HP Microserver N54L now has cashback offer

oneman said:
That GFX card is fine, same one I use. Make sure you get low profile bracket with it which I think you do from eBuyer.

There was an issue of unbuffered vs buffered memory but I think you should be fine.

RAID wise, mirroring is built into motherboard. If you want to use the top bay for sata then you will need a 2.5" to 5.25" bracket and a molex to SATA power convertor and a 60cm SATA data lead. Routing is quite tight internally so just take it easy, especially removing the SATA cable from the motherboard.

And finally RAID will protect you against disk failure but not O/S failure or things like recent malware which encrypted data files. so make sure you have a second copy on an external drive or cloud.
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thanks for that buddy its appreciated, if so could you link me to the things you said i need mate as i havnt a clue to be honest, but i definetely want to replace the top bay for my ssd so im gunna need the things you mentioned, cheers pal.
 
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oneman said:
Bracket and Power cable are fine, I would probably look for a SATA cable without right angle connector

http://www.amazon.co.uk/1-5GBs-Seri...id=1386079763&sr=1-8&keywords=60cm+sata+cable
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cheers mate thats the 1 i shall get, whats best to do regarding drives then, and also which OS to use, my needs are pretty basic really, all i want it to do is be a plex media server, and for somewhere to store all my files, to act as a sort of nas drive but with some redundancy drives for photo's, im abit lost as too what is best for my needs and wallet, as my 1st thought was buy 2 3tb drives, but 1 would just be a backup/mirror for the other drive, is there any other way to do this.
 
Operating system wise, if you don't know Linux then stick to Windows 7.

You can get 2 x 3TB disk but I suggest you get 1 internal 3TB disk and 1 external disk to back up to. That why your data is still safe if the server dies.

So,

250GB supplied - Used for operating system
1 x 3TB internal for Data
1 x 2TB or 3TB USB external for backups.
 
ebuyer hp stuff.JPGamazon hp stuff.JPG

right heres my 2 orders, is that all i need now im all sorted, i have only ordered a 2tb drive as i have a 2tb drive already in synology which i will put in the hp server, i may just make 1 big drive out of the 2 2tb, and make 1 big space out the two. then i have 2x 500gb drives which will go in too for photo's and music, (which raid array do i need for that so 1 backs the other up and how do i go about it) then as you say if i add an external drive too, which i have a 500gb kicking about somewhere, to back the internal 500gb up then that should be more than enough, i aint got the foggiest how to do all this but in my head its gunna work, lol. oh and yeah iv got a 60gb ocz vertex 4 for the win 7 OS in top bay, does all this sound ok or am i missing something.
 
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(Apologies, I originally put striped, when I meant mirrored. The level of RAID was correct though)

I've not got a microserver, but the KB link says you can set up 2 separate RAID arrays.

Beware though if you set up a RAID0 for the 2x 2TB, or any size drives for that matter, if one drive goes down (or you reset the BIOS) you'll lose the data. You could try Windows' built in Striped Volume ability: Create a Striped Volume

Just be aware that volumes over 2TB should be formatted in GPD, which cannot be used as boot volumes.
 
from my experience of late with hard drives they are pretty reliable and you have great risk from malware, accidental deleting files and O/S issues that you are at greater risk from losing data that way rather then hard drive failure. Thus my recommendation that if you don't have the cash for mirror drive + external drive then go for one internal drive + one external over 2 internal mirrored drives.

Of course if does mean that you have regular backups buts I'm sure that you have that already right ?
 
oneman said:
from my experience of late with hard drives they are pretty reliable and you have great risk from malware, accidental deleting files and O/S issues that you are at greater risk from losing data that way rather then hard drive failure. Thus my recommendation that if you don't have the cash for mirror drive + external drive then go for one internal drive + one external over 2 internal mirrored drives.

Of course if does mean that you have regular backups buts I'm sure that you have that already right ?
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currently i have my photo's backed up on my nas, an external 2.5 hard drive and in dropbox, but i need them gone from dropbox as there taking up far too much space which is due to run out soon, but yes i have 2x 500gb drives which i can mirror, and a 3rd 500gb external, so that should be perfect with what i have, which they will all be used for backup of photo's and my music files. then i shall just use the 2x 2tb drives in a striped array to make 1 4tb drive purely for films and series, and kids stuff, which if the drives did ever fail, which hopefully they dont, but if they did i wouldnt be so bothered about these files as there all replaceable whereas photo's arent. also once i have mirrored the 2x internal 500gb drives, how do i go about making the 500gb external automatically backup the other drive, if possible.
 
that sounds OK, I've not tried creating a RAID0 and a RAID1 array is BIOS on the microserver but a quick look on google shows other people have.
 
cheers mr brown i shall check that out too, @oneman, do i need to do the bios mod to make my ssd work in the 5th bay, also how do i boot from usb to load my windows 7 onto the ssd, and as far as im aware i can set my drives up from within windows 7 is that correct.
 
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Technically it will work without the BIOS mod but you wouldn't get AHCI which will speed up SATA ports 5 and 6 (eSATA) for hard drives.
 
oneman said:
Technically it will work without the BIOS mod but you wouldn't get AHCI which will speed up SATA ports 5 and 6 (eSATA) for hard drives.
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yeah i will do it mate, and yes it did work anyway, iv had to install windows 7 64bit home premium on there, when really i wanted ultimate on there so i could use remote desktop connection to manage it from my laptop, but it just wouldnt have it, kept failing at 76%, any ideas on that, i even downloaded a fresh copy of win7 ultimate thinking the copy may have been corrupt but still didnt work 2nd time round, whats the best software for managing the server from another computer, and is that the best way.
 
Here is the modded BIOS with SLIC 2.2 for easy windows activation.

You will need to create a DOS boot USB to flash the server with, for example with rufus_v1.3.4


Once done when you will need Win7 on a USB stick (there is some instructions on another thread), then I think its either f10 or f11 as you boot to select the device to boot from.
 

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BIG-HOL said:
yeah i will do it mate, and yes it did work anyway, iv had to install windows 7 64bit home premium on there, when really i wanted ultimate on there so i could use remote desktop connection to manage it from my laptop, but it just wouldnt have it, kept failing at 76%, any ideas on that, i even downloaded a fresh copy of win7 ultimate thinking the copy may have been corrupt but still didnt work 2nd time round, whats the best software for managing the server from another computer, and is that the best way.
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I'm running Win7 Ultimate 32-bit on mine no problem. For remote control I use logmein
 
oneman said:
I'm running Win7 Ultimate 32-bit on mine no problem. For remote control I use logmein
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iv installed windows 7 32bit and 64bit using a bootable usb, but for some reason the windows 7 ultimate 64bit just wont install, throws up error code 0x80070570 every time at 76%, using the same kingston usb drive, i even downloaded a fresh copy like i said in an earlier post, but it still doesnt work, cant work it out, only reason i wanted ultimate is that i can use remote desktop connection, which i cant do on windows 7 home premium.

out of curiosity mate why only 32bit for you.
 
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