Refurbished Servers - Posts

HPE ProLiant Generations Explained: Gen8 to Gen11 (2026)

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Oct 6th 2026

HPE does not publish an open end-of-life date for a ProLiant server. Its end-of-life notice for the DL360 and DL380 Gen10 is a Product Change Notification behind an HPE Support Center sign-in, under a title marked “(Revision)”; what was revised is behind the sign-in too. What H … read more

Dell PowerEdge Generations Explained: R620 to R760 (2026)

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Oct 1st 2026

Dell does not publish an end-of-life date for a PowerEdge server. Asked on Dell’s own forum, a Dell community moderator answered on August 24, 2023: “There isn’t any documented information for End of Life and End of Support Life on PowerEdge servers.&rdqu … read more

RAID Controllers in 2026: PERC, Smart Array, HBA vs RAID

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Sep 22nd 2026

Two Dell cards, one chip. The PERC H330 and the HBA330 are both LSI SAS3008, and Dell prints a queue depth for each in its own user guide: 895 for the PERC, 9,548 for the HBA. Same silicon, different firmware, a 10.7× gap — and those two numbers settle the most repe … read more

Section 179 in 2026: Deduct Refurbished Servers by Dec 31

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Sep 5th 2026

For a calendar-year business, the 2026 tax numbers are already on paper. Under Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (October 9, 2025), the Section 179 expensing cap for tax years beginning in 2026 is $2,560,000, phasing out once the Section 179 property placed in service during th … read more

Intel Xeon Generations Explained: What to Buy Used in 2026

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Sep 5th 2026

Correction and update, September 27, 2026. Intel has ended servicing updates for the older half of this ladder: its servicing page dates End of Servicing Updates to December 31, 2021 for the Xeon E5 v3, June 30, 2022 for the E5 v4, December 31, 2023 for first-gen … read more

Best Used Server for Home Lab 2026: Noise, Watts, Real Prices

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Sep 2nd 2026

The 2026 home lab has settled into a recognizable stack. Proxmox is still the most-recommended base in this year's community starter guides, with TrueNAS 27 (correction, October 13, 2026: this line first said TrueNAS 26, the name iXsystems dropped on October 5; 27 is a release … read more

Fiscal Year-End IT Budget: What Actually Ships by September 30

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Aug 31st 2026

Last September the Pentagon spent $93.4 billion on grants and contracts in a single month — more than any federal agency has ever spent in one month, in records going back to 2008 — and $50.1 billion of it landed in the final five working days. Of that Sep … read more

Server Price Increases 2026: Lead Times and What to Do

Posted by Konstantin Protasov, PCSP on Aug 27th 2026

Open Dell's PowerEdge configurator today and three things hit at once. The starting price is far above what you budgeted last year. The memory options you wanted say “No longer available.” And the build you finally assemble is weeks out, if it is orderable at all. T … read more

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