Server Price Breakdown (Inspired by LadyScrapper's "Computer Price Breakdown")

I've been purchasing Compaq Proliant servers at auction over the past couple of weeks and breaking them down. I typically pay $8-$12 apiece and I wanted to find out an actual value of one of these to make sure I wasn't just spinning my wheels. This one had no HDD and I am using Ewasted prices as of the last shipment I had processed on 12-31-13 and my scrap yard's current prices. The gold fingers I sell on ebay and net about $70/lb, so I used that number here.

Gold fingers - 0.5 oz - $2.19
Slot processor - 1.6 oz - $1.00
Sm sckt server board - 1 lb 10 oz - $3.98
Devalued memory - 2.4 oz - $0.83
Mid grade (non-HDD) boards - 12.2 oz - $1.14
Finger boards - 1 lb 5.3 oz - $4.79
Wires - 13.4 oz - $0.63
Motors/windings - 1 lb 6.9 oz - $0.36
Aluminum - 2 lb 7.6 oz - $1.24
Steel/shred - 27 lb 7.7 oz - $2.75

Grand Total - $18.91



I regret not timing myself, but I think I'm knocking these out in about 15-20 minutes. Conservatively if I'm averaging 2.5/hour and buying them at $11 each with no HDD or resellable parts I would be earning about $20/hr. Ehhh. And that's not counting time spent bidding on them, travelling to pick them up, shipping to CFCS, etc. Methinks I need to get faster, buy cheaper, and/or move on.

THats a server right ? Not a tower . Theres a diiference right ?

Right.

HP Support document - HP Support Center

P2 Version

I thought server boards were high grade? I usually pay about $3-$4 AUD for a server unit or PC tower. Either that or about 30 cents a kilo.

Servers!! Love them!! Great way to make and bank $$. Most of all many re-sale items!! Are you getting them in racks. I scrap around 70 server racks a month. Its a shame to toss them. Very nice quality units. Usually filled with a few servers, apc unit and other switches.

If any of you need server memory I have a bunch of good dimms. Up to 32 gb a stick. Cheap.

Aaron. Nice breakdown btw.

I get paid higher on server boards than regular motherboards. Not titled high grade in the invoice, though. Don't know how much the difference is, if any. I do know CFCS to be very fair based on my experience and the reported experience of a lot of members here.

Not buying the servers in racks, just 1-5 at a time at auction.

Good day of buying today (for me...) I came up with a total of 19 desktops (no HDDs) for $75 and a box of approximately 20-25 HDDs for $10. Did the first desktop - generic dell model, P4, no HDD and no RAM - total scrapped value $11.03, thanks in large part to the copper heatsink and DVD ROM. I've been selling the DVD ROMs on eBay and netting about $3.00 apiece. Also only took about 10 minutes, maybe less. I'm getting a little more bang for my buck on the desktops versus servers.

Sounds like these are rather small servers. I have done many larger ones with much better returns. As Olddude mentioned 50-60 cents/lb should be easy to attain.
Just scrapped 4 Compaq servers about 100 lbs each, the 4 yielded a total of 50 lbs of high grade boards, 10 lbs clean slot CPU's, 5-6 lbs RAM, etc. I can easily make $30-40+/hour breaking down servers. I also have done a few really big units 1000-1200 lbs each, those make a LOT more $$$!