Tekforums
Chat => Entertainment & Technology => Topic started by: XEntity on March 19, 2011, 01:03:18 AM
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Just got me one of these:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-221-81-with-100-hp-cashback-121-81/888083?page=28 (http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-221-81-with-100-hp-cashback-121-81/888083?page=28)
For £130 with low power usage can't really complain, going to get rid of the D-Link NAS (Which I've only had for a month :o ) and use this I expect, and going to run a variety of things on this instead!
Also guide with all driver and upgrade info here:
http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/hp-proliant-microserver-purchase-upgrade-setup-guide/ (http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/hp-proliant-microserver-purchase-upgrade-setup-guide/)
(http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_317/it_photo_158899_52.jpg)
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Looks excellent. Great value for a 4 bay solution (assuming the cashback goes to plan).
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that does look sweet.
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Just got me one of these:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-221-81-with-100-hp-cashback-121-81/888083?page=28 (http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-221-81-with-100-hp-cashback-121-81/888083?page=28)
For £130 with low power usage can't really complain, going to get rid of the D-Link NAS (Which I've only had for a month :o ) and use this I expect, and going to run a variety of things on this instead!
(http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_PC_Pro/dir_317/it_photo_158899_52.jpg)
How much do you want for the d-link? I was just thinking I should have got two.
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I can't find much info on this, what RAID levels does it support? It also isn't hot-swap (not the end of the world of course) seems like a bargain for the money though. Really tempted to get one if I get paid in time!
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I can't find much info on this, what RAID levels does it support? It also isn't hot-swap (not the end of the world of course) seems like a bargain for the money though. Really tempted to get one if I get paid in time!
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RAID 0 and 1
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No RAID 5 'age?? damn!
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I believe the raid on this is also software based not hardware, but some people have then purchased a RAID card to go in one of the PCI-X slots and ignored the onboard raid. However a friend of mine is looking to raid 5 his, I'll have a word with him to see how he is going to do it?
WRT selling mine, I'll get back to you as might sell it to a friend (means I wont have to post it then!) If not I'll find out how much postage is..
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I believe the raid on this is also software based not hardware, but some people have then purchased a RAID card to go in one of the PCI-X slots and ignored the onboard raid. However a friend of mine is looking to raid 5 his, I'll have a word with him to see how he is going to do it?
That would be appreciated, seems a bit pointless to me having more than 2 bays and not being able to RAID other than 0 or 1!
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He's not in today it turns out, he'll be in tomorrow, but apparently as it is software based raid, you can run software RAID 5, not sure if freeNAS does this, apparently CentOS does (But this kind of depends on your OS choice, I'd say windows was out of the question at a guess?)
Some people have used the HP SmartArray P410 which at a quick look is another £130+ quid, but then have run 4x3.5 and 4x2.5in disks, putting 4 in the 5 1/4 bay.
I'll let you know when I speak to him tomorrow to see what he is doing anyway.
I'm probably going to mirror mine and I have a Mini 8GB SSD which came out of my netbook, for which I have a tiny USB caddy to attached to the internal USB port, giving me the use of the full 4 HD bays and DVD drive in the top, which may get upgraded to an additional HD in the future if capacity calls for it!
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WRT selling mine, I'll get back to you as might sell it to a friend (means I wont have to post it then!) If not I'll find out how much postage is..
Depending how far away you are, I could always collect.
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hmmm looking at some reviews, these seem a little under powered for my needs :o(
Pity.. I'll have to fork out for a qnap insead
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Don't they normally have ml110s and 115s on special 99 days out of 100?
^ That's a cute chassis but sounds pretty gutless.
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WRT selling mine, I'll get back to you as might sell it to a friend (means I wont have to post it then!) If not I'll find out how much postage is..
Depending how far away you are, I could always collect.
Bristol so quite far away ;)
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Don't they normally have ml110s and 115s on special 99 days out of 100?
^ That's a cute chassis but sounds pretty gutless.
It's not really comparable in terms of usage, so the MLs run Xeon processors I believe and is for heavy duty server usage, as where the micro server is designed for a lower CPU over head and very low power consumption (typically <40watts reading the reviews). So no it’s not going to be a multi function domain controller/VM host or anything like that, but as a file server and running a few other tasks like I have mentioned above, you would be hard pushed to get anything at that power consumption level for that cost.
The CPU isn’t supposed to be too bad either, it’s supposed to be better than the equivalent Atom, which it is essentially AMDs version of this..
If you check the HUKD thread, there are some people who have put in a HD decoding graphics card and running it as a media centre computer without problems.
I bought this so I had a computer that could be always on, with minimal cost and maximum functionality, it’s not a perfect machine, but I think for it’s target market you can’t get much better, H/W raid would make it much better, but look at the cost vs those dedicated NAS boxes and the flexibility of this..
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I've decided flock it and ordered one, I'll sell my Buffalo gals with their 500Gb drives and this can become my new fileserver :)
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Well it arrived this morning (although the dipstick delivered it to next door who kindly dropped it round), I'm just wondering what OS to install now and whether its worth putting a small/cheap HDD in the 5.25" bay to boot from but ideally I'd like something lightweight to boot from USB pen. Having said that Windows Home Server 2008 seems to be the best bet at the moment as it natively supports the hardware as well as software RAID 5, I could even get it installed on a small SSD as they are supported too. Server 2011 would work if I upgraded to 2Gb RAM but I'm not sure I would see any benefits to it.
FreeNAS doesn't look so great, Ubuntu is a contender, I'm not sure what else I could roll with. I looked at unRAID but to support over 3 drives they want $69 for a license fixed to your USB flash dive :disappointed:
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what about naslite ? that.s what I used to use.... it was bloody fast... years since I used it.... but you can have my serial number if you want ? ;)
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Cheers, I'll look into it :)
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Oddly NASLite doesn't support software RAID, and the newest versions you have to pay for (I don't think your serial would carry across anyway).
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Oddly NASLite doesn't support software RAID, and the newest versions you have to pay for (I don't think your serial would carry across anyway).
doh! I'm sure it used to carry over !
if my serial is old, it can be "upgraded" for £1..... they're always sending me emails about it :-)
but I guess with no software raid there's no point ?
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p.s. I guess you'd be better with something that could run bit-torrent anyway ?
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Well I'm not too worried about running BT as I never really switch this machine off anyway, but there's a lot of flexibility in using Windows if I decide to put apps and stuff on (or fit a graphics card and make it a media center PC) and it will be easy to manage. The other options all seem like a lot of hassle!
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if you want raid 5, why not just stick a raid card in?
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Anyone considering using one of these as a media centre? I assume you'd need at least 1Gb of RAM and a low profile PCIe graphics card with on-board sound like:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=503425&CatId=2696
Then an XBMC Live install and you'd be away? Full HD media player and home server in one for ~£150 + drives?
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Anyone considering using one of these as a media centre? I assume you'd need at least 1Gb of RAM and a low profile PCIe graphics card with on-board sound like:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=503425&CatId=2696
Then an XBMC Live install and you'd be away? Full HD media player and home server in one for ~£150 + drives?
reviews ive raid say the processing power aint up to much
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Anyone considering using one of these as a media centre? I assume you'd need at least 1Gb of RAM and a low profile PCIe graphics card with on-board sound like:
http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=503425&CatId=2696 (http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=503425&CatId=2696)
Then an XBMC Live install and you'd be away? Full HD media player and home server in one for ~£150 + drives?
It comes with a gig anyway, would considedr possibly adding a bit more, but if you check the HUKD thread, there there are loads of people doing it and have suggested some suitable graphics cards, main thing you need to be careful of is voltage and power draw of the card..
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if you want raid 5, why not just stick a raid card in?
You'd have to spend half again on what I paid for the server for a decent RAID card with enough ports that does RAID 5, it's not really worth the effort when software RAID is just as good (the only drawback being needing the OS installed to keep it alive). I might fit one for expansion later on though once I've got to grips with it, I've not even had a chance to take it out of the box yet :)
Also it seems these make for great media servers/HTPCs and its something I would consider in the future, all I want it for is decent redundant storage. For someone not interested in RAID or that just wants JBOD you have a small, quiet unit with enough grunt and low power consumption providing you fit a HD decoding graphics card, plenty of success stories on HUKD as XEntity mentions. There's only a few days left to order in to qualify for the £100 cashback.
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OK so who got one and who's using them?
Currently I'm getting about 43 watts power consumption at idle, I know that you can get 30 watts out of these things, but my 2 x Samsung F4s in RAID 1 aren't going to sleep, and looking at power consumption figures, this would get me the required drop! I'll probably remove them later and see what consumption I get then is.
I've also disabled indexing etc, so it's not that, the only thing I can think is that the RAID array isn't allowing them to go to sleep? But they would go to sleep in my external RAID NAS?
Any ideas? And anyway to force them to sleep, BTW Running W7 Pro?
Cheers!
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I've got one, but I need to get Windows (going to be using Server 2008) installed and get 4 2Tb HDDs to RAID up - I've not got the cashflow for those at present! So it's currently sat doing nothing.
Re: the sleep issue, check that your power saving options are set to power down the drives, it could be that this is all off.
I need a 5.25" caddy first so I can move the supplied HDD into the spare bay, i might try and sort all that out next weekend.
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Plenty of time for sleep when their dead.
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Re: the sleep issue, check that your power saving options are set to power down the drives, it could be that this is all off.
LOL you didn't think that wasn't the first thing I checked!
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Sorry, didn't mean to be patronising; when working in web design you're dealing with ignorance every day :lol:
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Sorry, didn't mean to be patronising; when working in web design you're dealing with ignorance every day :lol:
LOL I reckon all of us on here have worked in something involving some sort of tech support at one time or another. We must all have done the "nah, he must have thought of that.........(5 hours of testing later).......have you tried (insert obvious solution here)......system now works, facepalm"
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No worries mate, I once spent half a day trying to work out a network issue on an install of a 50m network cable from the office hub, only to find that it was an issue with the 2m cable from the office computer to the hub!
Think I have sorted the issue anyway now, I hadn't set the drive sleep time (only kidding) I had iTunes set to load at boot, as I wanted to plug it in to the amp and get it to play my tunes, so I could control it from my phone, but although it had no music or anything on it it was stopping the CPU completely dropping down to 5% power I expect so now getting around 30watts, although the hds still appear to be spinning!
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Sorry, didn't mean to be patronising; when working in web design you're dealing with ignorance every day :lol:
Agreed.
This dude does not appreciate what hes getting here as an example: http://theknowledgegym.fueldesign.co.nz/home-page
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£100 cashback has been extended till end of April so I'm going to see about picking one of these up after this holiday break :D
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Looks like you can stick quite a few of the lower level £30 gfx cards in there to turn it into a happy HTPC/Server which is what I was after. The nVidia passive 210 cards seem to be what I would go for over the recommended ATI ones in the HDUK thread only because a lot of the 'live' HTPC and OS's are based of linux which generally work a lot better driver wise with nvida over ati.
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Nice it's a great box TBH, Can get 5 HDs internally, and a 6th via e-sata + USB..
Just make sure you get the right model (check serial), and also check that it's purchases until the end of the month and not just form submission?
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Just checked and it's still on for the 250Gb model.. good spot mate
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how long does the cashback take to come through?
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I think it says on the application form... 6 weeks sounds familiar, I'm still waiting for mine at the moment, but had confirmation it had been accepted..
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I havn't got my cashback cheque yet but I know they've received it as I had confirmation. I will let you know when it arrives, I'm expecting it in the next couple of weeks.
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Just purchased mine and also threw in a 5.25 > 3.25 adapter, 2GB Ram, nVidia 210 low profile. 8GB memory stick and a 4th 2TB Sammy drive.
Will put the 4x Samsung 2TBs into it and boot a XMBC live off the USB stick methinks. Might move over to a full version of Ubuntu or Windows Server at a later date.
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hmm I think I'll get one & maybe ditch my popcorn. Want something to serve the house & popcorns are going for £80+ on ebay atm,
so that + the rebate makes for a cheap server.
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Looks like you can stick quite a few of the lower level £30 gfx cards in there to turn it into a happy HTPC/Server which is what I was after. The nVidia passive 210 cards seem to be what I would go for over the recommended ATI ones in the HDUK thread only because a lot of the 'live' HTPC and OS's are based of linux which generally work a lot better driver wise with nvida over ati.
ATI dont work as well with linux, so thats why nvidia gets recommended a lot.
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Thats what I said :P
The HDUK thread was recommending ATI cards mainly but I decided to go for the nVidia 210 instead for that very reason
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Just to let you know my rebate arrived this morning ;)
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nice, i hope to order one tomorrow.. delay in my paycheque cos of the bankholiday.
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ive ordered one with a zotac 210 passive cooled.
if it all works out well, Ill flog my popcorn hour.
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Quick update guys:
Offer has been extended till end of May and cheapest authorised supplier is Crescent Electronics @ £221.81 (£121.81 after cashback if you are REALLY terrible at maths).
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-221-81-delivered-crescent-electronics/888083
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Got mine setup last night without the extra gfx card (HS was too tall). Working on guides etc now for Media Server / XBMC.
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Actually got round to filling in my £100 claim form today. Printed it off, filled it in and sent via E-mail and got my claim accepted e-mail within the hour... can't complain about that :)
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I paid my cheque in a couple of weeks ago and I haven't even started setting it up yet :yarr: They are very prompt though which is good.
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I believe the raid on this is also software based not hardware, but some people have then purchased a RAID card to go in one of the PCI-X slots and ignored the onboard raid. However a friend of mine is looking to raid 5 his, I'll have a word with him to see how he is going to do it?
That'll be me then! I used MS Server 2008 R2 and software RAID 5 to make 4 x 2TB Samsungs into 6TB. Seems solid as a rock, with shares working well across XP / Win 7 and OSX platforms. Decent read / write speeds, that seem to keep up with the requirements of multiple machines connected to it, including a HTPC running XBMC.
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Out of interest what read and write speeds are you getting over the network? You using gigabit?
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Ive plugged an wireless dongle in the internal USB, so I dont get very fast.
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That'll be me then! I used MS Server 2008 R2 and software RAID 5 to make 4 x 2TB Samsungs into 6TB. Seems solid as a rock, with shares working well across XP / Win 7 and OSX platforms. Decent read / write speeds, that seem to keep up with the requirements of multiple machines connected to it, including a HTPC running XBMC.
Cheers, that's exactly what I intended to do. I just need the 4x 2Tb drives now.
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I got my 4x 2TB's in the bays and put the 250GB system drive in the 5.25" Drive with an adapter. One thing I was noticed is that it doesn't already run a SATA cable up to the bay for you (I ran one down the front to the ODD port) but the thing I was surpsied about it that it gives you 3x MATX power connectors but no extra Sata Power, luckily I had one of the convertor cables kicking about.
I also haven't noticed any of the extreme slowdown when running on the ODD port (which was suggested in the unraid thread before).
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Jake, I've not checked the read / write speeds. I'm using it connected over my wireless network so that'll be the main limiting factor. (not that I haven't been thinking about wiring the house up!)
Dooms, I'm running in exactly the same configuration and also don't notice any slowdown.
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Where did you guys get your 5.25" bay adapters from?
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Where did you guys get your 5.25" bay adapters from?
I just turned my drive upside down & used a sticky pad to hold it in place :lol:
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Used one of the startech ones from amazon for a couple quid but it doesnt match up properly so its basically screwed to the adapter and then wedged in :P
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:lol: Fair enough guys.
I saw a cheapo generic on one of the usual hardware sites so I'll go for that I think. Maybe it will fit right!
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Got my Cheque today :oD
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Still waiting on mine and I had more or less forgotten about it (will be a nice surprise when it does eventually turn up :P)
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Still waiting on mine and I had more or less forgotten about it (will be a nice surprise when it does eventually turn up :P)
we ordered ours about the same time? I got my application in the post the same day though.
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Still waiting on mine and I had more or less forgotten about it (will be a nice surprise when it does eventually turn up :P)
we ordered ours about the same time? I got my application in the post the same day though.
You posted it? I just emailled it to them, much easier! ;)
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I never actually e-mailed my form until the 18th May so thats why I have the delay methinks :)
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You got a response from them saying that they had accepted it though yeah?
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I got the accepted response in about 4 minutes of emailing them :)
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Got my cheque today :)
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Got my cheque today :)
Cashback!
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a389/freezin1/AlanPartridge-2.jpg)
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Just to let you know, it's been extended to the end of this month now, I assume they'll just keep extending it!
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Just to let you know, it's been extended to the end of this month now, I assume they'll just keep extending it!
Gah I could fancy one of these, I just can't really afford it and the 4 2tb drives or something to go in it, and at least once the cashback had expired I thought I definetly couldn't afford one, but now its still on going theres the temptation there to buy one doh.
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I still haven't had the money to fill mine up with drives either, but I'm glad I bought it because I know it's there ready to make good on when I can.
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I still haven't had the money to fill mine up with drives either, but I'm glad I bought it because I know it's there ready to make good on when I can.
Don't tempt me (well not yet, maybe later in the month!) I'm busy trying to save up for a new camera and I'll have a holiday to pay for soon, but I might be able to fit it on the old credit card so shhh don't tempt me.
Really quite tempted, I've been after something to stick all my erm linux distro on for easy access and these do look like they'll fit the bill quite nicely. We'll see what the end of the month brings.
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Not trying to tempt you but I'm well impressed with mine, absolutely faultless, it's been constantly on for a month now, doesn't run slow, deals with encoding for the ipad, both in real time and for upload, hosts my VPN which has given 100% reliability, hosts my linux distros over the network and plays them faultlessly over the network, and transfer speed for those computers on gigabit is quick as!
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Not trying to tempt you but I'm well impressed with mine, absolutely faultless, it's been constantly on for a month now, doesn't run slow, deals with encoding for the ipad, both in real time and for upload, hosts my VPN which has given 100% reliability, hosts my linux distros over the network and plays them faultlessly over the network, and transfer speed for those computers on gigabit is quick as!
Shhhhhhh!
Might be able to work it to be able to get one and worry about the drives later but I need to wait a few weeks first, will use the time to do a good bit reading up on them.
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Arf, I'm getting seriously tempted now. Mainly because I've moved into a new house and would love to turn the airing cupboard, which is mostly empty right now, into my own little server room. Its gonna be a long term undertaking but I have Cat6 cable awaiting installation so this would be the perfect starter to my system.
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Another +1 from me. I love my microserver, its been on since I've had it 2 months ago and happily does my downloading and streaming. Its just not quite powerful enough to re-encode on the fly using PLEX but hey can't win em all.
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Well I've ordered one yesterday from Dabs, just have to hope that with the offer expiring today and that I haven't got it delivered or what appears to be an invoice from Dabs I can still claim the cashback. I've got a details of my order but the dabs email has on it
"We won't take any money from your chosen payment method until we're ready to despatch, at which point your order will be officially "accepted". We'll confirm this in writing by email on the evening of despatch. This email will also contain your delivery consignment number, along with advice on how to track your delivery during transit. Please make arrangements for someone to receive your parcel(s)."
So I'll have to hope that's enough for HP along with whatever email I get from Dabs saying its been dispatched which I presume I'll get tomorrow (est delivery is the 2nd) If its not it'll be going straight back to Dabs me thinks!
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To be honest one of the three things could happen:
- HP extend the offer yet again! You get your cash back!
- Dabs put today's date on the order, even though it's not accepted until after.. You get your cash back!
- Dab's put Mondays date on the order, HP don't extend the offer, you Photoshop the invoice date.. You get your cash back!
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lol quite true, will wait and see what I get from Dabs tomorrow!
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Well got the server, but haven't got confirmation of my cash back yet so I haven't opened it, all I've got so far is something from a guy saying he'll print it off and process it as soon as he can and that was first thing on Monday. So far its doing a good job of being a paperweight!
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Sounds like it has gone through to be honest!
And also.. Offer extended to the 31st of August!
http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/proliantmicroserver/index.html (http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/proliantmicroserver/index.html)
:ptu: Yarrrr!
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lol in that case nothing to worry about, best go get it out the box and have a play then!
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This is turning into the DFS Sale :lol:
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This is turning into the DFS Sale :lol:
:muttley:
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woop woop cash back approved, now to get saving for some drives and more memory.
Speaking of memory found that apparently this stuff works fine with it and won't break the bank, £21 for 4GB of RAM, not too bad.
http://www.ebuyer.com/229102-kingston-4gb-ddr3-1066mhz-memory-non-ecc-cl7-1-5v-kvr1066d3n7-4g
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woop woop cash back approved, now to get saving for some drives and more memory.
Speaking of memory found that apparently this stuff works fine with it and won't break the bank, £21 for 4GB of RAM, not too bad.
http://www.ebuyer.com/229102-kingston-4gb-ddr3-1066mhz-memory-non-ecc-cl7-1-5v-kvr1066d3n7-4g
Nice and nice!
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woop woop cash back approved, now to get saving for some drives and more memory.
Speaking of memory found that apparently this stuff works fine with it and won't break the bank, £21 for 4GB of RAM, not too bad.
http://www.ebuyer.com/229102-kingston-4gb-ddr3-1066mhz-memory-non-ecc-cl7-1-5v-kvr1066d3n7-4g
Nice and nice!
Extremely, just got to decide how to run this thing next. I'll probably get that 4GB of RAM which'll be plenty for most things, I'll stick Server 2003 on and when I get the hard drives create a software RAID. Or do I just stick something like FreeNAS on, or VMware and then put 2003 on. Hmm I'm probably heading for just the 2003 on but being able to play around with some VM's might be nice.
And of course if I can find a cheap RAID card that might be useful too, but I ain't holding my breath can't see a 4 port SATA RAID card being around £40-50.
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There's a raid controller built in already? It's what I'm using to mirror on windows 7, your not going to get a proper hardware raid controller for anywhere near that price, and even if you did, I'm not sure you could connect it to the caddy?
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The onboard controller isn't really a proper raid system, it only does raid 0 or 1 and its not really a proper hardware raid either but not raid 5 so no real redundancy. You can apparently connect it up the caddies to the a separate raid card but you have take it completely apart.
I'll probably just do software raid in server 2003, there's very little chance of getting a cheap raid card but I have a look around, its going to be after christmas by the time I can afford the drives I reckon.
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Yeah I knew that, if you manage to find a proper hardware raid card that will fit in there at that price you'll be lucky!
BTW I'd sooner a proper OS, rather than free NAS, just the system can do so much more than just file serving..
Also:
Corsair XMS3 Classic 4096MB (1x4096MB) Memory Module 1333MHz PC3-10666 DDR3 DIMM 240pin CL 9-9-9-24
£19.82
http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=164531 (http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=164531)
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Haven't looked into it too much but seen a couple of people saying that there's a custom BIOS to improve the speed of the onboard SATA that's meant for a CD Drive. You can get it from here but no idea what its like, might try it tonight.
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/16427-whs-on-hp-proliant-microserver/page__st__120__p__104539#entry104539
I've also got a forum post on my PC at home with links to drivers for XP and 2003, which is rather useful since I've installed 2003 on mine, will post it up tonight
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Haven't looked into it too much but seen a couple of people saying that there's a custom BIOS to improve the speed of the onboard SATA that's meant for a CD Drive. You can get it from here but no idea what its like, might try it tonight.
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/16427-whs-on-hp-proliant-microserver/page__st__120__p__104539#entry104539
I've also got a forum post on my PC at home with links to drivers for XP and 2003, which is rather useful since I've installed 2003 on mine, will post it up tonight
I read that orginally but never noticed the insanely slow speeds they are talking about when using the extra Sata header (currently being used for the 250gb system drive)
Sent from my Transformer TF101G using Tapatalk
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I've got my 250gb drive connected up to that SATA port and it did take it quite a while to install 2003 on it so I'll probably put it on later haven't had much chance to look into it yet really and don't want to rush into it and end up bricking my microserver.
And here's the link to the forum post with the XP/2003 Drivers
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?p=13201219
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Some people seem to be saying that the latest BIOS from HP does the same as the hacked BIOS, I've put it on mine and we'll see what its like and if its not up to much then I'll bash the hacked BIOS on.
Latest HP BIOS:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=4248009&prodNameId=4310887&swEnvOID=4064&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-42694d7e7bb8426fb0d8637ec4
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Cheers mate, let us know.. I'm not too bothered as I have an optical drive running in it at the moment, but will be good to know..
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Cheers for both the links, I'm going actually get round to putting Windows Server 2003 on this weekend I think, rather than having what is currently an expensive brick on my desk!
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Once I get all the correct drivers installed I'll post direct links to them, so far I've only got the NIC drivers on and the BIOS updated.
Mine was just going to sit there for a while but I managed to borrow some 80gb drives from old PC's at work, should give me a chance to play around setting up a RAID on it etc. Might even be able to get get some 250gb drives from some servers that are being chucked out, but I'm waiting on the ok from the IT manager before I do.
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The onboard controller isn't really a proper raid system, it only does raid 0 or 1 and its not really a proper hardware raid either but not raid 5 so no real redundancy. You can apparently connect it up the caddies to the a separate raid card but you have take it completely apart.
I'll probably just do software raid in server 2003, there's very little chance of getting a cheap raid card but I have a look around, its going to be after christmas by the time I can afford the drives I reckon.
The onboard Raid isn't a proper raid system, its's not a proper hardware raid card. I'll probably just do a software raid?
LOL?
Dedicated card or onboard with a controller chip, it's still a hardware RAID in my books.
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There's a raid controller built in already? It's what I'm using to mirror on windows 7, your not going to get a proper hardware raid controller for anywhere near that price, and even if you did, I'm not sure you could connect it to the caddy?
The other issue is the Majority of dedicated cards will not have any drivers for a client OS. Even with cheaper Adaptec SATA RAID cards. I once had the challenge of building a custom system that needed to have 15K SAS, RAID 0 and Windows 7. The only board I found that could the job was an ASUS Professional motherboard which not only had the onboard RAID they were SAS controllers as well.
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The onboard RAID is your entry level 0/1 job, if you want a proper RAID5 like most intending to fill the server with drives then really its an expensive addon card or most are choosing Server 2003.
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The onboard controller isn't really a proper raid system, it only does raid 0 or 1 and its not really a proper hardware raid either but not raid 5 so no real redundancy. You can apparently connect it up the caddies to the a separate raid card but you have take it completely apart.
I'll probably just do software raid in server 2003, there's very little chance of getting a cheap raid card but I have a look around, its going to be after christmas by the time I can afford the drives I reckon.
The onboard Raid isn't a proper raid system, its's not a proper hardware raid card. I'll probably just do a software raid?
LOL?
Dedicated card or onboard with a controller chip, it's still a hardware RAID in my books.
But its not hardware RAID, I'm not using the onboard RAID card to create the array just to connect the drives, I'll be using Server 2003 hence its a software RAID. Yes that's using the ports on the onboard hardware RAID but its not using the onboard RAID to manage the array.
I've looked for a RAID card but they're just too expensive so I'll not bother.
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Ok so drivers for 2003:
NIC Driver - http://www.broadcom.com/support/license.php?file=570x/win_xp_2k3_32-14.6.0.6a.zip taken from http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/netxtreme_server.php
AMD Processor Driver - http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/dynamicDetails.aspx?ListID=c5cd2c08-1432-4756-aafa-4d9dc646342f&ItemID=173&lang=us
Chipset & CPU - http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/embedded/Pages/embedded_windows_all.aspx think I've got the right one from a rather long list on http://wwwd.amd.com/AMD/SReleaseF.nsf/softwarepages/DriversbyDeviceChipset?OpenDocument
You'll need to have at least SP1 for 2003 on before installing the Processor Driver, which is a nice 372mb download, nice.
So far the only thing I haven't got the drivers quite right for is the graphics card, thought they'd be part of the Chipset & GPU package but obviously not quite hmm will have a better dig about over the weekend.
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I'd think the onboard raid however it's run will still be faster/better than server2k3 raid ?
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Software RAID is really efficient these days, in fact the basic onboard RAID jobbies usually still use CPU anyway, they don't have hardware chips for it, that's why they are cheap!
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yeah... but I bet they still do some of the work right ?
actually... don't they only hand off the stuff like calculations for parity bits etc.. ?
I thought raid0 or raid1 stuff was handled by the cheap onboard chips now ?
it's not complicated splitting it between 2 disks or copying the same thing to both of them ? - super simple in chip design really ?
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I think it makes no difference for raid 0/1 as you say, there's no parity calculations. I get mixed reports from reading, but general consensus seems to be that there's no performance hit to using software raid 5 these days, as its coded very efficiently and CPUs are so fast now.
Given the limited options for these microservers I'd say software raid is fine!
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nooo, what we're saying is....
what's better....
software raid as in cheap onboard raid
or
software raid as in raid run/controlled by the os
I'm saying might as well use the onboard for it.... because even tho it's "software raid" it does have a dedicated chip/controller and will be faster/better than raid controlled totaly by the os
I guess calling on board raid software raid isn't really right these days.... it's really hardware raid... which will pass off parity bit calculations to the CPU.... but do the rest itself ?
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I might be wrong, but expect you are either doing one or the other so you could use either SW or HW 0 + 1, I expect hardware would be better..
However RAID 5 isn't supported in the hardware raid, so expect this will run in entirely software mode? (The onboard chip will just see the drives as standard drives not an array?)
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I think we're getting confused (I know I am)? For most onboard/motherboard RAID controllers that do basic 0 + 1 + JBOD they still pass any overhead across to the CPU usually, its usually only expensive add-in cards that have battery buffers, etc that will have dedicated on board arithmetic units for RAID 5 parity and such.
For basic RAID levels I don't see any reason to choose onboard over software these days as you're just introducing another point of failure at the onboard controller, motherboard RAID really is an afterthought of manufacturers, they slap a basic chip on that just says "these drives can talk to each other in RAID", nothing more really. In the case of these microservers they won't even support RAID 5 from the onboard controller so software is the only option.
I would much rather trust the OS to manage the array, especially when you consider that if there is a failure you won't have any downtime while it rebuilds (as you would if it failed from the controller level and spend your afternoon looking at BIOS screens)
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I think we need to run some benchmarks !
hard drive speed, and cpu usage during read/write to see who is right here.... :o
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I think we need to run some benchmarks !
hard drive speed, and cpu usage during read/write to see who is right here.... :o
That an offer? ;D I don't have a RAID card so can't, unless someone else can source a one.
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I do... but my conouter is in bits.... waiting on an rma :-(
I could do it when i get back tho... i need to format anyway :-)
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Sounds like a plan to me, I'd like to know which is really best!
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I think we're getting confused (I know I am)? For most onboard/motherboard RAID controllers that do basic 0 + 1 + JBOD they still pass any overhead across to the CPU usually, its usually only expensive add-in cards that have battery buffers, etc that will have dedicated on board arithmetic units for RAID 5 parity and such.
What you are reffering to is what I call, fake-raid. This is more common in desktop entry level boards. A lot of intel and marvell chipsets do this. However, it's cheap and supported by a lot of OS versions. As you mention they lack dedicated memory and batteries, it is not wise to configure them with write back options. In some cases they will be setup through a RAID Controller Chipset anyway to provide the interface to the OS, simply due the design of the Host Bus Adaptor, this can lead to the complication of both the OS and chipset trying to provide error correction, or even potentially 3 things.
The idea of pure software RAID and line between software and hardware has become increasingly blured, the reason software RAID's have increased in perfomance is the change in CPU's, Xeons for example have embedded technology to help deal with RAID calculations. Thus bluring this line of hardware dependant calculations.
I'll be fair, there are advantages to software RAID, it's hardware agnostic so you can move the drives from a failed system (licensing allowing), it's a lot more flexible on expansion of arrays. But for me, I can't trust an OS to do the job of managing a RAID and I don't want it to manage the RAID, really, it's shouldn't even know or care what physical drives are there. If it a serious server with a serious role, put the investment in, if it's for the home or small office role, absolutely, it's not worth it.
I've done server's on a budget before, buying a cheap acer server, then adding an adaptec sata raid controller, or using the onboard intel matrix controller. They are all fine and dandy until something goes wrong and they leave you with limited options to rebuild the array. With one card I would have presumed you could create a RAID 1 from a specified master drive, read the manual, it specifically says it will wipe both drives.
Never again, unless this a domestic job, I just don't mess around with storage arrays on the cheap.
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Offer Extended to 30th September! :)
I asked this over in the Microserver XBMC (http://www.tekforums.net/movies-games-music-and-more/the-xbmc-microserver-home-media-server/) thread but it seems to fit in here better, I've got my microserver and started setting it up but just realised that Windows 7 doesn't support software raid 5?
Do I need to start over with WHS? Are there other advantages to WHS vs W7 if im using the box as an always on file server, media center and downloader?
I've gone for the following:
HP ProLiant MicroServer - £121.15 (https://www.crescentelectronics.co.uk/node/255520) (after cashback)
2 x Kingston ValueRAM memory - 4 GB - £31.46 (https://www.crescentelectronics.co.uk/node/331958)
HDE Wireless USB PC Remote Control Mouse for PC £7.95 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001M56DI0/ref=ox_ya_os_product)
HIS HD 6450 Silence Edition £36.99 (http://www.ebuyer.com/264765-his-hd-6450-silence-edition-1gb-ddr3-dvi-hdmi-vga-pci-e-low-h645h1g)
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I don't have any experience of WHS either (well bar installing v1 onto a pc to test and then never doing anything with it) so wouldn't mind knowing people's opinions on it as well. You can get WHS 2011 for about £40 so it does seem like a bargain and might be worth it, but the lack of the Drive Extender is a shame but then I'll just create a RAID in it if I can.
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I should add that I want RAID 5 for the 4 x 2TB drives I plan to add at some point. It seems there are some third party products that can add RAID 5. I'll keep digging.
Price isnt an issue for me as I have an MSDN subscription so its really just the best tool for the job I need.
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Haven't looked into it too much but seen a couple of people saying that there's a custom BIOS to improve the speed of the onboard SATA that's meant for a CD Drive. You can get it from here but no idea what its like, might try it tonight.
http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/topic/16427-whs-on-hp-proliant-microserver/page__st__120__p__104539#entry104539
I've also got a forum post on my PC at home with links to drivers for XP and 2003, which is rather useful since I've installed 2003 on mine, will post it up tonight
Finally getting round to setting up Windows on this (as soon as I have a USB keyboard) so I'm going to give this updated BIOS a try using the 250gb 'system' disk I've just mounted in the 5.25" bay. I'll report back when I've tried it. Just realised I need a USB pen so I'll have to borrow that off the missus...
Is it worth going the ECC memory route? Since I'm using this as a data server I'm wondering if (should I feel the need to upgrade) that its worth sticking to ECC memory?
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Not sure as I've not upgraded the memory in mine yet and don't really know the difference between the 2 bar that ECC does error correction but what that means in real terms I'm not sure. I'd imagine though that since your only using it for data that you can get away with out it if it was for databases and the like that hammer the memory lots then perhaps but for data I'd imagine not.
If anyone with a bit more knowledge would like to prove me wrong however feel free lol.
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I did a little reading on the ECC memory debate and from what I could work out modern (non-ECC) memory very rarely has issues and when it does its nearly always recoverable. ECC is also slightly slower and much more expensive.
I wacked 8Gb of the cheapest DDR3 in there i could find, more the merrier imo.
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That's kind of what I thought, but didn't know it it was worth the extra peace of mind should I decide to upgrade. I won't be hammering the memory by any stretch of the imagination, it's literally going to be a raid 5 fileserver and little else for now. I'll see how I go on the 1Gb in there at present.
Just found this from following the thread on HUKD, seems its cheap enough for 4Gb ECC unbuffered for me to consider upgrading:
http://www.base.com/buy/product/kingston-valueram-memory-2-gb-dimm-240-pin-ddr3-1333-mhz-pc3-10600-cl9-1-5-v-unbuffered-ecc/dgc-kvr1333d3e9s_2g.htm (http://www.base.com/buy/product/kingston-valueram-memory-2-gb-dimm-240-pin-ddr3-1333-mhz-pc3-10600-cl9-1-5-v-unbuffered-ecc/dgc-kvr1333d3e9s_2g.htm)
Also the 4Gb module:
http://www.base.com/buy/product/kingston-4gb-ddr3-1333mhz-ecc-240pin-dimm-memory-module/dgc-el-02026393.htm (http://www.base.com/buy/product/kingston-4gb-ddr3-1333mhz-ecc-240pin-dimm-memory-module/dgc-el-02026393.htm)
Slightly cheaper at Kikatech:
http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=114632 (http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=114632)
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Useful links post:
HP Parts and Upgrades video guides (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SupportTaskIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=uk&taskId=125&prodSeriesId=4248009&prodTypeId=15351&supportTaskId=23234)
Tim's 7.24TB "Tiddler" Unraid NAS - includes BIOS mod/settings (http://www.avforums.com/forums/networking-nas/1429720-tims-7-24tb-tiddler-unraid-nas.html)
Another BIOS mod guide if you already have the BIOS dated 01.17.2011 preinstalled from factory (http://www.avforums.com/forums/15113684-post355.html)
HUKD thread (http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-220-04-2-49-delivery-crescent-electronics/) (useful RAM info on pg.17 [60 posts] and beyond for OS/RAID configs)
Very cool: Massive Array of Inexpensive Servers (MAIS) (http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/06/17/project-massive-array-of-inexpensive-servers-aka-mais/) :bow:
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Cheers!
I've created it's own thread in Guides & Projects, so there is one place to look for everything and added stuff from this thread..
I need someone to add some info on graphics card choices?
Admins feel free to modify the thread, if you want to add more content or other peoples posts..
http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/hp-proliant-microserver-purchase-upgrade-setup-guide/ (http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/hp-proliant-microserver-purchase-upgrade-setup-guide/)
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Right, I've now decided I'm going to forget Windows Server 2008 R2 and instead I'm going for an unRAID setup, this way I can maximise the disk usage and get 5/6 drives out of my microserver. For this endeavour I have just ordered a trustworthy Corsair 4Gb FlashVoyager from Amazon (smallest I could get!) to get unRAID installed/booting from. I'll write up a full guide on this when I get around to setting it up next week. The added beauty of this approach vs WS2008 R2 is that data loss is minimised should the unRAID parity drive fail AND another drive goes kaput while it rebuilds (you can still access data on each drive individually, its not all tied to the array) and the other bonus is that I don't need £200 to invest in 2Tb drives, I can add them to the array as needed and as I can afford them without it having to be rebuilt from scratch. :)
It's about £40 (http://www.lime-technology.com/products/registration-keys) for a Pro registration key that will support up to 6 drives in the array. In future there is talk of 2 parity drives being supported (as per RAID 6)
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I've finally decided to take the chance.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm gonna use it for but probably some kind of media serving kit. Does anyone have any links as to where it is cheapest at the moment too?
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To be honest check hotUKdeals and google shopping.. will cover most options..
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I believe Crescent Electronics was the last cheapest place I saw recommended but it is best to check the thread. It's worth noting too that a newer NL40 version with 2Gb memory and 1.5Ghz AMD Turion™ II is coming out soon, but I doubt this will be on offer.
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Been looking at raid solution and came up with unRAID and RAIDz using freeNAS. They aren't true raid as there is no striping, but I don't require striping. I just need the security of withstanding hardware failure.
unRAID looks very good for being able to add and remove storage whenever needed, however, if I stuffed the server from the beginning freeNAS would be perfect. Anyone tell me why RAIDz would not be a good option? It looks like a perfect solution.
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Sorry for the double post, just checking and I think I was wrong. RAIDz is still striping right?
unRAID sounds like the best option because I can add drives as and when I need to, meaning I wont have to make a massive outlay. Which is a problem of FreeNAS.
I'm always the same with these kind of projects, I start getting more and more ideas and look to spend even more money. The microserver is the beginning of my project to get my entire house wired with cat6 to do a lot of things. HDMI and audio distribution for one, been looking at some seriously expensive kit to get it done.
So, am I right in thinking unRAID would allow me to run 4 2tb drives with 1 parity drive? That would be converting the dvd slot into a hard drive slot. How does eSATA work? Is it picked up like a normal hard drive in the bios? That could give me a workable storage of 10tb, that would be more than enough for a long while I hope.
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RAIDz is still striped data. I've looked at all the other options and for me too the conclusion was that unRAID is definitely the best in terms of ease of management and expansion, the drives don't even have to match in capacity, so you can start with a smaller drive and expand. The only drawback is that the parity drive has to be equal or larger than the largest drive in the array. But other than that it hands down beats the regular RAID and RAIDz approaches. RAIDz has auto-error checking in NFS but unRAID can effectively be cron jobbed to do parity/disk checks, so this is made moot too. I'm going to get unRAID booted soon off my new pen drive and see what's what, although I won't be able to actually get it setup until I can afford a new HDD to put in it. I'm going to start on 3Tb and see how I go.
So, am I right in thinking unRAID would allow me to run 4 2tb drives with 1 parity drive? That would be converting the dvd slot into a hard drive slot. How does eSATA work? Is it picked up like a normal hard drive in the bios? That could give me a workable storage of 10tb, that would be more than enough for a long while I hope.
On the microserver you can effectively fit 5 storage drives plus a parity drive, assuming you pass through an eSATA to SATA cable, but without that then yes 4+parity including the 5.25" bay drive.
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The eSATA option would definitely be the last resort. Thats the beauty of the unRAID system, I may purchase 3 x 2tb drives to begin with and add more as and when I need them.
Thing is, for the price of two extra drives I could then set up freeNAS with RAIDz. That would give me better peformance than unRAID due to striping and decent data security via the parity drive, similar to unRAID.
Hmmm, its such a tough decision. I'll probably have to hide all this from the missus anyway.
unRAID needs a minimum of 3 drives to work right? So to get 2 more when I'm buying the 3 isn't as bad I suppose. Either way I'm gonna incur a large cost. What hard drives would you guys recommend?
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You can start off with 1 drive, or 1 drive and a parity drive. For each new drive you add it simply rebuilds the parity. Or you can skip having a parity drive altogether, but then obviously you won't have any protection!
Just remember the free version only allows up to 3 drives (2+parity I think), but this is alright as it gives you a chance to test it out before throwing drives at it.
Only the write speed on unRAID is low, the read speeds are excellent. You can add a cache drive to improve write speeds (people with microservers tend to put the cache drive on the eSATA, a 2.5" SSD is good for this). Personally I'm happy to sacrifice write speeds to have the data protection, I'm not sure how well I'd trust other RAID types after reading some of the horror stories of failed rebuilds and collapsed arrays.
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do you guys really need the security of the parity drive ?
I'm assuming these are just going to be full of music/films ? (aka stuff you could easily replace)
even if you back your other computers up to it.... you'll have a copy on your computer and on the micro server....
if it's really important stuff... just copy it to more than 1 disk ?
the only time I've ever had a drive fail on me was when I was rebuilding a pc gave myself an electric shock, dropping some wires, which fell onto my drive which was out on the floor putting 240v through it :s
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Drives do eventually conk out for no reason though, I've RMA'd enough of them to know. I figure for the sake of losing one drive, you have a backup for many Tbs of data. It may not all be important data (after all, RAID is not a backup solution, its just part of one so all your important data should still be duplicated/triplicated) but in terms of having a bit of redundancy so if one of your drives does go pop you don't lose any data, it's worthwhile IMO. That's what makes it a more practical solution to regular RAID, which really is only looking practical when you're using 0 or 1. RAID 5 at home is risky business and RAID 6 is too costly by any measure. RAID 10/0+1 isn't widely supported but would be better than RAID 5 for home use I reckon.
I don't know if I mentioned it before but each drive can be pulled out and read individually in Windows, which means the parity drive is really a kind of clever backup drive for all your drives that doesn't directly affect them.
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but..... what does it matter when they're going to be full of "stuff you've downloaded" and can download again anyway ?
since I stopped saving stuff... my storage drive has about 50gig on it... a backup of important stuff, and then a few programs
(150gig total if you add games)
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You know how slow my connection is :lol:
Like I said, some of the stuff I doubt I'd be able to backup from disc again :tinhat:
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yeah.... but how much is there that you can;t get again ? I bet it's only a small percentage of what you have saved/stored...
if so... why not just copy that stuff over 2 different drives ?
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I do that already, but I'd rather have an extra degree of protection across all my data. I think for the sake of e.g. one 3Tb HDD it's worth it to protect up to 15Tb of data (assuming 5x storage drives in the server).
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For me I'd be using it to store home videos of my kids and all of the photos that come along with them. Whilst I will be creating backups somewhere else this will offer added local protection to those files so I wont have to spend ages downloading them all unless something goes seriously bad. For example my wife's aunt has just lost 2 weeks worth of photos from holiday, most of which my wife wanted to keep. It weighed in at just under 5gb. Add my missus' obsession with photos of the kids. I estimate the current lot of irreplaceable data could maybe hit 50gb.
I also have music that I spent a lot of time ripping. I've actively searched in the past for some of the artists I like and haven't managed to find them. Again that means it could be a pain to lose them.
Backing up all that with the notoriously bad upload speeds we get in the UK means a long bloody time to get it all to the new storage. Its all about convenience for me.
Clock'd, have you checked unRAID works with 3tb drives? I think I read it doesnt currently.
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The latest beta does, it should be going full release imminently I think. I'm in no rush, I don't have the money for a 3Tb drive yet!
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Ah ok, well I need to buy the thing still. Quidco is paying me £60 in a few days so I might order it and pay through paypal once that comes.
As an aside, anyone know of a decent service for hosting backups? If not I may speak to a relative and stick a cheaper NAS in their house which I'll be able to access remotely. Set up some kind of automated backup.
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Another double post!
Are there any hard drive manufacturers around to avoid? The last time I bought hardware everyone was going mad about IBM Deskstars if I remember rightly. I finally ordered the server and crescent went from having 900 in stock yesterday to none today so I went with Ebuyer. Either there was a massive rush or a sink hole appeared right under their warehouse in the Microserver division.
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The only models to really avoid are the Western Digital 2TBs, which have some kind of power up/down issue. Other than that all the manufacturers are pretty even. just wait for the cheapest price to come up, e.g. Aria SuperSaver, Scan DOTD, etc.
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I'm generally sticking to the Samsung 2TBs but thats becuase I've never had issues with them *touch wood*
I'm hoping the 4x I have at the moment will last (both in hardware and in disk usage) until 4TB's come out at a reasonable price and then I can replace 2TB's with 4TB's as I need.
Oh and I dont know if it was mentioned in the last couple of pages but the MicroServer £100 cashback offer is still going: http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/campaign/proliantmicroserver/offer.html
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Another question...
What is the noise level like during playback when compared to something like a Xbox360 ? I'm trying to decide whether to actually use it as my HTPC and move my Revo to the bedroom or have the Server in the loft.
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I don't have a disc drive in my server but I have it next to my TV for digital media and its a hell of a lot quiter than my 360. I sleep with it on and barely notice it at all.
The DVD drive noise will depend on the one you put in there but to be honest you'd find it hard to find a drive noiser than the 360 :P
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That's true, the Xbox's drive is a noisy bugger :)
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Mines quiet as anything, if you have a film on unless it is a silent film I expect you wont notice ;)
Also just adding a link to the other thread here, for the Micro server guide etc..:
http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/hp-proliant-microserver-purchase-upgrade-setup-guide/ (http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/hp-proliant-microserver-purchase-upgrade-setup-guide/)
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Just ordered mine w/ RAM and GFX upgrades :)
If it's quiet then I intend to put Ubuntu and XBMC on it, otherwise no XBMC and it'll just go up into the loft :)
edit:
A quick post-purchase question ! What audio outputs does this have ? I currently use an optical SPDIF connection into my AV-Receiver. I have a USB soundcard that I can use if needs be but I'm hoping for onboard support ?!
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Just ordered mine w/ RAM and GFX upgrades :)
If it's quiet then I intend to put Ubuntu and XBMC on it, otherwise no XBMC and it'll just go up into the loft :)
edit:
A quick post-purchase question ! What audio outputs does this have ? I currently use an optical SPDIF connection into my AV-Receiver. I have a USB soundcard that I can use if needs be but I'm hoping for onboard support ?!
No sound onboard as it's a server platform, not sure but do you have HDMI out on the graphics, and does that give sound output ;)
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I thought as much. HDMI audio is no use to me, my AV Receiver is too old :)
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USB sound card? Haven't looked at them but I know they exist :P
On a side note I've had to shut my Microserver box down as last month I moved all my stuff to my parents house, set things up and came back to London... not realising that in the 11 months I've been away my parents have moved from an unlimited package to a 20GB package... oops... I already hit 100GB in a few days :/
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I have a USB Soundblaster that I use with my laptop for the same reason (laptop has HDMI out but no SPDIF), I'll plug that in :)
Your parents are going to love you when their bill comes through :)
edit:
Server's been delivered but no sign of the Ram and GFX. *curse you eBuyer free shipping* :)
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I can't believe I'm having to ask this :s
How did you guys get access to the RAM slots ?
Where is the optical sata port located, I cannot see it ! ?
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2 big thumb screws at the front of the mobo secure it to the case, un-screw them and move the cables out of the way / disconnect them and the whole board sides out.
The extra sata port is in the middle of the board close to the front.
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;D
Easy as pie (when you know how) :)
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I typed while you we're replying, so I'll finish anyway :) The SATA port is at the front right next to the BIOS battery, just below where the drive cage sits.
As for the RAM, I've not been at it myself but you have to unplug the cables from the motherboard, unscrew it at the front and slide it out to access the RAM slots.
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I just didn't see the thumb screws at the front, they were hiding behind the PSU cable :)
*honest*
edit:
BIOS update done.
HDD moved up to 5.25" bay.
Ubuntu install underway
Waiting on the RAM and GFX...
I'm really impressed with how quiet it is. I think it'll easily sit in the living room and not be a noise distraction :)
Guess that means I need to start saving for a Bedroom TV now, no point in having my Revo sitting idle ;)