What the CPUs are worth

Server processors are the part of a machine most likely to be misjudged on the way out. They are small, they look interchangeable, and the model numbers are deliberately unhelpful. But the gap between an entry-level part and a high-core-count one in the same family is very wide, and it is worth ten minutes to find out which you have.

Intel: the two eras

Xeon E5-2600 — the v1 to v4 era

Everything before 2017. The naming is straightforward once you see it: an E5-2680 v4 is a dual-socket-capable part, and the v4 is the generation.

Value here is modest and concentrated in the higher core counts. A 22-core v4 is still worth something; a quad-core v2 is worth very little on its own. In practice we price these as part of the machine rather than separately, unless you have them loose in quantity.

Xeon Scalable — 2017 onward

This is where the naming changed and got harder to read. A Gold 6248R breaks down as a tier (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) and a four-digit number where the second digit is the generation.

Two quirks worth knowing, because both are worth money:

• The R suffix (as in Gold 6248R) marks the refresh parts Intel released partway through the Cascade Lake run. They generally offer more cores or higher clocks than the non-R part of the same number and are worth more.
• Platinum 8-series parts sit well above the Gold line, and a pair of them can account for a large share of a machine's total value on their own.

AMD EPYC

EPYC numbering is cleaner: the last digit is the generation, so a 7742 is second-generation and a 9654 is fourth.

The thing that catches people out with EPYC is core density. A single-socket EPYC machine can carry more cores than a dual-socket Intel one of the same era, so a "one CPU fitted" note on an asset list means something very different here. If you have EPYC hardware, always send the actual part number rather than the socket count.

What actually moves the price

• Generation — same as with whole servers, and for the same reason. Demand follows what people still want in production.
• Core count — the dominant factor within any one family. The spread between the bottom and top of a single generation is large.
• Tier — Platinum above Gold, Gold well above Silver and Bronze.
• Matched pairs — two identical CPUs out of the same machine are worth more together than two odd ones, because they can go straight into a dual-socket build.
• Whether they are still in the board — see below.

There is also a practical risk: bent socket pins. An LGA socket with damaged pins turns a working board into a dead one, and it happens easily when CPUs are removed in a hurry during a decommission. If you are not certain, leave them where they are.

Loose processors

We do buy CPUs on their own — trays of pulls from a rebuild, spares out of a stores cupboard, or the leftovers after a board swap. For loose parts the useful information is the exact model number (the full string, including any R suffix), the quantity, and whether they are matched sets.

If they are still in original trays, say so. If they are loose in an anti-static bag, that is fine too — just tell us the condition honestly and we will price on that basis.

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