neilt0

You can mix and match ECC and non-ECC, so I can't imagine any issue with mixing different types. I ran with the original 1GB ECC and a Kingston 4GB non-ECC for maybe a year.

Nope. You need to use specific RAM. 16GB is not supported by HP at all. Using 16GB is a bit of a "hack", so there is plenty of RAM that doesn't work.

Lots. No, but specific RAM must be used: http://n40l.wikia.com/wiki/Memory

Upgrade the BIOS to the "modified" one. Turn on the write cache. You still may not see that fast speeds. Using the "dirty writes" hack, I see 100MB/sec, but then writes slow down to about 45 to 50MB/sec on my N54L (7200rpm 4TB Hitachi, almost full). The writes will be faster on an empty drive. On my N36L (a slower Microserver), I'm seeing writes to a single drive of 70MB/sec+. But, that is running the Xpenology OS as a test.

I'd also turn the write cache on. That's off by default.

Fine! Very detailed ... I suspect some actual numbers would be a bit more useful !! There are temps scattered through this thread. I could find them, or you could look yourself. In normal use, drive temps are in the 30s. During a parity check, 7200rpm drives can get in to the 40s with 6 drives and warm ambient temps.

Fine!

The MicroServer is an odd choice for a 20+ drive machine. I have however seen someone take out the motherboard and mount it in a very large case and that seems to be a clever idea. My solution is to eventually migrate all my MicroServer drives to 4TB making a total of 20TB and putting the smaller drives in my large "archive" server.

People have use a multiplier with the eSATA port under Linux, so it'll probably work with unRAID.

Note that there may be a hard limit on the number of drives you can attach to the MicroServer. I think I read on HardOCP that the limit was 12. Having said that, just because the BIOS can't see a drive, it doesn't mean the OS doesn't also. I can't remember where it wasn't "seen". It's probably with Windows. which needs the bios. With linux it will not use the BIOS when it comes to PMP. I've had linux/unraid detect drives that the bios did not. Although that doesn't mean it will work. I found the post: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1038282221#post1038282221 Start there and keep reading (I got bored).

Note that there may be a hard limit on the number of drives you can attach to the MicroServer. I think I read on HardOCP that the limit was 12. Having said that, just because the BIOS can't see a drive, it doesn't mean the OS doesn't also. I can't remember where it wasn't "seen".

Even with SABnzbd, you'd be hard pressed to tax 8GB of RAM. There are threads all over the board about how to install everything. I do not allow bumming of my NZB. That means a different thing to us fellas in the UK. All my apps run on the cache drive and that's where the data is written to initially by those apps.

I think that's overkill, myself. 8GB should be plenty. Perhaps if you were running ESXi or multiple VirtualBox VMs, 16GB would be wise. I run 8GB and run nzbget, Transmission, Sick Beard, nzbgetter and a bunch of other stuff including a 1GB RAM Windows XP VM under VirtualBox occasionally. I never get near to overtaxing the RAM. It just gets used as a cache for file access most of the time.

In the real world, bearing in mind that the motherboard, RAM, CPU flash drive etc. all use power, my N36L hits 150W when booting with this config: 8GB of RAM (the extra DIMM uses a watt or two) Adaptec 1430SA PCI-E HBA 2x 3.5" 7200rpm drives 3x 3.5" 5400rpm drives 1x 3.5" 5900rpm drive 1x 2.5" 5400rpm drive 1x 2.5" 4200rpm drive I plan on removing the 2.5" drives and replacing some of the smaller (1.5TB) 3.5" drives with larger 3.5" drives (4TB).

How do you have them attached? I was thinking of using the SANS DIGITAL external eSATA/USB units to attach more drives along with SIL3132 controllers that do PMP. I have an Adaptec 1430SA in mine and the extra drives (apart from the 6x 3.5") are: 2x 2.5" (internal) 1x 3.5" (external eSATA with its own PSU) With all these drives attached (6x 3.5" + 2x 2.5"), the Microserver PSU is maxed out. Note that you can apparently use a port multiplier on the eSATA port: http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/4727-successfully-enabled-port-multiplier-on-esata/

I think someone on http://hardforum.com tried maxing out the drives further and there's a limit -- something like 12 drives. It's somewhere in this thread: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1555868 I've had 9 drives attached to mine.

Pretty much any 5.25" mesh thingy from a tower should fit. I use one from my Sharkoon case and I think people have used the mesh bay cover from an Antec 1200.

If you want to use 6 drives, you don't need an additional controller. There are 6 SATA connections on the Microserver (one is eSATA).

4TB drives work.

There is interest!

I already worked out how to throttle the CPU to 800MHz, so if it's a few % better CPU, it won't make much of a difference to me. If it's more than 10%, I'm in!

I'm running an N36, not N40, so someone else should run the test.

Does this improved the speed of the OS? I'd like to see some benchmarks, if possible? Cheers, Neil.

Bad link. I updated to RC10 and it's much faster. 92MB/sec parity checks, 29MB/sec array writes. 60MB/sec cache writes. I had to remove rtorrent, but Transmission is working better for me anyhoo.