HP N40L Microserver - $219 + Shipping, Intel 520 SSDs - 120GB - $119, 180GB - $195, 240GB - $259

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  foobar on 11/10/2012 - 15:57

  How is it SE can ship to Perth for $12.05 and Scorptec want $70. Good grief.

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    gamernz on 11/10/2012 - 16:31

    +2

    I was pleasantly surprised with the Perth shipping cost :)

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      foobar on 11/10/2012 - 16:38

      +3

      I'm in Brisbane and the shipping was $12.05, only checked Perth out of curiosity, expected it to be more, maybe double - absolutely stunned to see it was the same.

      Nice to see someone not gouging on price when they probably could without complaint. Just goes to show how much some other places are ripping us.

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  shawn_low on 11/10/2012 - 16:02

  -1

  Rep: Any Msata SSD drives on sale?

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  shawn_low on 11/10/2012 - 16:03

  -4

  Rep: Any Msata SSD drives on sale?

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    shawn_low on 11/10/2012 - 19:59

    -1

    Sorry, browser glitch resulted in double post!

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  grab_ur_freebies on 11/10/2012 - 16:12

  Worth installing an HD7750 in this (if there is half height vers. avail)? Only uses 55w max under-load (PCI-E slot provides upto 75w). Will the CPU bottleneck this?

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    netbies on 11/10/2012 - 16:35

    +1

    I think a 6450 is more than enough.

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    dazweeja on 11/10/2012 - 16:53

    Isn't the power supply for the entire system only 150W? Heat could be a factor too.

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  kulprit on 11/10/2012 - 16:17

  Hmm, seems freenas might not be the best OS for me if i wish to run other programs on the N40L at the same time. Any suggestions people as to what to use as it will mainly be a headless nas, so a web interface that Freenas offered was looking promising.

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    AncientWisdom on 14/10/2012 - 06:56

    Depends what it is for, as an HTPC there are lots of options e.g. http://openelec.tv/

    You could always just run ubuntu server?

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  kc88 on 11/10/2012 - 16:35

  -2

  Sorry if i am missing something here, but the price for the N40L on the website is now $238?

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    foobar on 11/10/2012 - 16:39

    +1

    You have to use the coupon provided in the deal at the checkout.

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      kc88 on 11/10/2012 - 16:44

      aha… thanks

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  CodPiece on 11/10/2012 - 16:49

  Can anyone provide a link to any solid material detailing different setups and guides applicable for the N40L?

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    foobar on 11/10/2012 - 16:55

    +2

    The N40L wiki is a pretty good starting place.

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  syl on 11/10/2012 - 16:52

  -1

  Samsung ssd
  I can get it for less eg msy $209
  No deal :-(

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  Joejoeinc on 11/10/2012 - 17:17

  +1

  Thanks ShoppingExpress Just bought one :)

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    Joejoeinc on 16/10/2012 - 14:50

    Update: Ordered on Friday delivered by Monday afternoon.. good work! :)

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  [Deactivated] on 11/10/2012 - 17:25

  Yeah bought one too. Yeah would be great if someone can guide through how to transform this as a NAS.
  I want to do following:
  a. Use if for hosting a site (more for testing).
  b. Use as media server

  Not sure what linux i need to install or how to go about it. Anyone have any thoughts?

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    Withdr4wn on 12/10/2012 - 07:46

    The Microserver is effectively a low-powered PC so virtually all operating systems will work on it. In that regard, you should choose what you're comfortable using. Don't forget that you can also use Windows XP / Vista / 7 (and RAID if you want one large volume / use network shares or FTP Server).

    As a side note, Windows 8 Pro (and Windows Server 2012) introduces Storage Spaces which is kind of like RAID in the sense you create a Storage Pool of disks (of any manufacturer / size / interface inc. USB, SATA, SCSI) and can even configure the storage space to mirror or RAID5-like Parity. This has substantially improved since Drive Extender in earlier versions of Windows Home Server.

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  cashews on 11/10/2012 - 17:29

  +1

  Bought two SSDs, thanks for the deal

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  nos on 11/10/2012 - 18:11

  Anything off the sandisk extreme SSD 120Gb or the WD 3T greenies?

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    rifter on 11/10/2012 - 18:26

    SanDisk Extreme 120Gb - We'll take off TRIM and leave you stuck on version v5.0.1 SandForce firmware that SanDisk refuses to fix/update.

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  RedHab on 11/10/2012 - 18:27

  Hard to beat the N40L.

  Just a warning for those wanting to make a home theatre PC, the BIOS does not support sleep modes.

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    kirynflare on 11/10/2012 - 18:33

    But from what the other comments say, it only consumes around 50W power when on anyways, right?

    And long would it take to boot up on the various types of OS?

    I'm looking to buy one to try out.

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      sane on 11/10/2012 - 18:39

      With the drives spun down it takes ~27W with my N36L - rising to 47W when you start spinning up the array.

      Boot for UNRAID isn't too long (2min off a USB flash drive), but since you leave it up all the time, its not an issue any.

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    rekabkram on 11/10/2012 - 19:09

    From what's been said about power consumption it's estimated to cost a total of $9 a year.
    (Obviously this depends on how much your power costs and every device is slightly different)

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      kirynflare on 11/10/2012 - 19:17

      How did you calculate the energy costs? :S

      My company charges in kWh, and I have no clue how to convert to that from Watts…

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        nos on 11/10/2012 - 19:34

        Using the wattage from above it would be 0.027kW/h ie 27 watts per hour that it is left on.

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        kirynflare on 11/10/2012 - 20:00

        Is rekabkram's electricity really cheap, or am I calculating wrong?

        So, I get charged $0.20 per kWh.

        That means for 27 watts, its 0.027 x $0.20 = $0.0054 per hour

        For one day, its $0.0054 x 24 = $0.1296 per day

        For one year, its $0.1296 x 356 = $46.1376 per year

        That's way more expensive than the $9 mentioned above…

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        rekabkram on 11/10/2012 - 21:18

        Sorry for the giant brain fart. $9 a month from what I've seen they use around 50watts

• freemoneyhunter on 11/10/2012 - 20:06 Comment score below threshold.
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    hamwhisperer on 11/10/2012 - 20:34

    +6

    It's an extremely low powered machine which can take 6 SATA drives, has gigabit networking and has easy access removable trays. The case itself is nice and simple (mine's a HTPC as well) and it's dead quiet.

    It's a very cheap and a very smart buy - has a RAID controller too, you're welcome to not buy one - I'm looking forward to grabbing my 4'th one as soon as there's a faster model.

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    Withdr4wn on 12/10/2012 - 08:16

    +3

    Let me put it to you this way - would you say that traditional HDDs are better because they allow you to store almost 20x more space and than an equivalent priced SSD? Like this, there's more to it than one metric.

    For those of "us" that love the Microserver, it generally comes down to one or more of the following metrics:

    1. Small Form Factor (easy to store and tuck away - equivalent ITX cases begin at $100 without Power Supply up to about $250 for the Fractal Design Mini Array with suitable Power Supply. The case alone already exceeds what the N40L is worth!).

    2. Power Consumption (loading 6 drives, 8GB of RAM and a GT210 / Radeon 6450 under load uses around about 55W with an average idle of 35W) - Costs about $80 per year to run with current electricity pricing (24/7). In a system such as what you've recommended, you're looking at about 50% more than a Microserver. If you have the luxury of not paying the electricity bills (particularly as we're heading for $0.33 per kWh and then some), I guess this isn't a concern - but worth noting.

    3. Performance balanced with power consumption - It offers the functionality of a Desktop / Server without the power consumption of a server. You can host files, run a media centre, run a browser, install Office if you really want. Do you really need any more power for a device that basically serves a few files, does a couple of backups and runs some 1080p videos?

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    turbodude on 12/10/2012 - 15:37

    +1

    I run a G530 CPU, 6450 graphics in my full size media PC running one drive and it idles at about 90Watts. My N40L with 2 drives and a PicoPSU about 25W both using the same good power meter. In my experience the $20 energy meters can't be trusted. As a test I had 2 different brands that looked identical plugged in series and one read 30W and the other 50W. Many people use the N40L as a basic NAS and it does a great job using such low power and almost saturating a GBit link. There are not many NAS's in teh same price bracket that can do that from my research about a year ago.

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  frewer on 11/10/2012 - 20:07

  I would go for that Samsung 830 256gb if i dont have one yet.

• freemoneyhunter on 11/10/2012 - 21:17 Comment score below threshold.
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    Russ on 11/10/2012 - 21:40

    +2

    If you know of a better server at the same price, let us know what make/model/price it is.

    If you know of one which is more expensive, but the features/benefits outweigh the increase in cost, let us know too, and explain the benefits in detail.

    Better still, post a new deal about it. Lots of us don't know what is out there, it's good to have a post from somebody who knows what is available and the advantages/disadvantages of all the options.

    For myself, I'm not interested in the N40L. It seems a bit lopsided that its running cost for two years roughly equals the purchase cost. I'd rather spend more for a unit with lower running costs, which could presumably be achieved by supporting sleep modes? Is this like the BIOS "wake on LAN" option?

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    [Deactivated] on 11/10/2012 - 22:03

    works with ZFS just fine. look at OCAU 400+ pages about this server

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  crazylegs03 on 11/10/2012 - 21:17

  +2

  Thanks just bought one!! Without a disk it's just a foot stool for now

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  freemoneyhunter on 11/10/2012 - 22:19

  -5

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS

  "The effective use of deduplication may require additional hardware. With more than 6TB of system storage, it is best to add 1GB of RAM for every extra 1TB of storage.[46] However, some further discussion on the zfs-discuss lists,[47] and testing on FreeBSD[48] by individuals affiliated with the project, have shown this value to be significantly higher than the prescribed 2 GB of RAM for every 1 TB of storage. If RAM is lacking, consider adding an SSD as a cache, which will automatically handle the large deduplication tables. This can speed up deduplication performance by a factor of eight or more. Insufficient physical memory or lack of ZFS cache results in virtual memory thrashing, which can either lower performance, or result in complete memory starvation."

  The Freenas and Nas4free projects both recommend 6 gigabytes at a minimum for ZFS. If the N40L runs ZFS, it does not run real ZFS.

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    [Deactivated] on 12/10/2012 - 00:02

    you're incorrect, stop posting false information.

    here - educate yourself - 400-500 pages of people with an N40L, running ZFS, with 16gb of ram.

    http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=958208

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  freemoneyhunter on 11/10/2012 - 23:07

  +1

  Russ, any decent server probably would be running all the time, the disks should be running all the time too because disks do not like being powered down/up too often, it reduces there life. If you are worried about running costs, ideally low RPM 2.5in disks should be used.

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  scarface on 12/10/2012 - 00:52

  Hi Rep, any chance you can have a special on a 256 GB mSata SSD for my HP Folio 13-1008tu Ultrabook ?

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  freemoneyhunter on 12/10/2012 - 01:14

  -6

  colashock, Can you please mention that the N40L only comes with 2 gigabytes of RAM, not 16.

  The product description clearly states….

  AMD N40L 1.5GHz
  2GB Ram
  4 Bay
  Ultra Micro Tower

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    [Deactivated] on 12/10/2012 - 08:14

    +2

    you pop the ram stick out, pop 8 or 16gb in, and you stop telling pork pies about a product you know nothing about :)

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      MATTDAMON on 12/10/2012 - 17:03

      Wut?

      He said specifically
      only comes with 2 gigabytes of RAM

      Nothing about that its not compatible with 8 or 16gb of ram. On the topic of 16gb, keep in mind that some 8gb sticks wont work with the microserver, and according to the OCAU thread, its dependent on what motherboard SN to whether or not you will be able to boot with 16gb or not.

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  bozter on 12/10/2012 - 23:01

  +1

  Any Hard Disks on special?

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  AncientWisdom on 14/10/2012 - 07:01

  Thanks OP, after much oooo and aaaaa I bit the bullet.

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  eatwell365 on 14/10/2012 - 07:36

  Think it is easier to buy an external SSD as I am not a computer expert. Mininum 120GB required. Budget is $180. Need ASAP and can't find one locally. Hi rep, any chance you may have one? Not sure if it is ok to get this Intel 520 SSD into an enclosure to make it an external SSD? which enclosure and where to buy? :)

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    amaslam on 14/10/2012 - 11:44

    +4

    It's not that difficult to put the SSD internally. I've actually kept my all my drive bays free and managed to put it in the space between the top bay and the drive cage below. There are some MOLEX power connectors in that space as well so plenty of space there to stick in a SSD.

    You'll need three things:
    1. MOLEX to Dual SATA power cable (Ebay $2)
    2. SATA data cable (Ebay $2)
    3. SSD (120GB is more than enough for your OS)
    4. Velcro sticky pads (Optional). I use these to hold the SSD in place (2 pads are sufficient - 2 dollar shop)
    5. Special BIOS to make the ODD port on the Motherboard work as a full speed SATA port. Steps here:
    http://homeservershow.com/hp-microserver-n40l-build-and-bios…

    Watch these videos and then decide if it's too complex. There's nothing involved other than some care when pulling cables in and out.
    http://n40l.wikia.com/wiki/Videos

    I have connected my 120GB SSD to the ODD port with the SATA cable. It boots Windows 8 and I have installed XBMC. This is destined to be my home media server

    Other upgrades I have done:
    1. RAM to 8 GB ECC
    2. AMD HD 6450 Video card for HDMI output
    3. eSATA to SATA cable so I can use the external SATA port for an internal drive
    4. HP MCE Remote so I can control XBMC with a normal remote control. For those times I need to use a keyboard/mouse I'll remote connect in to Windows over the network.

    Next upgrades are:
    1. get 4 or 5 HDDs (3TB preferred) to make a massive storage pool for my media. Still waiting a bit for thr prices to get to the $120 level (hopefully next few months)
    2. Add USB TV Tuner stick so I can also use it for a PVR (watching and recording FTA TV)

    This box is sort of made for tinkering in the internals a bit (you'll need to open it to put drives in for sure).

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      AncientWisdom on 31/10/2012 - 14:26

      How is it going? I'm trying to configure 100% the same setup (with win 7) and my 3tb WD red is not being recognised, not sure exactly why yet.

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        crazyj on 31/10/2012 - 14:29

        Doesn't Windows still have that 2TB limit for the primary boot drive? Failing that, the answer lies in the BIOS somewhere. Check the N40L owners forums (google).

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        amaslam on 31/10/2012 - 19:31

        Looked it up, they need to be formatted as got format instead of mbr , details here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463524

        Otherwise they're seen as 2.13 Tb size if formatted as mbr

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        amaslam on 01/11/2012 - 10:51

        Sorry, typo. GPT format.

        The MBR limit for drive size is 2.13 TB. With GPT you can go much larger so should see the full capacity (2.72 TB).

        The MSDN link shows how to do it with command line (diskpart) or GUI (disk management).

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        AncientWisdom on 02/11/2012 - 03:42

        Turned out my SATA port was a bit wonky, nothing a screwdriver couldn't fix it is all set up nicely now with FlexRAID :-)

        The drive was not used for OS (got an Intel 330 for that) but is used now as the parity drive for the RAID config.

        In regards to the HP MCE remote: would that work with a logitech harmony remote?

        Must say that it is an amazing package for $200 odd dollars, it is crazy what you get for that! Mind you so far I spent close to $600 on it but oh well ;-)

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        amaslam on 02/11/2012 - 10:59

        Yup MCE remotes work fine (if using XBMC you need to go into the settings input devices and activate the radio button for Remote sends keyboard option). If you already have a harmony I think theres a code you can use to make it MCE output as well. Basically need a MCE IR receiver (Ebay is your friend as usual).

        I've just spent $1200 on the bits (5x Reds the big cost). But RAM+SSD+Video Card+USB Tuner+cables/brackets+MCE Remote adds upto ~200.

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        AncientWisdom on 02/11/2012 - 12:26

        Thanks, will have a look on ebay for an IR receiver.

        So you already bought a TV capture card? which one did you go for?

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        amaslam on 02/11/2012 - 21:09

        KWorld 499-2T (dual tuner USB). Windows 7 drivers work fine on Windows 8 and Windows Media center handles it without an issue. I'm not using XBMC PVR features until they get out of beta as I've found it's just not as fast and stable.

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        AncientWisdom on 05/11/2012 - 20:34

        Cool, thanks.

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  bleugh on 15/10/2012 - 08:47

  Aargh, missed the offer by a day,
  D'oh!
  when's the next one on?

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  crazyj on 31/10/2012 - 13:13

  I'm up for 2 of these units next time it comes up… missed the HT special sadly.

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  salekhard on 11/11/2012 - 14:58

  Any deals on the N40L soon?

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