Cheap alternative to Gen8

[Semple]

G7's aren't actually that bad - when we upgraded our PFSense box from a G5 to a G7, I seem to think the power consumption ended up at something like 80 Watts.

I'd suspect the microserver would idle around 25/30 Watts. It's more the scaling based on load is where i'd see consumption ramp up.

The Microserver would probably cap out at 50-60 Watts. My DL380 G10 is generally idling and sits about 230-280 Watts - Two 12 core CPU's, 384Gb RAM, and Two 1TB drives (Storage is provided by JBODs which are separately powered). I've no idea what it would cap out at.

 

[skyripper]

I would;

• Get Windows running on the Gen8 (a Windows 7 or 10 and a copy of the drivers for the Gen8 should you there)
• Backup the content of the RAID to an external source
• Shutdown
• Remove external drive
• Go into the bios, switch off RAID
• Install something (Windows, FreeNAS, whatever) and use direct to disk
• Stick data back on
• Use the external to maintain backups of the server content

If you're dead set on ditching the Gen8 microserver, if you bought it during one of those cashback deals you will probably be pleasantly surprised to see the resale values on ebay these days.

 

[Avalon]

What? A 1260L is like £60 where a quadro m2000 is best part of 3x that. Yes it might be a lot better but frankly it's significantly more cost and I'd hardly say £60 for that processor is over the odds.

Then you’re deluded. I can see over 40 1260L’s that went for under £40 delivered, next up your ‘best part of 3x’ metric makes no sense, M2000’s regularly go for £70-85 - I bought one in that price bracket just over a week ago and someone else got two for £155ish.

Given the bias towards Plex, using the figure you supplied, if it comes down to a choice between a £60 CPU that’s capable of 3 x 1080 transcodes, and spending £10-25 more to get circa 11+ 1080 transcodes or up to 3 x 4K transcodes, it’s obvious which is better value. The added bonus being it frees up the existing CPU for other tasks.

The bigger question is why you need to transcode that many concurrent streams in the first place, poor media encoding choices, client choice or connectivity tend to be the main culprits.

 

[Stephanie Peterson]

My current microserver, with 1tb drives, a poe switch, 2 aps and the broadband modem come to circa 70-80watts - i am expecting between 110 and 130w for the new server at least until i start filling it with drives.
The noise is another thing entirely - i might have to get creative with some fan mods (resistors to slow them down) or what not depending on how much control i have over them.

 

[Avalon]

My current microserver, with 1tb drives, a poe switch, 2 aps and the broadband modem come to circa 70-80watts - i am expecting between 110 and 130w for the new server at least until i start filling it with drives.
The noise is another thing entirely - i might have to get creative with some fan mods (resistors to slow them down) or what not depending on how much control i have over them.

The R710 is arguably easier to live with and more civilised, HP firmware pay wall and intolerance of hardware not explicitly certified for that specific server type doesn’t make them good choices in a domestic environment. I’d still suggest going slightly newer, unless you don’t pay for power and/or hate whoever does... and happen to be deaf.

 

[Stephanie Peterson]

That was on my mind, that said i dont think i will need to add too much to this bar ram and drives - the drives side of things could be tricky but i am sure the bay will have something.

It comes with 4 lan ports as standard which is nice and will save me using the twin port lan card in my current microserver.

 

[memyselfandi]

Then you’re deluded. I can see over 40 1260L’s that went for under £40 delivered, next up your ‘best part of 3x’ metric makes no sense, M2000’s regularly go for £70-85 - I bought one in that price bracket just over a week ago and someone else got two for £155ish.

Given the bias towards Plex, using the figure you supplied, if it comes down to a choice between a £60 CPU that’s capable of 3 x 1080 transcodes, and spending £10-25 more to get circa 11+ 1080 transcodes or up to 3 x 4K transcodes, it’s obvious which is better value. The added bonus being it frees up the existing CPU for other tasks.

The bigger question is why you need to transcode that many concurrent streams in the first place, poor media encoding choices, client choice or connectivity tend to be the main culprits.

I'm deluded? Speak for yourself.

I don't know where you are looking but the normal going rate for 1260L on the normal auction site is around the £60 range, not less than £40, and a search for the GPU mentioned gave figures of normally around £190 with nothing as cheap as you say.

With the numbers you say then it would be worth getting the GPU but frankly I don't see those prices in reality.

Personally it's rare that my Plex server ever needs to transcode