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

Hades · 24 Dec 2012 at 20:22

The N40L is much more powerful than a standard NAS, is more future proofed and overall cheaper after cashback. But it will take more setup on your part. If you are truly a novice then a NAS will be easier for you. But now I have one of these microservers I'm never going back to a standard NAS.

steeve42 · 24 Dec 2012 at 22:09

al4x said:
Going for whs 2011 as probably the most feature full

I was going for 4 large 3.5 drives in the 4 bays
Another large bay in the ODD bay connected by esata and the OS drive to the internal sata port of

I guess I meant more that is an ssd worth it over a mechanical in this server?

I can't comment directly as I don't use an SSD, but from what I have seen from others is that the main benefit would be to boot up times, and as it is a server it doesn't get restarted often it isn't really worth it...although it seems from reading here and other forums that quite a few people are using them anyway.

aln · 24 Dec 2012 at 23:36

I installed to USB. Got 5 drives in there.

Baggins_451 · 27 Dec 2012 at 11:20

Just remembered I haven't sent on cashback claim in, D'OH!

Closing date is the 31st so it should make it :rolleyes:

Vimes · 27 Dec 2012 at 11:35

^^^^

Done it
had it
Spent it
Now skint

Bradmax57 · 27 Dec 2012 at 12:42

Baggins_451 said:
Just remembered I haven't sent on cashback claim in, D'OH!

Closing date is the 31st so it should make it

easiest way to do it is via email, that's how I did mine and got confirmation back within 24hours

413x · 27 Dec 2012 at 13:18

Baggins_451 said:
Just remembered I haven't sent on cashback claim in, D'OH!

Closing date is the 31st so it should make it

Was yours a November purchase?

Tinders · 27 Dec 2012 at 14:14

I thought you had till end of jan to get your claims in.

Deep · 27 Dec 2012 at 14:46

I bought mine in November last year and sent the claim form a few weeks back. It was accepted

!

Tinders · 27 Dec 2012 at 21:54

A quickie folks, Ive decided to go for one of these in the end, it just seems a no brainer i every way with the cash back!

Anyway, I already have 2 WD Reds setup in Raid 1 in my Qnap, can i just whip them out of the qnap and pop them into the N40L? I'll be using WHS2011.

Also would it be possible to have 2 3tb WD reds and a seagate 3tb in the system, with me having ~6tb of storage from the reds and the seagate acting as the back up, ie raid5?

mctiny · 27 Dec 2012 at 23:30

Tinders said:
A quickie folks, Ive decided to go for one of these in the end, it just seems a no brainer i every way with the cash back!

Anyway, I already have 2 WD Reds setup in Raid 1 in my Qnap, can i just whip them out of the qnap and pop them into the N40L? I'll be using WHS2011.

Also would it be possible to have 2 3tb WD reds and a seagate 3tb in the system, with me having ~6tb of storage from the reds and the seagate acting as the back up, ie raid5?

RAID 5 = no - not supported unless you get a RAID card.

As for transfering the RAID over = probably not going to work, unless it's the same controller and (RAID) BIOS version it's unlikely to work.

DIABLO · 27 Dec 2012 at 23:34

Tinders said:
A quickie folks, Ive decided to go for one of these in the end, it just seems a no brainer i every way with the cash back!

Anyway, I already have 2 WD Reds setup in Raid 1 in my Qnap, can i just whip them out of the qnap and pop them into the N40L? I'll be using WHS2011.

Also would it be possible to have 2 3tb WD reds and a seagate 3tb in the system, with me having ~6tb of storage from the reds and the seagate acting as the back up, ie raid5?

No you won't be able to do that because the QNAP would have formatted the drives in the EXT4 format because the NAS uses a custom version of Linux.

The "Hardware" RAID on the Microserver only supports RAID 0, 1 and 10. To do what you want you could use the software RAID 5 built into windows but you'd need a 4th drive for this as it's not possible to use the windows software RAID on a drive windows is installed on. And a negative of RAID 5 is the rebuild time if a drive fails especially with 3TB of data it would take days.

What i use is Stablebit Drive Pool which is like a smart version of RAID1 i.e it will only replicate the folders that are specified.

Tinders · 28 Dec 2012 at 04:11

Ahhh poo. Could I just plug one of the drives into the hp and pull the data off to my 3tb seagate ?

DIABLO · 28 Dec 2012 at 11:53

Probably the easiest solution for you would be too put the 3TB in your desktop and pull the files across the network from your NAS. Or you could fart around with something like this http://www.howtogeek.com/112888/3-ways-to-access-your-linux-partitions-from-windows/

Spokwiththeears · 28 Dec 2012 at 13:02

Does anyone know if there is there an email address you can send the cashback claim form to or does it have to be sent by post?

Vimes · 28 Dec 2012 at 13:08

^^^^^ I used....

[email protected]

and within a day or two got an email which contained....

I am pleased to inform you that your HP ProLiant Microserver Promotion request has been approved and details are below for your reference.

and some other blurb.

I made a copy of my receipt (pdf) and completed their claims form as a pdf online and submitted them both to the above address.

December purchases.....

https://www.serversplus.com/pdfs/ms100_dec12.pdf

November purchases....

https://www.serversplus.com/pdfs/ms100_nov12.pdf

I did all of mine online - including a wobbly mouse signature.!

rofle · 29 Dec 2012 at 19:51

Is it possible to make cashback claim for servers bought a few months ago? Had it since March and realised I never actually sent off the cashback form.

If so, any idea where I can get a copy of the form for March purchases?

Mr-White · 30 Dec 2012 at 16:31

I already have 2 of these servers but was looking at 2 more and it seems the prices have increased. The place I bought the last 2 from are now selling them for £260 but the cheapest I can find is £230

MW

rp2000 · 30 Dec 2012 at 17:09

Mr-White said:
I already have 2 of these servers but was looking at 2 more and it seems the prices have increased. The place I bought the last 2 from are now selling them for £260 but the cheapest I can find is £230

MW

serversplus have it for 183+VAT so about £220 How much cheaper than that did you get them before? Generally they have hovered between £210-£260 for ages, apart from a few special offers and some places that are ineligible for cashback.

rp2000

Spokwiththeears · 30 Dec 2012 at 17:27

rofle said:
Is it possible to make cashback claim for servers bought a few months ago? Had it since March and realised I never actually sent off the cashback form.

If so, any idea where I can get a copy of the form for March purchases?

http://www.serversplus.com/pdfs/ms_march_cb.pdf

There you go.

You can still get this server for £204 before cashback from serversdirect.