Acer Aspire Easystore H340 or HP MediaSmart EX485 as unRAID hardware?

[KelC]

I am thinking of giving unRAID a try on one of the following:

- Acer Aspire Easystore H340

- HP MediaSmart EX485

 

I know they have both been used successfully with some Linux versions, and found one post that indicated unRAID would boot on an H340, but no confirmation that it actually worked properly.  Before I pick one to buy, I am hoping someone can confirm that either of these will or will not work.  I have included some links to some info that may be helpful to those more experienced with unRAID.

 

H340 hardware:

http://forums.ncix.com/forums/index.php?mode=showthread&msg_id=2037754&threadid=2037754&forum=109&product_id=37196&msgcount=0&overclockid=0#msg2037754

http://mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4813#p43385

 

H340 boot confirmation:  http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7610929&postcount=16

 

Other H340 post here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3818.0

 

Thanks

 

[WeeboTech]

What about the Norco NS-520 and DS-520G?

 

Someone got it for $300 on eBay, 5 Bays plus 3 eSATA ports capable of port multipliers.

 

[KelC]

I like the look of those units, but they currently don't seem to be available at that price.  If they show up on ebay again for around $300, and the seller ships to Canada (at a reasonable rate), I think it would do the trick.  Until then I guess I am still debating one of the above, or possibly a DIY build.  I can certainly build for a similar price, but I like the small form factor and power efficiency.  Of course I might be able to DIY something with similar power consumption and better performance for additional functions, like maybe a PS3 media server.

[RobJ]

Some comments, in addition to those found in the other Acer H340 post:

 

In the HP page, someone very helpfully included a syslog for the Acer H340, which indicated it used the Marvell Yukon 88E8071 Gigabit Controller, and used the sky2 module/driver, which is included in unRAID.  I would have to say that network support for the Acer H340 is very likely.  Overall, I would say that unRAID support is very likely, but with quirks.

 

I checked much less info on the HP, so can't say much.  I found this VGA & PS/2 cable, compatible with both the HP MediaSmart EX-4* series and the Acer H340, which would seem to indicate there are large similarities in the hardware.  This cable is probably necessary for unRAID use, not only so you can see what is happening on the first test boots, but because you probably will need to mess with BIOS settings, such as booting from the USB drive.  It adds about $75 to the cost of these systems.

 

Both systems still seem like a very good deal, but as was said above, someone needs to get their hands on them and confirm what does and doesn't work.  From what I saw and read, there is a higher chance of 'quirkiness' with these systems, probably requiring workarounds.  And from reviews, there is a good chance you will need to mess with the cooling.

 

Off-topic, but for those with VM experience, I found this interesting line in the H340 syslog:

Booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware

I don't know enough to say whether that presents a blocker or opportunity, for VM usage on this box.

[KelC]

Thanks everyone for your input.  I think I am going to go with a DIY build, I want something I know will work at this point.  I won't have much use for one of these if I can't get it to work reliably.  Watch for my new build thread coming soon, I just need to decide which of the four systems I priced out seems like the best fit for my needs. 

 

HP just released new models today, no wonder the EX485 suddenly had such a reasonable looking price.

 

Hopefully someone will take a shot at unRAID on one of these and let us know.

[jhales]

Did anyone try this?  Would it work as a unraid box?

[WeeboTech]

Did anyone try this?  Would it work as a unraid box?

 

It was reported as not working without intervention in the bios configuration and the vga cable.

If you want to go as far as getting the VGA cable and opening the unit to reset the bios. it could possibly work.

[KelC]

I did some very quick testing on my Acer H340, and thought I would share my results.  Since I could not switch the boot to USB without a video connection I did a boot from hard drive setup as described here:  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=244.msg36902#msg36902

 

The system booted 5.0-beta2 and was accessible from the web interface.  I had only 2 spare SATA hard drives available, and one was used for booting, so I could not do a full test unfortunately.  I was able to add the disk, create a share, and move some files back and forth (at speeds similar to WHS), so it looks promising.  

 

No plans to continue testing at this point, I am just considering what I might do with this hardware once the new WHS OS is released.

[justaguy]

I have unRAID running on both an Acer h341 and h342 for about 1 month without any problems. I have reconfigured the system in various ways, written tons of data, done parity checks, etc. I have not found a problem yet. However, I have not yet migrated critical data to the boxes. I have unRAID installed on the internal 256MB of flash on an internal USB port.

 

To boot unRAID, I made my own VGA cable from a few spare parts:

-- VGA connector with ribbon cable from an old video card

-- 2.5inch IDE hard drive female header from an old notebook, cut down to 26-pins using a Dremel

 

You need the VGA cable to change the boot sequence from the hard drive to the USB flash. The main drawback is the BIOS self-resets to boot from the hard drive if you ever remove & reinsert any hard drives.

 

Funny, the h342 reports cooler temperatures than the h341. I reversed the cooling fan, and it runs cooler. I then replaced the fan with a Noctua 140mm fan (fits in 120mm footprint) and it runs even cooler, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

A few mods I'd like to do:

-- get a low-profile PCIe x4 SSD some day to act as a cache drive

-- track down the chipset pins and traces for the 6th SATA port on the motherboard, maybe I can solder a new SATA port

-- solder a 4-pin connector for a CPU cooling fan (I think h340 has a connector already; h341/342 has board space but no connector soldered down)

 

Guy