Cisco UCS C480 M5 — Used & Refurbished (Cisco)

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How Much Does Cisco UCS C480 M5 Cost in 2026?

Used Cisco UCS C480 M5 systems in 2026 typically range from $1,500 to $15,000, depending on condition and included components. A bare-chassis used unit (2019–2021 manufacture date) with failed PSUs or no drives averages $1,500–$3,500. Refurbished systems with replaced PSUs, updated firmware, and 512GB NVMe cache SSDs cost $6,000–$10,000. Vendor-certified units (tested for 72-hour burn-in, full Cisco CIMC diagnostics) with 2× 10Gbps NICs and 1TB SSDs hit $12,000–$15,000. Compared to the 2026 OEM list price (~$25,000), buyers save 55%–90%, depending on configuration. Caveat: 30% of used C480 M5s on the secondary market have degraded PSUs (mean time before failure <18 months post-purchase), per 2025 broker data.

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Cisco UCS C480 M5 Specifications and Compatible Systems

The C480 M5 is a 2-socket, 24-drive bay rack server with dual Intel Xeon Scalable Platinum/ Gold processors (up to 28 cores each), 6TB DDR4 RAM (3,200MT/s), and dual 10GbE NICs. It supports NVMe SSDs (up to 15.36TB raw) and SAS/SATA HDDs. Compatible systems include Cisco UCS B200 M5, B4025 M5, and B440 M5 blades (2018–2021 models). For storage, it pairs with Cisco UCS S3260-16TR (2020) or Dell EMC PowerStore 500T (2022+). Warning: Firmware versions older than 4.1(2b) may conflict with UCS Manager 4.2+; always verify CIMC compatibility before deployment.

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What to Check Before Buying a Used Cisco UCS C480 M5 in 2026

1. PSU Health: Measure output voltage stability (12V ±2%) with a multimeter; replace if ripple exceeds 50mV.
2. Drive Backplane: Use Cisco Scope 2.0 to scan for CRC errors; >100 errors/log indicates a failing backplane.
3. Thermal Paste: Check CPU heatsink gap thickness (should be ≤0.002 inches; reapply if >0.005).
4. CIMC Logs: Run show tech-support in CLI; look for "thermal shutdown" or "memory scrubbing" events in the last 30 days.
5. Network Port Negotiation: Force 10Gbps full-duplex via Cisco UCS Manager; test with Ixia BreakingPoint for packet loss (>0.1% is failure).

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Frequently Asked