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

Thinking of repurposing my N54L into a HTPC to go behind the Tv,What is the gfx card to go for?
I think it says max of 25W in specs,tried a few 1080P files on the monitor and it was dog slow to play anything
TBH unless you replace the PSU/Fan you will find an N54L far too noisy to be running in a lounge. Better off hosting all your media on the N54L out the way somewhere using something like Emby or Plex, and then just have a firestick or similar device on the TV to play the media via a client app.
 
Thinking of repurposing my N54L into a HTPC to go behind the Tv,What is the gfx card to go for?
I think it says max of 25W in specs,tried a few 1080P files on the monitor and it was dog slow to play anything

My N54L, well mainly, serves as a media server from the loft, nice and quiet. That serves to the home network and from there two TV's have Rasp Pi 4's running LibreElec working fine.
 
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Thanks for all comments :)
My hearing isnt 100% so sound of the fans is not an issue.With that in mind can anyone suggest a gfx card that will be compatible?

Hopefully you will get some help with your gfx card, I have not used one with a low profile that would fit. I'm not try ing to labour the point, perhaps I am in a way, but a Rasp Pi fitted would do all the stuff a typical HTPC would do with a low power and footprint etc when connected to the home network. I know you want the N54L to do that directly, so good luck with that :)
 
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Resurrected my "spare" Gen8 last night. I've been running my "main" PC as an UNRAID box and whilst at first it was a great idea, having that big beast running 24x7 is pretty heavy on the grid. I've moved everything to my spare box and the only snag I have to sort is sticking in a P400 for some basic Plex transcode.
Happy days!
 
Mate’s given me a Gen 10 Plus to mess with. Canny annoying that HPe nerfed PCIe bifurcation support in the firmware, otherwise I’d try it with a couple of NVMe on a PCIe card! Stuck with single SSD for now, but doubt it’ll last long and will probably go in the spares cupboard, as it definitely pulls a bit more power then either an F4-424 Pro or a DS923+
 
Mate’s given me a Gen 10 Plus to mess with. Canny annoying that HPe nerfed PCIe bifurcation support in the firmware, otherwise I’d try it with a couple of NVMe on a PCIe card! Stuck with single SSD for now, but doubt it’ll last long and will probably go in the spares cupboard, as it definitely pulls a bit more power then either an F4-424 Pro or a DS923+

How crazy you feeling? :D
 
Surprised people don't still use the gen7. Its small and holds plenty of drives, ideal for nas and backups
I still use one. Got it for free. does gigabit file transfers, runs as a media server, a minecraft server for my kids and an auto backup for all my photos. I put 16Gb RAM in it and it's quick enough. The fan needs to be replaced though, it's not the quietest.
 
I still use one. Got it for free. does gigabit file transfers, runs as a media server, a minecraft server for my kids and an auto backup for all my photos. I put 16Gb RAM in it and it's quick enough. The fan needs to be replaced though, it's not the quietest.
Check which fan - I had to replace the PSU fan as it was driving me crazy. TBF I think I did replace the main fan too (funky wiring in the plug had to be swapped, be warned).
 
The PSU in my Gen7 died last week, as much as I've been waiting to replace it there just doesn't seem to be anything cheap enough to justify the spend or give enough bang for the buck; so ~£35 and 24 hours later replacement PSU swapped in and all working again.
 
Hey everyone. I’ve got gen8 micro server that has been ticking over happily for years. The SSD I put in the ODD wasn’t very big and don’t have any life left so decide to upgrade. I had been running windows server but decided to move over to windows 10 as had a spare key and also wanted to use NordVPN meshnet to access the server from abroad.

Install all went fine however now for some reason I can’t get full speed out of the NIC. It’s topping out at around 200mbit. I’ve a 900mbit connection so it def should be getting more. My main pc is maxing out the fibre connection so that seems fine. I’ve checked the drivers which seem ok and I’ve also tried changing the Ethernet cable. Not had chance to run iperf yet so that’s my next job but thought I’d message on here and see if anyone has seen anything similar? Have any of you managed to run win10 with no issues? Thanks
 
Win10 runs on mine(gen8) no issues. Seem to remember sound (Matrox) was an slight issue but can't remember how / what resolution was!
 
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I'm about to retire my Gen10 MS after it's been chugging away for about 6.5 years. I had two R1 arrays hanging off a P420 controller - 2TB HD and 500GB SSD. A few months back the VMs on it starting running really slow and I eventually worked out one of the SSDs had died. I ordered a new SSD from OCUK to collect the next morning but overnight the second SSD decided to drop out the array (even though the HP SSA tool reported it was healthy). I spent a while trying to get the VMFS partition on the SSDs back online but without success.

I decided to replaced it with a new setup, so went for a micro ATX build based on an i5-12400. I spent a while looking at RAID options but couldn't bothered with potential faff trying to get older (cheaper!) cards booting properly in UEFI, so I've just shoved in two NVME drives in so VMs are split between them and image the whole server to a USB HD every night. Going from 2 cores at 1.6Ghz with 24GB RAM to 6C/12T and 64GB RAM is nice - VMs fly now, especially if patching anything Windows based.
 
I'm about to retire my Gen10 MS after it's been chugging away for about 6.5 years. I had two R1 arrays hanging off a P420 controller - 2TB HD and 500GB SSD. A few months back the VMs on it starting running really slow and I eventually worked out one of the SSDs had died. I ordered a new SSD from OCUK to collect the next morning but overnight the second SSD decided to drop out the array (even though the HP SSA tool reported it was healthy). I spent a while trying to get the VMFS partition on the SSDs back online but without success.

I decided to replaced it with a new setup, so went for a micro ATX build based on an i5-12400. I spent a while looking at RAID options but couldn't bothered with potential faff trying to get older (cheaper!) cards booting properly in UEFI, so I've just shoved in two NVME drives in so VMs are split between them and image the whole server to a USB HD every night. Going from 2 cores at 1.6Ghz with 24GB RAM to 6C/12T and 64GB RAM is nice - VMs fly now, especially if patching anything Windows based.
How does power consumption compare.

I'm still running a 40NL but only use it for file storage and plex.
 
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