neilt0

Hi Neil, so are you using your servers purely to stream your blus, dvd's and cd's from? Do you rip your material straight from your pc to the server or rip it to your pc and then copy to the server? Thanks K Yes. and Yes and Yes -- either works.

No TV tuner in my PCs, I don't use them. unRAID is used in the server. You can't use the Microserver for unRAID and as an HTPC at the same time. I don't use an HTPC. The Popcorn Hour plays stuff.

So am I correct in thinking that an option to overcome the high power usage as mentioned by Jeff could be to use the HP Microserver as your server and the more powerful HTPC as the media player with all the software etc that you want as you could turn that off when not in use compared to being on 24/7 like the server? Thanks K Or run a 15W Popcorn Hour.

OK, well maybe the ECC RAM works as non-ECC in that case. I quite like the idea of ECC RAM, but I am currently running it with just the 1GB on board. I'm going to try to install nzbget at some point, which should reduce the RAM used even further (vs. SABnzbd), but eventually will upgrade the RAM, I guess.

Sorry if my questions sound daft but I am really new to all this. I was just inspired to play from your thread. This is about the least condescending I'll get , but other, more helpful people may pitch in. Bear in mind that I built my first unRAID server relatively recently and spent quite a long time reading up on all the documentation, the wiki, and selected threads here, before posting questions -- working it all out for yourself is really part of the whole unRAID experience, as the official documentation is sparse and out of date. I'll fill you in on stuff specific to this particular setup, but you may need to wait for much nicer and friendlier people than me (and more expert, too) for the general unRAID questions. Doing a search for this it brings up "non-ECC DIMM" am I missing something, could somebody point me in the right direction? I believe if you add non-ECC, you can't use the ECC RAM it comes with. I'm planning on adding a 4GB ECC DIMM at some point to take me to 5GB. You can use the Crucial or Kingston configurators to tell you what RAM to buy, or part numbers are in this thread: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-proliant-microserver-221-81-delivered-crescent-electronics/888083 I misunderstand all of it lol, so when you are copying the media to the server would the cache not speed that process up? It would, but writing to the array is much faster than it used to be, so I don't use a cache drive for that reason. When you have so few drives, "wasting" one on a cache drive may not be the best option. I use my cache drive as temporary storage for used with SABnbzd and Transmission, not to speed up writes. If you are using those kind of apps, a cache drive is a must. And now you have killed me so are you saying that I would be better building a different/larger one in the first place rather than a couple of these? How easy is it to link different servers together? And lastly what is the reason for you building this to go with your larger one? Thanks K It depends how much storage you need now and in the future. If you build two servers, you will need two licenses. Linking servers together for unified shares is part of the roadmap, but not yet implemented. I am using this because it has very low power consumption, so I can leave it on 24/7. The other servers I've built use at least 4x the power consumption on idle/spindown.

Yes. Write speed is related to the speed of the slowest drive. Might as well all be the same type. Add 1x 4GB ECC DIMM A cache drive doesn't help when serving streams. A cache drive speeds up writes. Any hard drive made in the last 10 years can deliver a HD stream. Virtually everyone misunderstands what a cache drive is, which suggests it is badly named. It should be called "Write caching drive" or similar. IMO they're a bit limited in space. I use one of these and a much larger server that can hold more drives.

It is available in the U.S. -- but the rebate deal isn't.

Nice to see the post was useful. Don't forget to redeem the rebate, assuming you're in the UK. Blu-ray: Rip from a PC over the LAN to the unRAID server.

Thanks for the eBay ref. You won't need to format the parity drive before installation, unRAID will do everything for you.

Nice stuff. Thanks for the credit on avf. I'm too lazy to take more than a couple of photos, so yours might prove useful for others. I've found that 1GB RAM is a bit low, but mine works fine if I don't use Transmission or cache_dirs. I do use sabnzbd, sickbeard and nzbgetter. Are you running Transmission, and if so, how is the RAM usage? I was thinking of adding a 4GB DIMM, but I may drop it down to 2GB for 3GB total. Where did you get your eSATA to SATA cable? Mine are uber-long and I need a shorter one. Finally, let me know how you get on with the drives spinning down -- whether you notice any interruptions to streaming. Cheers ears, Neil.

Yeah, it's as fast as an Intel Core Duo T2350 @ 1.86GHz. I kept an eye on the CPU usage with htop while transferring data over Samba and simultaneously running SABnzbd and Transmission and it copes perfectly well. Even though the AMD CPU clocks at 1.3GHz, it's faster than the Intel Atom D525 @ 1.80GHz (also dual core), which has a score of 711.

It really is. And it's an excellent performer. And...27W with 6 drives installed! There are some really nice design touches. See more photos here: http://www.tenniswood.co.uk/technology/windows-home-server/review-hp-microserver-for-windows-home-server/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=review-hp-microserver-for-windows-home-server and here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tamasrepus/sets/72157625461896900/with/5204509633/

Huh? unRAID can only be installed on a USB flash drive, and yes, it's on the internal USB port. Maybe he just can't see it in the picture. I too used a USB flash drive and stuck it directly on the board. That's one of the great features of this pre-fab rig. Yep, good point. I used a very tall Cruzer Contour: Which will not fit unless I use a flexible USB adapter: So, it's sitting flat against the PCI-E slot:

I read the power meter too soon. On idle, with all drives spun down, it's measuring 27W! I've updated the first post.

Huh? unRAID can only be installed on a USB flash drive, and yes, it's on the internal USB port.

It looks like the bezel might be slightly at an angle, but the IB-68 has adjustable wibbly bits, which I haven't tried to wiggle yet.

Preamble I had been looking to replace an older server that had 10 small drives with a smaller machine with less drives, but with larger capacity. A deal on the Proliant Microserver had been posted last year, which I didn't take up, but was recently re-promo'd by HP and now with a slightly larger drive, up from 160GB to 250GB. This time, I couldn't resist. At £121 (US $195) for a chassis, PSU, low power dual core CPU/mobo and RAM with 4 coldswap slots and potential to add a 5th drive, I think it's the bargain of the decade as far as small servers go. OS at time of building: unRAID 4.7 Pro CPU: AMD Athlon™ II NEO? N36L (1.3GHz Dual Core, 12W TDP) Motherboard: ? Here is a photo of the motherboard RAM: 1GB ECC (standard, upgradable to 8GB) Case: HP Drive Cage(s): 4x Cold Swap plastic and metal + 1x Icy Box IB-168SK-B Power Supply: 150W SATA Expansion Card(s): None (motherboard includes 2x PCI-E slots) Cables: n/a Fans: 1x 120mm fan for whole chassis + 1x 40mm PSU fan Parity Drive: 2TB ST32000542AS Data Drives: 2x 2TB WD20EARS, 2x 1.5TB ST31500341AS Cache Drive: 320GB WD Scorpio 5400rpm Total Drive Capacity: 7.32TB Primary Use: SABnzbd, Transmission, Blu-ray server, day-to-day file storage Likes: Very lower power. Very Quiet (21dB). Compact. Very cheap. Well designed and constructed. Easy to swap out drives. Slide out motherboard tray. IPMI card option. A screwdriver (which fits all screws in the system) and drive screws are held in place in the front door! Dislikes: You can almost fit another 3.5" drive in the top part of the chassis, but not quite! Plastic parts of coldswap bays feel a little flimsy, but these should be easily user-replaceable if they do break. 250GB drive is a waste of money. They shouldn't have bothered including it. Add Ons Used: SABnzbd, Transmission, SickBeard, Bandwidth Monitor NG, unMenu, lighttpd, php, nzbgetter, ntfs-3g, screen, unrar. Future Plans: Upgrade RAM. Upgrade 2.5" cache drive. Boot (peak): 115W Idle (avg): 27W (all drives spun down) Active (avg): 35W (downloading to cache drive at 20mbps with SABnzbd) Light use (avg): 36W (unpacking rar with SABnzbd) Parity check speed (at start): 64,271 KB/sec This photo shows the standard 4 drive slots and the 5th slot added in the 5.25" bay with the use of the Icy Box IB-168SK-B: In order to run the 5th slot at full SATA speeds, you will need to modify the BIOS. Thanks to zheka_ppp for his help in locating the files needed to do the mod. I ran an eSATA to SATA cable back in through a PCI slot, up in to the cavity behind the 5.25" bay: It's easy to fit a 2.5" drive below the 5.25" bay. Viola! 6th drive! I chose this to be the cache drive, so I don't have to worry if the eSATA cable accidentally gets pulled out of the back at some point: And the Icy Box IB-168SK in place with the 5th drive: The eSATA to SATA cable is a bit thick and long, but there's plenty of room in the case to accomodate it. I have a thinner cable somewhere (I do not have Cable OCD ) so when I find that, I may replace the current one. Closing comments Other tweaks made: Write caching turned on in the BIOS VGA set to 32MB in the BIOS PCI Power saving turned on in BIOS wdidle3 /d for WD drives I think the HP Proliant Microserver is a fantastic little box. If you are in the market for a server with relatively few drives, and you can get it on a promo price, I highly recommend it.

unRAID already makes beeping noises as it boots and once it's established a LAN connection. Doesn't it? Mine does.

4 drives?! What next -- a lovely 2-drive Media Server? Ask and ye shall receive, http://dune-hd.com/hd_players/current/152-dune-hd-duo.html That's a player, not a server. My point is that unRAID was designed as a Media Server -- designed to serve data from many hard drives. 4 is not many!

4 drives?! What next -- a lovely 2-drive Media Server?

I think Sharkoon is a German company, so it's unlikely to be called that. Someone found the same case in Asia (Thailand?) with a different name, so it may be available, but under a different name. I think I was the first to use the Rebel 12 for unRAID, and only found it after looking at almost every case on the market in the UK in order to found what I was after -- a cheap case that could hold the most drives. So, you may find the case or something like it in the U.S. just by doing the kind of "deep search" I did.

The Sharkoon Rebel 12 can fit 26 drives if you use 5in3s. I'm in the middle of moving drives in mine and should have 22 drives in a few days. I'll post pics when done.

Nice! That case looks familar... How did you mount the top fan mount in the case? Mine is wedged in with rubber shims, but I'm thinking of drilling some holes as it's a bit loose. Funnily enough, I also decided a while back to move my Scythe 4-in-3s to my Sharkoon case as well, for a 22-drive machine, but I haven't got around to it, as it's going to be a big job. Does the case feel solid and sturdy, that's my only concern at the moment? And have you tried moving it? It's going to be very heavy with all those drives. I drilled holes for the top fan mount. I would say the case is fit for purpose. My son helped me move it downstairs. I used the scythe 4-3's to save money but i'm sure at some point in the future when I have to replace a hdd i will regret taking that course.. Thanks. I may drill some holes in my case. I've replaced a few drives in my Scythes and it's a pain. My plan is to put my smallest and oldest drives in the 6 bays on the floor of the Sharkoon case, as they will then be easy to replace.

Nice! That case looks familar... How did you mount the top fan mount in the case? Mine is wedged in with rubber shims, but I'm thinking of drilling some holes as it's a bit loose. Funnily enough, I also decided a while back to move my Scythe 4-in-3s to my Sharkoon case as well, for a 22-drive machine, but I haven't got around to it, as it's going to be a big job. Does the case feel solid and sturdy, that's my only concern at the moment? And have you tried moving it? It's going to be very heavy with all those drives.

You were right about the weight... With 14 drives and 2 PSUs (one of which is just a massive heatsink), this thing weighs a ton. It's a good job I built it in the room next to where it's sited, so I just need to drag the thing a few feet. Cheers! The top was mainly held on with machine screws. I think there were a few rivets, but after some monkeying, they inadvertently came loose, so they must have been crappy rivets. You can see in the photo when I "hinged" the top that it's pivoting on a rivet, but that fell off. It's held on with so many screws that it's not loose though. It might be worth emailing Sharkoon to see if it's a unique design or if they OEM it from China, in which case it might be available from other manufacturers. It's known as a "Big Tower" as well as "Rebel 12", if that helps in your Googling fun.