Correct.  It was connected to the 620A as was the 250GB drive when I ran your test.  The only reason I got on this track was ...

FYI here was the complete testing history on my N40L ...

Ah-Hah! Thanks for clearing that up for me. I now see where your inference and my assumption diverged.

 

With this new info/understanding, it's almost a certainty that >>your<< 250GB drive is defective/crippled. If you are still within the 1-year warranty, HP will replace it. You would probably want to be able to produce/document the problem without introducing foreign hardware--ie, just with the HP-N40L-250GBdrive, and by using one of the 4 internal bays/slots so you don't have to mention anything about "hacked BIOS" . PM me if you want some assistance with that.

 

I have two of the N40L/250GB. And, I am solid on Unix, and disk drives, and performance tuning/optimization (Gates, and many others, will vouch for me) so try to believe this: if you had/have a properly working VB0250EAVER drive (this one's model#), it will make a dandy cache drive (as long as 250GB is sufficient for you). Even moreso in your set-up, for the reasons you've stated, regarding the DoubleTwin and cooling/clearances. Plus, you will then have that extra/large WD Green available, for data (or a spare), here (N40L) or elsewhere.

 

I just ran a more complete test on one of my 250s, and it has a max sustained xfer rate of 113 MB/s, and a minimum of 77 MB/s (at inner "zone").

That's what I was afraid of I hate to have to send the whole PC back for a bad HDD.  Don't know that HP will make me do that but has happened in the past for another pre-built ZBox mini from Zotac.  I purchased the N40L in November so well within the warranty.

 

I thought the 250GB would make the perfect cache drive too.  Large enough for everything I want a cache drive for before mover moves the data to the array.  The only thing I didn't have going to cache was read only directories and backups from BDBB on my WHS VM. 

 

I think I will flash the most recent standard bios since I don't need ports 5 and 6 anyway - I have the Highpoint card.  If HP wants data from me I will PM you for help.  If they require the whole box I think I'll just throw out the drive.  It just isn't worth it being without it for the time it takes to get it back.

...

I think I will flash the most recent standard bios since I don't need ports 5 and 6 anyway - I have the Highpoint card.  If HP wants data from me I will PM you for help.  If they require the whole box I think I'll just throw out the drive.  It just isn't worth it being without it for the time it takes to get it back.

Seems like a good plan. I'd be real surprised if HP would make you send in the whole N40L. The 250GB drive is a customized version (maybe just the firmware) by Seagate for HP, so it has to be a "standard" part (and warranty only covers "parts").

 

If they do provoke you, to just "toss it", let me know. I'm real curious to see just what its malady is; I'll pay for shipping it to me. (It almost sounds like it is stuck in PIO mode [no DMA].)

 

It's been fun (miscues aside).

 

--UhClem

 

...

I think I will flash the most recent standard bios since I don't need ports 5 and 6 anyway - I have the Highpoint card.  If HP wants data from me I will PM you for help.  If they require the whole box I think I'll just throw out the drive.  It just isn't worth it being without it for the time it takes to get it back.

Seems like a good plan. I'd be real surprised if HP would make you send in the whole N40L. The 250GB drive is a customized version (maybe just the firmware) by Seagate for HP, so it has to be a "standard" part (and warranty only covers "parts").

 

If they do provoke you, to just "toss it", let me know. I'm real curious to see just what its malady is; I'll pay for shipping it to me. (It almost sounds like it is stuck in PIO mode [no DMA].)

 

It's been fun (miscues aside).

 

--UhClem

Will do.  It's going to be after Christmas before I start this process so will be a while.

Just another confirmation for anyone considering this, I plugged it into a unRaid 4.7 system and it was recognized immediately and I am now preclearing the 2 drives attached to it.