HP Proliant N54L Microserver - £129.99 @ Ebuyer

Si__

If all you want from this is 4 drive bays for NAS, you might find it … If all you want from this is 4 drive bays for NAS, you might find it better to get the netgear 4 bay readynas (also does iSCSI). http://www.ebuyer.com/487087-netgear-readynas-104-no-disk-rn10400-100eus £119.99 inc VAT and free delivery.Read lessRead more

You'd be cutting your own throat if you took a NAS over this at the price point.

Infinitely more flexible and future proof, you end up doing way more even if you didn't plan to at the start.

Think treasure trove for the inner geek in us all

gagsmedia

All you lot saying this is not hot are noobs.No one uses the 250GB drive … All you lot saying this is not hot are noobs.No one uses the 250GB drive in these...We all use SSD for boot flash the bios and have all 4 hot swappable drive bays for data storage.With the SSD using the mobo sata header located in the DVD drive bayHot now shipping with 4GB ramRead lessRead more

I run NAS4FREE from a USB thumb drive in the internal USB port. 5 hard drives installed, never increased the ram ether
(edited)

If you've bought one of these boxes previously, then there's a good chance that you binned both the 2gb ram and the 250gb HDD and bough 2x 4gb ram and bigger disks.
4gb is far more useful.
£129 is a good price.

Pointless saying you could get it cheaper a year ago - I don't have a TARDIS. Good deal for now. And yes, I'd rather have 4GB RAM than a useless 250GB HDD.

gagsmedia

All you lot saying this is not hot are noobs.No one uses the 250GB drive … All you lot saying this is not hot are noobs.No one uses the 250GB drive in these...We all use SSD for boot flash the bios and have all 4 hot swappable drive bays for data storage.With the SSD using the mobo sata header located in the DVD drive bayHot now shipping with 4GB ramRead lessRead more

Do we all? Speak for yourself, mine is used as the boot drive because I don't require wasting money on an SSD for a machine that is on 24/7 and I don't yet require the drive space that it uses up.

Saying this is not a decent HTPC is ridiculous it's not meant to be it's a server.

That's like buying an umbrella, then complaining that it makes a terrible pool cue

Si__

If all you want from this is 4 drive bays for NAS, you might find it … If all you want from this is 4 drive bays for NAS, you might find it better to get the netgear 4 bay readynas (also does iSCSI). http://www.ebuyer.com/487087-netgear-readynas-104-no-disk-rn10400-100eus £119.99 inc VAT and free delivery.Read lessRead more

i sort of agree and disagree. you could stick the likes of linux based os's with nas capabilities (including linux) onto this box on either a hdd or even a usb pen drive (it has a usb port not header inside on the board). This makes this box more flexible in what it can do for not much more money than the netgear solution, but it is obviously a little more complicated than the netgear solution.

This one comes with 4GB ram, previous cashback deals had 2GB ram. Cashback hasn't been available for a *long* time, so all in, this is a decent deal. Hot.
(edited)

Agree with other posts - I'd rather have the RAM than the HDD.

bouncy99

voting cold as this is still not on or below cashback levels. the … voting cold as this is still not on or below cashback levels. the retailers steeply increased the price of these units to balance out the customer feeling they were getting a deal by paying more but claiming the cashback while increasing the profit they received due to artificially inflating the price. Now they have clearly realised or have been todl there is no further cashback coming, so are bringing down the price of these units to what you would realistically want to pay because they clearly are not shifting this old stock. I personally would wait until the retailers get the message, and lower the prices further.Read lessRead more

Please tell me where I can buy a Server, not a NAS box for less that £130? Yes the previous deals with Cashback were good but were probably never meant to last so long.
As for the retailers inflating the prices.
1) the specs are different, 4GB Ram is a boost.
2) HP set the wholesale cost. I think you'll find the wholesale cost during Cashback was higher than it was now. Due to the Cashback disappearing this probably is the more realistic price.

These ultra flexible and cheap machines will go the way of the dodo. Buy now while you can.

I would like to point out that a 2GB stick of HP 10600e DDR3 memory is about £50 or more and a 250GB HDD is around £15 so take the difference off this price and you are left with £94.99.

Add the fact that if you bought one of the cash back deals you could only have put another 2GB memory in without replacing the 2GB stick that it came with make this a better deal IMO than any of the cash back deals.

I mean who kept 2gb of memory or the 250gb hdd in them anyway. Most I know put 8GB and 5 new hard drives, with this deal you only need one 4gb memory stick and the hard drives whereas with the cash back deal you needed 2 4GB stick and the hard drive. If putting 5 large drives and 8GB memory in is your intention then this deal will leave you about £60 better off.

Hot from me.

voting cold as this is still not on or below cashback levels. the retailers steeply increased the price of these units to balance out the customer feeling they were getting a deal by paying more but claiming the cashback while increasing the profit they received due to artificially inflating the price. Now they have clearly realised or have been todl there is no further cashback coming, so are bringing down the price of these units to what you would realistically want to pay because they clearly are not shifting this old stock. I personally would wait until the retailers get the message, and lower the prices further.

If all you want from this is 4 drive bays for NAS, you might find it better to get the netgear 4 bay readynas (also does iSCSI).

ebuyer.com/487…eus £119.99 inc VAT and free delivery.

(edited)

The one I bought with cash back offer (worked out £98) came with a 250gb HDD. if this doesn't, it's a non-deal I'm afraid

All you lot saying this is not hot are noobs.

No one uses the 250GB drive in these...We all use SSD for boot flash the bios and have all 4 hot swappable drive bays for data storage.With the SSD using the mobo sata header located in the DVD drive bay

Hot now shipping with 4GB ram

A few pennies more on dabs:

dabs.com/pro…=16

Most NAS software runs from USB (you can use the internal port) which frees up all the SATA bays to be used as part of your pool.

Cheaper via authorised reseller MoreComputers at £124.82 delivered. And you stand less chance of being hit with pro-rata value reduction warranty claims via More! Qty 12 in stock at time of post.
morecomputers.com/ext…421
£190 delivered if you want the earlier 2GB RAM / 250GB HD version
morecomputers.com/ext…421

goderic

just a quick question. what is are people running on these? what are they … just a quick question. what is are people running on these? what are they being used for ? I ask because I would like to learn more about networks etc. would one of these be a gd starting point. TIARead lessRead more

These are extremely flexible devices. Perfect for things that need to be left on 24x7 and requiring little cpu power.
Typical usage ranges from standard Network storage to full blown HTPC running plex/xmbc. I use it for both and also for torrenting.

(edited)

Bought mine during the Insight deal with the £100 cashback offer a while ago and its one of the best purchases I've made.

My friend talked me into buying one and it came with the 2gb and 250gb hdd. Then my friend gave me his spare 2gb ram from his hp microserver.

I bought a 60gb ssd to run win7 and put in a 1tb wd green, along 2 more 250gb hdd's. Put in a Radeon 5450 low-profile gfx card. Its on 24/7 running sabnzbd, plex to stream to the nowtv box in my girls room and chromecast to the main tv.

Hardly notice that it is on as it doesn't make too much noise. Haven't had any blue screens sofar and its been running solid.
(edited)

Currently typing this from my couch on my n54l been running since day i bought it. i've got plex, xbmc, sickbeard, couchpotato, utorrent, emulators for xbmc snes, n64, megadrive, sega saturn so on so on. plex serves to 4 mates and does 3d 1080p no probs. great machine and a lot of play with it. try out linux run windows hell run wmware sessions with a few diffo things. great purchase and better then any nas box i would say! get it before ya can't.

gagsmedia

People sell the 250gb drives on for 15 quid brand new and buy 64 GB boot … People sell the 250gb drives on for 15 quid brand new and buy 64 GB boot drives for £30 You do the math Read lessRead more

maths
HotUKdeals, so we need to be using proper English and not the American variety

Jonnyblock

Does this have Bluetooth?I ask because I have the logitech k400 wireless … Does this have Bluetooth?I ask because I have the logitech k400 wireless touch keyboard so was thinking of getting one of these micro servers for under the TV. Can it be Bluetooth enabled? Eg using the internal USB port?Read lessRead more

It has 4x USB2 ports on the front, one of which I plug my k400r ('Logitech Unifying') reciever into. It works well for me. I've got mine under the TV running XBMC.

senad89

A few pennies more on dabs: … A few pennies more on dabs: http://www.dabs.com/products/hp-proliant-microserver-g7-amd-turion-n54l-4gb-no-hdd-9JX8.html?q=proliant&src=16Read lessRead more

Perfect for me up in the highlands ebuyer charge me stupid money for delivery makes it £10 cheaper

Thanks for posting

Sooo tempted Was going to get a nice new GFX card but this is more tempting lol

I have this running Win 7 as my desktop PC. However, this was not the original intention. It was bought to replace my Acer Revo R3610 which is still doing active service as an htpc with USB TV tuners running xbmc and plex.
Where the micro server failed me is no sleep mode. I had no idea the thing can only hibernate.
The revo goes into deep sleep using maybe 3watts and then only wakes up when someone starts xbmc or Plex or a TV recording is scheduled.
Thus the cost for power is incredibly low. The micro server isn't actually that low on power usage. It was ages ago that I measured it but I am sure it was over 60watts without a graphics card. But then was still 20 something watts on hibernation. So cost might be lower to start but electricity bills will mount.
Why oh why couldn't they have managed low power sleep for it?
I suppose I could replace my IX2 nas with this as well but that is also a few watts at idle. I desperately want to be able to justify bringing it into more active duty but even if it does dual duty as nas and htpc (if that's possible) it still costs a lot more to run.

I have three of these, I'm running 4 x 4TB reds in the media server running windows server 2012 and 16GB of ram. Using drivepool to pool the drives and duplicate important folders within the pool.SSD as boot.Using Crashplan for online backup of the shares. This is located in an outhouse 100M form the main house

The second is a Backup server..running windows 8.1 pro...Which backups the Media server pool for all the stuff I don't want to lose like home movies and photos.This is located in the main house.

The third is a Windows 8.1 pro which is used for PLEX and streaming.

Brilliant machines

(edited)

fswings

Voted cold, as it's not really the standard microserver deal if it … Voted cold, as it's not really the standard microserver deal if it doesn't have cashback / redemption offer ;-)Read lessRead more

The server was 129 when the 50 quid cashback as the price was 179 few months ago

This server regardless of cashback is hot at 150 quid never mind 129 quid.

For people concerned about sleep mode that are just using as a media server it supports wake on lan. While its not ideal you could use your smartphone to turn it on which won't take long if you have a ssd as a boot drive.

jasee

Hahahaha. Thats about a kilowatt a week running 24/7. You must be really … Hahahaha. Thats about a kilowatt a week running 24/7. You must be really 'desperate'Read lessRead more

at last check a fully loaded N54L runs at 40w so just shy of 7kW per week. So using a super high 20p per unit that's about £70 a year at worst case scenario.

hutokdeals

Oh love did you fail your GCSE maths? Never mind, you have to keep … Oh love did you fail your GCSE maths? Never mind, you have to keep retaking now until you are 18.I am guessing physics was an issue too. You want to work with kWh not kilowatts.Your poor parents have no idea how much all your toys are contributing to their electricity bill.Now turn your toys off, it's well past your bedtime. Night night, kiss kiss.Read lessRead more

maybe a few facts would have come across a little better, maybe you haven't had a hug this century.
(edited)

I tested the power consumption of mine and it uses 54w with 4 HDDs fitted 40w with one.

My SkyHD box uses 60w so think it's pretty good.

That's about 1.3 KWh's per day with my tariff rates with Ovo energy that's just short of 15p a day.

I don't understand why you need to transcode? In my experience that is only necessary when you are trying to compensate for the lack of codec support on the likes of ipads etc.
I use all OpenELEC clients and the server is merely streaming which it handles in it's sleep.

My advice would be don't blame the server for another devices shortfalls.

Exactly! Rokus are the problem not the server, you want clients that can play them natively something that can run OpenELEC like raspberry pi etc.

That's fine mate you pay your money you make your choice, was just trying to say your expecting the HP to pick up the slack for you selecting the wrong hardware, something it was not designed to do.

I also have a N36L the original version with 1.5ghz processor and it hasn't been switched off for 3 years! it streams to xbmc at 5% cpu load no problem.

sokelly

Whats the best buy for a fanless card that will fit in these?

My limited research led me to get this one. I think it has been cheaper in the past but was still the cheapest way of meeting my requirements.


(edited)

robo989

Could have explained that in about a quarter as many words.You're wrong … Could have explained that in about a quarter as many words.You're wrong anyway. Base price is dictated by HP, or are you seriously suggesting the markup on these is something like 100% prior to the cashback being dropped?Engage brain.Read lessRead more

Exactly, just looking at building your own comparative device makes you realise what a bargain these are (just not as much of a bargain as previously that's all).

Pricy147

Would one of these be good to install the OS on? Also what OS are people … Would one of these be good to install the OS on? Also what OS are people generally installing on these? These are back available again, and also available @ DABs;http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/sandisk-64gb-ultra-fit-usb-3-0-flash-drive-130mb-s-read-22-99-mymemory-1986620Read lessRead more

You can run something like FreeNAS from USB but the microserver is only USB 2.0 so you won't benefit from the USB 3.0 speeds. Not that that makes a great deal of difference with FreeNAS but you could get away with a much cheaper USB 2 device.

Pricy147

Server arrived today :)Installed the two wd green 6tb drives. Downloading … Server arrived today :)Installed the two wd green 6tb drives. Downloading windows server 2012 r2.Now the questions.....1) really dont know whether to install os on ssd or usb drive. If i use the internal usb....it keeps 5 sata ports free for up to 30tb of hdd space (assuming 6tb drives). Not sure if this is not a good idea tho based on speed of usb2? Am i better sacraficing 1xsata port and using ssd?2) what size usb/ssd do i need for win server 2012? 64gb or 128gb?3) can anyone recomend good ssd or usb for such purpose.....never bought an ssd before.4) downloading win server 2012 r2 iso. How do install onto ssd or usb without dvd drive in microserver? Can i put iso file on usb stick and install from file? (I.e. without burning to disc)Read lessRead more

To create a bootable USB OS installer use this:
microsoftstore.com/sto…ool

I don't think you can install Windows Server to a USB device though so you will need to use a sata port for your boot drive.

These used to come with a HDD. No mention on the product page?

Beware.
This and similar offers at Amazon: no hard disc supplied.

Beware.
This and similar offers at Amazon: no hard disc supplied.