Anyone bought the HP Proliant Microserver?

Evil Badoshix · 13-12-2010, 17:20

I caved yesterday and purchased the HP Microserver using the latest HP offer.

I bought it intially to use as a NAS server for the home, i've got 2 (possibly 4) x 2TB HDDS, I wouldnt mind setting up a webserver too - just to access certain stuff from work. I was gonna opt for centos or fedora, but am now considering 2 virtual machines with esx (main problem here would be lack of software raid).

Does anyone have one of these? If so what OS did you opt for & and what do you use it for primarily. Overall what do you think of it?

Guest 20043 · 13-12-2010, 17:35

what did you pay i could of got a discount !!!

Guest 17917 · 13-12-2010, 17:37

guy at work got one and put some form of linux on it. can't remember which, but centos rings a bell. he is using it as a nas, and says it's lovely.
not sure there is the power for esxi, the cpu is that of a netbook.

nils, could you get a discount and the �100 cashback?

Guest 20043 · 13-12-2010, 17:47

Ha ha no, thats a stonking deal just checked it out

Ha ha badoshix just seen ya location, heavy !!!

Evil Badoshix · 13-12-2010, 18:18

Damn - i forgot to ask you nils. It was �110 I think, including �100 cashback from HP. Can you get a discount? I tried asking our HP account manager at work for a freebie 'in the xmas spirit' he'd never heard of these servers.

I've also 'acquired' 2 x 4GB dimms, somewhat overkill but hey ho

The CPU looks a bit rubbish - and did put me off initially. I might stick with a single OS: centos or fedora then. At least I can then use software RAID 5, another thing which the hardware is missing (RAID 0 or 1 only).

Guest 50304 · 14-12-2010, 16:45

got one a few weeks ago (paid about �150 i.e the november �50 cashback)

was going to run esxi with 4gb non ecc ram, but the ram was faulty (had planned to run whs 1, and maybe other stuff for testing etc)

but due to the faulty ram, i have stuck whs on as the main os, using the supplied 1gb

currently have 2 x 1tb green drives in it (spare from other stuff)

generally uses about 35watts (and is set to hiberate from 12 - 8am) and is much better that the netgear nas (which used about 22watts) its replacing, in every way i.e. speed, remote access, remote desktop + running airtunes + sabnzbd
(so with the hiberation power usage works out the same as the nas)

bumfrog · 15-12-2010, 09:08

yeh, don't think the cpu would cut the mustard at all for virtualisation at all, but all the same, looks like a nice little box.

stu_69 · 15-12-2010, 10:28

I was going to get one of these but I read there is no WHS drivers at the moment.

I might get one with the current discount. My linux skills are pretty much non existent. I would love to put something like this on it: http://code.google.com/p/greyhole/

movaado · 15-12-2010, 10:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by stu_69

I was going to get one of these but I read there is no WHS drivers at the moment.

Some people here seem to have got it to work.

Was going to get the netgear nas but might go for this instead....

Guest 17917 · 15-12-2010, 11:44

one of the nice features is an internal usb port. this means you can put a bootable usb stick in there and run linux or freenas from it. cool....

peg20 · 15-12-2010, 12:23

Got a link to the offer?

Guest 27300 · 15-12-2010, 12:31

http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/proliantmicroserver

peg20 · 15-12-2010, 12:45

Thanks. I'm currently using an old shuttle (so similar form factor, probably similar performance) for this kind of job. But it isn't quiet, and produces a fair amount of heat. If I could reduce either the heat or noise, then this would be a worthwhile replacement.

peg20 · 15-12-2010, 15:02

OK, I've spent too much time deciding whether or not to get one, so have just ordered it. Looking at some benchmarks, it looks like it will outperform my current media centre too. The current media centre struggles on HD content, so this might just be enough to manage that. Looking at the specs, it doesn't include audio, so I'll need to get a sound card for it. But where can you get a half-height PCI-E sound card that costs less than the whole machine?!?

Evil Badoshix · 15-12-2010, 15:49

have you got hdmi input on your tv? If so, one card could do the trick:

low profile graphics

Some guys tried it on xbmc forums, but no verdict on the result yet.

--edit--
affiliate link not working, card is a: Zotac GeForce GT210 512MB Synergy Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card

peg20 · 15-12-2010, 16:51

Currently, have SPDIF to receiver and HDMI to projector. It's possible the receiver can switch video too (seem to remember something like that, but have never used it) and might be able to fork off the audio at that point instead. I will have to investigate...

Guest 33558 · 15-12-2010, 19:00

Highly tempting considering after rebate it would come in under �100! Just a shame the RAM would cost a fair bit at the moment

Actually reminded me of a MediaSmart but hugely scalable considering you can stick in a graphics card, TV card.

Evil Badoshix · 15-12-2010, 19:08

I was actually going to purchase this memory from play:

crucial 2GB

4gb (2x2GB) for just under �30 delivered. I was going to buy this, but didn't need it in the end.

njc · 16-12-2010, 07:45

I picked up one of these. Think I might put ESXi on it and run WHS in it, with a W7 VM to record TV programmes too.

Guest 4337 · 19-12-2010, 20:18

I was looking at turning this in an ESX box too but from looking around Google this is less than ideal. Think this will become my new NAS (possibly Ubuntu Server with MediaTomb although I keep changing my mind) and I'll get an ML110 G6 for my ESX box.