The bench notes
Server guides & buying advice
Model comparisons, platform explainers and configuration advice — written from the hardware we refurbish, test and ship every day.
Buying guide
HPE DL360 Gen9 vs Gen10: The 1U Workhorse Compared
Both are 1U, two-socket ProLiants, but the socket, memory controller, NVMe support and management silicon are different. Here is what actually separates a DL360 Gen9 from...
Buying guide
Dell R630 vs R640: Choosing a 1U Compute Node
In 1U, memory bandwidth, thermal headroom and slot count decide the design. A side-by-side look at the Dell PowerEdge R630 and R640 and the workloads each...
Buying guide
HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 vs Gen10: What Actually Changed
The DL380 Gen9 and Gen10 look almost identical in the rack, but the socket, memory channels, storage controllers and management processor all changed. Here is what...
Buying guide
Dell PowerEdge R730xd vs R740xd: Which Generation Should You Buy?
A practical comparison of Dell's 13th- and 14th-generation 2U storage servers: socket, memory channels, drive bays, NVMe support, and iDRAC. Where the R730xd is still the...
server selection
Storage or Server: Where Should Capacity Live?
Capacity can live inside the compute (storage-heavy servers), beside it (shelves), or apart from it (SAN/NAS). Each placement changes failure domains, growth and cost. A decision...
HPE ProLiant
When Blades Make Sense (and When They Do Not)
Blade systems compress astonishing compute into shared chassis - and bind every decision to that chassis afterward. The genuine cases for refurbished blade infrastructure, the assumptions...
Business Server
Choosing CPUs by License Cost, Not Benchmarks
When software bills by core or socket, the CPU decision leaves the benchmark charts and enters the spreadsheet. How per-core licensing reshapes Xeon selection, the high-clock...
refurbished servers
Dell Precision T7920: Dual-Socket Desk Power
The T7920 is server silicon in office clothing: two Xeon Scalable sockets, 24 DIMM slots and space for serious GPUs, engineered to whisper. What the platform...
Server hardware
GPU in a Workstation or GPU in a Server?
The same accelerator lives two very different lives in a Z8 under a desk versus a 2U in a rack. Cooling, noise, power connectors and multi-user...
Business Server
Preparing for Colocation: A Checklist
Colo hands you power, cooling and a network drop - everything else is preparation. Remote management, boot resilience, labeling, spares strategy and the day-one checklist that...
Buying guide
Power Draw in Practice: What a Server Costs to Run
Idle watts, not peak watts, decide the electricity bill - and configuration moves them more than generation does. Real-world draw figures by chassis and build, the...
Performance optimization
The 10GbE Upgrade Path: NICs, Switches and Reality
Gigabit is the bottleneck hiding under most storage complaints. What 10GbE actually changes, the used NICs worth buying (X520, X710, ConnectX), switch options that stopped being...
data security
Hot Spares, Rebuilds and Why RAID Is Not Backup
The dangerous hours in storage are the ones between a drive failing and its replacement finishing. What hot spares actually change, why rebuild windows grew with...