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

kae2 · 6 Mar 2011 at 22:28

CraigN said:
mines near silent with no disks in

it will be the hard disks that make noise with the samsungs i have in mine as well as the original 160gb its far from silent. Mine lives in another room however

Agreed. Mine spin down when not in use, so it's just the fan whirring away in mine

Nikumba · 6 Mar 2011 at 22:33

ought said:
I am still really struggling to get mine running with XBMC. I have given up on Ubuntu as that was trouble and am going to try WHS again.

Before I completely reinstall, a stupid question. I have installed an Asus nvidia G210 which I just can not get to work with video, every time I try to play one I get a blue screen. Am I right to be using 32bit XP drivers for WHS?

Thanks ;o)

What problems were you having as I am running a G210 on Ubuntu 10.10 with XBMC and works without an issue

Kimbie

Demon · 6 Mar 2011 at 23:09

I've just been measuring 2 of the Microservers and been quite happy..

With the supplied 250Gb HDD on the spare Sata port, it draws 28.2W, on load it rises to 32W, and has peaked at 38W with both cores max'd out, each HDD I add (2TB WD) has added 4-5W when spun up, and not measurable when spun down..

As for noise, it is very quiet, but not silent, although it's quieter then my PS3 slim by some margin, and a little bit more then my xbox 360s if that helps..

Where does the processor lie in terms of relative performance? I've pretty amazed by it's performance in WHS, I really was expecting it to be dog slow, but far from it..

kingofbeans · 7 Mar 2011 at 13:05

There must be variation in noise level for people microservers because mine id definitely not quieter than my ps3 slim! It is a bareable fan whirr similar noise to my dads new i7 dell PC or a reasonable data (not home theatre) projector... So maybe 35dB or so.

a1ex2001 · 7 Mar 2011 at 14:52

Mine is very quiet, I wouldn't sleep in the same room as it but then I couldn't sleep in a room with a passive mini-itx server where then only noise was the hard drive. I like it real quiet, I'd certainly say it makes no more noise than my acer revo in use and I wouldn't be adverse to having it in a TV room as you wouldn't notice it under normal watching volumes.

kingofbeans · 7 Mar 2011 at 18:15

Odd. I have a revo in the same room as my microserver and the revo is very very near silent but the microserver has the constant whirr of a fan! Big difference in mine!

chenko · 7 Mar 2011 at 20:50

Sorry to bring this up again.

Anyone using the eSATA at all? Does it hotplug or require a restart for you? And which OSes have you used?

I've tried it with and without the internal SATA (for the ODD bay) in use, thinking some how they might be shared - and I know the internal SATA isn't hotplug capable so tried a restart with the eSATA port (although it seems stupid to need to restart to use a eSATA port).

Tried 2 different drives too, as I was at first using the 250gb drive that came with it, which doesn't itself work in my desktop pc :/

bremen1874 · 8 Mar 2011 at 01:02

chenko said:
Sorry to bring this up again.

Anyone using the eSATA at all? Does it hotplug or require a restart for you? And which OSes have you used?

I've tried it with and without the internal SATA (for the ODD bay) in use, thinking some how they might be shared - and I know the internal SATA isn't hotplug capable so tried a restart with the eSATA port (although it seems stupid to need to restart to use a eSATA port).

Tried 2 different drives too, as I was at first using the 250gb drive that came with it, which doesn't itself work in my desktop pc :/

Hotplug didn't work when I tried it (Server 2008 R2).

If I remember correctly the eSATA connection is paired with the internal SATA connection. Both of these connections are limited to IDE emulation so hotplug isn't an option.

I did look at the chipset information, and it should be capable of supporting AHCI (and therefore hotplug) on the connections used. HP seem to have decided to implement them as IDE only. I'm hoping this is something they can/will correct with a BIOS update.

Demon · 8 Mar 2011 at 07:59

bremen1874 said:
Hotplug didn't work when I tried it (Server 2008 R2).

If I remember correctly the eSATA connection is paired with the internal SATA connection. Both of these connections are limited to IDE emulation so hotplug isn't an option.

I did look at the chipset information, and it should be capable of supporting AHCI (and therefore hotplug) on the connections used. HP seem to have decided to implement them as IDE only. I'm hoping this is something they can/will correct with a BIOS update.

There is a patched bios doing the rounds that enables the two spare Sata as AHCI. I've no idea if that will improve the eSata hotplug connectivity..

source: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036824562

chenko · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:52

Seems very strange that you'd have a "non hot plug", eSATA port.

Being paired is sad too, how do they expect someone to use the eSATA with an optical drive in, reboot. Silly really.

The link above mentions 5 and 6th ports - so to me that sounds like they are separate.

I'm going to give it a bit and see how HP deals with it, as I don't want to have to reboot too often and I'd rather keep an official one on, even if it involves waiting. Does HP know about this "problem" though?

I'm going to be adding a DAS unit with its own PCIe SATA card so I won't need these later on, just handy for now as I want 6 drives for now

I ran hdparm on my drives, 2x2tb and 2x750gb in the front and 1x750gb in the ODD top port... the models match. The speed though from the top bay is higher than the front lot for me.

Anyone using alternative network cards? the onboard is okay, though I am considering a dual port to use with LACP (10gbit is a bit too far off yet personally).

Demon · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:34

A new bios has been released, according to Wegotserved, it now supports AHCI on internal/external SATA
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...wEnvOID=4064&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=2

chenko · 8 Mar 2011 at 13:40

See... I knew it was worth waiting

Why isn't it in the change log though?

bremen1874 · 8 Mar 2011 at 19:25

Being paired is sad too, how do they expect someone to use the eSATA with an optical drive in, reboot. Silly really.

The link above mentions 5 and 6th ports - so to me that sounds like they are separate.

Paired, not shared.

Bungral · 8 Mar 2011 at 21:03

Hi all,

First post on here but I was told to come here to check if you guys can answer my question regarding the HP Microserver.

I received mine yesterday and will be setting it up as a NAS / HTPC but have been exploring ways to incoporate a hardware RAID card.

I've looked and looked but can't find a definitive answer.

Can the PCI-E 4x port be used for a RAID card?

I know the backplate wont reach the IO but that isn't an issue. Also I know it's only PCI-E first gen rather than 2.0.

But 4 lanes of first gen provides twice the bandwidth of 1 second gen lane correct?

It would also make finding a suitable RAID card much easier.

chenko · 8 Mar 2011 at 21:15

I've tried the 2 BIOS's

HP - flashed, booted and tried to plug a drive into the esata. Nothing.

Russian/AHCI - flashed, booted and tried to plug the drive in again, nothing.

Rebooted whilst the drive was in, nothing either.

I forgot to look at the bios, in there under AHCI there are 6 drives, 0 to 5, 0 to 3 have my front drives in. Port 4 and 5 show nothing, even though at the time I had a drive plugged into the "ODD" port (and the drive is working there).

bremen1874 said:
Paired, not shared.

Okay, I read it wrong.

bremen1874 · 9 Mar 2011 at 01:02

I've flashed the latest offical HP BIOS and can't see any AHCI related changes.

Nikumba · 9 Mar 2011 at 08:12

Bungral said:
Hi all,

First post on here but I was told to come here to check if you guys can answer my question regarding the HP Microserver.

I received mine yesterday and will be setting it up as a NAS / HTPC but have been exploring ways to incoporate a hardware RAID card.

I've looked and looked but can't find a definitive answer.

Can the PCI-E 4x port be used for a RAID card?

I know the backplate wont reach the IO but that isn't an issue. Also I know it's only PCI-E first gen rather than 2.0.

But 4 lanes of first gen provides twice the bandwidth of 1 second gen lane correct?

It would also make finding a suitable RAID card much easier.

I seem to remember reading somewhere will see if I can dig out the link that the x4 port is only for the HP Remote management card.

OCUK sell a Lian-Li x1 card http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CC-000-LL

Kimbie

chenko · 9 Mar 2011 at 08:29

bremen1874 said:
I've flashed the latest offical HP BIOS and can't see any AHCI related changes.

I didn't look at the BIOS before I did the flash - so can't tell the differences.

Do you see the ports 0 to 5 (6 options) under AHCI?

Bungral · 9 Mar 2011 at 10:34

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply.. I have read that it's designed for the HP Remote card too but just wondering if it could be used as just a standard PCIE 4x.

Had hoped someone had a spare 4x card laying around and had tried it.

That x1 card on OCUK is a good option as previously I'd been looking at one from a different shop for slightly more expensive. The LianLi you linked would also allow me to use 5 HDD's as well as an optical drive.

Only issue is that the HDD enclosure backplates link into a MiniSAS connector. How have others got around this? Just removed the backplate and used their own Sata cables?

Cheers

Nikumba said:
I seem to remember reading somewhere will see if I can dig out the link that the x4 port is only for the HP Remote management card.

OCUK sell a Lian-Li x1 card http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CC-000-LL

Kimbie

RoyMi6 · 9 Mar 2011 at 13:54

Hi again folks,

I've just decided to bite the bullet and order one of these bad boys with 2x2TB drives (mirrored) and an extra 4GB stick. Reviews on websites have said that it can support the 1GB stick with this 4GB stick (5GB total) no problem.

Now I'm just wondering which OS to go for. I've read through this thread and people seem to be focusing on Windows Home Server. However, from what I've read there doesn't appear to be a 64bit version. Am I just looking in the wrong place? Am I right in understanding that a 32bit OS can only support up to 4GB of RAM?

In addition, what benefits does WHS give me. Automated backups and making life "easier" for remote access isn't really a concern for me as I'm capable enough to setup an FTP server for remote access etc. Does WHS do it "better"? In addition I've got a spare copy of Windows 7 already so is my £75 going to be well spent on WHS? Is WHS going to give me better control over the RAID1 set up?

I'm also looking at installing TVersity to stream video to my 360. Has anyone else done this? I've found this blog post (http://blog.ghai.us/bob/?p=464) that talks about having to install a software soundcard to get sound streaming but I'm wondering if there's any free alternatives?