While looking for a used bladecenter server online, I found a website that will take your old server and refurbish it for you then sell it back for a lot less than buying a new or used one. I was not sure how I would be able to take out the existing server though and shut down the office while waiting for the company to refurbish it and then send it back.

I figured that if you found one that could use a little repair and touching up, then you could send them that one and then put it in when you got it back. I could not find a used bladecenter that met the requirements I needed it to, but I did find a used pseries that needed some fixing.

I bought the used pseries and had it shipped to the company that would refurbish it. I got it back about a month later and had it installed into our office to replace our used bladecenter that we bought years ago. I went ahead and sent it in to be refurbished so that we could always have a back up on hand.

I think that between the two servers, and paying for refurbishing and shipping and handling, I still only paid about half of what a brand new server would cost.