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

[settepunti]

Did you have to buy the graphics card to record HD sound or did you buy the graphics card to playback the media on the server itself?

I was speaking to a mate and to get HD recorded i need to use a DVB-2 or something and there is hardly any out + i dont have freeview HD just wanted be futureproofed.

I would transfer the files to the other pc or an external usb drive if the quality was to poor using the wireless.

You need the graphic + sound card only for playback. For recording you only need the tuner. AFAIK almost every digital tuner nowadays supports both SD and HD, as they only transfer a stream to the hard disk and/or to the playback software. The difference between SD and HD is in bit rate and/or stream format, and that's a matter for the playback [hardware + software].

You may try the wireless; if it doesn't work reliably you can either transfer the files (but it's a bit boring) or use wired or a powerline ethernet adapter.

Cheers

 

[Demon]

ok - bit an update if anyone like myself is looking at reducing the power consumption and has gone the ubuntu route.

Install
Ubuntu 10.10 64bit, 3 drives (old 2 x old 80gb sata, 1 x 500gb sata), stock 1gb ram (4gb corsair ordered). OS installed on a 8gb HP mini usb stick. Bios set to ide mode for the discs

So far I have set all 3 discs to spin down after 10mins with hdparm eg
/sbin/hdparm -S120 /dev/sdx

installed powersave utilities https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PowerManagement/ReducedPower

set:
# echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

and have installed granola

http://grano.la/software/?os=linux

I have updated all software and have webmin, transmission bitorrent installed plus other std software.

When not in use, its averaging 27w (does fluctuate between 24 & 29w approx)

Not tested it with torrents downloading as yet, but pretty happy with that but will like to bring it down some more or atleast stop the fluctuating.

Next step is to install vmware server, postfix or sendmail and get my other two 500gb drives and get them setup in a zfs raid environment I hope before I splash out on some 2tb drives. Plus I am going to order another 8gb HP mini usb stick and setup a cron job to back it up every month by dd command, as mentioned here:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-...delivered-crescent-electronics/888083?page=31

So I can have the Ubuntu OS backed up if usb stick dies.

If anyone else has any power saving ideas or issues with myself, let me know.

From my FreeNAS trials, I did notice that it's quite crude with it's power saving, it really only seemed to modulate the CPU Frequency, and it also seemed to bottom out at 26W for me..

Having got WS2008R2 down to 20W, I can see that it seems to
1. More intelligently reduce CPU power, it often keeps the CPU at 800MHz, but it seems to be consuming less then freeNAS when it said 300MHz, so I'm guessing that there are more advanced Cool N Quiet features that *nix power saving drivers might not be doing.
2. Just 'turning the display off' yielded 1-2W of saving, but the specific ATI powerplay technology once set to 'maximise battery life' reduced this further by another 1-2W, is there a linux driver that might do this?
3. There are some power saving options for the PCI link in windows, not sure if they have a huge effect, but clearly the chipset has some ability to reduce power consumption.

The biggest issue in WS2008 has been to get the OS HDD to spin down after installing some apps (like Twonky Server), but so far I've managed to get it done, it sometimes takes investigation and tweaking..

 

[pespro]

You need the graphic + sound card only for playback. For recording you only need the tuner. AFAIK almost every digital tuner nowadays supports both SD and HD, as they only transfer a stream to the hard disk and/or to the playback software. The difference between SD and HD is in bit rate and/or stream format, and that's a matter for the playback [hardware + software].

You may try the wireless; if it doesn't work reliably you can either transfer the files (but it's a bit boring) or use wired or a powerline ethernet adapter.

Cheers

Cool, hopefully might be able to give the graphics card a miss, but may want one in the future.

With that worry however im concerned about the expansion slots. Im sure there is only one PCI-E and its half or something so probably going to go for a usb tv tuner, unless you would 100% say i should go for a PCI-E card instead?

So then i can go for a low profile HD graphics card with HDMI for playback to the 'big tv' downstairs that has Sky etc where i will be doing the recording.

What tuner would you suggest? i only get analogue Freeview at the minute, not sure if thats relevant to what you said about the SD and HD signals?

I will try wireless first.. now time to bite the bullet and click buy! Did you get rid of the 250GB drive and put your own in>

 

[faintuk]

Recently brought one of these and have a few questions

1.From what I understand I can send for my rebate either via email or post?

2.What applications are people running?

I currently have WHS2008r2 installed and Im looking to use it for storing my videos/pictures/music, downloading and streaming to XBMC on my HTPC

3. Are most people running 5400 drives instead of 7200?

4. Is there anyway to schedule downtime on WHS as I dont need it running when everyone in the house is asleep

Cheers

 

[daz.rathbone]

Running 7200 drives in mine now, and got my rebate email this morning - £100 winging it's way towards me within 28days. Quidco too for another £20 off it.

 

[pespro]

Running 7200 drives in mine now, and got my rebate email this morning - £100 winging it's way towards me within 28days. Quidco too for another £20 off it.

Who did you buy it off to get quidco? 8% HP discount but the price on their site is way more than on other sites, even withthe cashback.
Can PM if its a competitor even though OCUK dont have this server in stock.

 

[daz.rathbone]

Yeah I used HP directly - not sure about way more, was around £250, with the £100 cashback and £20 quidco made it very similar to everywhere else I think. I only did a brief dig around (like 5mins) but only found it maybe a tenner or so cheaper elsewhere. Could be I messed up

 

[Al Vallario]

Yeah I used HP directly - not sure about way more, was around £250, with the £100 cashback and £20 quidco made it very similar to everywhere else I think. I only did a brief dig around (like 5mins) but only found it maybe a tenner or so cheaper elsewhere. Could be I messed up

The Microserver is £230.40 inc. VAT where most people are getting it (and where I got mine), minus 1.5% quidco = £226.94

 

[settepunti]

Cool, hopefully might be able to give the graphics card a miss, but may want one in the future.

With that worry however im concerned about the expansion slots. Im sure there is only one PCI-E and its half or something so probably going to go for a usb tv tuner, unless you would 100% say i should go for a PCI-E card instead?

So then i can go for a low profile HD graphics card with HDMI for playback to the 'big tv' downstairs that has Sky etc where i will be doing the recording.

What tuner would you suggest? i only get analogue Freeview at the minute, not sure if thats relevant to what you said about the SD and HD signals?

I will try wireless first.. now time to bite the bullet and click buy! Did you get rid of the 250GB drive and put your own in>

I bought a Terratec Cinergy T USB stick which is perfectly fine for DVB-T (I live in Italy).

I am a bit confused about analog Freeview; AFAIK Freeview is a digital service (with SD - standard definition - and HD - high definition - variants). You got to check what signal is broadcast where you live.

If price is not too steep go for a double tuner, not to miss a single show; it's better than two separate tuners as you can use the same aerial; with two tuners you have to use an aerial splitter which weakens the signal. There shouldn't be any significant difference between USB and PCI-E, especially for digital tuners.

At the moment I kept the 250 GB drive for the OS (Win7 64) and added a 2TB drive for data; later on I will add drives as needed, both for storage and for backup.

Ciao

 

[pespro]

The Microserver is £230.40 inc. VAT where most people are getting it (and where I got mine), minus 1.5% quidco = £226.94

I pressume your on about the retailer whos name is a moon shape?

Think HP direct be best bet for me as that retailer dont have stock anymore.

I bought a Terratec Cinergy T USB stick which is perfectly fine for DVB-T (I live in Italy).

I am a bit confused about analog Freeview; AFAIK Freeview is a digital service (with SD - standard definition - and HD - high definition - variants). You got to check what signal is broadcast where you live.

If price is not too steep go for a double tuner, not to miss a single show; it's better than two separate tuners as you can use the same aerial; with two tuners you have to use an aerial splitter which weakens the signal. There shouldn't be any significant difference between USB and PCI-E, especially for digital tuners.

At the moment I kept the 250 GB drive for the OS (Win7 64) and added a 2TB drive for data; later on I will add drives as needed, both for storage and for backup.

Ciao

Im not sure mate, on a website we use in the Uk it says i use the Emily Moor transmitter which is in South Yorkshire and it not being switched over to digital until October this year. I thought that must mean its analogue until October.

I was thinking dual tuner not needed as i wont be watching the tv on the server just recording it, but then forgot about recording two programs at once.

Yeah sounds good mate, im probs going to buy 4x2TB drives next month when i get paid.
I was going to put Win Server 2008 R2 on there, but that doesnt have media centre, you guys reckon its easy to add in?

 

[steinooo]

really interested in this for ESXi, but read a bad review about how it copes. Now I would never expect massive performance from the rig for loads of VMs, but does anyone in here who has it think it could cope with 4 or 5 concurrent Windows Server 2008 machines running small loads for lab tests?

 

[Demon]

really interested in this for ESXi, but read a bad review about how it copes. Now I would never expect massive performance from the rig for loads of VMs, but does anyone in here who has it think it could cope with 4 or 5 concurrent Windows Server 2008 machines running small loads for lab tests?

I think you have to put your sensible head, it's a Dual Core Atom level of CPU,

Saying that, Windows Server 2008R2 Standard, with just the default install is very lightweight due to having no features/roles installed, so running 4 or 5 of those would seem quite OK, it really depends on what your small loads are?

That review just smacks of someone that really is making stuff up to some extent, $700 for 8Gb's of RAM? You can get 4Gb sticks of Crucial ECC for £50, and it will run non-ECC but i've found it fussy..

 

[steinooo]

Yea I know what you mean. I think it'd probably be fine for the small loads I'd be putting on it. I'm talking perhaps Exchange, Sharepoint and Office testing but It'd just be at home so I've got no big user base to test it out on.

So you've tried non-ECC RAM in it and it hasn't accepted it? I was thinking of getting 1 stick of bog standard non ECC PC10600 for about £30 odd?

 

[Lanz]

I've set up a 2008R2 cluster, Win7 client and a single lefthand VSA iscsi node, works ok - good enough for testing. If the servers arent doing any processing or disk stuff it's ok. But then I am using a proper raid controller with SAS disks.

Using standard 4GB Kingston non-ecc DDR3 in mine.

 

[steinooo]

you must have paid a lot for a raid controller and SAS discs, how come you didn't go for a more beefy server if you can afford those extras?

 

[Demon]

Yea I know what you mean. I think it'd probably be fine for the small loads I'd be putting on it. I'm talking perhaps Exchange, Sharepoint and Office testing but It'd just be at home so I've got no big user base to test it out on.

So you've tried non-ECC RAM in it and it hasn't accepted it? I was thinking of getting 1 stick of bog standard non ECC PC10600 for about £30 odd?

It's a little hit and miss, I tried some cheap Hypertec 10600 stuff that on paper was a perfect match, but it just wouldn't boot, but lots of people have tried other non-ECC modules of the same spec and it's worked fine..

But since Crucial where doing 2Gb ECC for £26, I just bought a 2Gb stick for each server to top them up to 3Gb, which is more then enough for WS2008R2 with just a few lightweight apps installed..

 

[Lanz]

you must have paid a lot for a raid controller and SAS discs, how come you didn't go for a more beefy server if you can afford those extras?

Just spare parts that I've acquired over the last couple if years. I do have more powerful servers available, but they are noisy and use too much power for homework.

 

[steinooo]

fair dos that seems sensible, do you do MS labs for exams with them? That's what i'm tempted by it for, for when I don't want to play around at work with stuff

 

[Lanz]

fair dos that seems sensible, do you do MS labs for exams with them? That's what i'm tempted by it for, for when I don't want to play around at work with stuff

Nah, I get given tasks to do at work or problems to fix, so I tend to work through some of them in my own time or have a stay at home day to test and document stuff before I change any production systems. The little microserver is ideal as it just sits under the stairs with the router and u can turn it on and do stuff without all the mess of a big system.

 

[steinooo]

Nah, I get given tasks to do at work or problems to fix, so I tend to work through some of them in my own time or have a stay at home day to test and document stuff before I change any production systems. The little microserver is ideal as it just sits under the stairs with the router and u can turn it on and do stuff without all the mess of a big system.

sounds very similar to me, have you tried to persude your work to buy a server at work to use as a testbed?