Everyone's favourite HP N40L Microserver is on sale today ONLY at Harris Tech.
This is the diskless version, but for $198, can't really complain.
Shipping sort of kills the deal as I tried post code 3000 and shipping was $25+. Great deal if you can pickup from one of the HT stores though.
Edit: The previous HT deal for $198 was for the North Ryde store only. See here: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/83012
I'm an absolute noob when it comes to servers - where I can I go to read up on getting one of these set up properly?
Start here http://n40l.wikia.com/wiki/HP_MicroServer_N40L_Wiki. I found it helpful, did a build of WHS 2011 about 3 weeks ago, seems pretty solid thus far.
there is a active mailing list full of useful information
Looks like HT weren't selling at $248 so they dropped it back to the $198 that it was.
What speeds should i expect?
Depends how much coffee & coke you have! :p
does this include disk tray?
it has 4 trays for sata HD and you can use the top section for another HD or DVD, i personaly have used the top section with an SSD
FYI, to use top 5.25 slot for HDD need:
1. 5.25 to 3.5 adaptor
2. molex to SATA-power adaptor
3. longish SATA cable.
- 5.25 to 3.5 adaptor
Don't tell anyone that my SSD is held in with a cable tie! ;)
Mine is held by velcro.
Fancy-pants! :)
It includes 4 trays for HDD, and you can also fit the SSD in between the top ODD bay AND the 4 drive bay (there are MOLEX power connectors in that space now. I held my SSD with velcro. Then use the 5.25 to 3.5 in brackets to put in a 5th HDD. I got a eSATA to SATA cable for the 5th HDD so I could connect it to the the eSATA Port.
So my final drive setup is:
HDD bays 1-4 - 3TB drives
SSD 120 GB connected to ODD port on the motherboard, put in the space between the HDD bay and the ODD bay.
HDD 5 - 3 TB to eSATA port, in the ODD bay with 5.25 to 3.5 brackets.
Delivery based on this postcode(5000): $37.47Delivery Total
not really much off of $249 with some of the other deals posted.
Hoping ShoppingExpress can match this deal. Like to get one with few HDDs.
beat me by a minute or two
no disrespect to the poster but dont be surpised if our good friend shoppingexpress comes along and beats this offer.
I hope they do, I am obsessed with these things, so useful, cheap and tiny. I just did a pickup order of 2 from HT Windsor Brisbane. But all the goodies to go with it are way to expensive at HT, would def by a third if Shopping Express comes to the party, so I can snake extra ram and HDD's from them at reasonable prices!
ive ummm'ed and ahh'ed about getting one of these units for a long time now, passing up on a couple of good offers.
but i'm sick of having 4-5 seperate harddrives sitting on my desk. come on shopping express, make us an offer we can't refuse! :)
Hmmmm. I'll need another machine at around March next year.
What are the chances of a new model being released by March next year?
There might be something out, but not at this price.
I know these are among the most common ozbargain repeat items, but here's my mini review. Very adaptable little servers. I've bought one N40L as a HTPC (with low-profile Graphics Card attached, 8GB RAM, running Win7) and it runs whisper-quiet in the lounge. Seeing as some people can get 16GB RAM working in here (seems a little bit of a lottery still) they are also great little test VMware/ESXi test server if you want to have a play with that. Build quality is great for the price, and can get a lot more than just 4 x 3TB drives in it, if you buy the right adapters and drives and read the right forums.
I have just bought another one to function as a NAS. For NAS builds, the way Open Media Vault is progressing I see little point in spending huge dollars on QNAP and SYNOLOGY any more. It is still software based RAID, and if you want to buy a proper HP RAID card, it will cost you more than the N40L itself. I prefered to buy a cheap $15 Low-Profile USB 3.0 card and use an Attached USB Drive to backup essential data (and also use CrashPlan for Cloud saves for the stuff I REALLY don;t want to lose).
The N40L are dual-core but not intel-based CPU's so that may limit some application development, but this is a NAS afterall, not a gaming rig. One last thing to mention, I also installed Steam on my HTPC N40L and got my XBOX360 remote USB receiver working on it too. It's not going to play FPS very well (and was not my intention) but I love it for Indie and Retro games which don't require a lot of grunt. It's become my little crappy PC console - I'm more of a sit-back couch gamer than PC-mouse fanatic.
Hope this might help a wavering purchaser - you really can't go wrong for the money.
Thanks for the review mate, appreciate it
The N40L are dual-core but not intel-based CPU's so that may limit some application development
Both intel and AMD use AMD's x64 instruction set. (If you need VPro or something specific, ok, but for 99% of people, being AMD won't make any difference.)
Great little server for the price. I have set one up to function as a NAS/Cloud for my storage. Very stable and has no crashes so far.
Definately a better deal for people who can't pickup or need the 250GB disk. For me, the disk was never going to be used long term anyway.
Can you let me know if the 250GB disk 2.5 or 3.5 inch? Thanks
It'll be 3.5" - the box only has 4x 3.5" bays, and 1x 5.25" bay
Just sounds unusual having a 250GB 3.5inch, would've though a single platter can easily hold more than that. Anyways, less useful now (would've gone in laptop).
I think my 250gb disk from my last server is still sitting in my drawer somewhere. Replaced it with a 60gb ssd.
I guess if you don't need the 250gb drive you could save $10 on shipping by pickup with HT.
Mine's in a Linux box…very handy! :)
Seriously. How many age stock of this Microserver did HP has?
I'm going to ask in this thread and the other one, again. If anyone knows the ETA on the replacement models. We're seeing flush out pricing sales here and it's been over a year. I know one is in development but not much more - does anyone have any more information?
I did a quick search for this a while ago, no concrete sign of a replacement at all
Can't imagine HP are happy with sales / the % discount required to shift units (They're seriously giving them away in the UK)
A N44 with Trinity, USB3 and HDMI would be gold though
I'd be all over it but the new one is Intel based from what I hear.
I've been watching the boards about N40L (Overclockers and Whirlpool) and no mention of anything official at this point. Still only rumours but the 'goss' seems to be settling around Intel IVY + USB 3.0 + HDMI. But if it's $500-600 and your intent is HTPC it's still more cost effective to get a N40L to do the equivalent (except for CPU, can't do much about that).
In my usage once the video is offloaded to the video card then CPU is not that busy. Mine is doing 24x7 Usenet duty / Torrents and XBMC/WMC. The only other thing I'm thinking of adding to it is retro gaming via XBMC but no hurry there as my Wii is already setup to do that.
shipping $47 for Tas :-(
You guys reckon this would work well with Windows SBS 2011 running AD, Exchange, SQL and as a file server?
Small company about 10 users
Well I replaced my WHS 2011 with Win server 2012 Essentials. This is for a simple home network with 10 people.
Running utorrent, SABNZBD, Serviio, and Storage spaces
Seems to be doing fine, but it's at it's limits (still stock 2gb ram). Will need to upgrade soon.
I'd rather build a Win 8 box with storage spaces and a proper CPU. This model is a bit weak.
Tempting. How does this cope as a HTPC? I was planning on using it for file backups/sabnzbd but am wondering how it would coep with HD content?
Edit - http://n40l.wikia.com/wiki/Graphics_Cards seems to point out that the unit is capable of 1080p BluRay videos without a new GPU. Tempting indeed.
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/84092#comment-1095492 Lot of Ghostbuster style stream crossing going on here…
True the on board video is AMD Radeon 4200 which is enough for 1080p video. But you still need Audio and that's why I went for a card with HDMI out. You can also get cheap USB audio sound cards for much less and connect it with a long headphone cable to your TV. HDMI is digital however and can output audio and video to a TV/Receiver over the single HDMI cable.
My build:
8 GB ECC RAM
5x 3TB WD Red HDD (this was the biggest cost in the build)
OCZ 120 GB SSD
HIS Radeon HD6450 card
KWorld 499-2T USB Tuner
HP MCE Remote with IR Receiver
Cables:
1 - eSATA to SATA (used to hook up the 5th HDD)
1 - MOLEX to 2x SATA Power outputs
1 - 50 cm SATA to SATA (connects the SSD to the ODD port on the mother board)
1 - HDMI 1.5 meters
Bracket: 5.25" to 3.5" to use a HDD in the ODD bay.
Software:
Windows 8 Pro
Windows Media Center (free until end of the year)
XBMC 11.0
Special BIOS to enable AHCI mode on the ODD port and additional features in the BIOS.
Thanks for this. You might have just persuaded me ;)
It has enough CPU power to transcode 1080p mkvs through PS3 Media Server.
And with such low power draw, you can leave it on 24/7 and forget that it doesn't support S3 standby. If it doubles duty as your file server/download pig/iTunes then you'll probably want it on 24/7 anyway.
Even if you don't use standby. Boot from power button and SSD is < 30 seconds in Windows and even faster on Linux (I think < 15 secs when booting off a USB 2.0). Most of that time is the POST screens and only about 10 secs between the POST screen to the OS ready (Windows).
The N40L also supports Wake On Lan if you don't want to touch it. Works just fine as a headless server (I RDP into it all the time).
I was also thinking with the hybrid boot of Windows 8 it would be even faster.
If anyone want to get rid off their 2gb ram in sydney, let me know. I am interest to take it off you. Cheers,
Sold out? Link no longer working.
Note that in-stock is still $198 - over the counter only I think.
I successfully ordered at 11am yesterday, and was just informed that they don't have any stock. But they were happy to accept my order at the time.
Not happy about this HT.
I called their call centre and I was told it was in Stock. But the price is $280.
Offer of $198 is not valid anymore.
Thanks bozter, sounds like HT are pulling a swifty and not wanting to honour the $198 price.
Instore managers special only. The call-centre dont know anything about it. Not available online, only at North Ryde.
FYI
I rang HT today to see where my order was at. It's been nearly a week now and I haven't had any updates from them at all. I was told that it wouldn't be here until next Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest. Seriously, 2 weeks to deliver an item from Sydney to Melbourne??? I've had ebay orders from HK that didn't take as long for delivery! Next time, I'm going to have serious reservations about buying anything from HT! Tempted to neg my own OP :)
Wow, beat me by 5 Minutes. Good Deal though.