Don't know why they don't just sell these at £125 - cashback seems always on
Do many people really forget to do the cashback ?

Not that good a deal - the same spec was £105, after cashback, in March.

Yeh, I bet.

https://www.opia-sp.com/en/sales-promotion/cashback-and-mail-in-rebate

I have looked my self to replace my old server NL35 with home server OS
and made decision that better now get NAS box with Intel CPU and they do job all very well

Yes you can buy cheaper microserver compare to NAS but then you need to have software as well and couple options Windows Server or Free NAS or Linux

Windows server/ home server they are not cheap + configuration not easy for home user " they are to problematic"
Free NAS yes it is Free but Im skeptical about security patches etc
Linux not my garden at all so ....

Now QNAP or Synology they about £400 with intel CPU and have everything you need just add HDD and you ready to go all integrations with dropbox , Gdrive out of the box

Anyway just my thinking

Hi all before buying read this thread about noise issues that Hp can't solve for over 2 years : https://community.hpe.com/t5/ProLiant-Servers-Netservers/MicroServer-Gen8-is-noisy/td-p/6171563

These are the links for the ones I bought from my purchase history:

iLo:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005JON748/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

RAM:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008LMNXS0/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Be careful if you buy RAM because it must be ECC and I've heard the thermal sensor is needed to keep the fan quiet.

Can you share the link please ? Appreciate that

Also a ram upgrade if you have :smiley:

Cheers

My N54L is one of the best things I've ever bought! Won't replace it til it dies!

just saw people talking about the ilo license a 2 minute Google search will give you an advanced license if people want to try before they buy obviously it's not legal just remove it if not for you

Hi I am looking into putting a gigabyte gtx 750ti so I can play some ark survival evolved with my daughter she will be using the gaming pc and me the gen 8. I have an i3 3240 and 16gb ram in it but I saw something a while ago that the new equivalent cards maybe a 950 or something will use less power from the slot and obviously will be more powerful but now I can't find that anywhere I have Googled and Googled I am just trying to find the best card I can get for it I saw the gigabyte one needs some of the cooler cut off near the drive port can anyone help

Would people install xpenology on this? and would it work?

I had to shop around for that processor, went to ebay in the end, I was intending on using a I5 processor but this was not ECC and would render my RAM useless, check the link I sent there are loads of processors you can use and many have been verified. I wanted that proc as I could spin up a whole bunch of virtual machines (it shows as 8 cores in Windows server due to the multiple threads).[/quote]

Got mine from here, https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-DHL-OR-EMS-Processor-CPU-Processor-E3-1265L-V2-SR0PB-LGA-1155-8M-Cache/32621426335.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.55.UMqLNe

Very nice upgrade.

Should point out it only comes with iLO lite, which only works either for configuration or a couple of minutes into booting an OS.

You can get the full iLO on Amazon for around £30.

Also, only comes with 1 years firmware updates/support unless you have a support agreement.

Otherwise it's a nice little box for the money (got mine running vSphere with 10GB), a bit sluggish at times but does the job.

Links for suitable cheap ram ?

I had to shop around for that processor, went to ebay in the end, I was intending on using a I5 processor but this was not ECC and would render my RAM useless, check the link I sent there are loads of processors you can use and many have been verified. I wanted that proc as I could spin up a whole bunch of virtual machines (it shows as 8 cores in Windows server due to the multiple threads).[/quote]
I had to shop around for that processor, went to ebay in the end, I was intending on using a I5 processor but this was not ECC and would render my RAM useless, check the link I sent there are loads of processors you can use and many have been verified. I wanted that proc as I could spin up a whole bunch of virtual machines (it shows as 8 cores in Windows server due to the multiple threads).[/quote]
What he said... i was thinking the Dell would be better? just add more ram to it? but does the Dell support non ECC?

Not that good a deal - the same spec was £105, after cashback, in March.

So I have the N40L, and I'm using it as Usenet and Kodi box and it does the job reasonably well. I installed a graphics card and added 6gb of RAM when I first bought it and since then it has stored around 6tb of media. I also put windows 10 on there so I wasnt messing around with windows server and trying to install programs.

I've noticed recently that KODI has began to stutter on playback of some videos and Im wondering if it's time to upgrade. How important is CPU on video playback of files, especially HD and bluray?

Is it worth investing in a new CPU for the N40L, or buying a machine entirely to meet this goals?

You could put in a lower end graphics card and play almost all games on it. Obviously not at 4k with everything switched on.

can windows 10 be installed on this?

I'm well aware of the issues you're talking about (to be honest, I don't really think they're even that much of an issue!). However I fail to see how they're relevant in the conversation we were having. I don't know why you even brought it up really.

Underpowered is related to the task you mentioned, which is transcoding video. For that this machine, in it's current spec, it woefully unprepared for. You'd either have to upgrade it or buy/build a different machine. Personally I'd rather just build one and get it right first time. Keep machines like that doing what they were built to do, simple home server tasks such as acting like a NAS.

It's not about software efficiency either, otherwise the opensource crowd would've figured out a way of doing it with less.

Don't know why they don't just sell these at £125 - cashback seems always on
Do many people really forget to do the cashback ?

I don't think you understand computers or IT in general.

Servers are bought and spec'ed for capacity planned over the lifetime of the box. There is loads of 'enterprise' software that requires little no no computation resources but equally lots that is more bloaty than an IBS sufferer who snorts sorbitol.

Also the term enterprise is a function of support not the actual software itself.

Every asked youself why we need machines with 50x the processing power, 100x the ram and SSDs for the purpose of doing 99% the same as we did 15-20 years ago?

Answers of a postcard, thanks.

You've got to be trolling now right? Pretty sure you're not going to be running ancient enterprise software on these boxes.

Few points here. Server imaging and change control are almost multually exclusive.
Underpowered? - That would depend on your level of bloaty software. I come from an era where machines with 1/20th of the processing oomph of this were running huge enterprises.

My point is that the original N**L machines were better in some ways, while these are better in others.

It's like the comments form people saying 'you'll need 32gb for vmware' etc. Not understanding the product is not a reason to throw ram at the issue.

i wish they'd kept the proper 51/4" drive bay on this model - i've 2 x N36L, one has 4 x 2.5" 500GB drives in a adapter that fits into the 51/4" drive bay - can't fit them in this model :disappointed:

Agreed, mine is purely for a home lab setup, it is nice and quiet and the cooling can be adjusted to make it even quieter, alternatives are full blown production servers and I don't fancy running one of those in my home.

How much you paid for that processor? seems to be avialable on amazon for 400£. Seems to me that T20 is way better deal with a Xeon in it.[/quote]

I had to shop around for that processor, went to ebay in the end, I was intending on using a I5 processor but this was not ECC and would render my RAM useless, check the link I sent there are loads of processors you can use and many have been verified. I wanted that proc as I could spin up a whole bunch of virtual machines (it shows as 8 cores in Windows server due to the multiple threads).

Okay well let's break this down a little and apply some logic to HUKD for a change...


Uhm, okay. But that does really need a dedicated GPU? You'd be better off build a mITX HTPC as a media player, transcoding? Maybe that's a different story, although I don't know what you're really doing transcoding with such a weak CPU. Correct me if I'm way of the mark, but I don't know of any consumer transcoding software packages (such as Plex) that will make use of GPU power to speed up transcode.


Right, why? The CPU is weak and there isn't much room to upgrade. For only a little bit more money you could build a mITX gaming rig that is also a HTPC.


I don't really see how that's an issue at home, if it's a hobby you'll have factored in tinkering time. Time == money in a corporate environment, in which case I'd ask:

Why are you using something so underpowered in a corporate environment?
Why aren't you imaging your servers? No 10s of reboots if you do that.
Why are you using a consumer version of Windows?

At the end of the day, all the negatives you've listed revolve around using this machine for purposes it was not designed for; as such you cannot moan.

I upgraded my processor recently to a Intel Xeon E3-1265LV2, it's rated 10W higher than the Celeron but it gives me 4 cores multithreaded and is a far superior processor, heat is not really an issue it's not a massive increase I used quality heatsink compound, and will keep an eye out on the internal temp. The LGA1155 socket gives you loads of options check out this site http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6596-hp-microserver-gen8-processor-faq/[/quote]
How much you paid for that processor? seems to be avialable on amazon for 400£. Seems to me that T20 is way better deal with a Xeon in it.

the other most significant upgrade was to not use a cd drive and instead use the space for a SSD drive, using a splitter to power the drive and connecting it to the data cable intended for the cd rom, I installed Windows server on the SSD and set up RAID on the installed HDD in the bays.

There is also an internal SSD card slot and internal usb slot, many people have used these for boot devices (Linux/Unix OS for example)

I upgraded my processor recently to a Intel Xeon E3-1265LV2, it's rated 10W higher than the Celeron but it gives me 4 cores multithreaded and is a far superior processor, heat is not really an issue it's not a massive increase I used quality heatsink compound, and will keep an eye out on the internal temp. The LGA1155 socket gives you loads of options check out this site http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/6596-hp-microserver-gen8-processor-faq/

Nice! Tempted to purchase to finally upgrade my N40L.

Lots of people use these as a mediaplayer or a transcodoing box. Some even play games on them :P

The POST time is a nightmare when setting up as it adds time to the whole process. If you are installing windows you probably have to reboot at least 5-10 times while updating and installing drivers. Time = money.

I used to think both of those were issues until I got one. I think even those with N**L version would change their mind after using iLo etc...

I still don't get how either of these things is really an issue.

Why would you want a GPU in a Microserver?
Why is a long POST time an issue on a server what is going to be running 24/7?

The old N**L had 2 pci-e so you could do proper raid and GPU.

Just nowt worse than waiting 4 minutes for something to post. The old N**L boxes posted in about 20 seconds.

Loads of uses for 2 ports. Eg firewall or differnet network for your SAN.

Is that exciting because you can you team them together to give 2Gbps?

Post it as a deal.

Micro-server. Miiiicroooo. Micro == small.


How often are you shutting down a server?

Check out the ML10 v2, also has a cashback offer occasionally

A few points.

It has 2 network ports (yey)
But only one pic-e (booo)
Takes an age too boot (boo)
B210i only does raid 1/0/10 (yay no raid 5 for plebs wohoooo)

What processor did you upgrade to?[/quoe]
I'd like to know about this too please. I run Plex and the stock processor struggles at times transcoding 1080p.

What processor did you upgrade to?

​Again, that's not the point. I once had a conversation with my educated brother about this who reamed off tonnes of reasons, some already listed here.

From a business perspective I would say the collection of personal data of actual buyers being the best to allow future analysis and promotion targeting.

​It is more expensive there (price was 130.94 after cash back when including VAT, but not including topcashback).

cheaper here... plus 2.1% tcb

https://www.serversdirect.co.uk/p/1039108/hpe-proliant-microserver-gen8-intel-celeron-g1610t-dual-core-.30ghz-mb-4-x-non-hotplug-

correct me if it's not the same thing.

Reading through the management speak nonsense, I'm not sure that's really what they're saying, more that it doesn't impact on your normal price like a price reduction would. But then again, with such guff, it's very hard to tell!

​really? didn't realise that although I bet 2x16gb sticks are expensive!

If only these could take 32GB of RAM I'd be upgrading my old kit right away...

Ooh nice! I was just eyeing up a Dell T20 but this'd be smaller and lower power. Dual gigE is also pretty neat even if it is broadcom underneath.

Good machines but have been cheaper.

Please note only 1 pci-e slot on these so usefulness as a PVR server for Kodi etc is reduced.

You need to add this is a cash back price