Author Topic: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide (Read 340038 times)

XEntity · **Reply #30 on:** December 01, 2011, 19:00:52 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #30 on: December 01, 2011, 19:00:52 PM

Quote from: fishlos on December 01, 2011, 00:32:10 AM

Nice post.. just to make it more thoroughly may I point you to this set of videos HP has put together to cover most removal/upgrade activities.
Customer Self-Repair Steps (videos/animations)
regards

Cheers, there is actually a link to the HP guides in the Hardware section, but added your direct link to the videos..

Glad you found it useful!

g725s · **Reply #31 on:** December 03, 2011, 04:44:12 AM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #31 on: December 03, 2011, 04:44:12 AM

Thank you so much for all the helpful information and links about this HP server. Just got an N40L for $249US. And this thread is a great resource. One of the best well laid out all-in-one threads I've found so far.

I do have a few questions:

Why don't you mention Windows Home Sever 2011 as an OS? I thought the N40L is officially certified for WHS 2011 use.

Also, I thought I read or saw a post somewhere on the web where 3tb drives were being used. You only mention 2tb drives. How large of drive can be used in this HP Proliant Microserver?

Bacon · **Reply #32 on:** December 03, 2011, 05:33:30 AM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #32 on: December 03, 2011, 05:33:30 AM

Quote from: g725s on December 03, 2011, 04:44:12 AM

Thank you so much for all the helpful information and links about this HP server. Just got an N40L for $249US. And this thread is a great resource. One of the best well laid out all-in-one threads I've found so far.

I do have a few questions:

Why don't you mention Windows Home Sever 2011 as an OS? I thought the N40L is officially certified for WHS 2011 use.

Also, I thought I read or saw a post somewhere on the web where 3tb drives were being used. You only mention 2tb drives. How large of drive can be used in this HP Proliant Microserver?

According to HP the N40L supports 4x2TB drives only.

According to the web, 3TB drives can be used (although not officially supported) but you can't boot from them, only use them as data backup/storage i assume.

I'm sure someone else will confirm later.

Last Edit: December 03, 2011, 05:37:28 AM by Bacon #187;

XEntity · **Reply #33 on:** December 03, 2011, 18:00:04 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #33 on: December 03, 2011, 18:00:04 PM

Quote from: g725s on December 03, 2011, 04:44:12 AM

Thank you so much for all the helpful information and links about this HP server. Just got an N40L for $249US. And this thread is a great resource. One of the best well laid out all-in-one threads I've found so far.

I do have a few questions:

Why don't you mention Windows Home Sever 2011 as an OS? I thought the N40L is officially certified for WHS 2011 use.

Also, I thought I read or saw a post somewhere on the web where 3tb drives were being used. You only mention 2tb drives. How large of drive can be used in this HP Proliant Microserver?

You're welcome, so WHS 2011 was not mentioned, as it wasn't officially supported at the time, but is now although not mentioned on the main product page (I've updated the OS list to include this) and there is also a link in the drivers section for WHS.

Bacon's correct about the 3TB drives, 2TB was only mentioned as the official spec mentioned this and at the time the 2TB F4's were the best bang for your buck, but you wont be able to boot from the 3TB drives. I expect that is because of BIOS issues, also best to check your OS supports it, there are people running WHS 2011 with 3TB drives in case that was the setup you were going to look for.

Also the bad news for you is that hard drives have tripled in price recently, unless you have purchased some already!

g725s · **Reply #34 on:** December 03, 2011, 18:22:07 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #34 on: December 03, 2011, 18:22:07 PM

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes I plan on trying out WHS 2011. I'd also like to try RAID 5 because I want some kind of redundancy. How will that affect streaming video to clients.

XEntity · **Reply #35 on:** December 03, 2011, 18:28:46 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #35 on: December 03, 2011, 18:28:46 PM

It'll be quicker that a single drive, but to be honest unless your streaming to a lot of different people you wont have a problem.

Also for raid 5 you need to configure this in windows, don't try to configure it on the on-board raid, although you are probably already aware..

Clock'd 0Ne · **Reply #36 on:** December 04, 2011, 01:23:27 AM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #36 on: December 04, 2011, 01:23:27 AM

I'm using 3TB drives perfectly fine in my Microserver, however that is not being booted from, and I'm running unRAID, not Windows.

g725s · **Reply #37 on:** December 04, 2011, 18:11:21 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #37 on: December 04, 2011, 18:11:21 PM

My new N40L has BIOS 041 dated 7/29/2011

AHCI is enabled for all connected SATA devices in this BIOS. Can anyone confirm?

No need for modified BIOS?

XEntity · **Reply #38 on:** December 04, 2011, 19:09:14 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #38 on: December 04, 2011, 19:09:14 PM

You should be good to go, the latest HP BIOS is reported to have none of the speed issues that the original had, and the latest version is the one you have.

g725s · **Reply #39 on:** December 04, 2011, 20:14:44 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #39 on: December 04, 2011, 20:14:44 PM

Thanks for that Info. I'm reading other fourms, as you know this little HP is very popular, and I am getting conflicting reports as to if all SATA connections are now full speed. I don't have the drives just yet, just doing my due diligence. Even the first post here by the OP (hey that is you

) has no reference to the new BIOS having full speed on all SATA connection now.

Last Edit: December 04, 2011, 20:16:52 PM by g725s #187;

XEntity · **Reply #40 on:** December 04, 2011, 20:48:08 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #40 on: December 04, 2011, 20:48:08 PM

I thought I'd double check, and I can't still find anything conclusive, although by the looks of it, if you can enable ACHI you aren't running in IDE Emulation mode.

I'll throw it out to someone else here running a non optical drive on Port 4/5 (ports start from 0) as I'm running optical at the moment and don't have a spare to play with?

So I'll leave the original post until I can find something more conclusive

XEntity · **Reply #41 on:** December 04, 2011, 21:00:46 PM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #41 on: December 04, 2011, 21:00:46 PM

Looking even harder no one seems to confirm that it does work on the HP conclusively, I found one thread that looked like it was going to lead to the answer, then I realised it was your post

on OC .au

There's a modified version of the newer HP bios found here, and it's mentioned that one of the features is the ACHI mode on the additional ports:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/networking-nas/1521657-hp-n36l-microserver-updated-ahci-bios-support.html

I expect this will mean that it's not going to work otherwise, If you do find out any different, please let me know and I'll re-write the whole BIOS section

Clock'd 0Ne · **Reply #42 on:** December 05, 2011, 10:10:13 AM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #42 on: December 05, 2011, 10:10:13 AM

To be sure, use the modified BIOS, it's the only surefire way and is the one I'm using. The latest HP BIOS offers nothing new over the modified BIOS anyway.

ws2000 · **Reply #43 on:** December 28, 2011, 00:32:12 AM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #43 on: December 28, 2011, 00:32:12 AM

Hello

I was curious about why the GeForce GT 520 was recommended when its not a passively cooled card. At least I cannot find one that is

I was thinking if purchasing this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125374&Tpk=GV-N520OC-1GI

knighty · **Reply #44 on:** December 28, 2011, 07:58:03 AM

Re: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide

Reply #44 on: December 28, 2011, 07:58:03 AM

Quote from: XEntity on September 07, 2011, 19:47:19 PM

Graphics Cards

Generally you should not need a graphics card if you are just planning to use the server as a fileserver, the onboard ATI powered graphics are more than capable for basic running.
If you are considering a HTPC or transcoding media server, you will need something more substantial. The two most recommended cards I have seen are the Radeon HD5450 1Gb which will confidently play 1080p with HDMI audio passthrough, or for those that prefer nVidia or wish to use linux/XMBC setup the GT510/GT520 cards are the recommended options, as these have better driver support.
You need to choose cards that are half-height and with low profile heatsinks, preferably passively cooled

Recommended cards
HIS HD 6450 Silence Edition £36.99 playing 1080p with audio pass-through in XBMC - confirmed by sexytw
Sapphire Radeon HD5450 1Gb - should come with half-height brackets and is suitably low profile
Zotec nVidia 210 512MB graphics card, its £25ish and plays 1080p with HDMI audio, also had more luck with nVidia cards over ATI when running on Linux (Ubuntu or XBMC Live). - Recommended by Leon

:-)

News:

Author Topic: HP Proliant Microserver - Purchase, Upgrade & Setup Guide (Read 340038 times)