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

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Hmm, at £75 I'm sooo tempted to buy another one to use as an HTPC on my main TV. I can't really see any way of getting an HTPC setup cheaper? I can then put 8gb of ram in the server one and use the spare 2gb to put in the HTPC one, get a cheap graphics card to hook up to my AV Reciever and probably another copy of WHS2011 running XBMC.
I wonder if HP will extend the cashback period past the end of June or not?
 
To those who have turned their microservers into little NAS boxes - do you have a separate drive for the OS or have your partitioned some space from the disks used for the actual NAS data?

Im wondering if it's better to have a little SSD/Laptop HDD to run nas4free on.
 
They seem to do it just before the launch of the new server - so whether they'll extend it to get rid of old G7 stock or will discontinue the offer when the G8 appears... it's possible.

If you just want it as a HTPC playing films etc from the server one, I'd be tempted to grab a Raspberry Pi for £30. It can handle XBMC and 1080p playback with no problems that I've come across. It's tiny (I've hooked mine across the cables behind the TV) and does the job nicely for £70 less (by the time you've spent £25+ on a 6450 for the N54L0

I've got a GPU for mine, but it will be primarily a file server with some experimenting with XBMC (my Xbox, Raspberry Pi, Sky Box and Smart TV handle my TV needs).
 
Audigex said:
They seem to do it just before the launch of the new server - so whether they'll extend it to get rid of old G7 stock or will discontinue the offer when the G8 appears... it's possible.

If you just want it as a HTPC playing films etc from the server one, I'd be tempted to grab a Raspberry Pi for £30. It can handle XBMC and 1080p playback with no problems that I've come across. It's tiny (I've hooked mine across the cables behind the TV) and does the job nicely for £70 less (by the time you've spent £25+ on a 6450 for the N54L0

I've got a GPU for mine, but it will be primarily a file server with some experimenting with XBMC (my Xbox, Raspberry Pi, Sky Box and Smart TV handle my TV needs).
Click to expand...

Bear in mind the Pi does struggle with DTS audio decoding.
 
DiscoDave said:
To those who have turned their microservers into little NAS boxes - do you have a separate drive for the OS or have your partitioned some space from the disks used for the actual NAS data?

Im wondering if it's better to have a little SSD/Laptop HDD to run nas4free on.
Click to expand...

I run unRAID which installs to a USB stick much like nas4free and it sits on the internal USB port.
 
DiscoDave said:
To those who have turned their microservers into little NAS boxes - do you have a separate drive for the OS or have your partitioned some space from the disks used for the actual NAS data?
Click to expand...

In all honesty, it really is six or half a dozen. Since I had additional drives laying around, I've kept the 250GB drive provided with the HP Proliant as a standalone drive for the OS. That being said, a friend of mine partitioned his drive sine he doesn't have any other disks as of yet.

If I used my server more frequently, I'd certainly consider installing the OS onto a fairly small SSD to improve performance but as it stands, I'm more than content with my current setup.
 
DiscoDave said:
To those who have turned their microservers into little NAS boxes - do you have a separate drive for the OS or have your partitioned some space from the disks used for the actual NAS data?

Im wondering if it's better to have a little SSD/Laptop HDD to run nas4free on.
Click to expand...
I have a 64 GB SSD sitting up top (in the space where the CD ROM is meant to go). You need a SATA cable and a power cable.
 
nails666 said:
Hmm, at £75 I'm sooo tempted to buy another one to use as an HTPC on my main TV. I can't really see any way of getting an HTPC setup cheaper? I can then put 8gb of ram in the server one and use the spare 2gb to put in the HTPC one, get a cheap graphics card to hook up to my AV Reciever and probably another copy of WHS2011 running XBMC.
I wonder if HP will extend the cashback period past the end of June or not?
Click to expand...
£75 is INSANE. I don't know how I am resisting from buying yet another one of these amazing little boxes.

One of the suppliers sent an email yesterday saying that officially the cashback will not be renewed after the end of June. In other words, here come the G8s, and it will be a while before cashbacks kick in, if ever (the G8 is a much higher end device).
 
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