Good Cheap Server - HP Proliant Microserver 4 BAY - OWNERS THREAD

Soldato
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11 Dec 2004
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Decided not to use the 4 x 2 TB reds and ordered 2 new 4TB drives instead, will run with two empty bays for now.

I've got six reds in total to sell so the cost to change will come to £10.

IMG-20191230-180659.jpg
 
Soldato
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I had the Gen7, the Gen8 was, and still is to many, an amazing bit of kit, by the time that HP had done us over and not dropped a Gen9, then changed how they managed the support side of things, I just built a box based around an i7-3770, 32Gb RAM, 8x 3.5" bays and 2x2.5" bays in a Node 804 case, overkill but if the Gen8 supported 32Gb RAM I'd still have mine..
 
Soldato
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I have posed this question several times but not received an answer. I am running a microserver 8 with the original (2014) BIOS on Windows 7 in ACHI mode with OS on an SSD in bay 1 and 3 non-raided 6GB drives in bays 2, 3, and 4. I do not want to change the mode of operation.

Can I just upgrade to windows 10 using the Microsoft upgrade route (I have used this sucsessfully on my 3 other PCs overs the last few years.) and will it just "work" (i.e. network, graphics, etc)?

Thanks for any advice. Mel
 
Soldato
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I have posed this question several times but not received an answer. I am running a microserver 8 with the original (2014) BIOS on Windows 7 in ACHI mode with OS on an SSD in bay 1 and 3 non-raided 6GB drives in bays 2, 3, and 4. I do not want to change the mode of operation.

Can I just upgrade to windows 10 using the Microsoft upgrade route (I have used this sucsessfully on my 3 other PCs overs the last few years.) and will it just "work" (i.e. network, graphics, etc)?

Thanks for any advice. Mel

Can you? Probably. Ideally update the BIOS (as previously discussed), but if you are genuinely that scared to update the BIOS, then I’d suggest at least reading the release notes for each update to see if any Win10 compatibility fixes were pushed out in the last 6 years. Ironically, that will likely take longer than actually updating it.
 
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Soldato
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Having trouble updating to w10 on my n54l
created a w10 usb with rufus,3 times now bios sees usb but wont boot to it,yes the usb is bootable
Am using the `BAY`bios and my ssd with w7 is working fine on the odd sata port
Nothing i have tried will let me update or fresh install even trying from within w7 desktop
Any ideas please?
Only reason i was going to try this was cos of MS dropping support tomorrow?
Would w7 still work safely if the AV was always up to date?
Its only a DL and dump pc for general rubbish/serving a few files and pcs
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,177
Having trouble updating to w10 on my n54l
created a w10 usb with rufus,3 times now bios sees usb but wont boot to it,yes the usb is bootable
Am using the `BAY`bios and my ssd with w7 is working fine on the odd sata port
Nothing i have tried will let me update or fresh install even trying from within w7 desktop
Any ideas please?
Only reason i was going to try this was cos of MS dropping support tomorrow?
Would w7 still work safely if the AV was always up to date?
Its only a DL and dump pc for general rubbish/serving a few files and pcs

Win7 won’t magically stop working tomorrow, it will stop getting security updates which will mean any newly discovered vulnerabilities will not be patched/mitigated, that makes W7 a soft target. Over time programs will drop compatibility and the W7 user base is still stupidly large considering how much notice everyone has had, the free upgrade path to W10 etc.
 
Soldato
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Well I finally got w10 to install and now damn box won't boot:mad:
I hate this n54 had trouble installing w7 last time too
EDIT
All up and running now....finally
No network port , but was expecting that,using a wireless dongle atm
Anyone recommend a half height gigabit card that will fit and work in the N54 please:)
 
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Associate
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Lonetrek
Have finally managed to get round to dumping a dedicated GFX card in my gen 8 microserver (picked up a Radeon HD6350 for about £6!) which has had a massive impact on the output and it looks awesome.

Next challenge to to upgrade the G1610T. Have got a core i3 2100 spare which will fit and allegedly work. Has anyone had any experience dropping one of these chips into the gen 8 and know if the existing heatsink will be able to keep it cool or will it need to be throttled?
 
Soldato
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From memory you have about 70w of headroom officially and some people have gone higher, due to the way intel quote TDP and power gating being a thing, you can get away with higher depending on how heavy the CPU usage will be, a 1290v2 is technically supported and that’s 89w. HP do offer an updated cooler with more cooling capacity, but it’s not cheap. Either way a 65w i3 2100 will be fine, but consider something with more cores and hardware aes-ni for example may be useful depending on your workload.
 
Associate
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Lonetrek
Thanks, Avalon.

Not expecting huge load as the server doesn't do much. But the i3 will give it a bit more grunt and unlock hardware acceleration for Plex Media Centre.

Will look at some temp monitoring apps which track temp over time to see how the g1610 is performing and then do a swap out if it looks safe :)
 
Soldato
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Thanks, Avalon.

Not expecting huge load as the server doesn't do much. But the i3 will give it a bit more grunt and unlock hardware acceleration for Plex Media Centre.

Will look at some temp monitoring apps which track temp over time to see how the g1610 is performing and then do a swap out if it looks safe :)

I suspect you are in for an unfortunate surprise when it comes to hardware acceleration - the same one Dell R210-II owners face, that ancient onboard GPU disables iGPU use and I haven’t read anything about people being able to utilise an iGPU even though it’s just the hardware encoding features you are trying to use.
 
Associate
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Lonetrek
I suspect you are in for an unfortunate surprise when it comes to hardware acceleration - the same one Dell R210-II owners face, that ancient onboard GPU disables iGPU use and I haven’t read anything about people being able to utilise an iGPU even though it’s just the hardware encoding features you are trying to use.

Would it not utilise the dedicated Radeon hd6350 I installed and ignore the Matrix g200 piece of crap which is onboard?
 
Soldato
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Would it not utilise the dedicated Radeon hd6350 I installed and ignore the Matrix g200 piece of crap which is onboard?

The only transcoding taking place locally should be a remux or audio transcode if you follow the three C’s, also (and I hate to disappoint you twice in a row) modern AMD GPU’s and APU’s suck for hardware transcoding capabilities, ancient AMD GPU’s stand no chance.
 
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