Storage The HP Micro Server Thread

Depends if you're going to RAID them or not really...

Personally I like some sort of resiliance so would go RAID 5 with 4x 1TB drives which will give you ~3TB useable with tollerance to one disk failure.

 

I've had mine a few weeks now and it is a nice piece of kit for sure.

I put in some more memory and a 5450, just trying to make it work nicely as a combined fileserver/HTPC/torrentbox behind the telly in the fireplace. It does need some tweaking though.

In particular, does anyone know how to turn off the big glowing HP logo? I can't see it in the BIOS anywhere.

 

Yes, the the plan is to eventually have 4 2/3TB drives in RAID 5.

I want to be able to store all my Media on the Server, as well as System backup's, and Steam Backup's, But i don't need a print server, as my Printer is Network Ready.

Will possibly make the move to having 2 Servers, one for Media, and the other for 'Everything' Else.

On a side note, Ebuyer is £260 for the HP, Dabs is £240, but even though Dabs don't promote the HP Cashback deal, i guess i can still claim it if i order from Dabs?

Sam

 

Could you do me a favor and try running a couple light games on it for me? I'm curious about how well the little babby Turion can handle games.

 

Sure thing, I'm curious as well now. It might have to wait till the weekend though, I've only got WHS2011 on it at the moment.

 

Well if you have to install a new OS don't worry about it, unless you want to do it. However don't games run okay on all Windows Server versions? Or does it lack proper drivers? Isn't Windows (home) Server just Windows 7 with a couple things added and a couple things removed?

 

Yes, pretty much, Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows Home Server 2011 work with Windows 7 drivers. Windows Server 2008 (the one without R2 label) uses Windows Vista drivers.

 

To be honest I've been having trouble finding AV software that works how I want on WHS2011, so I didn't even think about whether games would work or not. I'll give it a go tonight.

 

I'd be wary of doing RAID5 with 2TB/3TB disks - I would feel very uncomfortable waiting for such an array to rebuild in the event of a disk failure. Seriously, it could take days.

 

My 5x2TB RAID5 array on a proper controller can rebuild itself in about 3 hours

 

I put on a couple of very light games last night and it handled them just fine, I spent 2+ hours playing Arcanum on it, which was more than I was intending.

I'm going to put win7 on it at the weekend anyway, were there any more modern games you were thinking of?

 

I was mostly curious about Source games, if you don't mind. Those are the ones that I always put on light gaming computers, Left 4 Dead 2 and Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, etc.

 

Just bumping this again.
My Media Server turned up, Very nice bit of kit.
Just a few photo's:




Can't set it up fully till i get my 4th HDD, but i'm still impressed. Powered it up and was impressed with how quite it was, although 5HDD's spinning will add some noise.

Sam

 

Just a warning to anyone interested in one of these today (31/3/2012) is the last day of the current cashback offer

 

http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/pdf/PA0058_Microserver_Offer_April_2012_tcm_183_1216508.pdf
Strange on the page it says: "Orders must be invoiced between 1 November 2011 and 30 April 2012"

 

That means they extended it once again.

 

Just saw the offer has been extended Might just get one of these as £140 after cashback is a great price.

How long was it taking people to get the Cashback?

 

Friend got two, cash back came in about 2-4 weeks. It was a cheque, so make sure you can bank it (put your bank name on there).

 

You shouldn't need to put the bank details down, as the cheque is to 'You', not the Bank.

Regarding the cash back offer, Dabs don't list the original £100 offer, instead is a free copy of HP Windows Small Business Server 2011 ROK

Ebuyer do list it with £100 Cashback, so you do get a choice.

Sam

 

Just got confirmation from HP, my Cash Back has been approved, Just need to reply and get my name changed as they managed to spell both my Fore & Surname wrong.

Sam