HP ProLiant MicroServer

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iDOL

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Local Wiki for MBB users: http://myhtpc.co.za/hpwiki/


Added additional info linky : http://homeservershow.com/forums/in...ore-interesting-microserver-links/#entry35009

Milkman's Guide to the Ultimate Media System



I recently purchased one of these - HP ProLiant MicroServer N36L they were on special going for R1,200.00 - which I think is an excellent price at the time.

I now have 3 of these units running in the following configuration :

ESXI vsphere host : Ubuntu running as my primary download rig (RDM configured for 2 x 2tb hdd's, 8gb Ram)

Openelec/XBMC - Running off a 2gb usb stick with the included 1gb ram and a Nvidia GT520 gpu for audio over HDMI - It serves media from my trusty WHSv1 box.

NAS - still busy deciding on OS- but it contains 8gb RAM and 5 x 2tb's

Full specifications are as follows:

Processor: AMD Athlon II Neo N36L 1.3 GHz
RAM: 1 GB DDR3 PC3-10600 SDRAM - ECC
Drive Bays: 4
Supplied Storage: 1 x 250GB Hard Drive
RAID Support: RAID 0, 1
Ports: 1 x VGA
6 x USB 2.0 (4 Front, 2 Rear)
1 x Gigabit Ethernet
1 x eSATA
Warranty: 1 year
Dimensions: 21cm (w) x 26cm (d) x 26.7cm (h)
Weight: 6 Kg


Here is some more links and information regarding this :

Oc oz links : http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=958208


HP Technical Information :

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...248009&prodTypeId=15351&objectID=c02503511#A3

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13716_na/13716_na.HTML

Reviews :

http://www.wegotserved.com/2011/02/15/hands-hp-proliant-microserver/

http://www.mswhs.com/2011/01/hp-proliant-microserver-review/

http://www.silentpcreview.com/HP_Proliant_MicroServer

Link to modified Bios allowing you to change the drive settings to AHCI for the internal ODD sata port. : HP N36L MicroServer updated AHCI Bios

Also here is a helpful thread to setup the N36L as a XBMC/Openelec Media Centre : A Complete Guide to creating the Ultimate TV Experience.

NAS Basics (Data Protection, Performance, Configuration and more) - courtesy of AvForums
 
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As discussed in the other thread, I'm looking for a GPU capable of displaying 1080P in XBMC running on Ubuntu.
This post mentions a few cards but they don't seem to come with the low-profile bracket required to squeeze into this box. Has anyone managed to track anything reasonably priced (See: Cheap) down that would do the job?
 
Most of those actually won't fit. The passive ones especially, have rather tall coolers. There's a Leadtek 210 that would fit, but they seem to be unavailable at the moment. There's also a MSI that's actively cooled, but Prophecy shows stock levels unknown, which is normally a bad sign. Mailing them anyway.
 
I've tracked down a couple of cards that should fit, just querying stock.
 
Messugga said:
I've tracked down a couple of cards that should fit, just querying stock.
Click to expand...

both the asus and gigabyte actively coold GT210's should fit. Let us know what card you get, thinking about getting another one to use as and HTPC

The_Unnamed said:
Pity about it not supporting RAID 5 :-/.
Click to expand...

Yeah it is a pity, and they not planning on supporting it at any stage either. Although it doesn't affect me as I'm running a software RaidZ in freeNAS
 
SomeoneEls said:
Yeah it is a pity, and they not planning on supporting it at any stage either. Although it doesn't affect me as I'm running a software RaidZ in freeNAS
Click to expand...

Bloody hell. Good point. This is why people like you are on forums :p.
I completely forgot about software RAID.
 
Those def look like good value.

Messugga said:
Mot of those actually won't fit. The passive ones especially, have rather tall coolers. There's a Leadtek 210 that would fit,
Click to expand...
Also...sticking a gfx that requires 300W into a box with 150W (/200W) PSU is not a particularly inspired plan.
 
I am going to be running flexraid on this box - as soon as I get it up and running
 
The_Unnamed said:
Bloody hell. Good point. This is why people like you are on forums :p.
I completely forgot about software RAID.
Click to expand...

Hehe glad I jogged the memory! Software RAID is probably a lot safer in this sort of situation as you probably won't have another 1 lying around (well at this price you actual might, but I digress) to use the same chipset to rebuild the RAID if anything were to happen to the Motherboard!

HavocXphere said:
Those def look like good value.


Also...sticking a gfx that requires 300W into a box with 150W (/200W) PSU is not a particularly inspired plan.
Click to expand...

It's actually not that bad a plan at all really! The processor is a 15w AMD neo, the card, GT210, consumes around 31 watts. The highest recorded wattage I've seen in all the forums I've looked through is around 89watts (4 x 2TB 7200tb Hdd and a SDD running SBS 2008 R2 at full load) add the 31w for the graphics card and your still quite comfortably within the 150W limit. Now if your running LP drives and not constantly using it at full load I imagine it would use quite a lot less, same as applies to the GT210 that's 31watts at full load.
 
SomeoneEls said:
Hehe glad I jogged the memory! Software RAID is probably a lot safer in this sort of situation as you probably won't have another 1 lying around (well at this price you actual might, but I digress) to use the same chipset to rebuild the RAID if anything were to happen to the Motherboard!



It's actually not that bad a plan at all really! The processor is a 15w AMD neo, the card, GT210, consumes around 31 watts. The highest recorded wattage I've seen in all the forums I've looked through is around 89watts (4 x 2TB 7200tb Hdd and a SDD running SBS 2008 R2 at full load) add the 31w for the graphics card and your still quite comfortably within the 150W limit. Now if your running LP drives and not constantly using it at full load I imagine it would use quite a lot less, same as applies to the GT210 that's 31watts at full load.
Click to expand...

The PCIe 16x on the board can only provide 25W, so that's something to keep in mind. As for the built in RAID on this device, it's faux-RAID anyway. It's software RAID that gets handled by the driver, so may as well go for a completely standard software RAID solution, which is what I'm doing.

Prophecy asked their supplier to check the cards that I reckon would fit, to see whether they're identical to the images online. If they are, they should fit fine as their coolers don't stick out above the PCI plate.
 
Messugga said:
The PCIe 16x on the board can only provide 25W, so that's something to keep in mind. As for the built in RAID on this device, it's faux-RAID anyway. It's software RAID that gets handled by the driver, so may as well go for a completely standard software RAID solution, which is what I'm doing.

Prophecy asked their supplier to check the cards that I reckon would fit, to see whether they're identical to the images online. If they are, they should fit fine as their coolers don't stick out above the PCI plate.
Click to expand...

Cool beans, good luck with the cards, the actively cooled one's do look a lot smaller actually!
Missed the 25w limitation maybe the HD5450 is a better call then? Although just read an article saying the 210 consumes 22.9w during 3DMark so...
Which one are you looking at?
 
The GF210 uses 30W apparently, but I've read on other forums about people using the Radeon HD 5450 in the microserver though. The Sapphire one definitely has a low profile bracket, but it's in the box, not fitted by default. Card is about R 400.

BTW: if you only want VGA output, the built-in GPU (HD 4200) is more than capable of 1080p, you just wouldn't have sound.
 
SomeoneEls said:
It's actually not that bad a plan at all really! The processor is a 15w AMD neo, the card, GT210, consumes around 31 watts. The highest recorded wattage I've seen in all the forums I've looked through is around 89watts (4 x 2TB 7200tb Hdd and a SDD running SBS 2008 R2 at full load) add the 31w for the graphics card and your still quite comfortably within the 150W limit.
Click to expand...
We're interested in peak, not load values. Here's a hard-disk with spin up wattage of just over 28W. 4 of those, 112W. Add CPU (15) & GFX (25) and we're at 152W. Thats already over the limit & we actually still need some watts for the mobo and perhaps a safety margins. Then we're also assuming the PSU can actually deliver 150W.

Clearly it can work (e.g. not using enterprise hdds like I did above:p) else they wouldn't sell it...it just needs careful consideration. Looks like Messugga has it covered though.
 
I'm looking at the Geforce 210 due to its superior driver support in Ubuntu and XBMC. Also, the different 210's have different power consumptions, the different three being DDR2 512MB, DDR2 1024MB and DDR3 512MB. I'm looking at the latter of the three.

Regarding the powersupply; it's a 1U server type unit, so most probably pretty good quality.

Will keep you guys updated.
 
Well, I am going to be running mine headless, everytime - I start a new NAS build - the big question is always for me - what NAS OS will I be utilising.

Whilst I am waiting on the local release of "Windows Home Server" 2011 - to really complete the comparison.

I have in the meantime just started playing around - I am using 2x250gb's + 1 x80gb to test and see. (will be placing 4 x 2tb's in the chassis).

Here is a list of Diy NAS OS that I have encountered :

Free:
Freenas : http://freenas.org/ , http://sourceforge.net/projects/freenas/
Amahi (based on Fedora Core ) http://www.amahi.org/
NexentaStor : Community Edition - FREE version for up to 18TB of storage : http://www.nexentastor.org/
Ubuntu : http://www.ubuntu.com/
ClearOS (formerly ClarkConnect) : http://www.clearfoundation.com/
Openfiler : http://www.openfiler.com/
Opensolaris : http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Main/

Commercial:
Windows Home Server v1 (Includes Drive Extender)
Windows Home Server v2 "Vail" (Excludes native drive extender)
Windows Server 2008 R2
Unraid
Naslite

Please let me know about any others that you have used or read about, I would like to compile a list of them.

Also - let me know primarily what uses you have for the device :

NAS/Media Server/Home Server/XBMC Box
 
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iDOL said:
Commercial:
Windows Home Server v1 (Includes Drive Extender)
Windows Home Server v2 "Vail" (Excludes native drive extender)
Windows Server 2008 R2

Please let me know about any others that you have used or read about, I would like to compile a list of them.
Click to expand...

Also include Unraid. I haven't personally used it, but apparently its excellent and although it isn't free, its features make it very tempting indeed. If/when I build a serious NAS with 10+ drives, I'll almost certainly make use of it.
 
I heard that the nVidia 210 have problems with 1080 might be better to look for something else, the size of the pc worries me with overheating issues when you install 4 drives and a gpu
 
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