HP ProLiant.

[jim]

I think when I sent mine off I just put my name in the box that says cheque cashable to.

[watercooled]

I redeemed it fine, I think I just did the same as snootyjim.

[Terbinator]

[jimborae]

the prices on these N40L's seems to fluctuate alot. I got mine from CCL online for £203 minus the £100 cashback so £103 all in but checked now and it's gone up to £277! So £220 seems a decent price atm.

[Terbinator]

It's here!

[watercooled]

Make sure write caching is set to enabled in BIOS to improve HDD performance. Obviously it carries some risk of data loss in a power cut but IIRC the difference in performance is quite significant. Also check through the power settings, I think I managed to shave a few watts off idle power by changing a few settings from default.

[Terbinator]

Now i actually need one it seems there isn't a spare Ethernet cable around the house.

[Terbinator]

It seems RAID doesn't want to appear in the WebGUI on FreeNAS

[watercooled]

Are you using 'hardware' RAID? If so, try just using AHCI and setting up RAID or whatever in FreeNAS - it might not include RAID drivers for the Microserver.

[Terbinator]

Are you using 'hardware' RAID? If so, try just using AHCI and setting up RAID or whatever in FreeNAS - it might not include RAID drivers for the Microserver.

Got it sorted now, i've been too busy messing to report back though.

The USB with FreeNAS on refused to boot up when i had RAID set in the BIOS (same result even once i'd created an LD) so i've had to do it through FreeNAS. No idea if i've lost any, if much performance, but my Steam folder is currently writing to it @ ~60MB/s with two WD Red 2TB drives mirrored.

[watercooled]

AFAIK it doesn't have a proper hardware RAID device so performance should be similar (possibly better) in software. I don't think RAID1 should impact performance much vs a single drive anyway, but you're not substituting it for a proper backup are you? Also, since you're using FreeNAS, you should give ZFS a try.

[Terbinator]

AFAIK it doesn't have a proper hardware RAID device so performance should be similar (possibly better) in software. I don't think RAID1 should impact performance much vs a single drive anyway, but you're not substituting it for a proper backup are you? Also, since you're using FreeNAS, you should give ZFS a try.

All my Uni work, pictures etc are all on Dropbox too as well as varous HDDs around the house.

The Pro-Liant is going to be storage for everyone's 'crap', basically. I'll get around to ripping all the music and films we've got to the HP-PL so it can be access from anywhere and i've also got mine and my brother Steam folders on there too.

I'm assuming i can just Dropbox some folders on the HP-PL too? That way i'll see if Windows will backup anyway documents saved on my Mum's laptop to the HP-PL and then for the HP-PL to upload a copy to Dropbox too.

Is there any performance/usability differences between accessing the HP-PL share through the Network page on Windows or listing it as a Networked drive, do you know?

[watercooled]

Dropbox may have limitations on accessing network drives, as some backup programs do, but AFAIK it doesn't so it should work OK.

It's essentially the same thing, just map it/give it a drive letter to make things more convenient. Avoid using Z: though, I've found some mounting programs default to using it which can cause problems.

[Terbinator]

As for my dventures where Steam is concerned, BL2 wouldn't load up for some reason (the splash screen would, just not the game) and Skyrim worked fine.

I then decided to Update Steam to see if it would fix BL2 and it's just broken Steam completely. :| It opens and shuts straightaway and i'm not the only one with this problem from a quick glance at the forums - the only thing is there is no way to opt back out of the beta without going through the client, and the client doesn't stay open long enough to change it.

[watercooled]

I assume that was meant for another thread, but the following often helps with Steam problems - make sure the steam process isn't running then go to your Steam folder and delete everything but steam.exe and the steamapps folder (the one with your game files in). Then start Steam and it should re-download the missing files and hopefully start working properly again.

[Terbinator]

I assume that was meant for another thread, but the following often helps with Steam problems - make sure the steam process isn't running then go to your Steam folder and delete everything but steam.exe and the steamapps folder (the one with your game files in). Then start Steam and it should re-download the missing files and hopefully start working properly again.

No it was meant for this one, but in reference to one of the earlier posts about performance.

I've already tried that one, along with a few other suggestions, and it just craps out at the EULA page.