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HP ProLiant Microserver N36L $210 (+ $17-$37 Shipping) from Megabuy

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HP ProLiant Microserver N36L $210 (+ $17-$37 Shipping) from Megabuy
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shump on 15/12/2011 - 16:23 megabuy.com.au (645 clicks)
Last edited 15/12/2011 - 23:28

If you missed out in July here's the HP ProLiant microserver N36L again, this time around $30-50 more than rock bottom $199 price available back then.

(Shipping was quoted at $17 for Sydney and $37 for Perth.) Edit: Shipping now appears to be $16 flat rate even to Perth.

Next best price on staticice is $237+shipping.

HP AMD-N36L 1.3GHz Dual Core CPU, 1GB ECC RAM, 250GB 7200RPM HDD, 4 HDD Bays, RAID 0+1. No operating system.

This is ideal (and great value) for a NAS, media server, and/or torrent/usenet download box. I also use mine to run Crashplan backup.

Specs:

Processor: AMD Athlon™ II NEO N36L, AMD RS785E/SB820M chipset
Memory: Two (2) DIMM slots, 1GB (1x1GB) Standard/8GB Maximum, using PC3-10600E DDR3 Unbuffered UDIMM) ECC memory, operating at max. 800MHz
Storage Controller: Embedded AMD SATA controller with RAID 0, 1, Embedded AMD eSATA controller for connecting external storage devices via the eSATA connector in the rear of the server
Storage Drive Support: 4 Internal HDD Support, Maximum internal SATA storage capacity of up to 8.0TB (4 x 2TB 3.5" SATA drives)
Network Controller: Embedded NC107i PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter (Broadcom)
Expansion Slots: Slot 1: PCI-Express Gen 2 x16 connector with x16 link, Slot 2: PCI-Express Gen 2 x1 connector with x1 Link, Slot 2-2: PCI-Express x4 slot for optional management card
USB 2.0 Ports: Seven (7) USB 2.0 ports: 4 front , 2 rear, 1 internal (for tape)
Power Supply: 150 Watts Non-Hot Plug, Non Redundant Power Supply
Management: Optional MicroServer Remote Access Card
Operating System: Supports Windows and Red Hat Linux (No OS supplied)
Form Factor: Ultra Micro tower
Warranty: This product is covered by a global limited warranty and supported by HP Services and a worldwide network of HP Authorized Channel Partners. Hardware diagnostic support and repair is available for one year from date of purchase. Support for software and initial setup is available for 90 days from date of purchase.

Edit

Good robust discussion below. So glad I posted. :-)

TL;DR: consensus is that as this is a superseded model it is better value to pay around $30-60 extra (depending on shipping) for the new N40L with faster processor and 2GB memory. e.g. from Harris Technology for $243 (+ $18-$42 shipping) (thanks andy2).

Computing HP NAS Server

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closed Comments

  • theguru1 on 15/12/2011 - 16:28

    $17.95 postage to Melbourne

  • andy2 on 15/12/2011 - 16:33
    +8

    not really a bargain, when u factor in the newer model is only $243, $30 more for a much faster processor
    http://www.ht.com.au/part/AA941-HP-ProLiant-MicroServer-Turi…
    postage to melb is $18.95

    • shump on 15/12/2011 - 16:44
      +2

      Yes the newer one also includes 2GB memory

      • g12345567 on 15/12/2011 - 17:48
        +4

        Agree the newer version with faster processor and more memory from HT is a much better deal. Not surprised Megabuy is still stuck with old model microservers.

        • [Deactivated] on 15/12/2011 - 20:13
          +5

          That's what happens when you get greedy, bulk buy clearout stock and jack up the price. Still a good price for what it is though

    • netbies on 15/12/2011 - 18:44

      I got negged out last time for posting that…. :-(

  • netsurfer on 15/12/2011 - 16:37
    +3

    Suggestion: If you decide to get one of these and want to add more RAM and graphics card with HDMI (and maybe a TV card or USB 3 card as well) and a Blu-ray drive (or DVD-Writer), do them all in 1 go.

    • ohoho on 15/12/2011 - 16:47

      Do they make a decent HTPC (1080P content)?

      • dav3 on 15/12/2011 - 17:00

        Yes, heaps of people are running these as HTPCs….. however you need to chuck in a low profile video card that does audio over HDMI. From memory the NVIDIA GT210 is a common choice.

        • UFO on 15/12/2011 - 23:39

          I'm running one of these badboys as a HTPC…. works 100% perfect.

          Bluray rips @ full HD 1080P, not one little stutter…. nothing out of snyc… ever (and that's full quality no compression 35Gb rips). Asus HD6450 Silent (low profile, half bracket, no fan), and an extra 2Gb of RAM (Non ECC… ECC not needed). Cheap as chips LG Bluray player (blue pack) and away you go! I've already filled all 4 HD slots (2TB WD Greens), and power supply is fine.

          This is without question the best Ozbargain I've ever bought, still thanking my lucky stars i got the previous deal. Whisper quiet, does everything I want it do. MKV rips using MakeMKV, playing on Mediaportal, on Win7 32bit OP.

          Can't remember who posted original deal, but thanks again.

          In regards to this particular deal…. I'd just get the upspecced one for a few dollars more. Nothing wrong with the N36L at all, but for over $200 not great value anymore.

      • dreamzz on 15/12/2011 - 17:12
        -6

        I AM RUNNING IT AS AN HTPC, HAD PUT 8GB RAM, 1GB LOW PROFILE GRAPHICS CARD ETC. PLAYS 720P RIPS EASILY AND SOME 1080P RIPS AS WELL, BUT SOMETIMES ITS HAVING TROUBLE TO PLAY 1080P RIPS(MOSTLY THE FILE SIZE IS AROUND 10GB. SO AS AN HTPC ITS A HIT AND MISS

        I AM USING 2TB WESTERN DIGITAL GREEN DRIVES ON IT, MAY BE THE LAGGING WHILE PLAYING 1080P IS BECAUSE OF THE RPM OF THE HDD'S, NOT SURE AND HAVENT TESTED WITH A HOIGH RPM DRIVES YET.

        • g12345567 on 15/12/2011 - 17:36
          +2
          • HP Microserver N36L
          • NVIDIA GeForce GT520 - low profile, single slot, fan cooled (Gigabyte)
          • 2gb DDR2 (2 x 1gb)
          • XBMC Openelec (latest release - http://openelec.tv/)
          • PCIe low profile single slot half height/length sound card (if you have older amplifier without HDMI and need digital audio out)

          For me makes a perfect HTPC. Plays and streams everything I have ever played perfectly. From large full HD mkv (including 10-15gb+ size mkv files) and uncompressed original blu-ray rips to internet radio, all audio/video files and dvd rips. Both from internal green and stock 250gb and networked PCs.

          Only thing openelec/xbmc can't handle is 10 bit MKV. Only 8 bit MKV is currently supported.

          Other box is running with just ram (non ecc low profile) Windows 7 and HDD upgrade.

        • llama on 15/12/2011 - 21:56
          +1

          heloanand - did you format the Green Drives properly (4K sectors)?

          Because there is NO WAY that any (properly setup) hard drive couldn't keep up with 1080p video. You can easily stream 1080p from a USB drive, which is between 20 and 30MB/sec.

        • stumo on 15/12/2011 - 22:02

          (if you have older amplifier without HDMI and need digital audio out)

          @g you can get HDMI splitters quite cheaply on eBay these days. They take the HDMI from your whatever and split it out into Component video and SPDIF audio, some even do analogue audio too etc.

          Saves poncing about with multiple sound cards and taking up a PCI slot.

        • WhiteEvo6 on 15/12/2011 - 22:29
          +3

          Heloanand having caps on is regarded as yelling on the internet and is considering a mistake by newbies. Based on that I would be surprised if you set the machine up correctly. Turn the caps off, go reformat and rebuild the PC until you get it right, as llama said if built right it should be fine, mine works a treat.

        • UFO on 15/12/2011 - 23:45

          If you are getting stuttering it's one of 3 things…. codecs, drivers, or the player itself, because your system is more than capable running 1080p perfectly fine.

  • peter05 on 15/12/2011 - 16:39
    +5

    oh wow, megabuy is still stuck with all these units they bought? oh well. Not a good deal from me

    • 0ptus_Fail on 15/12/2011 - 17:02
      +3

      Yeah I agree.

      I think a good deal would be $99 plus free shipping :) since this is old old stock from megabuy previously getting all the stock from HP to stop other sellers from selling them at a reasonable price (based on what I read from a comment in the July post)

      • ryann on 15/12/2011 - 17:40
        +1

        I would take one for $99 inc delivery.

      • MegaBuy on 15/12/2011 - 19:46
        -3

        stock is recent - no 99 - sorry mate :)

        • foxpro on 15/12/2011 - 22:42
          +7

          What did you expect this time around? People loving you for trying to milk them when the N36L was a good deal? Now the new model is the much better deal. People should buy those or your N36Ls when you finally arrive at $99.

    • MegaBuy on 15/12/2011 - 19:44
      -4

      No, we simply got more :)

      We also have the new ones.

      • stumo on 15/12/2011 - 21:48
        +9

        People should just buy the new model for $20 more, you would pay more than that just to upgrade the RAM in this to match. I'm negging because these N36L's were rock bottom of $181 shipped (not $199 as you claim), well, that was until you MegaBuy, went and MegaBought all the local stock out from under us and jacked up the price. And posted a douchesque photo of yourselves doing it!
        http://members.iinet.net.au/~camreeves79/allyourmicroservers…

        • ShortyX on 15/12/2011 - 22:22

          Not quite following the story…did MegaBuy buy all the stock in the country and increase the price?

        • stumo on 15/12/2011 - 22:38
          +7

          Yes, that about sums it up.

          Smaller sellers were selling it at their normal cost + 10% rate. It was HP that dropped the bottom out of the wholesale price, so these smaller places ended up selling them for like $180 shipped automatically.

          MegaBuy took exception to end users getting a great deal, and so they decided to take more of the action.

          So while end users were buying up from the smaller sellers (they all came from the same local supplier/wholesaler), MegaBuy went direct and bought all of the stock from the supplier, leaving the smaller players with no stock and lots of orders.

          The yeah, MegaBuy proceeded to jack the price up to $400+. And post about it on WP. This thread has all the details as it played out…
          http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=megabuy%20douche&s…

        • Radar on 15/12/2011 - 22:59
          +6

          yeah, was a pretty low thing to do - I won't be buying anything from them again.

        • UFO on 15/12/2011 - 23:48
          +1

          great summary Stumo…. pretty much exactly what happened.

        • ShortyX on 16/12/2011 - 17:00
          +1

          Wow thanks…never bought from MegaBuy and based on that story, never will.

        • [Deactivated] on 17/12/2011 - 17:02

          Thanks, that was news to me.
          Un +'d

  • ryann on 15/12/2011 - 16:48
    +5

    I was just considering walking down to HT to get a N40L for $243. Once you take shipping into account the N40L seems like a much better deal.

    • c64 on 15/12/2011 - 19:01

      i think the greatest plus is that you get it straight away if you really want it.

  • petestrash on 15/12/2011 - 16:51
    +1

    I still didn't get mine from the July $199 HP offer. They keep lying to me, and promising to refund but it never comes. In the end I have have had to lodge a claim with my credit card company and I'm still waiting for that.

    Shame HP is not doing the US$100 and £100 off rebates that they are doing in the US and UK (other than the citysoftware one which comes with SBS for $770).

    $209.95 is a fair price considering what others are asking, but another $35.95 from megabuy for shipping to Perth makes the $243 @ HT for the N40L a much better deal ($264.95 + shipping at Megabuy).

    • rx8pilot on 15/12/2011 - 17:22
      +1

      As a happy MicroServer owner from the previous July deal, I can heartily recommend these. Both the N40L and the N36L are great options when comparing to a NAS…

      If you are planning on running Windows 7 as a HTPC, I would recommend 4GB RAM…I put in 8GB ECC RAM in mine. Or you can buy WHS 2011 (based on Windows Server 2008 R2 for around $50). It's quiet (but not silent), low power (people have measued 43 watts with 5 hdd installed), and very flexible - I use mine for backups, remote access, file sharing and the normal WHS stuff, it converts recorded TV to watch on the iPad. It has two low profile PCI-E slots for SATA, USB 3.0 or HDMI Graphics cards, four vertical bays for 3.5" SATA drives and a 5.25" Optical bay which can fit another 2 x 3.5" drives, or even 4 x 2.5" drives…

      There is a massive (300+ page) thread over at Overclockers Forum for this interested…
      http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=958208

  • Black Hole on 15/12/2011 - 17:15

    I had this setup with Freenas and I am disappointed that I could not wake this unit up over ethernet from shutdown.

    • McCoy on 15/12/2011 - 19:07
      +3

      Try throwing barrels at it

    • tightartist on 15/12/2011 - 23:22

      yeah I would have like to have that too

  • check on 15/12/2011 - 17:17

    Thinking about getting something like this to use for backups. What do you do for an operating system?

    • shump on 15/12/2011 - 17:21

      I run Crashplan on it on Windows 7 64-bit.

    • atlas on 15/12/2011 - 18:14

      I'm using Windows Home Server 2011. Rock solid.

      Sabnzbd and Sickbeard are an awesome combo for TV show downloads. Remote login from my SGS2 =)

  • cyrax83 on 15/12/2011 - 17:22
    +6

    lol megabuy

  • Shwayne on 15/12/2011 - 17:36

    Price is $237.95 here? (+ $15.95 to Sydney.)

  • windrc on 15/12/2011 - 18:00
    +1

    Last time HP took 2 months to deliver, but it finally arrived.
    It makes a really good HTPC/torrent box/home server.
    I am running Win7 with XBMC, plus a few addons
    -extra rams
    -MCE ir receiver
    -logitech harmony remote
    -logitech k400 keyboard
    -5450 1G HDMI card

    Once you have updated with latest graphics card driver, and hardware acceleration enabled(decode using the gpu), it can handle 1080p without any issue.

    • g12345567 on 15/12/2011 - 20:40

      Agree those MCE remotes can be found on EBAY for under $20 delivered and work perfect with Openelec/XBMC and Windows for HTPC use. As do the USB MCE IR sensors and logitech Harmony remotes.

  • MegaBuy on 15/12/2011 - 19:45

    209.95 was a promo we didnt run on OZB - but i have reduced price back for anyone who wants one.

    http://www.megabuy.com.au/hp-633724-011-proliant-n36l-micros…

  • Clivey In Space on 15/12/2011 - 20:07

    Other than having a small all in one box, is there any advantage to having a microserver versus just building your own pc box? Sorry, but the spec's don't mean a lot to to me.

    • stumo on 15/12/2011 - 21:49

      Mostly its about having (entry level) server grade hardware, rather than consumer rubbish.

    • UFO on 15/12/2011 - 23:52

      N36L = server grade components, as quiet as they come, and very low power use.

      Depending on what you want to use it for I guess (its not a gaming rig!), but for a home media server, full blown htpc, or automated backup system that wont let you down long term, it's the bee's knee's :).

  • thetrash on 15/12/2011 - 21:17

    is this good enough to run multiple vm? hypervisor + 2 guests on top?

  • CarnivalMonkey on 15/12/2011 - 21:23
    +7

    please consider very very hard before buying megabuy

    google user experiences of others (OCAU and Whirlpool have enough threads to warn you off them)

    I am not negging as you may get a good deal (whereas many, many others have been shafted)

  • jaenschw on 15/12/2011 - 22:51
    +5

    I just got the n40L from HT for $243 pickup, better deal for me.

  • ode1online on 15/12/2011 - 22:57
    -2

    Its a good price either way , dont be so hard
    I run mine as a server and its terrific

    Also Media server is a good price

    http://www.megabuy.com.au/microsoft-windows-home-server-2011…

    • c64 on 15/12/2011 - 23:42

      or just download your favourite linux server distribution for free

  • arescarti42 on 16/12/2011 - 00:09
    +7

    Pretty average price really, and I personally wouldn't buy anything from megabuy based on their nasty monopolistic consumer screwing practices in the past.

  • captainandg on 16/12/2011 - 00:27
    +7

    wow. I just read the whirlpool thread. there's no way i'd buy anything from megabuy now. they seem like low-life hardware scalpers.

  • adam149 on 16/12/2011 - 12:57
    +2

    I am negging this because I missed out on the cheap ones.

  • mopo on 17/12/2011 - 09:30
    +5

    negging because of megabuy being douches

  • Clivey In Space on 18/12/2011 - 20:38

    Can anyone tell me if a N36L model with 8GB of Ram be as good as a stock N40L for a SOHO running WHS 2011? primarily for remote access, network share and backing up, video and music streaming. Would I notice a difference is the processor speed?

    Thanks.

    • [Deactivated] on 18/12/2011 - 20:54

      There's bugger all real world difference between the two. 200MHz faster and a wider HyperTransport bus, but the same basic design.

      For those tasks there's no reason to get 8GB, a single 4GB stick is plenty.

      I'd prefer the N40L purely on a just in case basis and the fact that including delivery it's the same price or cheaper (depending where you live).

      • Clivey In Space on 18/12/2011 - 20:59

        Thanks Trantryl.

        I'm looking at a secondhand N36L and am just trying to work out if a new N40L with 2Gb would suffice for what I need or the older one with more memory is a better option.

        Cheers

        • [Deactivated] on 18/12/2011 - 21:07

          2GB would be a bit of a stretch on WHS2011. If you use a Linux based program then 2GB is plenty, but WHS2011 has a lot of overhead. The N40L comes with a single 2GB stick but has two RAM slots where the N36L comes with two 1GB sticks. So with the N40L you'd just buy a second 2GB stick but on the N36L you'd have to buy a single 4GB stick and replace one of the 1GBs.

          But then RAM is so cheap these days that it's almost an after thought, especially considering what's happened to the price of freakin' mechanical HDDs.

          If you can get a good price on a second hand N36L (say, under $150) then go for it.

        • atlas on 19/12/2011 - 14:31

          I presume this would fit? http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/60018

          $42 for 8gb of RAM… definitely go for the faster processor and upgrade RAM later if necessary.

          If anything it will transcode media faster.

        • [Deactivated] on 19/12/2011 - 14:49

          I wouldn't go with fancy heatsunk DDR3. It tends to be more problematic.

          I'd go with the Kingston DDR3 1333MHz chips. Cheap, compatible, safe, stable.

          http://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=KVR1333D3N9%2F4…

  • Black Hole on 19/12/2011 - 17:07

    Can I use registered ECC with the new N40L? My N36L does not take registered ECC ram.

  • Clivey In Space on 20/12/2011 - 14:47

    Just got off the phone with HT and they have just jacked up the price of the N40L to $342. Lets see how long before Megabuy jacks up their price, which is now a better buy.

    • IVI on 24/12/2011 - 03:17

      Did you mean $243…?

      I saw both - N40L & N36L - at HT.com with
      these prices: $243 & $300 (sic) + shipping

      One guy quoted the shipping for two
      to be much more than 2x Orders for 1 each

      So, on $243 N40L's add ~$76 to ship an order for TWO
      but add only 2x ~$24 = ~$48, to ship 2x orders for ONE each
      go figure…

      Buy Smart: At any price, fiddle with ordered qty!

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