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

[PaulyD]

Quick question. I currently have 8GB of Corsair Vengence Low Profile 1600Mhz 9-9-9-24 RAM in my PC. As I will be looking to upgrade the RAM in the HP could I move this RAM into it with no issues and then upgrade the RAM on my PC to something faster?

Anyone know the answer to this?

Also, do HP always run the cashback offer on this? Currently it looks like it ends this month but seems they often offer the £100 cashback. Was hoping to buy end of this month but now it will be end of December (damn christmas shopping!)

 

[alfalavala]

Anyone know the answer to this?

Also, do HP always run the cashback offer on this? Currently it looks like it ends this month but seems they often offer the £100 cashback. Was hoping to buy end of this month but now it will be end of December (damn christmas shopping!)

99% chance of the RAM working fine. - in my opinion.

HP have extended this offer for....a long time. I think I bought mine March this year and cashback was due to end in April! I think it's been continuous since the N36L was released about 2 years ago. So again, high confidence it'll be going next month.

 

[Danny091]

As for the raid question, would you be better using windows 8 and going the drive pool route?

 

[alfalavala]

As for the raid question, would you be better using windows 8 and going the drive pool route?

It looks good for the average home user...but:

Windows 8 Storage Spaces papers over some previous shortcomings, but does not solve a limit on the total TB that a file system can store, which is 16TB. It still lacks double or triple parity RAID, which means your data is at risk since the odds of two failures on a RAID group, and data loss, increases with large drives that take more time to rebuild. There is also no ability to snapshot and replicate your data. Finally, there is no end-to-end data integrity.

Someone testing it out

 

[PaulyD]

99% chance of the RAM working fine. - in my opinion.

HP have extended this offer for....a long time. I think I bought mine March this year and cashback was due to end in April! I think it's been continuous since the N36L was released about 2 years ago. So again, high confidence it'll be going next month.

Excellent, thanks for the info

 

[darkblade]

-If I want to install an SSD and WHS 2011 on there as my boot drive will I need a modded bios or will it be able to run the install ok?

The WHS 2011 installation requires a 160GB+ boot drive - not in terms of physical space, it just wants and checks for this as part of the install. There are ways around it, but it is a little fiddly.

 

[TruffleShuffle]

argh PITA !

So i thought tongiht i would sit down and play my first ever Blu-ray. Nope.

First off i have windows 8 Pro and had installed the free Media Centre, thinking this would play Blu-rays.. Nope.

So i ran VLC and that just fired up errors. After an hour following online guides to get it working , it was still giving me errors. Nope.

So i did a bit of googling and downloaded iDeer, Blu-ray player. Except i straight away noticed the huge TRIAL watermark on the screen. Happy that i had at least found a Win 8 Blu-ray player, i paid over £40 and got a license jkey. Except now on running the Blu-Ray, it stutters continuously so the film is unwatchable.

I'm now about to try ArcSoft Total Media, and we'll see if that's any better.

PS. I have put a 2 Gig Radion 5750 ( ith ink it was) GFX card in, and 8 gig of ram.

 

[mctiny]

argh PITA !

So i thought tongiht i would sit down and play my first ever Blu-ray. Nope.

First off i have windows 8 Pro and had installed the free Media Centre, thinking this would play Blu-rays.. Nope.

So i ran VLC and that just fired up errors. After an hour following online guides to get it working , it was still giving me errors. Nope.

So i did a bit of googling and downloaded iDeer, Blu-ray player. Except i straight away noticed the huge TRIAL watermark on the screen. Happy that i had at least found a Win 8 Blu-ray player, i paid over £40 and got a license jkey. Except now on running the Blu-Ray, it stutters continuously so the film is unwatchable.

I'm now about to try ArcSoft Total Media, and we'll see if that's any better.

PS. I have put a 2 Gig Radion 5750 ( ith ink it was) GFX card in, and 8 gig of ram.

Are you having any other issues with Win 8 pro + MC?

Sorry I'can't help about the Blu-ray side of things...

 

[SoundsGood]

What's everyone using for temperature monitoring? I've just stuck mine in a cupboard which worries me slightly.

Also just finished rebuilding it on Windows Server 2012 Datacenter with a new SSD

 

[steveo]

The WHS 2011 installation requires a 160GB+ boot drive - not in terms of physical space, it just wants and checks for this as part of the install. There are ways around it, but it is a little fiddly.

after the install is there a way to clone the drive with the whs install on to a 128gb ssd instead of installing to the ssd before hand i tried to install whs to the ssd when i first got it using the config method (think thats what it was) but it didnt work

 

[Cool Breeze]

Mines currently in a cuboard, door closed, has 5 Hdd's in it all beit greens, using core temp to monitor temperatures and currently at 42 degs on both cores. When transcoding or unzipping files (NZB's) never seen it hit over 52.

So they run well in low vented areas it seems.

 

[Vimes]

My N40L is due for delivery on Monday and I intend to move my 4x2TB Green drives from my HTPC and pop them in there and use the 250GB drive for the OS, once I flash the BIOS with the modified update.
I'm not sure on what OS to use as yet, so I'll have a think about that.
All that I need the server for is to share the media files, mainly with my HTPC (XBMC on Win 8 pro) or with a Smart TV connected to the LAN, and also act as a local backup - other PC's in the house have W8. It will be squirrelled away in the loft.

I believe that S3 sleep does not work but hibernate does...? So I'm hoping that something like Lights Out will be working ok with it as I do not see the point of having the server running for the long periods of time that it will not be needed. I am hoping that either LO or the hibernate function will work for both switching it off and, more importantly, be able to activate it when and as needed.

For the money and the features it just seemed too good a buy to miss.

 

[celliott]

After a lot of faffing about I'm now setup with 6x 3TB Red's, one extra drive connected to the onboard SATA, the other the ESATA port. Using the modified bios all drives get a healthy 130MB/sec!

Very impressed with these drives, all at 30c and the two mounted in the ODD bay which have no ventilation whatsoever on 36c during load too

 

[SoundsGood]

Mines currently in a cuboard, door closed, has 5 Hdd's in it all beit greens, using core temp to monitor temperatures and currently at 42 degs on both cores. When transcoding or unzipping files (NZB's) never seen it hit over 52.

So they run well in low vented areas it seems.

Hmm.. mine's idling at 53 degrees, 2 minutes of prime95 has taken it to 63 degrees..... time to cut some holes I think.

 

[nantucket66]

Well I've taken the plunge and ordered the N40L, some memory, WHS 2011 and a few other bits and bobs. I've not ordered any drives yet but will get round to it next week.

If I put the 250GB drive in the optical bay to run WHS on it do I need flash
the bios first?

I'm intending to put in 4 x 3tb WD red, I'll have external back up on USB drives but also want to run raid for a bit of redundancy.

To get the most out of the storage raid 5 makes the most sense. I know through reading the N40L can't do this but WHS can? Is that right? Or would I be better using Flexraid, or a separate card?

 

[TruffleShuffle]

Are you having any other issues with Win 8 pro + MC?

Sorry I'can't help about the Blu-ray side of things...

looks like the problem was the Bu-Ray software, will try to get a refund. Dont buy iDeer Blu-Ray Player, its rubbish.

I ended up using Arcsoft Total Media Theatre and it ran smooth and well.

I havent really used Media Centre much, this was the first time i launched it, and it couldnt play Blu-Ray's so i'm not sure i'll have much use for it!

 

[iamtheoneneo]

so over the weekend i got rid of exsi and just went whs2011 - 100% better and my life is happier now.

its nice to just stick in drives and have them work, just need to sort out itunes and life is good.

 

[knowlesy]

has anyone had any luck with installing server 2012 on it and if so whats its performance like ?

 

[decmatt]

has anyone had any luck with installing server 2012 on it and if so whats its performance like ?

Yep - works great, I find remote desktoping in a lot, lot better!

Really happy I went from 2008R2 to 2012.

 

[Uhtred]

has anyone had any luck with installing server 2012 on it and if so whats its performance like ?

I've got it going on esxi with 2gb of ram allocated and it's pretty snappy to be honest.