Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?
-
I'm looking to buy several Dell N3000 switches to replace older models. We already have some N3000's, so that's why I'm going with them. We have a Dell VAR and in the past, we've gone through him, but that stuff is EXPENSIVE.
I've purchased servers from ServerMonkey.com and haven't had any issues with them. I bought one N3024P from xByte.com a few weeks ago and it seems to be pretty good.
That being said, I am wondering how risky it is buying refurb from this place or that. Both xByte and ServerMonkey seem like trustworthy places to buy used hardware from, but I really don't have any idea. The refurb switch I bought of xByte came from Japan and it was something like 4 years old. I don't mind that, as long as it's in good working shape..
Thoughts? Suggestions?
-
No risk at all. Refurb is pretty much the only thing that we will buy. Refurb is still new, and xByte at least is an official Dell partner for providing refurb and offers full warranty options.
-
@dave247 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
Both xByte and ServerMonkey seem like trustworthy places to buy used hardware from....
xByte doesn't offer anything used. They are refurb and new only. At least for servers.
-
@dave247 The key point for me is weather you can get a factory warranty with the box. If I remember correctly, ServerMonkey.com does offer them, and I know that xByte does.
-
@scottalanmiller said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@dave247 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
Both xByte and ServerMonkey seem like trustworthy places to buy used hardware from....
xByte doesn't offer anything used. They are refurb and new only. At least for servers.
Yeah, at least for servers. I want to know about switches. I can give them a call just to make sure..
-
@travisdh1 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@dave247 The key point for me is weather you can get a factory warranty with the box. If I remember correctly, ServerMonkey.com does offer them, and I know that xByte does.
Yeah, the one I got from xbyte has the limited lifetime warranty, and I was able to call Dell and get some support on the switch (I had an issue setting it up).
-
I know this going to sound odd but why are you purchasing those switches? What benefit does it have to stay with Dell switching over moving to something less expensive in this case? I did read that you currently have those switches in house... but does that really matter? Price out how much it would be to replace the entire infrastructure with new switches from Ubiquiti (or insert vendor here) and compare that to the quote that Dell gave you.
-
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I know this going to sound odd but why are you purchasing those switches? What benefit does it have to stay with Dell switching over moving to something less expensive in this case? I did read that you currently have those switches in house... but does that really matter? Price out how much it would be to replace the entire infrastructure with new switches from Ubiquiti (or insert vendor here) and compare that to the quote that Dell gave you.
Coliver beat me to it. I was wondering this same thing. Frankly I'm surprised that Scott didn't say, sunk cost fallacy sticking with what you currently have.
-
@dashrender said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I know this going to sound odd but why are you purchasing those switches? What benefit does it have to stay with Dell switching over moving to something less expensive in this case? I did read that you currently have those switches in house... but does that really matter? Price out how much it would be to replace the entire infrastructure with new switches from Ubiquiti (or insert vendor here) and compare that to the quote that Dell gave you.
Coliver beat me to it. I was wondering this same thing. Frankly I'm surprised that Scott didn't say, sunk cost fallacy sticking with what you currently have.
There is some value to having a homogeneous environment, @scottalanmiller and I have talked about that before, but I don't know if it makes sense to maintain the Dell switches when they are going to be "expensive" to replace. IIRC they all have a limited lifetime warranty but the extra cost really doesn't make a ton of sense to me... especially as you, from my recollection, maintain a support contract to take advantage of it.
-
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I know this going to sound odd but why are you purchasing those switches? What benefit does it have to stay with Dell switching over moving to something less expensive in this case? I did read that you currently have those switches in house... but does that really matter? Price out how much it would be to replace the entire infrastructure with new switches from Ubiquiti (or insert vendor here) and compare that to the quote that Dell gave you.
No. We have mostly N3000 switches but we have four remaining 5500 series switches. I want to have uniformity by having all N3000 switches. I've learned the switches and am comfortable with them, and they are configured for our environment. I don't want to go through buying all new switches, because that would be a lot more than just getting four more N3000's.
-
@dave247 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I know this going to sound odd but why are you purchasing those switches? What benefit does it have to stay with Dell switching over moving to something less expensive in this case? I did read that you currently have those switches in house... but does that really matter? Price out how much it would be to replace the entire infrastructure with new switches from Ubiquiti (or insert vendor here) and compare that to the quote that Dell gave you.
No. We have mostly N3000 switches but we have four remaining 5500 series switches. I want to have uniformity by having all N3000 switches. I've learned the switches and am comfortable with them, and they are configured for our environment. I don't want to go through buying all new switches, because that would be a lot more than just getting four more N3000's.
Ok. Like I said there is some value to having a homogeneous system.
-
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@dave247 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I know this going to sound odd but why are you purchasing those switches? What benefit does it have to stay with Dell switching over moving to something less expensive in this case? I did read that you currently have those switches in house... but does that really matter? Price out how much it would be to replace the entire infrastructure with new switches from Ubiquiti (or insert vendor here) and compare that to the quote that Dell gave you.
No. We have mostly N3000 switches but we have four remaining 5500 series switches. I want to have uniformity by having all N3000 switches. I've learned the switches and am comfortable with them, and they are configured for our environment. I don't want to go through buying all new switches, because that would be a lot more than just getting four more N3000's.
Ok. Like I said there is some value to having a homogeneous system.
Unless you have a fairly complex setup, how much value is there?
Looks like the N3000's are POE, so I'll compare only POE switches
48 port Edge Switch POE (750w) $975
Dell 48 port N3048 is $4,599 (list)24 port Edge Switch POE (500w) $526
Dell 24 port N3024 $2,349What can the N3048 do that the Edge Switch can't? Perhaps there is a feature that is needed.
-
Sure there is no real warranty (you get the base 1 yr hardware warranty) but you also don't pay any yearly fee for updates or warranty.. you just buy another switch.
-
@dashrender said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@dave247 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@coliver said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I know this going to sound odd but why are you purchasing those switches? What benefit does it have to stay with Dell switching over moving to something less expensive in this case? I did read that you currently have those switches in house... but does that really matter? Price out how much it would be to replace the entire infrastructure with new switches from Ubiquiti (or insert vendor here) and compare that to the quote that Dell gave you.
No. We have mostly N3000 switches but we have four remaining 5500 series switches. I want to have uniformity by having all N3000 switches. I've learned the switches and am comfortable with them, and they are configured for our environment. I don't want to go through buying all new switches, because that would be a lot more than just getting four more N3000's.
Ok. Like I said there is some value to having a homogeneous system.
Unless you have a fairly complex setup, how much value is there?
Looks like the N3000's are POE, so I'll compare only POE switches
48 port Edge Switch POE (750w) $975
Dell 48 port N3048 is $4,599 (list)24 port Edge Switch POE (500w) $526
Dell 24 port N3024 $2,349What can the N3048 do that the Edge Switch can't? Perhaps there is a feature that is needed.
- I'm buying refurb, so the prices are much lower.
- We are not going with any other switch, so I do not want to take the discussion in this direction. My original post explained what kind of info I am looking for, which is where I can safely buy refurbished networking equipment. I would obviously not buy used off ebay, nor brand new from Dell. I am trying to see where you guys go through and if there is anything I should look out for with the likes of xByte or ServerMonkey.
-
@dave247 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I am trying to see where you guys go through and if there is anything I should look out for with the likes of xByte or ServerMonkey.
That's just it, around these parts, we don't. While we aren't exclusively Ubiquiti gear, it is the majority for users here at ML.
-
@dashrender said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
@dave247 said in Safest place to buy refurbished switches? xbyte, servermonkey, etc?:
I am trying to see where you guys go through and if there is anything I should look out for with the likes of xByte or ServerMonkey.
That's just it, around these parts, we don't. While we aren't exclusively Ubiquiti gear, it is the majority for users here at ML.
oh. Well I know Scott has recommended xByte to me in the past and there's also an xByte banner on this forum, so I thought maybe there was a change that you guys also used xByte, or knew if it was good or not.
Anyway, I did talk to xByte and they said they can get factory refurbished switches that aren't used, they just have to wait for them to become available first.
-
XByte for servers has been great for most, if not everyone here.
Heck @BRRABill had a most excellent experience with them where he purchased a Dell server with non Dell SSD drives that where supposed to work with Dell server only to run into an issue where they lost data on him ( I think he was lucky and they failed while in testing) and xByte replaced the drives with Dell drives at no additional cost... so yeah, they have a fair amount of goodwill here, but again, around servers.
The price of UBNT switches is so low, with a quality and performance so high, unless you need some feature they don't provide, looking at almost anything else is generally bad IT (IT is about doing what's best for business, not us personally and our time it takes to learn them, etc).
-
FWIW we've never had problems with HP's lifetime warranty for switches regardless of where they were purchased. New, used, refurb....
