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

DJMK4 · 11 Feb 2013 at 10:23

Cyber-Mav said:
i got 16gb ram now in the microserver, its now caching lots more

Which Microserver?

CrimsonAvenger · 11 Feb 2013 at 10:48

The N40L unofficially supports 16Gb.

Check the N40L wiki for list of modules that work

DJMK4 · 11 Feb 2013 at 11:01

Ah, shame

I guess there is 100% no unofficial support for the NL36?

I am in two minds on weather to upgrade mine, or maybe build a custom SFF server, the Microservers are good, love my NL36.

Oh Ed not again. · 11 Feb 2013 at 12:23

Weeeee, just ordered mine.

EMM386 · 11 Feb 2013 at 12:24

I was under the impression that the older the MicroServer the less fussy it was about RAM and what 8gb sticks it would accept.

i.e I "believe" N36Ls and older N40Ls have far less issues than the more recent N40Ls

I think it was a post on OCAU where users who had several servers of different types tested it with the same RAM and found widely varying success.

Jeci · 11 Feb 2013 at 12:49

Good afternoon,

So i've got my server all built and set up, build log here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18486228

If I do a large file transfer between HTPC / N40L, I only appear to get about 12MB/s transfer speeds. I'm using WD Red drives in a RaidZ array, does anyone else think that's a little on the slow side? I would have expected to see at the very least ~60MB/s transfer speeds?

Everything's wired on a Gigabit NetGear 105 switch...

Uhtred · 11 Feb 2013 at 12:52

Jeci said:
Good afternoon,

So i've got my server all built and set up, build log here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18486228

If I do a large file transfer between HTPC / N40L, I only appear to get about 12MB/s transfer speeds. I'm using WD Red drives in a RaidZ array, does anyone else think that's a little on the slow side? I would have expected to see at the very least ~60MB/s transfer speeds?

Everything's wired on a Gigabit NetGear 105 switch...

have you enabled passthrough in the BIOS?

Jeci · 11 Feb 2013 at 13:51

Uhtred said:
have you enabled passthrough in the BIOS?

The only settings i've changed are:

From the MAIN Screen I went to => Chipset Menu => Southbridge Configuration => SB SATA Configuration => and set the following:

OnChip SATA Channel [Enabled]
OnChip IDE Type [IDE or Legacy IDE](1)
SATA IDE Combined Mode [Disabled] — sets Ports 4 & 5 to use AHCI
SATA EPS on all PORT [Enabled](2) — sets all Ports to be external SATA Ports
SATA Power on all PORT [Enabled]

Where would I find this passthrough setting, what does changing this setting do out of interest? I'm not familiar with it...

Thanks for your response!

Uhtred · 11 Feb 2013 at 18:01

Jeci said:
The only settings i've changed are:

From the MAIN Screen I went to => Chipset Menu => Southbridge Configuration => SB SATA Configuration => and set the following:

OnChip SATA Channel [Enabled]

OnChip IDE Type [IDE or Legacy IDE](1)

SATA IDE Combined Mode [Disabled] — sets Ports 4 & 5 to use AHCI

SATA EPS on all PORT [Enabled](2) — sets all Ports to be external SATA Ports

SATA Power on all PORT [Enabled]

Where would I find this passthrough setting, what does changing this setting do out of interest? I'm not familiar with it...

Thanks for your response!

Ah sorry I was getting mixed up. It was write caching I think?

Jeci · 11 Feb 2013 at 21:02

Uhtred said:
Ah sorry I was getting mixed up. It was write caching I think?

Hello mate, any idea where you can set this within the bios? Had a very good look and couldn't see!

Uhtred · 12 Feb 2013 at 03:05

Found a screen shot in this thread

hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1672926

ultim · 12 Feb 2013 at 13:08

Done the fan mod last night. Made little difference to the noise. As many have suggested in the past, most of the noise is from the PSU.

Fan mod verdict - not worth doing.

Magic_x_uk · 13 Feb 2013 at 09:09

Can someone answer some questions for me please.

Been asked to build a basic PC for business use. For a Friends club,

Will 99% be used for 'Word and Excel' the rest will just be internet surfing.

Can i buy this HP Proliant and install Windows 7 on it.

Also WHAT else would i need to buy for it to run?

He already had Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor.

Thank you and is the offer still on?

SimonR · 13 Feb 2013 at 10:06

For what you want and with the cashback offer, it will be fine. all you need is an OS and a copy of MS Office or whatever. The only thing that you may wish to consider is either a graphics card with HDMI for sound (and video playback) or a separate sound card. Other than that this baby is good to go out of the box.

Magic_x_uk · 13 Feb 2013 at 10:17

so is there any 'particular' one to buy. I have noticed some with more memory etc.

Which one is best for me to look at and order then.

Just was not sure if it would be suitable to run Windows 7 (32 or 64??) for basic office work.

Caustic · 13 Feb 2013 at 10:20

I tried using Win7 on mine and it was okay but slow. Apparently Windows 8 actually runs quite a bit better on it. You can run either 32 or 64bit but go with 64. 2GB RAM should just be enough.

CD

kaiowas · 13 Feb 2013 at 11:54

enigmo said:
I think I'm right in that I can't talk about competitors shops here directly, but, if you Google for n40l Servers, you should be Directly on the right track.

So assuming I'm looking in the right place, how the hell does their pricing work?

When including VAT it quotes a regular price of £348 dropping to £98 after £250 cashback. But HP only pay £100 cashback so where does the rest of it come from and how much will I get billed on my card?

Oh Ed not again. · 13 Feb 2013 at 12:43

Magic_x_uk said:
so is there any 'particular' one to buy. I have noticed some with more memory etc.

Which one is best for me to look at and order then.

Just was not sure if it would be suitable to run Windows 7 (32 or 64??) for basic office work.

Get the 2GB/250GB one for £197.99, claim the £100 cash back. 2GB modules appear on the MM, just picked up 2 the other day. Or you can upgrade to more for not much bucks.

Mine's just arrived, as did the RAM. Disks on order from OcUK, GPU nearly sorted. Roll on a weekend of tinkering!

DiCe! · 13 Feb 2013 at 13:09

Windows 8 ran much better on this than windows 7 for me!

alfalavala · 13 Feb 2013 at 13:45

Jeci said:
Good afternoon,

So i've got my server all built and set up, build log here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18486228

If I do a large file transfer between HTPC / N40L, I only appear to get about 12MB/s transfer speeds. I'm using WD Red drives in a RaidZ array, does anyone else think that's a little on the slow side? I would have expected to see at the very least ~60MB/s transfer speeds?

Everything's wired on a Gigabit NetGear 105 switch...

This via samba? Also is this writing to the reds or reading from them?

I find I get about 12-20 MB/s writing to raidz with reds over samba. Reading I can get about 80-100. Although I'm sure it used to be faster but I've reinstalled samba and didn't save my previous config.