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

Just to confirm..

I can plug in my Win 10 usb stick into one of the USB2.0 ports, and install as normal?
Don't need to do anything special, just plug a SSD into the main port and that's it?

Cheers
 
It seems my N54L is slowly grinding to a halt :-/. As of late it's miserably struggling to play any 1080p content, which its never had a problem with till now.

It's only running Win10 on it. VLC just chops and stutters any big content, I've tried other players/codecs etc. All hardware tests come back fine and even running off the ssd instead of raid'd WD Red's doesn't make a difference.

Just completely maxes the cpu :(. Probably going to wipe it and reinstall win10 to see if that helps at all.

Anyone else having problems like this lately? Are my efforts futile?

How does the gen8 cope?
 
Well I've finally sat down and got xpenology running correctly on my Gen 8 with the drives set up with RDM. So next week will be time to rip all my DVDs onto it and migrate my itunes libary.
 
I've swapped the G1610T in my Gen8 for an i3 3220T, added a Highpoint RR2710, 4 x 4TB HGST HDDs and a 240GB Sandisk Extreme. I've loaded WHS2011 and set the HDDs as RAID5 so now I'm just waiting for them to finish initialising and copying data across. It really needs the second 4GB of RAM but that's paid for and I'm hoping it'll be here on Saturday.

It does seem to be keep the temps of the HDDs under control which my NAS and CFI case couldn't without excessive noise which is what I was hoping for. Just as well I could still find a monitor with a VGA port for the initial install....
 
What things have you currently got running on your Gen8 as I've been wanting to upgrade the processor just because.
I upped mine to 10 gig of ram and running with an ssd for for the images and 2 x 3tb drives for data which i will add more drives to when full (using xpenology to manage the RAID)
 
I added the RAM/CPU and P222 in mine because I could, problem for me is now that the Gen8's 16Gb RAM limit is a PITA because I have VM's that I am having to switch off to power others up, even with dynamic memory :(
 
I found that with my last server migration for VMs... but mine's X99... so I was able to stick 64GB in it without much trouble... now I have yet to fill more than 40GB.
 
crinkleshoes said:
For what purpose did you swap the CPU and add the raid card?

What is the extra RAM for?

Why WHS2011 instead of something better?
Click to expand...
Basically because I already had the CPU, the RAID card and a spare copy of WHS21011.
I'm most comfortable in a Windows environment but my pension's not large enough for a current version of Server. And, as a home server, WHS does exactly what it says on the tin. Why do I need anything 'better'?
I need the RAID card to run RAID5 as I said. If I'd had to buy one I'd have gone for an HP one from the auction site.
The extra RAM is because I could see it was maxing out the standard 4GB and 8GB is the most WHS will allow. Plus, I can't stand empty slots.

bulletv1 said:
What things have you currently got running on your Gen8 as I've been wanting to upgrade the processor just because.
I upped mine to 10 gig of ram and running with an ssd for for the images and 2 x 3tb drives for data which i will add more drives to when full (using xpenology to manage the RAID)
Click to expand...
Not a lot yet. The only thing I run that I know maxes out a 3220T is Acronis True Image. I just have to fiddle with whatever hardware I have and this is the first commercially made 'PC' I've bought for over 25 years so I have to make what changes I can.....
 
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Ok Guys

Need some help here before I go installing anything onto my Gen8.

I have a N36L just now running xponology, only used for a plex server and nothing else.

I want to install win10 using my drive from the old server as a boot drive. I also a single 2TB drive that I would rather not lose the data on, I can recover most if not all of it though!

How would I go about installing a single SSD to use as a boot drive (or can I use a microsd or USB key internally) to install windows to. I only see a sata port for the cd drive.

I do want to use the four drive caddies in the future, also I don't want to use raid.

Many thanks
 
What I would do to start with is put the SSD on a converter (not just a simple bracket) and put it in a caddy in the first HDD bay. Boot the server to the RBSU (press F9) and make sure the RAID controller is set to AHCI. You can then install W10 from a USB DVD drive or USB stick. If your 2TB drive is NTFS then just pop it in to one of the remaining drive bays once W10 is running.

I've read somewhere in this thread that the SATA connector for the ODD won't boot an SSD without a hacked BIOS. This is something you can investigate when you use up the remaining two caddies. ;)

I'd link to suitable converters but they're either on a competitor's site or the rain forest.....
 
A lot of people do... You only need a server grade ssd if you are using it for enterprise applications... Like a Sql server with 1000s of users.

A normal or cheap ssd will be perfectly fine... It will likely see less use than your main PC.
 
I use 2 x Crucial MX100 240GB in RAID 1, both fitted in 2.5in to 3.5in form factor converters, because its a rebranded intel software raid even in RAID1 you get RAID0 read speeds, 1100MB/s in Server 2012R2 in a microserver is quite nice :)
 
I take it many of you are running sabnzbd etc. Do you run it from your main os our have you created a virtual machine for it?
 
Finally resurrected my N54L now that we have an HD TV in the living room. I have W10 installed on it and thought Cortana might be useful but my webcam is too old for W10. Is there some way I could use my Note 4 as a wireless (over the flat's WiFi) mic for Cortana to pick up?
 
Love actually using the Gen8. Spent the last week or so ripping dvds. Usually about 60 a day. Now have 362 movies on there. My American Dad collection and the o/h Ally McBeal and 2 Broke Girls (crude and funny) hitting about 80% used space. Going to need to get a couple of 5tb+ drives and then replace the 3tb drives with more 5tb+ as i've still got a lot of tv programs to rip. Not sure if i'll add my blu ray collection as that pretty much matches my dvds.
 
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