It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:08 pm

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]

Recent News:



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 14 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: ML-350 - Home server?
PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 5:52 pm 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
I just so happen to have this HP ML-350 G5, as it sits, it's an amazing bit of overkill. It has 2 X5460 (3167MHz) CPU's, 32GB RAM, and 6 out of a total max of 8 SAS-drives, leaving me with only 6 of the in total 8 needed carriers. Will prolly end up tearing the SAS-drives from the cages, and install larger sATA drives. One issue here, it's bloody tiny drives. (2.5" 148GB 10K) Getting 8 large sATA drives, and 2 new caddies will prolly set me back enough to leave me without ice-cream money all summer. On the upside there shouldn't be any issues going past 3TB in the future.
The real disadvantage is that there is no (E)sATA, which to some extent is compensated by 3 PCI-E x8(4 lanes) connectors, 2 100MHz & 1 133MHz 64-bit PCI slots, which should leave me close to limitless expansion space.
Now, there is no sense running 240w TDP and just over 300w full load CPU's, or all that memory. I'm hoping to be able to trade for some CPU's, and pull some memory, but suddenly i find my self a bit in of a pink spot on the map. I haven't got a clue as to which CPU(s) i should be looking at. From a heat and running cost perspective, L5408 (2133MHz) looks fun. 40w TDP, 70w max. (80/140 for the pair, if need be. If i'm going that rout i will buy a pair, just in case i'll need the second one down the road.)

The question is... What sort of CPU power do i need, really?
If i do this, it's supposed to replace my ReadyNAS NV+ & the new toy, HP DataVault X310. So far i've been streaming video to the TV through DLNA, so no on the fly format conversions, just plain playback.
A bit of torrenting. OK, loads of torrenting. Tormenting amounts of torrenting, really.
(Still, the Atom seams to handle it well, to some extent. Seams Transmission isn't to keen on running multiple threads, so at 50Mbps or so i start seeing the limit of the CPU's capacity. I feel confident that the L5408 with it's 25% higher clock, and 11MB more cache should provide a slight performance boost in that area, and my hookup max out at 100Mbit anyway. Don't get me started on the NV+ it stacks a 280MHz Sparc, and well, bandwidth is pretty limited as a result.)
Other then this the pair houses storage-space.

If i can figure out how to, then i want to set up a simple interface, and have the thing play my music to, letting me shut everything else off when i'm not actively using it. Sadly, i don't think my TV supports any sort of interacting with the source, so I'll prolly end up leaving a BT mouse laying on the livingroom table, hook the WHS up to a surround receiver, and get some sort of IR sensor for it as well. Simple stuff, the remote, more advanced stuff, put the WHS on the TV through the receiver, and be done with it.
Nothing of all this "should" tax the CPU a whole lot, or so is my reasoning, but you guys have actually been using WHS2011, and should be able to tell me how it actually works out.

Oh, and i've been thinking "pull all the memory but 2 sticks, for 8GB", again, it might seam daft, but it's going to save a couple of watts continually, as well as getting me spares i can part with, for money or trades towards that holy grail, more storage space. Is 8GB the right amount of memory to go for, or is there a number that's more "right" ? (And if so, why?)
B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  

Attention Guest: Remove this ad by Registering with the MediaSmartServer.net Forums. It's Free!
PostPosted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:39 pm 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:10 pm
Posts: 5157
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks: 86
Thanked: 704 times in 682 posts
Hi Mr B welcome to the forums,

The first thing about your server having duel CPU's is that WHS2011 will only support 1 of them. I could be wrong on this but I think you would need to install Small Business Server 2011 to use both processors. I hope I am wrong on this and someone will correct me but I believe this is the case with WHS2011.

8GB of RAM is more than enough. I have 8 GB or RAM in my WHS2011 Server and to be honest the most I see it utilize is about 2.2 GB.

If you go to the HP Website you should be able to pull the manuals and possibly the service manual for the ML-350 G5 and in one of those manuals it should better detail the processors that can be used in the server as well as the type of RAM which will most likely be ECC.

_________________
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


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:49 am 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
I got a list as long as my arm when it comes to the CPU's, pretty much it boils down to "any" 54 series Xeon. I just don't have the slightest idea what the realistic speed requirements are. But at least i know i'm going to cut what ever heat coming from the system in half since i can pull both the PPM & the second CPU.

Memory, yupp, your right, it's ECC. Doesn't bother me since i'm not going to replace any memory, just pull a bunch. I'll keep the last pair in the unit for bandwidth rather then the memory size.
B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:26 pm 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:10 pm
Posts: 5157
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks: 86
Thanked: 704 times in 682 posts
Review which banks the memory is suppose to be installed in as you may have to install RAM in a combination between the two sets of memory banks.

_________________
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


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Wed Apr 24, 2013 4:10 am 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
Yeah, memory has to be "interleaved" as they call it. Slots 1-4 and 5-8, so 1+5 is the right configuration.

No thoughts on CPU performance needed? If i don't get told anything else i'll chance it, and grab a pair of L5408's, and stick the spare in storage, along with the PPM.
B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:54 am 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:10 pm
Posts: 5157
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks: 86
Thanked: 704 times in 682 posts
My preference would be to use a Quad Core Processor this way if you ever have the server do things like transcoding it will be able to handle the task.

Better to have more power then you need to grow with then limiting yourself only to change out the processor later down the road.

_________________
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


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:19 am 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
The L5408 Xeon is a low power (40w TDP) 4 core 2133MHz part, with the 2x6MB Cache that is standard to the entire 54xx series Xeon CPU's.

To be honest, i'm more worrying about single thread performance, then multi, since by looking at the x310 i seam to mainly load one core.
B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:42 am 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:10 pm
Posts: 5157
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks: 86
Thanked: 704 times in 682 posts
It all boils down to what your going to do not only today but in the future with your server. The WHS v1 in your X310 and WHS2011 are two totally different animals but they both can do the same things. If your a heavy user and never push your server then you do not need much processing power. However as I have already mentioned if you ever do transcoding with your server say to stream content online then you will very much appreciate a Quad Core processor.

The best time to watch your X310 is when you transferring files to the server that you know will be duplicated because when DE kicks in it can put a load on the processor.

I use only Quad Core Processor in all builds with exception to the desktop I just built which has an FX 8 core processor which I am evaluating.

_________________
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


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:29 pm 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
I might have managed to get my hands on a free E5405 which should be ideal for testing and figuring out if a L5408 will suit my needs or not. I'm going to spend a few days and see if i can track down a free WHS2011, and if i cant i'll order one. Should have it by the end of next week, hopefully.
Will still have to decide if i should part with the SAS drives in favor for 2.5" sATA's and larger capacity, my gut feeling is that that is the right move, it should bring noise and heat levels down, as well as the first drive will make for more storage space then all 6 does right now.

I'll drop an update here as i get on, i guess. Cheers. Thanks for tossing the ball back and fourth with me.
B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 6:45 pm 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:10 pm
Posts: 5157
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks: 86
Thanked: 704 times in 682 posts
They do make larger 2.5" Drives and they are now hitting the 1 TB territory and who knows may have passed that. The 2.5" drives consume less energy but the 3.5" Drives offer greater storage capacity and tend to run faster.

What you need to really do is figure out how much capacity you need today and how much you may need later then you can better determine what drives you want to go with. I do encourage you to spend sometime giving this a lot of thought because if you get addicted to media and want high quality video your going to require quite a bit of drive capacity so you may want to start with the larger then 2TB Drives. But if your needs will never require lots of drives then just factor in some future growth.

Worse thing here is when you but a bunch of small capacity drives only to have to replace them with larger capacity drives down the road. The other thing to keep in mind is that with the larger drives you will need fewer drive which will reduce the heat and power consumption your concerned with.

_________________
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


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:50 pm 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
You can get a 2TB WD Green series in the 2.5" format, so the drive availability isn't the issue. I would much rather go with 3.5" drives they are about half the price for the same performance / storage capacity. For the difference in price you could runt the system for years. But i don't really have any choice, my freebie ML350 came with the 2.5" SAS hotswap cage, meaning there is room to mount 8 2.5" drives in it. I guess i could snoop around and try to find the 6 slots 3.5" "other" part this system could come equipped with, but what little peeking iv'e done seams to indicate these are harder to locate, and caddies for the drives are even worse.

Anyway, it's down the line. I can start of small, and use the SAS drives to get a feel for what it does, and how it works out. And the first 2 sATA drives i want to add i can simply grab the much easier to find 2.5" caddies (i got to dummies) and hook em up. So, at least for a while, it shouldn't be an issue. (I hope;- )
B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:49 pm 
Offline
Moderator
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:10 pm
Posts: 5157
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks: 86
Thanked: 704 times in 682 posts
I see a 6 bay drive cage on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Compaq-41398 ... 53f72c2d6b

Also see drive trays http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-HP-3-5- ... 4ac1016ba6

Not sure they are correct for your server but they do indicate ML350 Compatability

_________________
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


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 4:10 am 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
Wrong part numbers, but i'm trying a email to see if they know anything about it.
Could simply be European/US market?
Thanks for them links, i'll see what it turns out to.
B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
PostPosted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 4:26 pm 
Offline
1.5TB storage
1.5TB storage

Joined: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:26 pm
Posts: 83
Location: Helsingborg, Sweden.
Thanks: 0
Thanked: 3 times in 3 posts
Pretty much got this thing ready to start stuffing drives in to, and i find someone who wants to pay me good money for it. Needless to say, i sold it. A tiny bit of the money will go towards a new project, but most of it will go in to my savings account. Going to start a new thread fishing for input on the new system, and ideas on how to finish that of properly. This setup, however, never came to be.

B!


Top
 Profile  
Thanks  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 14 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group