Originally Posted by
thebugguy
Interesting thread- thanks all- but I do have a totally lame, naive question... You folks are mostly talking about PC PSUs, not server PSUs, right? The last I checked, my local yard buys your standard desktop tower PSU for $0.15/lb (same as electrical motors) and after doing a little math I've been satisfied with that (though only after clipping off the occasional gold connector first). I ask because I recently "invested" in a stack of HP DL360 and DL380 servers (2002 to 2004) that I've been disassembling and wondering about which parts might be worth re-selling- the PSUs seem like an obvious choice. There aren't a ton of sales on eBay, but even getting a couple bucks per unit might be worth it. For example, I have an HP model PS-3381-1C1 400W PSU pulled from an HP Proliant DL380 sitting in front of me. It clocks in at 3.75 lbs, or $0.56 at my local yard (minus the lovely gold fingers, of course). I'd be willing to spend 15 minutes listing it if I could net even a couple bucks per rather than four bits- this is sane, no?
I can plug these things in and see if the fan comes on, but do I *really* need to plug them into their DC converter and test the various outputs before I can think about selling them? I know, it's probably easy and fast if you have the equipment and technique down (and would be great to claim on eBay), but I don't see that happening any time soon.
TBG, these are the hot-swappable PSUs, right? Do they have a PCB connector that plugs into a DC/DC converter?
The PSUs in the Proliant DL360/DL380 series are actually pretty popular. "R/C" enthusiasts (people who are into radio-controlled model planes, robots, etc.) modify them and use them as power supplies for their battery chargers. They're also one of the ham radio crowd's favorite PSUs. In fact, if you decide to list yours on eBay, you might want to include "R/C" and "radio" in your title so that your listings turn up in searches on those terms.
These are switch-mode PSUs, and to get them to turn on you have to jumper some of the pins. I probably have the pinout in my files here in my computer -- just let me know the exact model(s) you have. If you have a lot of them and want to try testing voltage on all the rails, we can probably rig up something to perform a simple test.
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