hey guys, i keep seeing this being posted every week and i just don't understand why people are raving about it so much. couldn't you buy a $250-300 netbook and install freeNAS? you'd have a screen as well and lots of USB ports. i don't get it?
HP Microserver N40L 2GB 250GB $250: What's so special about it?
ThePensioner on 05/05/2012 - 13:33
Comments
Feature Most Netbooks HP Microserver N40L Internal HDD Bays 0 4 x 3.5" SATA RAID No RAID 0 or 1 USB ports 2 or 3 6 Internal ODD No Optional Build quality Meh. Surprisingly solid Door with a key lock Nope Look everybody, I'm a professional! Glowing HP logo Psch Pimpin' 
Glowing HP logo Psch Pimpin'
This, baby. This.
Yeah, when I fired mine up & saw this…well, let's just say I had a Lonely Island - JIMP moment! :p
I bought one recently because they were about $250- including a separate purchase of 8gb of RAM. I then paid $680 for 12 terabytes of disk. Now where can you get a 12TB NAS for $1000?
So far, it works very well. I am running FreeNAS, so I didn't need to pay for an Operating System.
DeWalt
Do some research, then you will understand. I have one too.
couldn't you buy a $250-300 netbook
Mine was $221 delivered…it's already cheaper! ;)
but you could just use the external usb ports no?
Thanks all. I had the same question. Wow. Should have done this instead of buying my stupid Iomega NAS.
a netbook with 3 external hdd drives hanging off it looks like shit… if you use 2.5 you lose a heap of capacity… if you use 3.5 you lose a heap of wall sockets… also most 3.5s will not put up with 24/7 running
also people say that the Microserver is kinda slow on transfers… ask yourself how slow the avg. netbook would be running off usb2 hdds!
most netbooks are still 10/100 and lack anything faster than usb2
i have tried a usb hdd on a router with usb and its just not good for anything even approaching large sized files
if you have to ask the difference between a Netbook and a server, then you don't need to purchase the server :) save your cash
Thanks, you saved me some cash too ! :)
also freenas won't install OFF usb stick… you need an external CDrom… on a netbook, this is another hurdle
if you can get freenas to install off usb (it is kinda of possible and i think there's an embedded image) you wouldn't be wasting your time here with questions like this
people who do, DO
You don't install FreeNAS off a USB stick with this server.
You install it ON the USB stick, then stick it directly onto the motherboard - that USB stick is your dedicated OS drive.
Just wondering how you will fit 4 HDDs in a netbook?