Cashback deal available with this product until 31st Mar 2016 (£55)
Claim an additional £25 when purchased with 3 Year Next Business Day Parts Exchange (H1RM7E) Click here to learn more
The HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 is a small, quiet, and stylishly designed server that is ideal as a first server solution for small businesses. With a form factor that is easy to use and service, it helps small businesses drive down their expenses while improving productivity, efficiency, and security. HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 comes with HP iLO4, providing access to innovations like Intelligent Provisioning for quick and simple installation and setup.
Instant out-of-box server set up and deployment
Ideal first server for a small or home office scenario using Windows Server 2012 Foundation software
Tool-less access to hard drives, memory, and PCI slots for simple installation or upgrade
Improved serviceability with features such as icon-based status display and system health status LEDs
Two up-front USB ports allow for easy deployment
New iLO Essentials license provides ability to connect media from your client device to your server and receive email alerts regarding server events
Small, quiet, energy efficient, and can be placed anywhere
Stylish blue LED light bar for at-a-glance system health status
Stackable managed switch creates clean, elegant look for networking and compute
Compatible with HP PS1810 Switch - unique chassis design for the 8-port managed switch that enables physical stacking
Cash back extended to 30th April 2016, still £55 with a purchase price of £164.99.
- Blue70
Top comments
Elevation
10 Mar 167#7
A microserver. How long do chicken nuggets take to cook in this thing?
sJohnson23 to Elevation
10 Mar 163#21
N/A but it is good at Micro Chips.
goonertillidie
10 Mar 163#2
Better server than EA :smiley:
All comments (95)
BuzzDuraband
10 Mar 16#1
Cashback deal available with this product until 31st Mar 2016 (£55)
Claim an additional £25 when purchased with 3 Year Next Business Day Parts Exchange (H1RM7E) Click here to learn more
goonertillidie
10 Mar 163#2
Better server than EA :smiley:
stevej1976
10 Mar 16#3
Tempted, im looking at making my first media nas running plex, I did fancy a Qnap but this looks a great deal.
Anyone know how well this will transcode plex.
psykix to stevej1976
10 Mar 161#5
G1610T CPU isn't great but it will do a couple of transcodes.
I added a E3-1265LV2 to mine, but that CPU is almost 3 times the price of the server!
jai47 to stevej1976
10 Mar 161#6
I know this isn't a direct response to your question - I am running Plex on the older N54L model and its flawless.
I have added a 1GB half-height graphics card and I also have 8GB of RAM.
CyDoNiA to stevej1976
10 Mar 16#8
If you are using it locally you just need a device that supports the video formats and DLNA/UPnP then transcoding isn't needed. Alternatively you can now "optimize" items in your collection for devices and so if you know you are going to be away you can optimize media for your mobile etc in advance.
a8smith to stevej1976
10 Mar 16#10
It will largely depend on what device you're serving to.
If you're talking about playing videos on something like a Roku or an Android Kodi box on your home network (e.g. bedroom tv and lounge tv) then it is very unlikely it will need to transcode because they play almost everything natively and you will have the bandwidth to not need need to compress.
If you're talking about full bluray rips to your mobile over 4g then it will have to work hard and likely struggle.
Franken to stevej1976
10 Mar 161#37
I bought this last May exactly for the same purpose. Its been running pretty much 24/7 since then with the CPU on eco mode to save even more juice and it handles transcoding without any issues at all. Didn't buy anything extra for it other than HD's obviously. You won't be disappointed.
Markgranto to stevej1976
10 Mar 16#57
as mentioend it will do ok, but have a look at this. get some extra ram etc and some hadr drives and will probably fare better.
A microserver. How long do chicken nuggets take to cook in this thing?
sJohnson23 to Elevation
10 Mar 163#21
N/A but it is good at Micro Chips.
Sp0oner
10 Mar 16#9
Such a weak cpu I wouldn't waste my money.
Dodge62 to Sp0oner
10 Mar 16#13
What would you spend your money on, then, if you wanted a compact, economical server with plenty of disk slots to do low-CPU activities?
Minstadave to Sp0oner
10 Mar 16#35
It's more than quick enough for what it's designed for - backups/media serving/file server. It's a full dual core system for £100, what more could you want?
mrew42 to Sp0oner
10 Mar 16#39
lol that's good. that's one more for those that know what they're getting
thekanester to Sp0oner
10 Mar 161#48
Don't then, but there's no reason to tell us about it.
A passmark score of 2348 makes it perfect for serving files, running as a git server and consuming little power. In fact this server is probably way more capable than what most home users would use it for.
If you're after something that'll be running 8 VMs then this is not the server for you.
dabooj
10 Mar 16#11
Is this a good system to use as a media NAS? Storing data, mainly movies and MP3s and streaming several of them to Chrome Cast & Now TV box simultaneously?
If not, could someone recommend a speedy NAS which has 2 drive storage capacity for RAID and is configurable by a mid-level user?
I have done lots of searches but I find the details very confusing regarding which is best as a media server / NAS.
Thanks.
nipstyler to dabooj
10 Mar 16#20
If you want a simple setup I would advise one of these and use a copy of windows 7. I have to admit I went for Windows home server and it was a bit of a nightmare to set up properly. However I'm glad I did in the end as I know know a lot more about setting up servers and issues with networking. Windows 7 has a pretty simple to set up software raid. Then it's all about setting up static in addresses in your router. That sorts most common communication issues. You can then use remote desktop to go into the server to make changes etc. I can control my server through the firewall on my phone when I'm travelling.
mikejbry to dabooj
10 Mar 161#66
i have the gen 8 with 4gb ram and 4 x WD Red 3TB hard drives, its running Xpenology as the OS.
It hosts all my media over my network, which I stream to a raspberry pi behind my tv.
I can access it remotely from any browser on the move via the DNS I have set up.
its a great piece of kit that I would recommend to anyone.
It's also very quiet, its on 24/7 in my lounge and I don't notice it.
modelman
10 Mar 16#12
Just out of curiosity what is the benefit of this low spec device over an old disused PC running Plex and/ or Server software?
just-me to modelman
10 Mar 161#14
Uses less power and quieter will run happily 24/7 for years :¬}
Astec123 to modelman
10 Mar 162#15
Low power usage. The old N36l and N40L models used about £40 of electricity a year with 24/7 use. There are many other advantages but this will be the primary benefit to you as they pay for themselves within a few years compared to something more power hungry. I remember someone (not sure if it was on HUKD or Reddit) wanted to use an old P4 machine as their server to stream media. I did the number crunching and it was about £90 of electricity in the first year that it would use, considering that it isn't much more to buy the microserver it quickly makes it a no brainer.
Yes, it should do the job fine but be more flexible to expand as your needs change in the future. The main downside is that unlike a NAS it will not be as quick to set up and you will need to get it working, however as you say, tinkering sounds like it wont be an issue to you.
- Size
- Power Consumption
- Potential 3yr warranty if you need it
- Noise (or lack of)
Those are the main ones.
nipstyler to modelman
10 Mar 16#18
As already stated larger fan runs slower and quieter. Doesn't run hot. My N40L has been on for about 5 years. Works a treat as a media server. On thing to make everyone aware is that these gen 8 machines require EEC ram which can be pricy. The last of the gen 7s the N54L didn't. If you want a very cheap capable server I'd look to pick up a second hand N54L which will likely have extra drives and been upgraded to 8gb of ram. They are bomb proof. Also it's a good idea to add a small ssd to the optical bay if you plan on having it wake on demand and this also frees up one of the 4 storage drive bays. The units support hardware and software raid 0 and raid 1. And as long as the latest firmware update has been put on it there is no limit of drive size. Originally they only supported 2tb drives but I have 4 4tb drives running fine in mine.
msharif911 to modelman
10 Mar 16#45
Much much more reliable. Lower power usage/noise etc. Can be stacked with an awful lot of storage and has onboard RAID too.Can boot off a USB stick. Is the be all and end all for Home Servers. I've have one for more years than I can remember, I've had VMWare running on mine and will probably turn mine into a SuperNAS once my outdates DNS320 finally dies.
mrew42
10 Mar 16#17
You have yours plugged directy into a TV then? Not acting as a server (or do you use if for that too)?
stevej1976
10 Mar 16#19
Thank you, it will be mainly used streaming at home but also I would like it to stream when I'm at the caravan. Looks like I will need something more powerful then.
nipstyler
10 Mar 162#22
It will also depend on your ISP upstream bandwidth too. If you're on a 100meg BB you will be OK if it's getting transcoded.
pc5020
10 Mar 162#23
These microservers are bloody awesome bits of kit, my n54l is my NAS, media server, a Kodi box for my projector, torrent server, bittorrent sync server (like dropbox but you host your files) plus lots more. Got 7 drives in it, low profile GPU, its near silent, on 24/7. For the price they're fantastic.
baggs1981
10 Mar 16#24
Everyone should check out flexraid (Google it). It is a revolution and should be the standard way of doing raid. I am not affiliated with them but have been using it for years and it's INSANE that any other raids are used given the massive drawbacks to them. Just some benefits are:
- Use ANY combination of Drives of ANY Size and ANY Brand
- Add / remove drives as and when you want easily
- All drives are readable as normal when taken out of the Raid setup
- If any hard drive dies all others are still instantly readable
- The raid knows which data is on which drive and so only spins up the drive that is needed at the time rather then with other raids the whole lot are powered up all the time.
There are other benefits, check it out!
P.S. I have been running mine on the N40L and been perfectly fine 24/7 for 3 years now, I've got 3 of these new models to setup for family.
jai47
10 Mar 16#25
Sort off - it is connected to a TV via HDMI for convenience but I also access Plex / Plex Pass from my smartphone.
Also bare in mind it's not just the server CPU/RAM that is a factor - quick hard drives, gigabit network and fibre internet all play a part.
I've streamed media over 4G as well without any issues.
nsx2050
10 Mar 16#26
Could I run kodi on this?
mrew42 to nsx2050
10 Mar 16#29
Absolutely
msharif911 to nsx2050
10 Mar 16#46
Walk in the park for this device.
nsx2050
10 Mar 16#27
and how would it work as a htpc?
mrew42
10 Mar 16#28
Reason I ask is that I have plex running on a core i3 packard bell I got cheap from Currys and that manages the 3 decodes I've tied quite happily, via a 3Tb usb2 HDD attached to the back.
I won't need better graphics as you do, but tempted as a standalone box. Just wondering how the CPU copes
rtbsghgfh
10 Mar 16#30
For similar reasons I love DrivePool.. one day I might get over my fear of zfs but DP is just so simple to use.
Rich44
10 Mar 162#31
I'll back this up too, I have an N40L been running for over 5 years now (i think). It has the custom BIOS that unlocks everything, the ODD has been replaced with a hard drive for the OS and it has 5 hard drives in there with Storage Spaces creating a single huge volume for data. It's on 24/7 and it's connected to the TV in the living room and I also stream to tablets around the house from it and to Chromecast in the bedroom.
Stunning pieces of kit, silent in use this is an absolute bargain IMHO
dikutaa
10 Mar 16#32
Out of stock :disappointed:
tezray
10 Mar 16#33
they are great I have both gen 7 and gen 8 the gen8 is a big step up from the old gen7 but the ecc ram really annoys me I got my gen8 with 2gb ram which is useless for most things now they are selling it with 4gb which is ideal. Had windows home server 2011 on it but windows 10 doesn't play nice with the backup software so have now put windows 10 on it and the genu for the kids love having it on 24/7 without worrying about the cost. I am putting the gen7 around my sisters house so she can use kodi and I can have off site backup just wish I had the money at the moment to get another gen8. I also changed mine to raid recently as it was too loud on ahci it still is a bit loud for me with the fan on 9 percent shame they couldn't make the gen8 as quiet as the gen7
wooden top
10 Mar 161#34
This will be great for plex. My N54L has 10gb ram and runs windows 10 on 24/7 with plex server and serviio at the same time. This is whilst using it as a normal PC and playing basic games (usually lego games with low profile gfx card installed). I stream from plex to different mobile phones/ps4/ipad/rasplex/roku box from my house to wherever I am in the world with no transcoding issue's. I use teamviewer to access the server remotely and use another raspberry pi as a wake on lan/vpn to access other devices on my lan. I would like to upgrade to this but my server is running sweet so it would just p the missus off even more.
adrianmg
10 Mar 16#36
At the risk of upsetting the consensus in this thread, I also have an N40L which has been running for some time (2-3 years, I forget) and while I agree it's a great bit of kit I'll heartily disagree about it being silent. It hums away like a small fridge and always has done, and I know from traipsing round the various bulletin boards some time ago that this is not uncommon. The two key fixes appear to be the system fan and in particular the PSU fan - it is possible to replace the PSU with something like a laptop external power brick which would be silent(ish), but these are pricey (£80-90) if you need sufficient power for multiple drives (eg ODD, 4xHDD, system SSD.
TheWendysGuy
10 Mar 16#38
I have a much older generation of this server with a slower processor, and mine copes perfectly. I have always been using Linux though rather than Windows, but it works perfectly for those uses. I have never tried Windows on it, so can't speak to that, though I would expect this newer generation to have no trouble - but I have no personal experience.
MajicMOLE
10 Mar 16#40
I have been running one of these on expenology OS running as a plex server, print server, amongst other things. Fantastic device!!!!
MajicMOLE
10 Mar 16#41
Oh, and I didn't need to update ram, cpu, etc- spec is fine out of the box for my needs!
nipstyler
10 Mar 16#42
No they aren't silent but they are A Lot quieter than a desk top PC. If you want true silent then a low power media PC build would be needed which has passive cooling. However this would cost you more than 5 times the price of this server at least. I don't hear mine because its in my office and networked to my cinema room next door. some of the vibration can be dampened by fitting better rubber feet if placed on a hard surface
Sp0oner
10 Mar 16#43
That's fine with me, as an infrastructure engineer I want a server to be able to actually do stuff at home not have the performance of a low powered i3 laptop.
Rich44
10 Mar 161#44
Dunno what you've done to it then mate but mine most certainly is extremely quiet, maybe you've got loud drives or a grumbling fan, regardless yours seems to be the anomaly. If it sounds like a fridge then there's something very very wrong with it, try replacing temp stopping the fan see if the noise stops if it's not that then you're probably looking at acoustic noise from the drives, try putting the server on a thin sheet of packing foam that might be enough to stop the noise conducting onto whatever it's sitting on.
I would look into it in case it is the fan and it fails, the N40L should not sound like a fridge
Perhaps I should have been a bit more careful with my choice of words and silent was a bit much BUT it makes less noise than a Sky box. Fact is next to everything else being on in the room making noise I can't hear the N40L over any of that. It should be quiet enough to stick under your TV without annoying you thats for sure
Rich44
10 Mar 16#47
Errr so what exactly would you be running on a server that needs a load of CPU grunt? Surely anything computationally heavy would be held on the client rather than the server. Had one of these running the server side of CAD stuff before running as a licencing server along with doing other stuff and worked perfectly. Just can't imagine anything much heavier than transcoding running on a server for example and if it can do that i'm sure it'd cope with whatever server requirements your software has
GwanGy
10 Mar 16#49
Dont forget the doors .. just like josephs coat they come in many colours, even tho these colored doors seem more myth than reality.
Mine is very quiet after initial bootup. happily streams to a nowtv plex box. I would have thought streaming over internet is going to be limited more by speeds at both ends rather than cpu power.
chinds
10 Mar 16#50
Out of stock now :disappointed:
Youngy
10 Mar 16#51
Why plex AND serviio, don't they do the same thing?
gadgetmann
10 Mar 16#52
Damn...sold out now. I've 2x N40l's but at this price I'd have been tempted to upgrade
Longy
10 Mar 16#53
Looks interesting. Im not clear on which one it is - Transparent Raid ($50) or Raid over file system ($30)??
Winterwolf
10 Mar 16#54
Love mine, good upgrade from my old Zyxel NAS.
So far its running
Plex / FTP / DNS / SickRage / SabNZB / Subsonic
VM1 : Torrent / VPN Connected
VM2 : Linux with Owncloud & VPN Server
tezray to Winterwolf
10 Mar 16#61
Nice to see what people are running I might try sickrage I am having an issue that I cannot download the TV program Hollyoaks for the wife but it may be due to my news servers not actually having the files to download if I can get Hollyoaks the sky box can go
Astec123
10 Mar 16#55
Plex has 2 main variants both doing slightly different tasks.
So it's quite possible they use Plex home theatre because they like the front end and Serviio for media serving to other devices via DLNA.
I personally use XBMC(Kodi) and Plex media server for my home media (and beyond). It's a very much each to their own preference kind of thing.
mrew42
10 Mar 16#56
So what "stuff" would you want it to do?
Dodge62
10 Mar 16#58
I replaced both fans in my N54L and it's virtually silent now. It wasn't when I got it. Cost was about £20 and some very minor soldering.
gwmackay
10 Mar 16#59
oos
wooden top
10 Mar 16#60
Yes for this reason and also plex runs fine on the ps4 however it's a bit laggy on my PS3. I prefer to use serviio for streaming music onto the PS3 as its a lot quicker than loading up plex. PS3 didn't seem to like plex dlna.
Just to add my I wouldn't call my N54L silent however it is pretty quiet. Mine is in the front room inside a tv cupboard so unless I open the cupboard door I can't hear it.
garethcamp
10 Mar 16#62
From what I remember, the Gen8s are quieter than the older N40L/N54L models. I've had N40L, N54L and now two Gen8s as well as an ML110 G7, if you want noise issues get an ML110 G7! The micro servers are fine.
baggs1981
10 Mar 16#63
It's Transparent Raid
jai47
10 Mar 161#64
My old skool dual core 2.2GHz AMD chip barely flinches when I load a movie using Plex.
The network connection rockets up to around 10MB/s from a usually ideal state but thats about it.
RustyR
10 Mar 16#65
Great as a home media server but not so much for VM's due to the processor. Unless your willing to upgrade.
danmed to RustyR
10 Mar 16#75
Well i'm running 4 Vm's on one so not really sure what you are on about..
2 x Debian
2 x Windows 7
TheKruleD
10 Mar 16#67
The servers cpu is around 2500 on the passmark was looking at cpu upgrade until I found that the cooler on it is passive and it's rated at 35W heat dissipation also there is not a on board cpu fan header... Can anyone shed light as to whether this can contain a quad core xeon with reasonable temperatures?
Also can this motherboard support ecc ram? Thanks
garethcamp to TheKruleD
10 Mar 16#70
I've run a Xeon in two of these 24x7 for roughly 2 years now without issue.
Youngy
10 Mar 16#68
I had an N40L setup with NFS services to share media to Raspberry Pi in another room, as found SMB shares a problem. Now setup this Gen8 with Windows 10 and Kodi, what's the best way to serve mkv video to a Raspberry Pi? Can't install NFS services. Would it be plex server and then Plexbmc on the Pi?
Yes you can use 8TB drives before someone asks :innocent:
Astec123 to Shonk
10 Mar 16#76
How many microservers are you running to end up with that many drives being necessary in My Computer? Surely at least 3. Would an actual rackmount case not have been cheaper :P
stevej1976
10 Mar 16#73
Thanks :smiley: but looks like I've missed the deal :disappointed:
j0nnymoe
10 Mar 16#74
Heat Added
Very good machines when runing unRaid or Ubuntu/Snapraid.
I have myself a N54L running unRaid with 8GB ram + 3x 3TB + 2x 2TB (10TB usable)
Never have an issue.
Franken
10 Mar 161#77
Oh Thats a pity. Its a regular offer though so keep checking the site.
Shonk
10 Mar 16#78
Im running two
but thats only one of them in the screenshot
wooden top
10 Mar 16#79
Yes will work fine. I use rasplex on a pi2 and it runs well. Haven't used xbmc/kodi for a while though hence using just rasplex.
Astec123
10 Mar 16#80
How have you squeezed 16 drives into a current gen Microserver? This I've got to see. I know that you can cram more than the stock 4 as I had 6 in my N40L.
Shonk
10 Mar 161#81
Intel PCH Ports
Port 1 250GB Samsung 850 2.5"
Port 2 8TB WD Helium 3.5"
Port 3 6TB WD Green 3.5"
Port 4 6TB WD Green 3.5"
Port 5 5TB Toshiba MDO4ACA500 3.5"
Marvell 9230 (PCIE 2.0 x2)
Internal 1 2TB Samsung M9T 2.5"
Internal 2 2TB Samsung M9T 2.5"
Internal 3 2TB Samsung M9T 2.5"
External 4 5TB Toshiba MDO4ACA500 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
External 5 5TB Toshiba MDO4ACA500 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
External 6 5TB WD Blue 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
External 7 3TB Seagate ST3000DM01 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
10 Port USB 3.0 Hub (USB Attached SCSI)
Port 1 2TB Seagate Expansion Portable (Samsung M9T)
Port 2 2TB Seagate Expansion Portable (Samsung M9T)
Port 3 2TB Seagate Expansion Portable (Samsung M9T)
Port 4 320gb Seagate Backup+ Portable Samsung HM320JI (Spare drive fitted in the Casing after i shucked the 3 Internal M9T's)
Port 5 320gb Seagate Backup+ Portable Seagate Momentus Thin (Spare drive fitted in the Casing after i shucked the 3 Internal M9T's)
Port 6 320gb Seagate Backup+ Portable Toshiba MK3265GSX (Spare drive fitted in the Casing after i shucked the 3 Internal M9T's)
Cool thanks. Not sure whether to go with Rasplex or Plexbmc, maybe give them both a try.
liamo
10 Mar 16#83
Can anyone post a link to a cable to buy to be able to use an ssd drive in the ood/odd (so where the cd rom would go).
From what I know it needs to be a combined sata and data cable.
Cheers.
jimhuf
10 Mar 16#84
"As an infrastructure engineer" lol.
oteshima
10 Mar 16#85
Does anyone know where you can get the faceplate in a different colour from?
garethcamp
10 Mar 16#86
I personally wouldn't run one of these without a CPU upgrade, they are infinitely more capable with a Xeon and fast SSD storage for VMs.
The different colours are the 'Bezel Kit' HP part 722320-B21, not easy to get hold of, there are some on eBay, I've just ordered two sets for a cheap price off Amazon.com for delivery to a friend in America and will pick them up when I am there at the end of the month, I'll sell the blue ones separately as I am only interested in the Red & Black.
Sp0oner
10 Mar 16#87
A vm farm running virtual esx hosts along with virtual sans for starters. As others have pointed out on this thread stick a Xeon cpu in it then it's a far better machine but then it's no longer being had for £100. I just don't see this machine being a great deal with the cpu being included with it. You can run kodi on your phone/tablet so having a dedicated server for just that seems a bit pointless. As for the power consumption argument it's not a real benefit if you still have other pcs for other tasks as you are running multiple machines consuming power, you could just as easily have one machine powerful enough to do all the tasks in the first place and probably use less power.
Personally I think TS140s and the like are far better options for starting off with a server for home than these micro servers with very weak cpus.
garethcamp
10 Mar 161#88
The TS140s were definitely a better deal and almost as importantly are capable of 32GB memory. However, I much prefer HP hardware over Lenovo or Dell. Yes the HP costs more to setup to a similar standard and is only capable of 16GB but for me I prefer them to the TS140.
Sp0oner to garethcamp
11 Mar 16#90
I had an HP ML115 fully spec'd out which cost about £350 all in, a few years back, it was a great machine for doing everything but out of date now cpu wise. I sold it after a couple of years in the local paper for pretty much what it cost me to build because people do like HP kit when it comes to servers.
alitech
11 Mar 16#89
Has anyone tried E3-1265LV2 or E3-1265LV3 on this? What are your experiences.
Also, what is the best RAM to get for this? I woudl like to get 8GB in there.
Thanks
tan159
14 Mar 16#91
What PSU fan did you use? I'm looking for the quietest without sacrificing airflow
liquidtoon
30 Mar 162#92
Gonna be in stock next week, can pre-order now. Cash back has been extended to the end of April as well
PeterUK
5 Apr 16#93
Back instock and I've just ordered one (finally) :smiley:
Gareth79
7 Apr 16#94
Picked up one of these. Will use as a NAS (FreeNAS) with drives picked up on the WDC promotion.
mrew42
12 Apr 16#95
That's why these things are so popular. They don't let infrastructure engineers get in the way of the real world performance. More power!!! Not
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Opening post
Claim an additional £25 when purchased with 3 Year Next Business Day Parts Exchange (H1RM7E) Click here to learn more
The HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 is a small, quiet, and stylishly designed server that is ideal as a first server solution for small businesses. With a form factor that is easy to use and service, it helps small businesses drive down their expenses while improving productivity, efficiency, and security. HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 comes with HP iLO4, providing access to innovations like Intelligent Provisioning for quick and simple installation and setup.
Instant out-of-box server set up and deployment
Ideal first server for a small or home office scenario using Windows Server 2012 Foundation software
Tool-less access to hard drives, memory, and PCI slots for simple installation or upgrade
Improved serviceability with features such as icon-based status display and system health status LEDs
Two up-front USB ports allow for easy deployment
New iLO Essentials license provides ability to connect media from your client device to your server and receive email alerts regarding server events
Small, quiet, energy efficient, and can be placed anywhere
Stylish blue LED light bar for at-a-glance system health status
Stackable managed switch creates clean, elegant look for networking and compute
Compatible with HP PS1810 Switch - unique chassis design for the 8-port managed switch that enables physical stacking
Cash back extended to 30th April 2016, still £55 with a purchase price of £164.99.
- Blue70
Top comments
All comments (95)
Claim an additional £25 when purchased with 3 Year Next Business Day Parts Exchange (H1RM7E) Click here to learn more
Anyone know how well this will transcode plex.
I added a E3-1265LV2 to mine, but that CPU is almost 3 times the price of the server!
I have added a 1GB half-height graphics card and I also have 8GB of RAM.
If you're talking about playing videos on something like a Roku or an Android Kodi box on your home network (e.g. bedroom tv and lounge tv) then it is very unlikely it will need to transcode because they play almost everything natively and you will have the bandwidth to not need need to compress.
If you're talking about full bluray rips to your mobile over 4g then it will have to work hard and likely struggle.
Dell PE T20 for under £100.
A passmark score of 2348 makes it perfect for serving files, running as a git server and consuming little power. In fact this server is probably way more capable than what most home users would use it for.
If you're after something that'll be running 8 VMs then this is not the server for you.
If not, could someone recommend a speedy NAS which has 2 drive storage capacity for RAID and is configurable by a mid-level user?
I have done lots of searches but I find the details very confusing regarding which is best as a media server / NAS.
Thanks.
It hosts all my media over my network, which I stream to a raspberry pi behind my tv.
I can access it remotely from any browser on the move via the DNS I have set up.
its a great piece of kit that I would recommend to anyone.
It's also very quiet, its on 24/7 in my lounge and I don't notice it.
Yes, it should do the job fine but be more flexible to expand as your needs change in the future. The main downside is that unlike a NAS it will not be as quick to set up and you will need to get it working, however as you say, tinkering sounds like it wont be an issue to you.
Some useful resources
http://www.hotukdeals.com/misc/official-hp-microserver-owners-thread-1160929
HUKD Owners thread
http://n40l.wikia.com/wiki/External_Links
Microserver Wiki
- Power Consumption
- Potential 3yr warranty if you need it
- Noise (or lack of)
Those are the main ones.
- Use ANY combination of Drives of ANY Size and ANY Brand
- Add / remove drives as and when you want easily
- All drives are readable as normal when taken out of the Raid setup
- If any hard drive dies all others are still instantly readable
- The raid knows which data is on which drive and so only spins up the drive that is needed at the time rather then with other raids the whole lot are powered up all the time.
There are other benefits, check it out!
P.S. I have been running mine on the N40L and been perfectly fine 24/7 for 3 years now, I've got 3 of these new models to setup for family.
Also bare in mind it's not just the server CPU/RAM that is a factor - quick hard drives, gigabit network and fibre internet all play a part.
I've streamed media over 4G as well without any issues.
I won't need better graphics as you do, but tempted as a standalone box. Just wondering how the CPU copes
Stunning pieces of kit, silent in use this is an absolute bargain IMHO
I would look into it in case it is the fan and it fails, the N40L should not sound like a fridge
Perhaps I should have been a bit more careful with my choice of words and silent was a bit much BUT it makes less noise than a Sky box. Fact is next to everything else being on in the room making noise I can't hear the N40L over any of that. It should be quiet enough to stick under your TV without annoying you thats for sure
Mine is very quiet after initial bootup. happily streams to a nowtv plex box. I would have thought streaming over internet is going to be limited more by speeds at both ends rather than cpu power.
So far its running
Plex / FTP / DNS / SickRage / SabNZB / Subsonic
VM1 : Torrent / VPN Connected
VM2 : Linux with Owncloud & VPN Server
- Home Theatre
- Media Server
https://plex.tv/downloads
So it's quite possible they use Plex home theatre because they like the front end and Serviio for media serving to other devices via DLNA.
I personally use XBMC(Kodi) and Plex media server for my home media (and beyond). It's a very much each to their own preference kind of thing.
Just to add my I wouldn't call my N54L silent however it is pretty quiet. Mine is in the front room inside a tv cupboard so unless I open the cupboard door I can't hear it.
The network connection rockets up to around 10MB/s from a usually ideal state but thats about it.
2 x Debian
2 x Windows 7
Also can this motherboard support ecc ram? Thanks
I had an N40L setup with NFS services to share media to Raspberry Pi in another room, as found SMB shares a problem. Now setup this Gen8 with Windows 10 and Kodi, what's the best way to serve mkv video to a Raspberry Pi? Can't install NFS services. Would it be plex server and then Plexbmc on the Pi?
:smiley:
Very good machines when runing unRaid or Ubuntu/Snapraid.
I have myself a N54L running unRaid with 8GB ram + 3x 3TB + 2x 2TB (10TB usable)
Never have an issue.
but thats only one of them in the screenshot
Port 1 250GB Samsung 850 2.5"
Port 2 8TB WD Helium 3.5"
Port 3 6TB WD Green 3.5"
Port 4 6TB WD Green 3.5"
Port 5 5TB Toshiba MDO4ACA500 3.5"
Marvell 9230 (PCIE 2.0 x2)
Internal 1 2TB Samsung M9T 2.5"
Internal 2 2TB Samsung M9T 2.5"
Internal 3 2TB Samsung M9T 2.5"
External 4 5TB Toshiba MDO4ACA500 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
External 5 5TB Toshiba MDO4ACA500 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
External 6 5TB WD Blue 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
External 7 3TB Seagate ST3000DM01 3.5" (Esata 6 Gbps FIS PM)
10 Port USB 3.0 Hub (USB Attached SCSI)
Port 1 2TB Seagate Expansion Portable (Samsung M9T)
Port 2 2TB Seagate Expansion Portable (Samsung M9T)
Port 3 2TB Seagate Expansion Portable (Samsung M9T)
Port 4 320gb Seagate Backup+ Portable Samsung HM320JI (Spare drive fitted in the Casing after i shucked the 3 Internal M9T's)
Port 5 320gb Seagate Backup+ Portable Seagate Momentus Thin (Spare drive fitted in the Casing after i shucked the 3 Internal M9T's)
Port 6 320gb Seagate Backup+ Portable Toshiba MK3265GSX (Spare drive fitted in the Casing after i shucked the 3 Internal M9T's)
Internal Headers
Samsung G2 Portable Deshelled 320GB (Samsung HM321HX) (Internal USB Header)
Samsung Pro UHS-1 Micro SD 64GB (Onboard Micro SD Reader)
19 Drives
9 Internal
From what I know it needs to be a combined sata and data cable.
Cheers.
The different colours are the 'Bezel Kit' HP part 722320-B21, not easy to get hold of, there are some on eBay, I've just ordered two sets for a cheap price off Amazon.com for delivery to a friend in America and will pick them up when I am there at the end of the month, I'll sell the blue ones separately as I am only interested in the Red & Black.
Personally I think TS140s and the like are far better options for starting off with a server for home than these micro servers with very weak cpus.
Also, what is the best RAM to get for this? I woudl like to get 8GB in there.
Thanks