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

mikeh501 · 1 Feb 2011 at 09:52

q974739 said:
Silly questions. For a 2 HD, 1 DVD install...

1) How nosy are these
2) How much power do they pull on idle?

Thanks

Read up TBH....

FYI, they are not nosy at all.

(not noisy either)

They dont draw much power either, maybe 50w avg.

psprigs · 1 Feb 2011 at 10:56

Just ordered mine with the £100 rebate and the 250gb disk..

I feel i need to be apart of this thread... its a crime not 2 buy 1 and would feel robbed of a deal if didnt...

Ordered off the bay 4gb ram and waiting for all to turn up.

Ill be back.

normski_ · 1 Feb 2011 at 17:55

Syx said:
^^^

That's the wonder of a telephone call as opposed to email - especially if you don't dial the 08xx number you can get lucky!

Now ordered at £249.40 over the phone after confirming with them once again.

Syx, where you getting it from?

Syx · 1 Feb 2011 at 19:17

Unfortunately I can't link you to a competitor.

However, I believe I can tell you that I found them through Google Shopping by searching for the part code - which is 633724-421.

Hope that helps.

normski_ · 1 Feb 2011 at 22:07

Cheers

Sh4rkie · 2 Feb 2011 at 03:21

Fyi for those worried about LAN speeds, they couldn't be better tbh:

normski_ · 2 Feb 2011 at 08:27

Just ordered one from the manufacturer themselves, £253 with next day delivery. Couldn't get it including next day any cheaper anywhere that I could find.

Bought all the bits to go with it from OCUK.

Tomorrow will be a good day

a1ex2001 · 2 Feb 2011 at 11:42

Finally got my little box up and running yesterday, build went smoothly, moving the 160GB drive into the top bay and installing the extra ram was pretty straight forward even in such a compact case. WHS installed smoothly and I've been copying data onto it pretty much ever since, got my external USB drive configured for server backups without any hastle. I'm very impressed with both the server and the software, the box is surprisingly nippy for the spec, very quiet and even passes the official acceptable to the misses test!

IAmATeaf · 2 Feb 2011 at 12:07

Sh4rkie said:
Fyi for those worried about LAN speeds, they couldn't be better tbh:

snip

What OS are you using? Server 2008 or Vail? or maybe even W7?

What are your disk to disk copy speeds?

Methanoid · 2 Feb 2011 at 12:12

IAmATeaf said:
What OS are you using? Server 2008 or Vail? or maybe even W7?

What are your disk to disk copy speeds?

Yeah and what warez/porn were you copying across the network

IAmATeaf · 2 Feb 2011 at 12:37

Methanoid said:
Yeah and what warez/porn were you copying across the network

LOL, When I transferred data from my NAS to this device I copied around a terabyte of 'backups'

Sh4rkie · 2 Feb 2011 at 13:03

IAmATeaf said:
What OS are you using? Server 2008 or Vail? or maybe even W7?

What are your disk to disk copy speeds?

Server 2008 R2 for the OS, copied a 10gb file across to a W7 box (Netgear switch sat between them).

Disk to disk not sure of, have 2.5" OS drive + RAID 5 array (600 - 700 MB/s read, 300 MB/s write).

Methanoid said:
Yeah and what warez/porn were you copying across the network

hehe, not this time, it was an 1080 50p family home movie

Methanoid · 2 Feb 2011 at 13:33

Might sound a dumb question but could I chuck some of this in it and it would clock down to 800mhz speeds? Cos the (1600) mem is cheaper than the slower (1333) mem!!!

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V

kippermitten · 2 Feb 2011 at 15:16

Hello.

I notice i can get one of these for c.220 ukp std trim - 1gb/250gb etc or 280 UKP for one with 4gb/250gb. Worth it?

Guru · 2 Feb 2011 at 15:45

Sh4rkie said:
65 - 70w is a high average, i've had a power meter on since i built it and max it's ever been is 100w.

This may be a really stupid question, but does that mean it only uses the same amount of electricity as leaving a 100w light bulb on all day?

Thanks,

G

a1ex2001 · 2 Feb 2011 at 15:53

Guru said:
This may be a really stupid question, but does that mean it only uses the same amount of electricity as leaving a 100w light bulb on all day?

Thanks,

G

Yes it is a stupid question! The answer is yes if it sucked a continuous 100w like the equivalent lightbulb, however given that even it's peak draw is likely to be aroun 65w and that when idle with the disks spun down you looking at ~30w it should cos you considerably less than leaving a light on.

Guru · 2 Feb 2011 at 16:19

a1ex2001 said:
Yes it is a stupid question! The answer is yes if it sucked a continuous 100w like the equivalent lightbulb, however given that even it's peak draw is likely to be aroun 65w and that when idle with the disks spun down you looking at ~30w it should cos you considerably less than leaving a light on.

I just wanted to check because that seems quite amazing to me.

Thanks

Syx · 2 Feb 2011 at 16:37

normski_ said:
Just ordered one from the manufacturer themselves, £253 with next day delivery. Couldn't get it including next day any cheaper anywhere that I could find.

That's a great price including NDD - I couldn't get it from HP for any less than £280.

Sh4rkie · 2 Feb 2011 at 16:43

Guru said:
I just wanted to check because that seems quite amazing to me.

Thanks

Yep

Very roughly = 24hrs x 50w x 8.5p/kw (going rate) = 11p per day to run, or £3 per month.

Because it's not got a sleep mode as such to reduce wear on the box you could always use a power off on idle software, and then WOL to bring it back up.

Freeware shutdown program:

http://www.chameleon-managers.com/

"Chameleon Shutdown allows you to switch off, restart, hibernate the computer and perform other operations both immediately and when certain conditions are met (specific time, delay, idle time, CPU usage, closure of a certain program).
You can add multiple conditions without limitation.
The interface supports skins and is very easy to use."

Then create a batch file on the desktops of relevant PCs in your network to wake it back up again using mc-wol command line, again freeware:

http://www.matcode.com/wol.htm

I use WOL over the Internet as well which comes in handy

mofi · 2 Feb 2011 at 20:20

I dont see why using sleep mode should wear the box more than using hibernating/power off/on?

I miss sleep mode on my Windows 7 setup which I hope will be available in a future bios update.

However, the idle power consumption is quite low. My setup consist of 1 Intel 40G SDD for Windows 7 and 2 x 2 TB Samsung Spinpoint F4EG drives for data (no raid).

I have measured the following idle values with a "Energy Monitor 3000" meter which should be fairly accurate:

Both drives spinning (but no activity), Display on ~25W
Drive spin down, Display on 17.5 W
Drive spin down, Display off 15.2 W
USB keyboard and mouse disconnected 14.1 W (only 1 Samsung drive attached 13W)
Box off (power connected) 0.4 W

I hope the meter is accurate as I am very pleased with these values.

/MF