[clutz]

Originally Posted by maxwell4321

what are you guys using to test your speeds, it seems I have an issue somewhere as only achieving 10Mb/s transfer speed from my satbox hdd to server.

What is your satbox ? Unless your network and your satbox are fully Gigabit, 10MB/s sounds about right.

Better to test it on an ethernet wired PC with a known link speed.

[maxwell4321]

the sat box is a vu+ duo which has a 10/100 port with ethernet direct into a router port, the server is connected to a 8 port switch which the connects to the router. I am trying to transfer some movies from the satbox HDD to the server. it is this transfer that is at 10Mb/s.
Im fairly new to this (as you can probably tell) so not sure what to expect

[shy1807]

I just got mine delivered. But I have seriously no idea what OS to put onto it. I've got a Windows 7 Premium which I was meaning to install onto my MacBook, but haven't got around to doing it. But will the N40L be powerful enough to run it? Will I be better off getting a copy of WHS or shall I try the Linux route? I've never used Linux properly so am a bit put off by that option, unless someone strongly recommends it.

I think I'm gonna be using it mainly for my media library, running torrents and also occasional web browsing. Might start using it as an XBMC when I get around to upgrading the bits and bobs.

[psikey]

Originally Posted by maxwell4321

the sat box is a vu+ duo which has a 10/100 port with ethernet direct into a router port, the server is connected to a 8 port switch which the connects to the router. I am trying to transfer some movies from the satbox HDD to the server. it is this transfer that is at 10Mb/s.
Im fairly new to this (as you can probably tell) so not sure what to expect

Most you'll get out off 100 Ethernet is around 12.5MB/s and with gigabit 124MB/s. Most Sat boxes and media streamers are only 100 Ethernet.

You will be getting 10MB/s not 10Mb/s ( Bytes Vs Bits).

[psikey]

Originally Posted by shy1807

I just got mine delivered. But I have seriously no idea what OS to put onto it. I've got a Windows 7 Premium which I was meaning to install onto my MacBook, but haven't got around to doing it. But will the N40L be powerful enough to run it? Will I be better off getting a copy of WHS or shall I try the Linux route? I've never used Linux properly so am a bit put off by that option, unless someone strongly recommends it.

I think I'm gonna be using it mainly for my media library, running torrents and also occasional web browsing. Might start using it as an XBMC when I get around to upgrading the bits and bobs.

The Microserver has no problem with Win 7. I currently have Win 7 Pro on my 40L but when I had a 36L I had all sorts including WHS2011.

Really depends what you want to use it for, Server, NAS or HTPC.

Based on your stated usage Win7 would be ideal. Similar usage to me but I chose Win7Pro because I had a copy and no issue accessing over Internet via Remote Desktop.

Even with built-in GPU the 40L has no problem playing high bit rate 1080P h264/mkv movies once you enable DXVA for the GPU.

My QNAP NAS is Linux based but just know enough to get by. Big learning curve if your a Windows guy.

CCL were doing WHS2011 really cheap (under £37 I think).

[rob_brum]

Originally Posted by psikey

Even with built-in GPU the 40L has no problem playing high bit rate 1080P h264/mkv movies once you enable DXVA for the GPU.
.

How do you do that?

Regards
Rob

[HellraiserUK]

Just got my N40L so thought I'd update this thread with the answers to a few queries...

Chassis/motherboard etc is identical to the N36L, the only difference is the CPU is a Turion II 1.5GHz dual core as opposed to the Athlon II Neo 1.3GHz in the N36L.

Only one mini-SAS connector on the motherboard for the 4x SATA enclosure, optical drive is served from a standard SATA connector on the motherboard. If you intend on using a SATA DVD drive, you will need both a long SATA cable (the route it needs to follow is quite tortuous), and a Molex-SATA power adapter (assuming your DVD uses SATA power).

Using the same RAM as I did in my N36L (2x4GB Kingston non-ECC KVR1333D3N9/4G is the part number), and using the N36L modded BIOS available on this forum - works fine on the N40L.

Using ESXi 5.0 (build 504890) and running Windows Home Server 2011 through this along with some other VMs - seems to run absolutely fine.

Hellraiser.........>

[shy1807]

Originally Posted by psikey

The Microserver has no problem with Win 7. I currently have Win 7 Pro on my 40L but when I had a 36L I had all sorts including WHS2011.

Really depends what you want to use it for, Server, NAS or HTPC.

Based on your stated usage Win7 would be ideal. Similar usage to me but I chose Win7Pro because I had a copy and no issue accessing over Internet via Remote Desktop.

Even with built-in GPU the 40L has no problem playing high bit rate 1080P h264/mkv movies once you enable DXVA for the GPU.

My QNAP NAS is Linux based but just know enough to get by. Big learning curve if your a Windows guy.

CCL were doing WHS2011 really cheap (under £37 I think).

Cool! I might just stick with the Windows 7 then. Save the pennies for some HDDs when they come back down in price. :D

[theronkinator]

Originally Posted by HellraiserUK

Just got my N40L so thought I'd update this thread with the answers to a few queries...

Chassis/motherboard etc is identical to the N36L, the only difference is the CPU is a Turion II 1.5GHz dual core as opposed to the Athlon II Neo 1.3GHz in the N36L.

Only one mini-SAS connector on the motherboard for the 4x SATA enclosure, optical drive is served from a standard SATA connector on the motherboard. If you intend on using a SATA DVD drive, you will need both a long SATA cable (the route it needs to follow is quite tortuous), and a Molex-SATA power adapter (assuming your DVD uses SATA power).

Using the same RAM as I did in my N36L (2x4GB Kingston non-ECC KVR1333D3N9/4G is the part number), and using the N36L modded BIOS available on this forum - works fine on the N40L.

Using ESXi 5.0 (build 504890) and running Windows Home Server 2011 through this along with some other VMs - seems to run absolutely fine.

Hellraiser.........>

I used a standard 45cm sata cable no problem.

[HellraiserUK]

Hmm, idle power draw seems to be about 57W with 8GB and 2x2TB and 1x250GB HDD for my N40L - was only about 45-48W in the N36L. Noticed I had all the power management stuff disabled in the BIOS so turned it back on and enabled Balanced power management in ESXi to see idle increase to 62W!

Any ideas? Surely an extra 200MHz won't increase my idle to 14W more - thats about a 25% increase!

Hellraiser.........>

[The_Caveman]

Hi, I hope somebody can help me….

I have:1 x HP ProLiant MicroServer N40L

1 x USB Stick, plugged into the internal USB port containing Windows Server

Keyboard and mouse

Once I start the Server, it just run through a lot of stuff, till it get to default installation?

And I cant get it to install, what am I doing wrong?

[The_Caveman]

Hey all, I just found this great guide, awnsered all my questions,,,,

http://www.tekforums.net/guides-projects/%28guide%29-installing-windows-server-2008-r2-for-xbmc-on-hp-microserver/

well, i will try the installation now

[shy1807]

I'm trying to install a blu-ray drivem but can't figure out how to remove the two side panels so that i can screw it securely. The manual doesn't detail that step.

Any tips please?

*EDIT: Lol, just realised that you use the 4 screws they give you on the door panel. :D

[theronkinator]

Originally Posted by shy1807

I'm trying to install a blu-ray drivem but can't figure out how to remove the two side panels so that i can screw it securely. The manual doesn't detail that step.

Any tips please?

You don't remove the sides, use the 4 ODD screws in the server door and just slide it into the slot at the top.

[happhhitachi]

Originally Posted by maxwell4321

the sat box is a vu+ duo which has a 10/100 port with ethernet direct into a router port, the server is connected to a 8 port switch which the connects to the router. I am trying to transfer some movies from the satbox HDD to the server. it is this transfer that is at 10Mb/s.
Im fairly new to this (as you can probably tell) so not sure what to expect

By Connecting the vu+ to the router and the sever to the switch you may be introducing a bottle neck. The traffic from ALL your devices connected to the switch presumably has to go to the router via a single Cat5 cable to get to/from the WWW. So if anything else connected to the switch is accessing the web its sharing the bandwidth on that single cable with the traffic between the vu+ and the server.

If you can I'd suggest you connect both the vu+ and the server to the switch that way you'll get the full performance of the switch when moving data from vu+ to server.

If you get into running more cable always run more then one length of Cat5, you can never have enough Cat5 ports, its amazing how you find more devices that you'd like to connect or decide to move from one room to another and suddenly you need more Cat5 ports. Business level 24 and 48 port switches are cheap enough of auction sites.

Cant offer any opinion on connection speeds, not got my N40L installed yet.

[happhhitachi]

Just got my N40L

Going to try WHS 2011 on this, I'll need a DVD drive to install. However once up and running I'll remove the DVD drive. That way I don't have to buy a drive I can 'borrow' a drive from another box and then return when the install is done.

Silly question...

I've had the lid off for a quick look inside, there's a Molex for power to the DVD drive but I cant see an SATA cable. Should there be one, am I missing the obvious?

If there isn't a SATA cable fitted to the DVD bay can I connect a DVD drive to the eSATA port with the appropriate (eSATA to SATA) cable and then boot from the DVD drive?

Told you it was a silly question...

[maxwell4321]

Originally Posted by happhhitachi

Just got my N40L

Going to try WHS 2011 on this, I'll need a DVD drive to install. However once up and running I'll remove the DVD drive. That way I don't have to buy a drive I can 'borrow' a drive from another box and then return when the install is done.

Silly question...

I've had the lid off for a quick look inside, there's a Molex for power to the DVD drive but I cant see an SATA cable. Should there be one, am I missing the obvious?

If there isn't a SATA cable fitted to the DVD bay can I connect a DVD drive to the eSATA port with the appropriate (eSATA to SATA) cable and then boot from the DVD drive?

Told you it was a silly question...

No there is no spare SATA cable supplied and you can install whs 2011 from USB stick but you need to use DISKPART to make the USB bootable, i would also recommend flashing the BIOS with the modded BIOS available so that you can use the ODD SATA port in full mode rather than IDE, sorry cant give links at the moment in a rush.

Thanks for the network info in your reply to my post

[themediaman]

Can you not boot from a USB stick.....................

And yes I think you can get the drive in that way............theres lots of info on here about doing it.......

[paul cliff]

I'm pretty much set on getting one of these with the £100 cash-back, have a few questions though.

I plan on using it mainly as a media server storing my ripped DVD collection with machine around the house accessing via W7 and XBMC.

1. I currently have a sky router, which I think is a Sagem or Sagecom (I'll check after work), will this introduce any sort of bottle neck in the system?

Will I need Gigabit ports? I also plan to wire it all with Cat5e or Cat6.

2. I was planning on using freeNAS or Ubuntu Server (maybe WHS if cost can be justified) will these be ideal solution for what I intend to use it for?

3. Currently I have 2 HDD's with the films on on my main PC with XBMC installed, this goes to the TV with a DVi-HDMI and a separate Optical cable for DD and DTS, which works well.

I assume I won't need to alter this set-up in anyway, DD and DTS will still work if the films are stored on the HP instead of the local machine?

EDIT

4. Will I be able to simply install an OS on the supplied disk, and then plug in my 2 existing drives or will I need to wipe them to set up a Raid configuration or some such?

Thanks for reading and for any help you can offer me.

[theronkinator]

Originally Posted by happhhitachi

Just got my N40L

Going to try WHS 2011 on this, I'll need a DVD drive to install. However once up and running I'll remove the DVD drive. That way I don't have to buy a drive I can 'borrow' a drive from another box and then return when the install is done.

Originally Posted by maxwell4321

No there is no spare SATA cable supplied and you can install whs 2011 from USB stick but you need to use DISKPART to make the USB bootable,

No you don't, just on another PC with a drive but the disk in, install imgburn ( The Official ImgBurn Website ) choose create image from disk, when its done install the official Windows 7 usb tool ( Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool ), insert your flash drive (it will be wiped), run the windows 7 usb tool it will guide you through about 3 steps, select flash drive, select disk image then it will just set up a flash drive to install WHS2011 from.

[psikey]

Originally Posted by rob_brum

How do you do that?

Regards
Rob

Install Sharky codec packs to get WMP/WMC to play nearly all video formats (including mkv) then select the default settings in the Codec settings but change h264 to DXVA ffmpeg.

When its using the GPU (for h264/VC1 I think) it should show an ffpeg icon on the bottom stating something like DXVA-2 (can't remember now).

[psikey]

Originally Posted by HellraiserUK

Hmm, idle power draw seems to be about 57W with 8GB and 2x2TB and 1x250GB HDD for my N40L - was only about 45-48W in the N36L. Noticed I had all the power management stuff disabled in the BIOS so turned it back on and enabled Balanced power management in ESXi to see idle increase to 62W!

Any ideas? Surely an extra 200MHz won't increase my idle to 14W more - thats about a 25% increase!

Hellraiser.........>

Tested my N40L last night. Currently have a 160GB 2.5" drive in the ODD slot for the OS (Win7Pro) and two 250GB Seagate 3.5" drives in the bays for testing until I put my 4 x 2TB RE4-GP drives inside and possibly an 80GB Intel SSD I have for the OS. Not using any other PCI cards, just video out via the built-in VGA.

Pulling 35-42W under load
In idle 20-22W

I also tested connecting a standard DVD drive in the motherboard USB slot and it showed in windows as a USB DVD/RW drive, but not enough power off the USB so need to rig power from the molex with a splitter.

[happhhitachi]

Originally Posted by theronkinator

No you don't, just on another PC with a drive but the disk in, install imgburn ( The Official ImgBurn Website ) choose create image from disk, when its done install the official Windows 7 usb tool ( Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool ), insert your flash drive (it will be wiped), run the windows 7 usb tool it will guide you through about 3 steps, select flash drive, select disk image then it will just set up a flash drive to install WHS2011 from.

So as I understand it:

I use 'imageburn' on another PC and this will rip the WHS2011 DVD to hard disk as an ISO file.

The 'Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool' will then allow me to transfer this ISO file to a USB stick making the USB stick bootable.

Plug the USB stick into the N40L and the N40L will then boot from this USB stick and install WHS2011 from the copy on the USB stick.

QUERY - how big a USB stick do I need?

Sounds straightforward enough and allows me to set the N40L up without 'tinkering' with it. Whilst I'm not adverse to getting my hands dirty building systems, I've built my last 2 PCs from scratch, with a pre-built system its always nice to get it up and running to be sure its working OK.

Initially it'll run with the Std 250Gb drive + a 2Tb drive I've purchased for it plus once everything is backed up and tested I've got either 2x 500Gb drives or 2x 1Tb drives in other machines that can go in.

Longer term I'll max out the RAM at 8Gb, when HD prices come down to sensable levels I'll populate with 2Tb drives. Can also see it getting a real RAID card and fitting the system disk in the ODD space so I can use all 4x HD caddies for data drives. But thats down the road a little...

[theronkinator]

Yes, that's exactly right. The server will just boot from it and you install as if it was a disk except it's faster.

WHS 2011 needs about 5GB, so you'll need an 8GB stick, Windows 7 will work with a 4GB stick.

Make sure to enable AHCI in the bios before you install windows, alternatively flash the modded bios and enable AHCI at the point (before windows) to save doing it in the future.

[happhhitachi]

Originally Posted by paul cliff

I'm pretty much set on getting one of these with the £100 cash-back, have a few questions though.

1. I currently have a sky router, which I think is a Sagem or Sagecom (I'll check after work), will this introduce any sort of bottle neck in the system?

Will I need Gigabit ports? I also plan to wire it all with Cat5e or Cat6.

2. I was planning on using freeNAS or Ubuntu Server (maybe WHS if cost can be justified) will these be ideal solution for what I intend to use it for?

3. Currently I have 2 HDD's with the films on on my main PC with XBMC installed, this goes to the TV with a DVi-HDMI and a separate Optical cable for DD and DTS, which works well.

I assume I won't need to alter this set-up in anyway, DD and DTS will still work if the films are stored on the HP instead of the local machine?

EDIT

4. Will I be able to simply install an OS on the supplied disk, and then plug in my 2 existing drives or will I need to wipe them to set up a Raid configuration or some such?

Thanks for reading and for any help you can offer me.

The £100 cash back ends on 30th Nov so you'll need to move soon.

Would not think you'll see any difference between Cat5 and Cat6 in a domestic environment.

4) If you use WHS 2011 I think you'll be OK and it should see the drives with the data as they will presumably be NTFS drives from another Win box. BUT I'm not an expert here. If you install FreeNAS or another Linux distro I think you'll loose the data.

[paul cliff]

Originally Posted by happhhitachi

The £100 cash back ends on 30th Nov so you'll need to move soon.

Would not think you'll see any difference between Cat5 and Cat6 in a domestic environment.

4) If you use WHS 2011 I think you'll be OK and it should see the drives with the data as they will presumably be NTFS drives from another Win box. BUT I'm not an expert here. If you install FreeNAS or another Linux distro I think you'll loose the data.

Cheers for the info, I have been reading up on WHS looks very good tbh.

It's not a massive problem losing the data if I really have to but I'd rather not have to rip 200ish DVD's again...

Also, I'll be buying the Server tonight or tomorrow, seeing as it's pay day

[Marty Moose]

This may be a stupid question but can you add extra drives fairly simply as and when you need them?

No experience with NAS/Servers etc, but have 3 2tb drives to hoy in this when it arrives - just wondering if it's OK to populate it and set it up now, with the addition of an extra 2tb drive when prices come down, or whether its a simpler proceedure to max it out with drives initially before setting everything up.

[theronkinator]

Originally Posted by Marty Moose

This may be a stupid question but can you add extra drives fairly simply as and when you need them?

No experience with NAS/Servers etc, but have 3 2tb drives to hoy in this when it arrives - just wondering if it's OK to populate it and set it up now, with the addition of an extra 2tb drive when prices come down, or whether its a simpler proceedure to max it out with drives initially before setting everything up.

Once again, it depends on the operating system. WHS2011 you can add them as you like, not sure about the others.

[shy1807]

A few questions here too:

1. What advantages are there for upgrading the BIOS? And does it have to be done before installing an OS?

2. Is WHS 2011 better than Windows 7 for this unit? I might save my copy of Windows 7 for my MacBook and get a copy of WHS.

3. I've read some people are installing the OS to a USB thumb drive plugged directly into the motherboard (beside the SATA connectors). Will this increase speed and performance? I thought USB thumb drives were slower to write to than SATA.

4. I'm getting a blue tinted screen on my system. Not sure if it's the cable or the unit itself. The monitor worked fine using DVI from my desktop. Anyone else getting this problem?

Thanks!!

[theronkinator]

Originally Posted by shy1807

A few questions here too:

1. What advantages are there for upgrading the BIOS? And does it have to be done before installing an OS?
Enables AHCI and full speed on the 5th sata socket, advantage if you are running a hard drive in the ODD bay. Doesn't need to be done before OS install, but it's easier to enable AHCI before then, windows you can hack enable AHCI after install but not sure about other OSes

2. Is WHS 2011 better than Windows 7 for this unit? I might save my copy of Windows 7 for my MacBook and get a copy of WHS.
Depends on your use, as a server WHS2011 is better (easier shares etc.), for general use Windows 7 is better

3. I've read some people are installing the OS to a USB thumb drive plugged directly into the motherboard (beside the SATA connectors). Will this increase speed and performance? I thought USB thumb drives were slower to write to than SATA.
They are slower, however for linux etc once it's loaded that doesn't matter, it's just convenience of not using a harddrive for an OS that only needs sub 2GB space, won't work with a windows OS

4. I'm getting a blue tinted screen on my system. Not sure if it's the cable or the unit itself. The monitor worked fine using DVI from my desktop. Anyone else getting this problem?
Not had this problem myself.

Thanks!!

See above.