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

Essexraptor · 25 May 2014 at 16:01

kiwi said:
Hi guys, couple of questions. I've loved my N40L but I'm moving abroad and I need to sell it, I guess some of you have bought yours second hand so can you recommend where's good, MM, eBay? I've also misplaced my keys and I need to give it a clean, would anyone be able to lend me a key so I can get one cut?

without a key you're not going to get very far.... MM is a good place for a fast sale

CraigN · 25 May 2014 at 20:17

I moved house and found my old N36 in its box. Decided to revive it with XP enology as an iSCSi storage device for a VMware test box.

Stuck a Quad port Nic in it and away she goes.

Currently running vCSA and a handful of VM's in my nested lab environment.

A bit miffed i bought a real synology now.

Beans on toast Dave · 27 May 2014 at 13:58

hi,

i was wondering if there is any benefit to adding a graphics card to a headless server
running w7 and have a spare ati 5450 would it make much of a difference?

thanks

randal · 27 May 2014 at 14:04

Depends on what you want to do with it.

Stick a GPU in a microserver and it makes a very capable XBMC machine.

Beans on toast Dave · 27 May 2014 at 16:42

randal said:
Depends on what you want to do with it.

Stick a GPU in a microserver and it makes a very capable XBMC machine.

hi,

its am about to use the media center part pf w7, only to record

would it be any less processor hungry? as a headless server

haz_pro · 27 May 2014 at 20:06

I would like to get one of these, hoping the cashback comes back soon!

MagicBoy · 28 May 2014 at 10:08

challengedavid said:
hi,

its am about to use the media center part pf w7, only to record

would it be any less processor hungry? as a headless server

Nope.

randal · 30 May 2014 at 18:13

Anyone had to do a BIOS recovery on a Microserver yet?

Just accidentally interrupted a BIOS flash (didn't expect the autoexec.bat, panicked and hit CTRL+C and stopped it mid flash, stupid) and now I appear to have a temporarily bricked MS.

Notes on the web say to stick a BIOS on a <2GB memory stick and give it a bit but I'm jiggered if I can find one at home. Dah.

RoyMi6 · 1 Jun 2014 at 13:16

Has anyone got suggestion for a good upgrade CPU for the microserver?

Hitting a couple of transcoding problems streaming 1080p 5.1 files.

Currently have a "HP MicroServer N36L Athlon2 1.3GHZ DualCore" so looking for something cost effective to give me the extra boost I need to make it a little more capable.

Specifically looking for best value for money.

KIA · 1 Jun 2014 at 13:27

RoyMi6 said:
Has anyone got suggestion for a good upgrade CPU for the microserver?

Hitting a couple of transcoding problems streaming 1080p 5.1 files.

Currently have a "HP MicroServer N36L Athlon2 1.3GHZ DualCore" so looking for something cost effective to give me the extra boost I need to make it a little more capable.

Specifically looking for best value for money.

Not possible. CPU is soldered.

MagicBoy · 1 Jun 2014 at 13:51

KIA said:
Not possible. CPU is soldered.

+1

Trig · 1 Jun 2014 at 14:56

Thats one of the reasons i moved to the gen8, bought it with the celly then binned that off for the i3....
Works fine transcoding to both ipads and an atv at the same time...

RoyMi6 · 1 Jun 2014 at 15:56

KIA said:
Not possible. CPU is soldered.

Well that solves that problem

On to the next, what can I do!

What's the best value for money these days now that my requirements outstrip the performance of my microserver? Is there a build list for something that will meet my fairly mediocre needs?

As I only got the microserver due to the fantastic price (£145 I paid) I actually have enough room for something larger. So am I better off with a self build or is there another fantastic deal kicking around?

Frozennova · 1 Jun 2014 at 16:27

RoyMi6 said:
Well that solves that problem

On to the next, what can I do!

What's the best value for money these days now that my requirements outstrip the performance of my microserver? Is there a build list for something that will meet my fairly mediocre needs?

As I only got the microserver due to the fantastic price (£145 I paid) I actually have enough room for something larger. So am I better off with a self build or is there another fantastic deal kicking around?

Depends entirely on budget and requirements. You can pack some serious power into a mini itx build, probably not the cheapest option though

RoyMi6 · 1 Jun 2014 at 16:35

Frozennova said:
Depends entirely on budget and requirements. You can pack some serious power into a mini itx build, probably not the cheapest option though

Sorry, of course, will fire the question over to the general hardware section but really not looking to spend more than I paid for microserver - so £200 on mobo, CPU, memory and PSU as I'll be using the HDD's and I've got a spare case.

Will see how it goes!

.temp · 1 Jun 2014 at 22:00

Having a huge issue trying to boot ESXi

I've followed the steps linked below:

http://www.tinkertry.com/rufus-take...otable-usb-flash-drive-for-esxi-installation/

And I'm using the VMware .iso from here:
( https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi5 )

It goes through and makes a bootable USB drive for my N54L.

I boot my N54L and it starts to load up ESXi but then it'll hang towards the end or just stop and tell me it's been logged somewhere in non-persistent storage .

Does anyone have a solution for this?

Swarfega · 2 Jun 2014 at 07:09

Can you press Alt and F1 or F2 for shell access?

covenantuk · 2 Jun 2014 at 07:27

RoyMi6 said:
Well that solves that problem

On to the next, what can I do!

What's the best value for money these days now that my requirements outstrip the performance of my microserver? Is there a build list for something that will meet my fairly mediocre needs?

As I only got the microserver due to the fantastic price (£145 I paid) I actually have enough room for something larger. So am I better off with a self build or is there another fantastic deal kicking around?

Sell your microserver, get the Gen8 Microserver and stick an i3 in it - as Trig did. For the price versus performance, size and noise they're really hard to beat.

uncle_rufus · 2 Jun 2014 at 07:59

covenantuk said:
Sell your microserver, get the Gen8 Microserver and stick an i3 in it - as Trig did. For the price versus performance, size and noise they're really hard to beat.

I heard the Gen8 was really pretty noisy compared to the G7?

easyrider · 2 Jun 2014 at 09:48

Whats the cheapest price for the Gen 8 currently?