Who makes "compact" servers these days?

Forums › IT Pro and developers › Who makes "compact" servers these days?

Behodar

6638 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1324

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 210536 1-Apr-2017 09:29

Hi everyone,

I've had an HP Data Vault x510 for about seven years and it's served me well but is due for replacement. It's a fairly small box at around 25x25x13; most of that is for the four drive bays. I'm hoping to find something of a similar size with maybe 2-4 bays but I'm not having much luck.

Dell and Lenovo only seem to have full-sized towers and rack-mount machines. HP (or at least the NZ site) apparently hides servers well as I wasn't able to find anything at all!

Does anyone know whether something similar to the HP x510 is available from another vendor?

Also, I see that a few people now use a NAS instead of a full-blown server. It's my assumption that they're fairly "dumb" devices but it's worth checking: Can I install additional services (such as Subversion) onto a typical NAS or are they exclusively for file storage?

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit out of touch with this sort of thing :)

Thanks for any comments.

1 | 2

998 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 652

Trusted

# 1751529 1-Apr-2017 10:01

One person supports this post

Would a Microserver fit what you're after?
The reason you can't find any servers on the HP site is because they no longer sell them, HPE do https://hpe.co.nz

Behodar

6638 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1324

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1752532 1-Apr-2017 10:55

Thanks for that; it looks like a MicroServer might do the trick. Time to do some more research :)

Dynamic

2567 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 765

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1752878 1-Apr-2017 20:38

I'm a big fan of these HP Microservers. You can add a RAID card, or you can stick an SSD inside it and still have 4 bays free for a RAID10 or similar array.

"4 wheels move the body. 2 wheels move the soul."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams

Behodar

6638 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1324

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1752883 1-Apr-2017 21:00

I'm seeing some conflicting (or at least confusing) information about using hard drives in a MicroServer. It seems that you don't have to buy HP's drives, but I did find someone asking where to buy trays for third-party drives. My current HP server included empty trays; does the MicroServer include trays or do I have to find them separately?

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
63896 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 14362

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

# 1752897 1-Apr-2017 21:36

I have a HP Microserver Gen8. You can use any 3.5" HDD (I'm using 1x 512GB + 3x 4TB drives). You can use 2.5" HDD/SSD but will need an adapter (obviously).

Sharesies investment funds | Geekzone broadband switch | Amazon (Geekzone aff) | MightyApe (Geekzone aff) | Honeyminer (1000 Satoshi signup bonus)

My technology disclosure | Digital Transformation | Enterprise Content Management | Customer Relationship Management | Data Insights, Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
63896 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 14362

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

# 1752898 1-Apr-2017 21:38

Also not only I have one (running since 2011), I gave one away as well - back in 2011!

Sharesies investment funds | Geekzone broadband switch | Amazon (Geekzone aff) | MightyApe (Geekzone aff) | Honeyminer (1000 Satoshi signup bonus)

My technology disclosure | Digital Transformation | Enterprise Content Management | Customer Relationship Management | Data Insights, Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics

darylblake

957 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 311

Trusted

# 1752939 2-Apr-2017 00:06

Im interested in this. Mainly because I want to know why you want to go compact.

I have a small i5-2500 machine with 3x 3.5" HDD's and a 2.5" SSD. It makes a bit of noise, it runs windows so i can install anything I want on it, but 90% of the time its headless. (I dont need to use the monitor). Its running all day every day, has a 550W PSU, so it costs around $25/mth in electricity im guessing? Maybe uses 100watt all day? It runs plex so ramps up a bit when its transcoding.

I was wondering if you prefer to go compact because you want it to be small and quiet. Or you plan to run it all day and you are trying to save $ on the electricity bill each mth.

My brother in law has a Synology NAS and has some apps installed on it. Its got an Atom CPU in it, and it seems to run an FTP server, Plex and a few other apps fine.

Also (in my opinion) subversion is quite in-efficient. I used to LOVE it.... but now, personally would migrate the repos to Git.

Behodar

6638 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1324

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1753016 2-Apr-2017 08:34

darylblake: Im interested in this. Mainly because I want to know why you want to go compact.

The simple answer is that the shelf that I currently use won't fit a full-size tower, and rackmounted is overkill (and likely to be loud!)

darylblake: I was wondering if you prefer to go compact because you want it to be small and quiet. Or you plan to run it all day and you are trying to save $ on the electricity bill each mth.

Ideally I'd run the new one all day (so being quiet helps). The HP has a 150W PSU so if it's running at full pelt 24/7 then it'll cost around $32.50/month. Of course, it won't be chewing all that energy all the time!

darylblake: Also (in my opinion) subversion is quite in-efficient. I used to LOVE it.... but now, personally would migrate the repos to Git.

I was in two minds about mentioning Subversion by name for fear that I'd get a Git comment. It's not suitable for my environment.

dfnt

defiant
899 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 491

Lifetime subscriber

# 1753079 2-Apr-2017 09:42

Supermicro have a mini server http://www.wiredzone.com/supermicro-servers-compact-embedded-processor-sys-5028d-tn4t-12c-b2-10026362b2

Intel Xeon SOC, 12 cores, 2 x 1GB and 2 x 10GB onboard nics etc

shaned

19 posts

Geek

# 1753739 3-Apr-2017 13:18

I've been eyeing up the SilverStone DS380 for a while. It takes 8 drives so has plenty of room to grow. But you'd probably need to assemble it yourself. The only issue I've seen mentioned is that airflow over the drives could be better.

Behodar

6638 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1324

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 1796063 7-Jun-2017 17:34

After learning about MicroServers in this thread I did a bit more research and decided to wait a couple of months for new hardware. Sure enough, there is now a "Gen10" model. However, I can't for the life of me find where to buy one. HP doesn't appear to sell them directly and the reseller locator is hopeless (listing Paper Plus among other places!). My usual "go-to" for this sort of thing is Ascent but they don't seem to have the Gen10 at this stage.

I want to at least find a ballpark price; can anyone advise where I should be looking?