I was given an HP EX490 without drives but got it up and going fairly fast and I like it. My question is I thought this had gigabit ethernet but it seems on to have fast ethernet. Has the same speed for transfers as my mv2120 media vault. Is that correct that it doesn't have gigabit?

All the HP MSS Server Models have Gigabit NIC's. If you were to make a Remote Desktop Connection to your server you could verify the NIC Speed. When you run Remote Desktop Connection just enter the name of the server for the Computer and then for the user name use Administrator and for the Password use the Servers Password you use to get on the console and then you will see a warning message, read it close it and then you will be on the servers actual desktop.

The EX490 is quite different then the MV2120 in that it does have some additional overhead with its file system which will cause transfer speeds to seem slow. Change the OS to say WHS2011 and you will see a huge increase in transfer speeds.

Funny you mention MV2120 because I actually have on still in the factory box that has never been used. For me it was just a unit I picked up for my collection to show the evolution of what HP did besides it looks like a miniature MSS or the MSS looks like a huge Media Vault depending on how you look at it. But the interesting thing was how similar it looks to the EX470 with its feature sets which looks like they ported over from the MV to the MSS with the EX470.

On the other hand if you have your server connected to a 10/100 switch then your not going to get the speed your looking at as the connection would require a 10/100/1000 port straight to the router meaning no switches 10/100 along the way to create a bottle neck. So also check connections between the server and the router.

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~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

that's why I am so confused. I thought it had gigabit eithernet but I am only getting fast speeds. I have a gigbit router and I get great speeds with the mini itx server I built but not with my ex490. I am getting exactly the same speed as with the mv2120 which I also thought was gigabit speed. I have run the ex490 with both whs v1 and 2011 with exactly the same results. Any other ideas. I logon to my server with mstsc.exe and have also mapped a drive to my windows 7 machine with same slow results. I am at a loss. If it had better speed I would love it.

Make a remote desktop connection as I have already mentioned and check the actual nic speed.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Sorry for my confusion but I do use remote desktop to connect to. I am getting 1/10 the speed as with my homemade server running whs 2011. Below is the speed I get with that. Am I connecting the wrong way?

What I am basically asking you to do is to logon to the Servers Desktop with the program Remote Desktop Connection. Once on the servers desktop which will look very familiar to you then you can check the actual speed the EX490's NIC is connected to your network.

You can also check the Task Manager to see if the CPU is pegged out and by what process. There is overhead in WHSv1 plus if you have the media functions turned on it too adds load to the server so if the processor gets bogged down everything else does too.

In WHSv1 you should see transfer speeds somewhere between 40-60 MB/s while WHS2011 70-120 MB/s on average. Again WHSv1 has overhead in the OS from MS and HP that does not exist in WHS2011 and depending on how you set it up using single drives, RAID or with 3rd Party Drive Pooling Software your going to see different results. Also the drive controller and the drives themselves will also make a difference particularly if the drives are experiencing issues.

Lots of factors to look for sure but if you know where to look you will certainly find your answer.

One thing that's not clear is the speed of your WHS2011 server which I get the impression is 10/100 where as the EX490 if its running correctly should be 10/100/1000.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

ex495 is running at the first jpeg I posted or 10.9 mb/sec and my home built server running whs 2011 was running at 85.1 mb/sec. The ex 495 was just restored and there is nothing added to bog it down. Media functions not turned on, Just the restore. It had the exact same speed when I was running whs 2011, which is just too slow to make it useable. I guess time to eBay the 495 and stick with my homebuilt
one but sure wish I could figure out why so slow. It has a wd red drive which isn't the fastest but surely fast enough. I just checked in the system tray as you advised and it's only 100mbs as I suspected..What could be the cause of that since it's has gigabit nic card.

Just an update after reading and reading. I updated to the latest realtec network driver and also disabled flow control and I am finally connection at gigabit speed. Is there a problem with having flow control disabled? Thanks for your help. This is a great forum.

To be honest with you I have never had to change any of the NIC settings or drivers on any MSS and I have every model series HP sold in my collection.

If you like I could fire up the EX49x I have here and tell you what driver version its running and also look at the flow control setting. I am a curious about the setting and wonder if it may have more to do with the driver version your running. Actually it matters not because you have it working and so long as its working well then you should be good to go and you should see better transfer speeds too but keep in mind that when DE kicks in that the transfer speeds may drop down its part of that overhead WHSv1 has and DE is the component which manages the servers storage pool. It the most loved and hated component in WHSv1. Its the component MS opted to remove from WHS2011 and sort of made a comeback in a way with the new Storage Spaces in WS2012 and Win8.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

2012 is too expensive for me but thought about win 8. Bought a pdf on using windows 8 as server software but don't know how well it will work being the server is underpowered compared to what is available today. I just really love the design of the hp servers. May just used it to back up computers and use my faster server for streaming videos and music. If you want to fire up your old server that would be find but no big deal. I am guessing it was set just like mine was before I changed it. Real strange that it was only running at 100 speeds. PFM if you know what I mean.

I turned on the EX490 and it was using the following Driver.



Doesn't actually matter if your have yours working well. The MSS Package HP put out is a very attractive design that's still pleasing to the eye some 7 years later. How you chose to use it is up to you. The one I have I upgraded to the E5800 which runs cooler and faster then the Celeron Processor it was shipped with. I do run an EX485 which I upgraded the processor to an E5200 and installed WHS2011 on along with the LED Modification and it runs Remote Potato quite well so I left it running to stream content online more to demonstrate what you can do with one.

Although I do run WS2012E it is expensive and there are other less expensive solutions which will work for most people and WHS2011 is on if you can obtain it but their are other NAS Solutions out there as well which people like, I have seen the eBook on using Win8 as a server but never bothered with it although I imagine others have.

Whatever you chose to do with it I wish you well.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

First.
Bits and bytes are two different animals.
Here is a good article that explains them and shows you where you may not get the max 125MB speed with gigabit.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gig ... 321-3.html

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EX-490
WHS v1
VGA/PS2 Keyboard/PS2 Mouse/Serial debug board
Q9450s CPU
Stock Ram
ESATA Sansdigital Towerraid TR5M-B
Popcorn C-200
Popcorn A-200
Dune HD Connect
Rasberry PI OSMC(KODI)
ReadyNAS RN316
Amazon FireStick
Amazon ECHO
AnyDvD
MyMovies

That's a great article thanks for sharing it.

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8