neilt0

I took it back to 6 drives, with one 2TB drive as cache. However, I wasn't comfortable with having that much data unprotected, and didn't want to "waste" my 4-port 1430SA by only using one port, so a new plan was cooked! I used all 6 SATA ports for 3.5" drives -- utilising the Nexus Double Twin for the 5th and 6th drives in the 5.25" bay, and I added a small 2.5" drive below the 5.25" bay, but rather than using SATA, I connected it via USB and manually told the OS it was a "cache" drive -- it's not really a cache drive, but the apps I use don't care, and I don't use the mover script. I ran a USB cable from a rear USB port up through the same expansion card slot that I ran the E-SATA cable. The USB interface is a tiny one salvaged from a WD Passport drive, so the 2.5" drive is USB powered. To mount it, on each boot, I manually run these commands (I could script them, but just in case the drive is not ever mounted as sdg, I'd rather not risk it, and I rarely reboot): mkdir /mnt/cache mount -t reiserfs /dev/sdg1 /mnt/cache I added the following to smb-extra.conf : [cache] path = /mnt/cache read only = no guest ok = yes browseable = yes browsable = yes I also removed the transmission files from the packages folder to a "transmission" folder on the USB flash drive, so they don't auto-install, because they reference the cache drive that isn't mounted yet, and if I want to run Transmission, I run: /boot/transmission/transmission-unraid-0.0.2-i386-bubba.tgz.auto_install and start it using the button in User Scripts. So, I now have a Microserver with: 6x 3.5" SATA drives 1x 2.5" USB drive 1x USB flash drive Using a 5400rpm 2.5" drive on USB, the "cache" drive is pretty slow, but it's plenty fast for transmission and nzbget. I modified the nzbget post-processing script to unpack to an array drive, so data doesn't stay on the "cache" drive very long, and I only stream media from the array drives -- the "cache" drive is too slow for that. EDIT: The USB attached drive was just too slow, so I went back to 6 drives. The power consumption with one drive spun up is still under 40W.

Someone built a 100tb home server on one of these. Here is the build log. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1512972 72dB! No thanks. And, 84.2dB at the back!

I think I'd run 2x unRAIDs under ESXi. One mobo, SATA PCI-E boards with SATA expanders.

50x 3.5" : http://www.xcase.co.uk/Chenbro-9u-RM91250H01-p/case-chenbro-rm91250h01.htm

Well, with no changes made yet, the stuttering has stopped, so it appears to have been coincidental. I think I'll still take it back to 6 drives, and maybe add a 7th 3.5" when the warranty runs out so I can Dremel out a space for it, and if I get a free 2-port Rocket RAID card when/if I get one bundled with a WD 3TB drive (Scan has one on offer cheaply today, but I resisted).

So, what was the verdict on this? What did your drive temps look like? I didn't ever implement it, but I'm waiting on a 2TB Hitachi deal from Scan, then I'm planning on putting up to 3 drives in that space later this week. I'll post if and when I do so. Well, I stuck an old(ish) Adaptec 1430SA card in and added a 7th drive. I've been running this setup for about a week, but I've seen a few problems. 1) The power consumption of the card is pretty high. Even with most drives spun down, it seems to have added around 10W to the power usage, which is up about 1/3 from previous levels. 2-port Rocket Raid users, what power consumption have you seen? 2) I have 2x 7200rpm drives in my Microserver, so with 7 drives and the 1430SA, the boot peak is over 150W. The PSU is rated at 150W, so I'm not so happy about that. 3) I'm seeing some glitches and pauses in streaming. I'm not sure if it's the 1430SA but I think the pausing is only with the 2 drives attached to it. It may be a coincidence, but I'm going to to take out the 1430SA and see if that fixes it. I think I'll probably end up with "just" 6 drives in this server and eventually upgrade them all to 3TB drives and migrate the 2TB and 1.5TB drives to my 22-drive second server.

There's a new model of the Microserver. If you're not in the UK or Aus (i.e. you can't get the N36L cheap), this is probably going to a better option. It's called the HP ProLiant N40L and has a faster CPU and more RAM: AMD Turion™ II Model Neo N40L (1.5GHz) 2-4GB RAM UK models: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF25a/15351-15351-4237916-4237917-4237917-4248009.html U.S. models: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF25a/15351-15351-4237916-4237918-4237917-4248009.html

The HP Microserver tends to pull in a fair bit of dust, as I found after opening it up after 6 months. DDY on Hexus.net has come up with a solution -- installing a filter in the door. http://forums.hexus.net/chassis-system-modding/201873-hp-microserver-dust-filter-mod.html I've not got nearly as much dust in mine as his, probably because mine isn't on the floor, but this little mod is probably still worthwhile. He used insect screen: And another guy used a "HiFlow Dust filter": http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390325378318?clk_rvr_id=260616885761&afsrc=1 You can find the full instructions at: http://forums.hexus.net/chassis-system-modding/201873-hp-microserver-dust-filter-mod.html

Picked up mine for $15 with shipping on EBay the other day...don't think you're going to find one much cheaper than that. Is that the one WD are bundling with the 3TB drives? That's why they're cheap, I guess.

Yes.

You're buying 6x 3TB drives and worrying about the price of ECC?! There's not that much difference in price. Here's what I used, which looks to be the same as the one you listed: http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/partsinfo.asp?root=&LinkBack=&ktcpartno=KVR1333D3N9/4G Today, I ordered the Nexus Double Twin from here: http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/product_info.php/info/p6594_Nexus-Double-Twin-HDD-decoupling.html N.B. it hasn't arrived yet, so I'm not endorsing this company. This and the Noiseblocker X-Swing are becoming very hard to find, as so many people are using them in Microservers and they both seem to have been discontinued, so if you can find one, I'd buy it quickly!

No, you don't. Not only does the machine support non-ECC, it supports mixing non-ECC with ECC, so you could add a very cheap 2GB or 4GB non-ECC DIMM. That's what I did. I have 5GB in mine. I paid about the same amount of money for my N36L as I would a good case OR motherboard. Getting a whole machine for that is a steal.

with a bit of work. you "could do it". from what I am seeing, 2 3.5" drives up top get to hot without a fan mod of some kind. I would stick to a single 3.5 or get some 2.5" drive in a 4in1 adapter.. that would be pretty expensive route IMO. If you really want 6x 3TB and 1x 2.5" drives, I would get an Supermicro atom board and a fractal mini R2 ITX. the footprint is about the same size and no modding needed. assemble and boot. the performance would be about the same. It will run you about $50 more. I've been running 2x 3.5" drives in that space for months, as have many others. No major heat problems. The 2.5" drive fits under that 5.25" bay. I'm running 7 drives right now. The setup you mentioned would be much more expensive compared to the current price in the UK and Australia. USAsians, you fellas should be keeping your fingers crossed for a similar deal!

There isn't one. You get either a 160GB or 250GB 3.5" drive.

How'd you get all those power connectors up there? Just daisy chaining Y splitters? And did you have to modify anything to get the 3.5" drive below the optical bay? Right now I have two 3.5" on top of it and a 2.5" stuffed in there, but it would be awesome to replace the 2.5" with another 3.5". That's not my pic! As I said, I'm considering doing it. That photo is from the Australian OC forum. These servers are super cheap over there too, so they are doing some interesting things. I don't think he extended the cables, just re-routed them through that square channel. He did some extensive Dremel work there. Here's the full thread: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?p=13298828

The drive that came with it is pretty fast, I think. I'm considering Dremeling out that part below the 5.25" bay to add another 3.5" drive, but I'll probably wait for the warranty period to end:

Did you enable the write cache in the BIOS? I precleared a Hitachi 2TB Green drive the other day (attached to the 5th SATA port) and it started at about 110MB/sec.

Yes, you need to do the Russian BIOS hack to improve speeds. I saw the Nexus Double Twin on avforums and am considering using it, as I put my 1430SA in yesterday and it's tough getting more than 2 drives in that space. I may end up with 2 drives there and 1 to 4 2.5" drives in the space below.

The Microserver has had a generous rebate on it for many months in the UK and Australia. HP are potentially divesting their PSG group -- personal computers (laptop/desktops). This product is neither, it's a server, and it's in their Enterprise division, so I don't anticipate the Proliant range to be going anywhere yet.

Is that supported in unRAID?

PCI-E low profile. You can use one 16x and one 1x. Loads of people on avforums and hardforum have stuck 'em in. avforums dudes put 5450 graphics cards and hardforum dudes put P400 RAID cards in. ETA: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showpost.php?p=13327845&postcount=1466 I have a new 2TB drive out for delivery to me today. Once it's precleared and added to the array, my plan is to move one of my Adaptec 1430SA cards to the Microserver to take me past 6 drives.

So, what was the verdict on this? What did your drive temps look like? I didn't ever implement it, but I'm waiting on a 2TB Hitachi deal from Scan, then I'm planning on putting up to 3 drives in that space later this week. I'll post if and when I do so.

Dude, stop following me around the internet! So, did you buy a MicroServer? I have a LinkStation LS-VL for sale if you're interested... I used it for about a week, I think.

As for how much RAM you need if you're running a bunch of add-ons, I run cache_dirs, sabnzbd, nzbget, SickBeard and a few other apps and my machine is currently using 844MB out of 5GB. When I was running with 1GB, it wasn't enough RAM for all the add-ons I used, but 5GB is plenty.

Sounds about right. I've had faster writes on the cache drive when it's 7200rpm.