HI,
Is there any good providers that will either let you rent-to-own your hardware or pay the hardware cost in the first month? Ideally we would like people who can do high end hardware (dual xeon's etc)

Thanks

Rus

You mean buying the server from the provider and then colocating it with them?

I am also interested in this. I posted about a month ago, but never really got much response.

If you post a request in the requests forum am I sure that some companies will be able to offer you a dual Xeon server on a rent to own basis or if you contact some dedicated/colo providers should there also be a good chance that some can make a special offer for you.

Another option is to sign up for a lease to own program from Dell or another company and get the server colocated.

Originally posted by Mfjp
You mean buying the server from the provider and then colocating it with them?

Basically yes. As we are UK based and would like US servers. Its cheaper to buy there

Rus

Contact paul[AT]rusko.us and he may be able to fix you up with quality hardware on a rent to own or purchase basis.

I know EZZI does and another company did (can anyone help me out here). I'm sure most companies would allow you to buy the server from them and colo it.

DK2 - Sorry to hi-jack for a moment, however, I just want to post a note to all who PM'ed me with offers. I did not post here to request offers, I was simply looking for information (same as DK2). I would then take this information and research the companies as best I could. When I am ready, I will contact you. There is a reason that this was not posted in the advertisment forum.

Anyways, JIM_UK, have you ever had any dealings with Rusko? Your reputation on this board is pretty solid, so I value your opinion on such matters :)

Originally posted by VanHost
Anyways, JIM_UK, have you ever had any dealings with Rusko?

Paul and I have spoken at length a lot of times and I have the paperwork on my desk at the moment for entering into an agreement with Rusko. All the i's should be dotted and the t's crossed this week :)


I also hear that Gnax/dv2 (http://www.gnax.net) are able to offer rent-to-own and are another provider I'm happy to recommend so you may want to check them out.

Originally posted by FanCube
If you post a request in the requests forum am I sure that some companies will be able to offer you a dual Xeon server on a rent to own basis or if you contact some dedicated/colo providers should there also be a good chance that some can make a special offer for you.

Another option is to sign up for a lease to own program from Dell or another company and get the server colocated.

I have to disagree. There have been several requests for "rent-to-own" then colocate in the Requests forum with no response in both private and public. *shrugs*

Since I, too have been interested. But this board have a very low "rent-to-own" info ratio.

thats because there are very few people who actually own the machines (who arnt resellers) who still go to the requests forum.

Good point!

shannara,

that is because we (representatives of companies that own their hardware) mostly dont read the requests forum. contacting companies that offer rent to owns individually may be the best course of action.

paul

Find a provider you like and contact them directly to see if they will customize a rent-to-own package for you. Many hosts will even though they don't advertise it.

I ran across this site looking for a server hope it helps you and others. I would have signed up but 100mbps optic pipe i found for $3000. per month. so i plan on taking a different direction with my company. losts of great deals on t-1's t-3's oc pipes and others.

Oh by the way, you probably want to know where the hell can you get a 100mbps optic pipe for $1000 - 3000$ per month? i found this by tracing route www.serverpronto.com website wondering how the hell they can offer servers for 29$ a month, Yeah, 29 bucks! thats what i said, so i did some research and came across www.cogentco.com. What a deal!!!

anyway, lease to own servers there you go.

www.atjeu.com

Atjeu offers a lease to own program when you get a dedicated server. Here is how it works. When you sign up for a dedicated server, make sure to click the Lease-to-own option. The terms are 1, 2 or 3 years. At the end of your term, you would make one final payment as per the table below and then you own the server. At that point you can go with one of Atjeu's colocation packages or just continue with your regular hosting, but YOU OWN the server!

TERM
1 Year
2 Years
3 Years
Final Payment
15% of the Contract
5% of the Contract
2% of the Contract

Example - lease a $99 dedicated server for 1 year - 12 months x $99 per month. Total contract amount over the year is $1188. After the year is up, you pay one more payment of 15% of the contract amount which is $178.20 and the server is yours!

Originally posted by Brad@RackMy
Find a provider you like and contact them directly to see if they will customize a rent-to-own package for you. Many hosts will even though they don't advertise it.

I will agree with Brad, I have a few times contacted some dedicated providers about rent to own and most will give you a special offer on a rent to own server.

Originally posted by RebelH
After the year is up, you pay one more payment of 15% of the contract amount which is $178.20 and the server is yours!


I don't mean to sound silly, but would the server even be worth $178.20 at the end of the year? I read on another thread that a datacenter (don't know which one) charged $75 to ship the purchased server from the datacenter to the client (there would have to be a fee for this). That would bring the server price to around $250.

I can understand the UK guy wanting to rent to own, but I'm not sure that it makes sense for us standard US people.

Just my thoughts.

I'll play Devil's Advocate here, but do you really want to rent to own? Given the speed at which hardware updates, by the time you pay to own that box it's probably going to be driftwood.

Three years ago we leased 800mhz, 256k RAM, single drive servers and they were pretty snappy. Nowdays they're not even good as desktops. We re-leased and moved accounts to higher feature servers (and again since).

I'm personally not sure why people would want to lease to own.

I guess I see it as...better to have something than nothing :) I don't know though. I like that the burden to have my machines working is on the company I lease from :D

Originally posted by akashik
I'll play Devil's Advocate here, but do you really want to rent to own? Given the speed at which hardware updates, by the time you pay to own that box it's probably going to be driftwood.

Three years ago we leased 800mhz, 256k RAM, single drive servers and they were pretty snappy. Nowdays they're not even good as desktops. We re-leased and moved accounts to higher feature servers (and again since).

I'm personally not sure why people would want to lease to own.

I can understand your point of view, but some companies offers the rent to own model on 3 - 6 months contracts and still considering the speed of the hardware updates is an 3 - 6 month old server in most cases not outdated (of cause does is also depends on what the server is used for).

I rent 3 EZZI RTO boxes with 6 month terms. I just got my 1st shipped to me for $25 shipping and it is a nice desktop. I ordered it in Feb, its a ASUS Terminator, AMD 2100+, 512 SDRAM, 40GB Maxtor, nice desktop box in my mind. My second is on the way if anyone is interested in buying it, hint hint (not an advertisement)

Jeffbg123

if you don't mind me asking, what was the total you paid for setup, hosting, and shipping on that box? I assume that it was an unmanaged server?

I'm just trying to do the math on a normal unmanaged server, versus a RTO box. If they are the same, and EZZI has a good network, I guess it would be a no brainer.

another question -
1U server, or standard desktop case?

Originally posted by DSD
another question -
1U server, or standard desktop case?

The rent to own servers from EZZI are in tower cases.

Originally posted by DSD
I don't mean to sound silly, but would the server even be worth $178.20 at the end of the year? I read on another thread that a datacenter (don't know which one) charged $75 to ship the purchased server from the datacenter to the client (there would have to be a fee for this). That would bring the server price to around $250.

I can understand the UK guy wanting to rent to own, but I'm not sure that it makes sense for us standard US people.

Just my thoughts.

this applies to desktop boxes thrown together in the basements of rackshack. look at all the older sun boxes and mainframes that are still in production and will continue to be - quality holds its value. if you rent to own a supermicro dual xeon box on a 6 or 12 month term, you bet you are getting a good deal and a piece of hardware you can use for a number of years.

paul

Well I rented 3 RTO boxes from them.

1 and 2:
$139 per month + $0 setup for 6 months = $834+ $25 shipping = $859


3:
$89 per month + $200 setup + $25 shipping = $759



They were unmanaged and I never lost money off of selling gameservers.

Any more questions, feel free to catch me on AIM at VertexJeff as I probably wont be checking this forum often. Thanks

Example - lease a $99 dedicated server for 1 year - 12 months x $99 per month. Total contract amount over the year is $1188. After the year is up, you pay one more payment of 15% of the contract amount which is $178.20 and the server is yours!

And by then it's worth about $300

But think of it this way. If you sell game servers or web hosting, you can make money and get a free computer, or even break even and get a free computer. Its just an added incentive that I love.

Does Ezzi do fully managed servers? If I could get a managed server for the same price I'm paying now, then it might be worth it.

What do you all think about leasing servers from dell, and when you have enough cash flow you can cancel it, or a super micro rent to own dual xeon? Which would you recommend?

Whats the URL of this ezzi place and where are they located?

thx!

ezzi.net I've seen some of their resellers in the dedicated offers section, offering servers for RTO, and that one reseller offers a fully managed solution.

rent to owns on desktop-case 'servers' are useless, imho. where are you going to collocate them after the rent to own term? sure, you could leave them with that company. or you could move them to a couple other crap providers that do tower colo. nice set of choices there. but then again, its not really a 'server', if you run a business off of a desktop amd you arent likely to care about the quality of the provider either.

disclaimer: i am biased since we do rent to own deals on high end gear for some clients, so i will flame substandard hw on substandard bw mercilessly. within my rights, by the way, since im just putting my mouth where my money is.

rogelio: you can *not* just 'cancel' a lease. you have to finish it and most of the time you can not pay off the principle prematurely (only principle + interest). dell boxes are overpriced and not *that* great.

paul

Originally posted by rusko
rent to owns on desktop-case 'servers' are useless, imho. where are you going to collocate them after the rent to own term? sure, you could leave them with that company. or you could move them to a couple other crap providers that do tower colo. nice set of choices there. but then again, its not really a 'server', if you run a business off of a desktop amd you arent likely to care about the quality of the provider either.


I can understand your point of view from a business view, but I see the rent to own offers a s a good solution to private use and in some cases small business and other cases where only a few sites and services will be hosted.

It is also more common that you can get a tower coloed so I do not agree that only "crappy" providers are offering colo of tower based servers, but in some cases will it be more expensive compared to a 1U server.

any provider that puts a tower in the same rack as my rackmount will lose my business, its as simple as that. if they have bread racks lined up against a liebert, its a different matter. but then again, most dont =]

paul

Out of curiousity, how (from a business standpoint, or a customer standpoint..) do you price Rent-to-own servers in order to justify it and make it a good deal for both the customer and the business? Feel free to PM your opinions on this :)

nick,

i will comment here, partly because i think my comments would be useful to those who search the archives later and partly because it is high time that a sustainable and financially sane business model is promoted a bit on WHT (notice the juxtaposition with almost all rent to own providers that are known on these fora).

the way we price rent to owns will not seem like a good deal to *every* customer. people that think ezzi is a good deal we dont deal with. it may sound arrogant, but we target the high end integrated solutions market and would not be caught dead buying hardware like that, let alone putting it into our rack or renting it to clients.

normally, i will put together a system config that will work best for the client (usually a supermicro chassis dual xeon box) and generate a quote that takes into account the rent to own term, upfront fees etc. naturally, part of the costs go towards interest on our upfront investment in the hardware. the quotes are highly personalized of course and can vary depending on how well the system holds value from our perspective. in other words, a 4U NAS appliance with raid 10 and 12 SCSI drives would not hold value as well as a supermicro 1u dual xeon scsi box.

people who are experienced enough to put an appropriate emphasis on the quality of hardware and the connectivity, without fail, see the value proposition. this is a great way to get a top of the line box with little upfront investment; the advantages of not hampering your cashflow with a high ticket equipment purchase far outweigh the small premium placed on the systems vis a vis an upfront purchase. those who pay attention to their tax planning *may* see an advantage in *possibly* being able to write the fees off as a business expense. please note the emphasis on may and possibly - i am not an accountant and can not, by virtue of law or ethics, make definitive statements with respect to tax regulations.

in terms of it being worthwhile for us, i cant complain. we already do what i term 'managed collocation', where we supply (for purchase) the servers, switching and routing equipment as well as colo space and bandwidth. this is where the 'integrated solution' comes in - the customer gets his colo setup from one company, at a good price,fully functional, configured and ready for use with no ordering and shipping hassles and with a full guarantee of quality. doing rent to owns, which is just a form of a lease with a physical lien, is just a step away from this.

paul

Well said Paul...

Originally posted by rusko
rent to owns on desktop-case 'servers' are useless, imho. where are you going to collocate them after the rent to own term? sure, you could leave them with that company. or you could move them to a couple other crap providers that do tower colo. nice set of choices there. but then again, its not really a 'server', if you run a business off of a desktop amd you arent likely to care about the quality of the provider either.

I don't see the problem with using a desktop as a server. Most of the parts I use in my rackmounts are standard stuff that'd fit just as well in a desktop case (better actually...with all the extra room). Plus airflow can be better in a desktop (I say "can" because it's possible to have a 1U server with great airflow, and a desktop with horrible airflow). Then again I build my own desktops too...if you liken "desktop" to something I can go down to Wal-Mart or OfficeDepot to buy...then yes I agree with everything you say.

And I see no reason to not colocate them with the original provider long as the service was good. If the service wasn't good, you probably would have cancelled in the first couple months anyways.

Originally posted by LinuxRigs
I don't see the problem with using a desktop as a server.

no offense, but this is why you would not be within our target market.


Most of the parts I use in my rackmounts are standard stuff that'd fit just as well in a desktop case (better actually...with all the extra room).


case in point. 'standard stuff' has no business in a real server. there is a reason it is 'standard stuff' and not 'server stuff'.


And I see no reason to not colocate them with the original provider long as the service was good. If the service wasn't good, you probably would have cancelled in the first couple months anyways.

a whole bunch of desktops side by side, all pumping heat. this just screams stability.

<disclaimer> nothing personal, i just happen to have a strong opinion on this matter </disclaimer>

paul

What would pump out more heat...a rack full of 1U servers or a rack full of desktops? Assuming general specs are the same my bet is on the 1U servers...simply because there's more of them. That would seem to suggest, that heat would be less of an issue with a rack full of desktops, than a rack full of 1U servers.

i *really* dont want to get into this argument. the power supplies are different, the way air is being taken in and blown out is different, the way the heat is dissipated is different. when i say different, what i mean is that towers are designed to be placed in an environment that is the opposite of the environment a datacenter provides. since you are placing a 'bet' and 'assuming', i would presume that you did not see a breadrack full of towers and had a chance to compare it with a rack with rackmounts in it.

the only way to end this argument is for me to embark on a chest thumping crusade saying how ive seen this and experienced that and perhaps offering a coarse explanation of how cooling works. its late, ive mentioned what i do enough in this thread and the rest should be reasonably obvious. we will have to agree to disagree on this one, at least until you have a chance to gain some empirical evidence, which will support my claims.

paul