Renewing IT Equipment

[Tigris]

Hi guys,


for those of you who are replacing your IT equipment every 2-3 years (when the manufacturer warranty ends), how are you deposing of your old equipment?

 

[Bob Morgan]

My IT man runs a scheme for old kit to go into local schools. Anything u/s goes for salvage.

 

[Tigris]

My IT man runs a scheme for old kit to go into local schools. Anything u/s goes for salvage.

Do you receive any paper work from him/them?

 

[Deleted member 325090]

Do many people really do this?

We replace our equipment when it breaks or stops becoming sufficient to do whatever we need it to do.

Seems an unnecessary waste to simply replace things due to warranties running out.

 

[Bob Morgan]

Do you receive any paper work from him/them?

Yes we do. But, the majority of my equipment (14 Desktop Machines, Server and Mirror Server) are outside of the UK and I follow the Local Rules relating to Depreciated/Retired Assets. Although 'Value' is minimal, the Fines for non-compliance are heavy.

Each machine has a Log Book - Covering Software, Upgrades, Repairs/Maintenance and Costs, etc. When a machine is 'Retired,' an Invoice is raised, for a Token Value however, no money changes hands. The 'Headline Sheet' from the Log Book (Serial Numbers, etc.) is attached to the Invoice.

 

[Bob Morgan]

Do many people really do this?

We replace our equipment when it breaks or stops becoming sufficient to do whatever we need it to do.

Seems an unnecessary waste to simply replace things due to warranties running out.

I'm just the same. All of our IT Kit is relatively long-lived.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Do many people really do this?

Depends if you mean people = small business or bigger businesses / cooperation's.

For the first it depends how clued the owner is. I personally found Solicitors and Accountants to run the hardware to the bitter end. Sitting on old intel P4 hardware that's more a storage heater than a calculator and need 15 minutes to boot and minutes to open an app. Energy cost and loss of productivity is more much higher than replacing it with new tech. They still use old tech. I see many accounting firms and solicitors not even using dual screens. If it would be me they would have 3 x 32" monitors to increase workflow instead of switching on a small monitor between apps. Workflow productivity would be through the roof but nope they sit behind single old 20" screens.

For cooperation's most are on 3- 5 year contracts with Dell, Lenovo and HP and use it in the most cost effective tax way. They either lease, purchase hire or are on payment plans to predict their ongoing costs much better and reduce downtime. For mission critical tech they would replace on the dot.

For smaller businesses and larger ones that uses expensive skilled labour where waiting / calculation / render times can make a change early replacement of good workstations can be 2 years or less.

With the likes of any special staff e.g game dev, graphics , video editors even if a workstation that cost 10k bought 2 years ago replaced with a new shaving off let's say 15min / day waiting time this would makes sense.

For example saving 15min a day buying a new workstation for specialist hired staff £100 / hour that's about £12500 over 2 years in waisted down / wait time. If they buy at 10K a new workstation around 18 months we can already see a cost / break even point. This will get really bad in year 3 having the old workstation.

No opinion on office desktops how often to replace them but I'd put energy consumption and speed in consideration and run it against that.

Most manufactures pretty much made sure that with fitting cheap crappy SSD's that a 2/3 cycle for failures is backed in.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

This can be compared with people doing proper maintenance incl. pre-emptive on their car.

Some people are religious about this and some others run it into the ground.

I normally have my whip serviced and kept in mint condition so things like battery failure when it gets colds or breakdown risk are much lower. But last year I got to chumy a bit and paid the price. 2 tires were slowly on their way out still well within legal req. but about time to get changed. Could even feel it. Looking at my tires in Dec 2022 I knew they need to be replaced soon.

Well, noticed on the 1st Jan, 1 is loosing pressure fast and I needed replacement right away. Went online 2nd Jan and all was closed I spend half a day lost in productivity to find a place that can replace my front tires.

If I would have replaced them in Nov/ Dec on my own chosen date and time I'd not have lost half a day calling around , sweet talking to get it sorted on a bank Holliday.

Same for computers they can smell and feel to breakdown at the worst possible moment when no stock is available either on a very bust day.

 

[IanSuth]

My son used to do holiday work at a company caller Charterhouse Muller, they do secure asset disposal with certification of your data being scrubbed etc

 

[DontAsk]

Do many people really do this?

When I worked for large multi-nationals our PCs were refreshed every 3 years. Nothing to do with warranty, though, we needed it to keep up with software requirements.

Some would go down the food chain to admins but we used to get some real bargains when slightly older stuff was auctioned off. Then the suits got involved and declared everything had to be securely recycled. Everything, not just the disks.

 

[IanSuth]

When I worked for large multi-nationals our PCs were refreshed every 3 years. Nothing to do with warranty, though, we needed it to keep up with software requirements.

Some would go down the food chain to admins but we used to get some real bargains when slightly older stuff was auctioned off. Then the suits got involved and declared everything had to be securely recycled. Everything, not just the disks.

I know a man who ended up inside over this

Back in the mid 90's when memory chip theft was big he worked for a 3rd party support co' onsite at a large IT firm, he was decommissioning old machines and imaging new ones. He was told by his supervisor he could have anything redundant he wanted that wasn't hard disks.

As he was on 1st job money he took a few diskless machines, bought new disks, added memory, loaded with windows and sold them to a local 2nd hand pc shop (when such places existed).

They were checked by plod for stolen gear on a tip off, when nothing obvious was found the investigating officer ran down every serial number. The large IT company was rung, said "no those were meant to be destroyed so theft", supervisor at 3rd party firm denied every giving permission (in truth he likely would have said no if he knew parts might end up for sale).
Due in court lawyer said "plead not guilty explain what happened and worse case judge will give you a suspended, most likely you will be found not guilty as no intent and you believed you were allowed to take rather than skip." Just beforehand there was a large armed robbery for chips quite locally and a security guard was injured. Judge threw the book at him and he got 3mths despite no prior record.

 

[Derekde]

our used IT equipment goes for salvage