whole online ordering experience so they'll call you like within minutes of an order placed, to confirm that you know that what it is you're buying and sometimes they send out prepaid orders as COD but they refund the prepayment immediately when you call them and say the courier is asking for payment.
 
guest_999 said:
There aren't many reliable sources of used enterprise hardware in India so one can only guess based on prices abroad on sites like ebay.com or maybe ask in relevant reddit subs. Add ~18-20% to US prices for Indian price estimates. This is just my logic but the idea is that you definitely need to pay some premium for used enterprise hardware in India as the original new hardware itself sells for around 20-30% more than US prices I think.
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Very true

Plus here, the older hardware (at good margins) is pushed as well, on unsuspecting buyers.

And newer stuff is not reaching here that much.
 
There's also Bharathi Systems which sells Dell, Lenovo, HP sell SFF/Compact/Workstations/Servers.
LGA 2011-v3 Xeon or older based servers/workstations are the ones mostly available in Indian preowned market.
As many have said before, they are just a power hog for the performance they deliver per CPU core.
SFF/Compact PCs can make great home servers all while sipping low power.
 
SCSI said:
There's also Bharathi Systems which sells Dell, Lenovo, HP sell SFF/Compact/Workstations/Servers.
LGA 2011-v3 Xeon or older based servers/workstations are the ones mostly available in Indian preowned market.
As many have said before, they are just a power hog for the performance they deliver per CPU core.
SFF/Compact PCs can make great home servers all while sipping low power.
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Any personal experience with Bharathi?
 
Thought I'd chime in on this since I've developed a sideline in facilities/IT management in the last couple of months. There are a bunch of refurb/used vendors across Delhi that are reliable; the issue with most of them is that they're not really professional organisations that will test hardware thoroughly before sending it out. I learnt the hard way since my last experience working with hardware professionally was for my university in the US, where the vendors were top-notch.

Some things to look out for:

- When buying mid range and above servers that have a large number of slots, most vendors will not check all the slots. For example, I picked up a Dell R720 and ran a couple of stress tests on the CPU and RAM before accepting it, but I didn't think to check each memory slot. A year later I upgraded it, and when installing RAM found a couple of slots were messed up. I told the vendor, but he held up his hands and said it had been too long since he sold it to me, then offered to buy it back for less than half. I imagine he'll sell it to someone who doesn't need a lot of memory to start with again.

- It's worth waiting for a good deal - the market is highly variable city-to-city and prices can vary quite a bit across vendors. But be careful - the guy I get cable and rack accessories from bought some switches from someone a few years ago for cheap, only to have to bribe the cops 10 lakhs a month later as they turned out to be stolen from a government hospital in Lucknow. This especially applies for networking gear - I've gotten quotes between 8000 and 25000 for the same model of 18-year-old Cisco switch. Servers are a little more standardised.

- Even in the IT hardware market, people operate in the old fashioned style. I've stepped on many toes by calling 6 different people for quotes on something, taking the lowest one, and then telling the others who I got it from and for how much. As I said last time - aaj kal ke bacchon ko inn cheeze ki parvah nahin hoti lol.

The way the market works here is honestly fascinating. I just picked up a HP 10G ethernet/40G QSFP switch for ~60k. The same switch is available from global vendors starting at ~$1200, yet the guy I bought it from wanted to get rid of it and was willing to drop the price by 10k.

I found a bit of a gold mine in terms of some smaller vendors outside of Nehru Place that are less cutthroat and have better pricing. I'm happy to help out anyone looking for networking gear or servers.
 
rudiv said:
Thought I'd chime in on this since I've developed a sideline in facilities/IT management in the last couple of months. There are a bunch of refurb/used vendors across Delhi that are reliable; the issue with most of them is that they're not really professional organisations that will test hardware thoroughly before sending it out. I learnt the hard way since my last experience working with hardware professionally was for my university in the US, where the vendors were top-notch.

Some things to look out for:

- When buying mid range and above servers that have a large number of slots, most vendors will not check all the slots. For example, I picked up a Dell R720 and ran a couple of stress tests on the CPU and RAM before accepting it, but I didn't think to check each memory slot. A year later I upgraded it, and when installing RAM found a couple of slots were messed up. I told the vendor, but he held up his hands and said it had been too long since he sold it to me, then offered to buy it back for less than half. I imagine he'll sell it to someone who doesn't need a lot of memory to start with again.

- It's worth waiting for a good deal - the market is highly variable city-to-city and prices can vary quite a bit across vendors. But be careful - the guy I get cable and rack accessories from bought some switches from someone a few years ago for cheap, only to have to bribe the cops 10 lakhs a month later as they turned out to be stolen from a government hospital in Lucknow. This especially applies for networking gear - I've gotten quotes between 8000 and 25000 for the same model of 18-year-old Cisco switch. Servers are a little more standardised.

- Even in the IT hardware market, people operate in the old fashioned style. I've stepped on many toes by calling 6 different people for quotes on something, taking the lowest one, and then telling the others who I got it from and for how much. As I said last time - aaj kal ke bacchon ko inn cheeze ki parvah nahin hoti lol.

The way the market works here is honestly fascinating. I just picked up a HP 10G ethernet/40G QSFP switch for ~60k. The same switch is available from global vendors starting at ~$1200, yet the guy I bought it from wanted to get rid of it and was willing to drop the price by 10k.

I found a bit of a gold mine in terms of some smaller vendors outside of Nehru Place that are less cutthroat and have better pricing. I'm happy to help out anyone looking for networking gear or servers.
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Could you share details for vendors in delhi?
 
I have heard nothing but bad stories about vendors from Delhi, especially Nehru Place, I would avoid buying from them unless you are in Delhi yourself.
 
aasimenator said:
I have heard nothing but bad stories about vendors from Delhi, especially Nehru Place, I would avoid buying from them unless you are in Delhi yourself.
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Oh man. I've been going to Nehru Place since I was a teenager. I could go on a rant about them for hours. That's why I suggested I'd be happy to help out other people - I've had to build up defences against their bakchodi.
 
aasimenator said:
I have heard nothing but bad stories about vendors from Delhi, especially Nehru Place, I would avoid buying from them unless you are in Delhi yourself.
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I always wonder how are these able to create a long-term sustainable market when there is almost zero trust at least in the used market. What incentives do they get for working the way they do as opposed to being a bit professional?

I outright refused to deal with these guys if not for a local Friend (Delhite ofc) who knew a guy at Nehru Place. I no longer live in Delhi and Nehru Place is but a distant memory that I would like to erase.
 
dvader said:
I always wonder how are these able to create a long-term sustainable market when there is almost zero trust at least in the used market. What incentives do they get for working the way they do as opposed to being a bit professional?
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Somewhat unique to our country, there's always more buyers than sellers. They may not get many repeat buyers, but they're sure to get an endless stream of first time buyers.

I guess if you take that as a given, it's nearly impossible for any business not to take off and become profitable. The only thing preventing any new business to succeed is if its profits are lower than expenses/loan payments, in which case you can dig deeper into debt or write the entire business off as bad luck. There was a large store that opened up here around 2007. It was one of the first of its kind. I remember the owner saying in an interview that they don't expect to be profitable in his lifetime, so it was a gift to his children.
 
rsaeon said:
Somewhat unique to our country, there's always more buyers than sellers. They may not get many repeat buyers, but they're sure to get an endless stream of first time buyers.

I guess if you take that as a given, it's nearly impossible for any business not to take off and become profitable. The only thing preventing any new business to succeed is if its profits are lower than expenses/loan payments, in which case you can dig deeper into debt or write the entire business off as bad luck. There was a large store that opened up here around 2007. It was one of the first of its kind. I remember the owner saying in an interview that they don't expect to be profitable in his lifetime, so it was a gift to his children.
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Every time I see some European guy in a YouTube video buying used parts from CEX and/or eBay, I lose a part of me seeing those prices. And it's more the feeling of not getting scammed than the price that hurts me.

Anyway, I don't think anything is gonna change in my lifetime.
 
dvader said:
Every time I see some European guy in a YouTube video buying used parts from CEX and/or eBay, I lose a part of me seeing those prices. And it's more the feeling of not getting scammed than the price that hurts me.

Anyway, I don't think anything is gonna change in my lifetime.
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Well, we do have eBay available to us. I'm seeing pretty amazing pricing there for Xeons, I'm looking at a pair of E5 X5680 for $30 shipped from China. Some members have had eBay purchases arrive without customs or any other issues, there's a thread somewhere about this.

And there's OLX if you're patient. I check my searches daily and there are gems to be found there if you're very very patient, I picked up a lot of used hardware that way.

CEX also has occasional deals, if you have there's a store nearby. I've gotten cameras and graphics cards from there in the past.

Usually our population density works against us, since someone else is sure to swipe up a decently priced item. But not everyone can check everything all the time, so perseverance always wins out.

Even Amazon sometimes has better deals here (with coupons) than in the US.

edit: And there's a growing selection of online refurbishers like budli and saudewala
 
rsaeon said:
Well, we do have eBay available to us. I'm seeing pretty amazing pricing there for Xeons, I'm looking at a pair of E5 X5680 for $30 shipped from China. Some members have had eBay purchases arrive without customs or any other issues, there's a thread somewhere about this.

And there's OLX if you're patient. I check my searches daily and there are gems to be found there if you're very very patient, I picked up a lot of used hardware that way.

CEX also has occasional deals, if you have there's a store nearby. I've gotten cameras and graphics cards from there in the past.

Usually our population density works against us, since someone else is sure to swipe up a decently priced item. But not everyone can check everything all the time, so perseverance always wins out.

Even Amazon sometimes has better deals here (with coupons) than in the US.

edit: And there's a growing selection of online refurbishers like budli and saudewala
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The only thing with eBay is the international shipping which turns into Russian roulette with customs (honestly never bothered). CEX at least has an Indian presence in metros (doesn't help being in a tier 2 city). And OLX is the whole reason I am on TE. I like this forum more than I would care to admit, haven't even bothered to look anywhere else for used products other than here on TE. Would love some resident server hardware resellers here though.
 
aasimenator said:
I do servers too... not that i stock them cause they require much bigger investments, but i can arrange them as and when needed. I do have network switches well. PM me what you need I will try and get you a quote.
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Bagal me chora, sheher me dhindhora :p:cool:
I did see you selling some raid cards but didn't know your full powers. Now I know who to reach out to :)
 
for nas /homelab basically you require quad nic and maybe if you intend to do a nas build than some pcie to sata card and maybe multi NVME to pcie .If you want to make it a wireless router than an on motherboard m2 key and use open wrt

what could be a good canvas .My vote is on AM4 platform 1xxx to 5xxx series ( great upgrade potential) and DDR4 rams .Currently you will get used 1700 and 3600 which cost less and more cores more fun undervolt them use stock coolers and it will run beautifully. i was pretty much interested on those SFF machine but the scalability issue and it bespoke nature keeps me away from it.
 
burntwingzZz said:
for nas /homelab basically you require quad nic and maybe if you intend to do a nas build than some pcie to sata card and maybe multi NVME to pcie .If you want to make it a wireless router than an on motherboard m2 key and use open wrt

what could be a good canvas .My vote is on AM4 platform 1xxx to 5xxx series ( great upgrade potential) and DDR4 rams .Currently you will get used 1700 and 3600 which cost less and more cores more fun undervolt them use stock coolers and it will run beautifully. i was pretty much interested on those SFF machine but the scalability issue and it bespoke nature keeps me away from it.
Click to expand...
Here is my personal experience:

For Storage: If you are just tinkering with stuff then you can get as many components as you need and have fun but honestly once you have had this hobby for quite some time and you consider the things you actually use (like if it goes down, you immediately have to fix it) all you need is a system you can add new HDDs into and a 2.5G port. Now if all you ever gonna have is say 20-30 TB of storage then any old (power efficient though) desktop will do but as your storage increases it's just a mess inside the desktop. Get an old server where it's just plug and play, I can't stress enough the QoL improvement that brings. Even if you stick to a desktop, get a RAID/HBA card which allows pass-through or JBOD like 9217-8i or similar cards; that 1x4 SAS to SATA breakout cable does wonders, cuz motherboard manufacturers add those sata ports in all sort of wrong orientation and places. Never buy a pci to sata card, not worth it.

Edit1:
For desktop, use whatever old desktop you have. If building new (I mean from scratch) Get one of those old school PC cases that have 8-10 hdd slots, they are cheap and awesome for this use case, Platform: AM4 hands down (AM4 is still good for all kinds of things), buy used, get atleast ryzen 3xxx, wont cost you much more than a 2xxx. RAM: cheapest green sticks you can find. Don't skimp on PSU cuz it has to run 24x7 nothing short of Tier 1.

Edit2:
For server: never underestimate the noise it makes and electricity it's gonna consume. The noise might make you go crazy. So as long as you got those two things figured out, a server is gonna serve you well. Also, try to buy it from someone who is in this business for quite sometime, in case you need parts for repair, you know who to call.

For compute and Network, as long as your VM host (desktop or server whatever makes less sound and uses less electricity..... go figure) can access the storage server you are good. That's why you need a switch, and no matter how much you want to save on a switch, you will be buying a managed switch 2-3 years down the line. Ask anyone with a homelab here, they have either already moved on to a manged switch or are considering to switch cuz it just brings those QoL improvements that makes life easier and makes having this hobby enjoyable.

Learn to wire your own ethernet patch cables, you will save time and money. I did my home security myself and god it was worth it to route cables the way I wanted.

Edit3 : Fixed Grammar
 
Last edited:
dvader said:
Here is my personal experience:

For Storage: If you are just tinkering with stuff then you can get as many components as you need and have fun but honestly once you have had this hobby for quite some time and you consider the things you actually use (like if it goes down, you immediately have to fix it) all you need is a system you can add new HDDs into and a 2.5G port. Now if all you ever gonna have is say 20-30 TB of storage then any old (power efficient though) desktop will do but as your storage increases it's just a mess inside the desktop. Get an old server where it's just plug and play, I can't stress enough the QoL improvement that brings. Even if you stick to a desktop, get a RAID/HBA card which allows pass-through or JBOD like 9217-8i or similar cards; that 1x4 SAS to SATA breakout cable does wonders, cuz motherboard manufacturers add those sata ports in all sort of wrong orientation and places. Never buy a pci to sata card, not worth it.

Edit1:
For desktop, use whatever old desktop you have. If building new (I mean from scratch) Get one of those old school PC cases that have 8-10 hdd slots, they are cheap and awesome for this use case, Platform: AM4 hands down (AM4 is still good for all kinds of things), buy used, get atleast ryzen 3xxx, wont cost you much more than a 2xxx. RAM: cheapest green sticks you can find. Don't skimp on PSU cuz it has to run 24x7 nothing short of Tier 1.

Edit2:
For server: never underestimate the noise it makes and electricity it's gonna consume. The noise might make you go crazy. So as long as you got those two things figured out, a server is gonna serve you well. Also, try to buy it from someone who is in this business for quite sometime, in case you need parts for repair, you know who to call.

For compute and Network, as long as your VM host (desktop or server whatever makes less sound and uses less electricity..... go figure) can access the storage server you are good. That's why you need a switch, and no matter how much you want to save on a switch, you will be buying a managed switch 2-3 years down the line. Ask anyone with a homelab here, they have either already moved on to a manged switch or are considering to switch cuz it just brings those QoL improvements that makes life easier and makes having this hobby enjoyable.

Learn to wire your own ethernet patch cables, you will save time and money. I did my home security myself and god it was worth it to route cables the way I wanted.

Edit3 : Fixed Grammar
Click to expand...
What do you use your managed switch for? Vlans?
I just subnet my network.
 
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