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

Timber said:
Thank you. I should have edited my original post to begin with (now done). I've gone as far as playing around with the 60-day trial and I'm impressed, although the cost is going to be too prohibitive for me to run.
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You should be able to find it for $20, it really depends on how much you are going to be using it. For me it's worth it as getting a monitor with vga next to my rack under the stairs is a real pain ;)
 
Timber said:
Thank you. I should have edited my original post to begin with (now done). I've gone as far as playing around with the 60-day trial and I'm impressed, although the cost is going to be too prohibitive for me to run.
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I've read that you can get licences dirt cheap from ebay dunno how true that is.
 
OK I managed to install Linux Ubuntu 14.04.01 to the USB stick and setup a RAID1 using MDADM, along with a Samba share. All working rather well but I've decided I want to use my existing Crucial 64GB SSD from my other server as USB is too slow.

Because I can't boot from the ODD SATA port, I've ordered a PCI Express SATA 6Gbps controller card with 1 SATA port for about £21. I'm off this afternoon to see if I can track down a FDD 4-pin power to SATA power lead. Failing that a Molex splitter that I can connect a SATA power adaptor onto will also suffice.

On the noise front I was told this morning to; 'turn that box off, Daddy' by my 4 year old daughter as it was rebooting. So definitely too loud! As the machine has bedded in and the HDDs been installed there is definitely a consistent low frequency hum (pretty certain it isn't vibration noise) that is irritating and it is simply too loud for a front room environment. Hoping that as I move it to the office it will be lower down and therefore cancel out some of the noise. Fans are averaging at 9-10% based on what I am seeing from iLO.
 
Hi all,

Wondering what the best thing to do with my N54L. It's had memory & new GRF card put in and i'd like to use it as a media center.

Normally i'd just put WHS 2011 on there but this seems to be discontinued!

So...i'm thinking of putting FreeNas on it and using my TV's media player (new panasonic 4k) to play files. Anyone know why this may not work?
 
Zatoichi.uK said:
That's the one. The n54l is hard wired, phone and tablet are on the wireless with the client installed. Cast to TV, job done.
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Is this good enough to stream 1080p content?

Apologies if it's a dumb question, never really used chromecast via phone!

Edit: on second thoughts I may actually put WHS 2011 on it to use XBMC....but WHS 2011 appears to be discontinued.

Does anyone know where it can still be bought or know another voable MS OS? (non techie people may use this system so probably bes tot keep it MS)
 
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It did initially stutter very occasionly but I was running the stock 4gb. I've since upgraded to the recommended 8gb for freenas ive not had an issue since.

If it helps, I did run server 2012 essentials and decided it was too much hassle for a simple media server. Freenas fits my needs well.
 
Is it possible to pci passthrough on hyper v or esx? I have a pci tv tuner that i would really like to add to my media vm so i could get rid of the physical htpc box i have.
 
Raid 6 & HW controller

Greetings and wishes for a happy new year!

I want to setup a Raid6 (5x2TB) with a N54L (i can find one at 200€ here at Greece) and i wanted to ask you if someone has done that with hardware raid controller.

I was thinking to buy a perc 6i from ebay with the only drawback the limitation of 2TB drives (not that much a deal breaker since i don't know if i can afford to get 5x3TB disks) but i am not sure if it can fit inside the N54L, are there any other reliable alternatives that i may use with N54L?

Thanks in advance!
 
I don't think there's a half-height version of the PERC 6/i, so it'll be too tall. They also use the older style SAS connectors that aren't compatible with the backplane wiring.

I'd stick to a software RAID implementation. Spend the RAID adapter money on using fewer larger drives.
 
Bluecube said:
I used ESXi on my N40L and no pass through was supported. I'm pretty sure this is a hardware limitation.
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Try using a USB TV tuner, I pretty certain you can pass through a USB port (group) to a VM? I think it passes through all the ports on one controller channel, you will have to consult your hardware manual to work out which ones?

You may be able to determine which by using 'lspci -vvv' in an ESX SSH session.
 
bremen1874 said:
I don't think there's a half-height version of the PERC 6/i, so it'll be too tall. They also use the older style SAS connectors that aren't compatible with the backplane wiring.

I'd stick to a software RAID implementation. Spend the RAID adapter money on using fewer larger drives.
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Thank you for your answer, yes indeed the perc 6i wont fit, so i guess my (only?) option for raid6 is LSI 9260-8i (I prefer HW solutions even if i know that will cost much more)?

Unless if i manage to build a custom one with fractal node 304 at about 250-300€...
 
Has anyone converted theirs into a HTPC?

I connect my HP MS (HD5450) to Amp - TV via HDMI and use it as a Plex server and client. I have Rasplex as a client but it is too clunky and slow in menus, even overclocked.
I like how I can stream straight from the HP to TV without any issues at 1080p inc DTS-MA etc so want to lose Rasplex.

Only issue I have is that I cannot get it to bootup and go straight into Plex front end. I am using WHS2011 which might be the problem but not sure which other OS will work well.
 
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