Raritan DPXS20A-30L6 PDU - why is it so cheap?

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tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
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400
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Japan
Hi guys
Looking around for a good single-phase 200 switched PDU and came across DPXS20A series.
It goes for under 200 bucks on ebay, wondering why. Anyone is aware of some problems with these? For me, as long as it can switch by outlet remotely flawlessly it's a pass. I don't really care about metering( specs also say metered-by-outlet too which is kinda crazy for this price). What's the catch? Just because it's super old and EOL it's this cheap? Since it's gonna be airgapped I really don't care about security issues in firmware either.
APC PDUs with similar specs are way more expensive and generally it's difficult to find metered-and-switched-by-outlet 200V PDU for this price. There are some similarly cheap 3 phase ones but that won't be compatible with my generator.
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
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"For DPCS, DPCR, DPXR and DPXS models, Active Power (Watts) per outlet, instead of Active Energy (kWh), is reported." Maybe the datacenter these came out of are now billing by energy used instead of average power. Also no redundant 1 Gbps networking, only single 10/100 port. Other than that... a steal imho.
 
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tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
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Got 4 of these and they work just fine. They don't measure kWh, at least my firmware, and I'm not reluctant to update it, because it serves the purpose of a switched PDU which is fine for my application. Firmware is old, and SNMP docs are hard to find, I just figured out some variables by reading through the MIB that is served from http server on PDU.
I think APC ones should report/count energy consumption, I'm yet to test them, have a few non-switched and switched units from 8000 series.
 

olhachycher

New Member
Jan 11, 2023
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3
3
The Raritan DPXS20A-30L6 PDU may be priced cheaply for a number of reasons. One possibility is that it is an older model that has been replaced with newer versions, and is being phased out by the manufacturer. Additionally, the DPXS20A series may not be as feature-rich or high-quality as other PDUs on the market, which could also contribute to its lower price point.
Also, you might want to check the warranty provided by the sellers.
 

tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
It is certainly old but so far so good. No warranty, it's used and shipped abroad which costed almost the same amount as PDUs themselves. You can find APC 7000 or 8000 for about the same, i paid ~130 for each, sometimes APC pops up at same or lower prices.
 

Stephan

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Apr 21, 2017
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What manufacturer is the Porsche of PDUs? Cause I need one this year. Should be switched and also metered per port. 1 Phase. Durable.

APC seems ok, but no two ethernet ports.

HPE looks rebadged. And I have my reasons to suspect that whatever they do and sell, it is sub-par.

Rittal 7979.415 is my favorite, but basically not found in used market. As in, not paying 2k.

Vertiv Geist looked like they didn't want me to find out what features they have or what they cost. Yeah, no.

Forgot what my beef with Eaton was, maybe only metered or switched.

Could not find much about CyberPower.
 

NablaSquaredG

Layer 1 Magician
Aug 17, 2020
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What manufacturer is the Porsche of PDUs? Cause I need one this year. Should be switched and also metered per port. 1 Phase. Durable.
Let me know if you find something good ;)

I went with refurbishing two Avocent PM3003V myself... I have been looking for used APC 8653 for AGES, but I haven't seen any in the last two years.
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
920
698
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Germany
@tinfoil3d Two switches in same rack, one fails. Management connection to any device connected to failed switch would now also fail. With redundant ethernet, I can still access the device, because the second switch is still up. I try to avoid single points of failure where I can.
 

tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
@tinfoil3d Two switches in same rack, one fails. Management connection to any device connected to failed switch would now also fail. With redundant ethernet, I can still access the device, because the second switch is still up. I try to avoid single points of failure where I can.
Gotcha. There's a possible ugly solution using a serial console too, for units that only have a single interface.
 

Stephan

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Apr 21, 2017
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I keep a PC Engines APU4D4 around for this purpose, so I can VPN in over 4G and fix things remotely. As long as there is power that is. Good idea to use the serial as well, thanks!
 

tinfoil3d

QSFP28
May 11, 2020
873
400
63
Japan
Serial console is the greatest saver of the day, can't disregard it :cool:
And for power, well, there'r two sources and ATS for those devices that are single-source-only
 
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Stephan

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Apr 21, 2017
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I try to keep everything redundant, but low power and efficient.

Why do you need more than 16A?
 

NablaSquaredG

Layer 1 Magician
Aug 17, 2020
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Why do you need more than 16A?
Because I've got a ton of Xeon 8275CL, Xeon 8259CL (both 240W 255A high TDP AWS OEM SKUs), EPYC 7H12, Tesla P100 and a 2TB quad socket server. Oh, and 100GBit/s Broadcom Tomahawk 2 switches.
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
920
698
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Germany
Wow. Is that for private use or for company? You're in central Germany right? Sounds like I might want to visit some day to chat and check out your gear. ;-)
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
920
698
93
Germany
Nice, nice. You seem to appreciate the value of 240W Cascade Lakes just as much as I do.

I guess should I need more power, I'd just erect a second 19" rack with beefier components. Get two handful surplus 3080s to train a MobileNetV2 to recognize the DHL delivery van or the mistress' car so that the outer gate opens magically and they can drive up. Or train it for enhanced night sky surveying to find the next interstellar rogue comet early so we can intercept it. Or deflect it, to not suffer a K-Pg event and die helpless like the dinosaurs.