The processors are usually the largest single line in a server valuation, and the one most often described in a way that makes pricing impossible. "Two Xeon Gold" could be a 3104 or a 6258R, and that difference is most of the value of the machine they are sitting in.
What we buy
| Family | Examples | Socket | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xeon Scalable 4th / 5th gen Sapphire Rapids, Emerald Rapids | Platinum 8592+, Gold 6448Y, Gold 5416S, Silver 4410Y | LGA4677 | Strongest demand. Give the exact suffix. |
| Xeon Scalable 3rd gen Ice Lake | Platinum 8358, Gold 6338, Gold 5318Y, Silver 4314 | LGA4189 | Volume seller. |
| Xeon Scalable 1st / 2nd gen Skylake, Cascade Lake | Platinum 8280, Gold 6248R, Gold 6138, Silver 4110 | LGA3647 | R-suffix parts carry a premium. |
| AMD EPYC Rome, Milan, Genoa | 7742, 7543, 7413, 9354, 9654 | SP3 / SP5 | Check for vendor lock — see below. |
| Xeon E5-2600 v3 / v4 Haswell, Broadwell | E5-2699 v4, E5-2690 v4, E5-2680 v4 | LGA2011-3 | High-core-count v4 parts still hold value. |
Earlier generations are not something we are currently buying on their own. If they are fitted in machines you are selling whole, that is a different matter — send the list and we will tell you where they land.
Read the part number, not the family
Within one generation the spread from bottom to top is enormous. A Xeon Silver 4108 and a Xeon Platinum 8180 launched the same year, fit the same socket and run on the same board. They are not remotely the same money.
The part number is printed across the heat spreader. If the processors are still in a working
machine it is far quicker to read them out of iDRAC, iLO or lscpu than to take the
heatsinks off.
Two things that catch people out
- Vendor-locked EPYC. AMD EPYC processors can be permanently fused to one manufacturer's platform the first time they boot. A locked chip will not post in another manufacturer's board, and it cannot be undone. Tell us which machine a chip has run in, or tell us you do not know — either is better than finding out later.
- Carriers and pins. On Intel LGA parts the pins are in the board, so a loose processor is relatively robust. AMD SP3 and SP5 parts ship in a carrier frame, and chips sent without it are harder to place. Keep carriers and plastic covers with the chips.
Still in the servers? Leave them there. We price the machine with the processors in it, and that is almost always the better number.
Send your listWhat we do not buy
We buy processors that were working when they came out of service, because we sell them on to be used again. We do not buy chips that are faulty, untested, or that have visible socket damage. Bent pins on an AMD part should be declared — they are sometimes recoverable, but the price reflects it.
How the sale runs
- Send the part numbers and quantities. A photo of the chips face-up works — the part number is legible across the heat spreader.
- We price per processor, in writing, usually within one working day.
- We take care of transport. Free and insured across our coverage countries.
- You get paid in euro by SEPA transfer once the delivery is checked in.
Selling the rest of the machine as well? See Server memory for memory, Server GPUs for accelerators, or Dell PowerEdge servers for whole servers.