**Home Lab** Secondary "Server Room" Advice

[Whistler]

There's a list of tower servers in this post here from a recent thread.

 

As for the ML350, you'd probably be better off selling it on ebay (I've no idea for what price but do a completed/sold search and it should give you a good idea).

 

I'm about to list it on eBay. Putting the price as £125 - I'll try my luck.

[XiJ]

With regards to LED lights i looked at the market about 18 months ago and found that Philips hue while expensive had easier / better integration and a slicker UI. The market has changed - but with the launch of white lamps @ £15 I find the hue range good value. I have a mix of white and colour lamps.

 

For the Cat5 yeah thinking about it, the Ethernet -> hdmi devices want cat6 if it's a single cable. And to be honest, I'm using cat 6 in my house even though it's probably not really necessary for me.

[burgemaster]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. After replying to everyone, I seem I may have quoted multiple people into a single reply, sorry!

 

I'm thinking of selling my ML350 now, and getting another Microserver. I lose the ability to do RAID 5 natively without a card, and I'm always hesitant to go with Software RAID. I want the solution to be as low power as possible, with after consulting all replies the G5 seems to be out of the question! I've always had a love-hate relationship with that machine, however it's more suited to eBay I think in hindsight. Anyone know what spec Microserver I ought to go for? At the minute, I've got an N54L, 6GB RAM, P410 RAID and 8x Drives in (mixture of 2.5 SSD and HDD). Would be replicating 3x VMs, with one additional VM hosted on that machine for a Windows 7 Workstation with Graphics Passthrough for a workstation.

 

Thanks again everyone and again apologies if I've slightly messed up the replies!

 

It's a great forum this is, kudos given to everyone who's contributed!

 

Whistler.

I run 6 disks on my HP microserver using server 2012 and storage spaces. Speed hasn't been an issue so I stopped looking for a raid card.

 

If your looking at getting another they do crazy cashback offers every now and again. I think I got mine for £140 (ebuyer) and then got £100 cashback from HP.

[Whistler]

With regards to LED lights i looked at the market about 18 months ago and found that Philips hue while expensive had easier / better integration and a slicker UI. The market has changed - but with the launch of white lamps @ £15 I find the hue range good value. I have a mix of white and colour lamps.

 

For the Cat5 yeah thinking about it, the Ethernet -> hdmi devices want cat6 if it's a single cable. And to be honest, I'm using cat 6 in my house even though it's probably not really necessary for me.

 

Thanks for the info. Looks like it'll be easier to run Cat 6. I may run two cables just because I can I guess, however will depend on how much cable I have left at such time. I'll take a look at the Hue range as you suggested.

 

Whistler.

[Whistler]

I run 6 disks on my HP microserver using server 2012 and storage spaces. Speed hasn't been an issue so I stopped looking for a raid card.

 

If your looking at getting another they do crazy cashback offers every now and again. I think I got mine for £140 (ebuyer) and then got £100 cashback from HP.

Do you have a G7 or G8 Microserver? I prefer the G7 due to it having the extra drive physical capacity (i.e more physical drives) per unit than the G8 can support. I may look to get a G8 due to the improved processors however for the new build outside. I haven't really looked at Storage Spaces, however will look to do so at some point. I'll keep tabs on eBuyer!

 

Thanks,

 

Whistler.

[jmak]

I quite liked the look of one of these as an alternative to an HP microserver:

 

https://www.serversdirect.co.uk/p/1027832/dell-poweredge-t0-xeon-e3-15v3-3.-ghz-4gb-ram-1tb-hdd-tower-server

 

They also had 3 year nbd warranty available for £19.95

[computer_expert]

Do you have a G7 or G8 Microserver? I prefer the G7 due to it having the extra drive physical capacity (i.e more physical drives) per unit than the G8 can support. I may look to get a G8 due to the improved processors however for the new build outside. I haven't really looked at Storage Spaces, however will look to do so at some point. I'll keep tabs on eBuyer!

 

Thanks,

 

Whistler.

 

The community comes to the rescue....HP Microserver Gen8 Drive Bracket and other mods – Home Server Show

 

The last few times I looked the xeons for the gen8 microserver were like hens teeth or very expensive on this side of the pond. If you are going for drive count (and not too worried about noise or power consumption) something like a 12 bay Dell R510 would be a good bet too.

[burgemaster]

I just used velcro pads for the SSDs lol

[CAWJames]

Have you thought about the Ikea LACK range as a rack solution? Perfect 19" wide and insanely configurable, I have the coffee table bolted to the wheeled cube, houses all my amps and hi- fi gear, also have one at work, which is 2 coffee tables foot to foot, so one base is on the floor, then some cheap castors from ToolStation, and I have a double height mobile rack for lesson capture (fitted it out with rack shelves) https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack oh and lots of colours too!

[Whistler]

Have you thought about the Ikea LACK range as a rack solution? Perfect 19" wide and insanely configurable, I have the coffee table bolted to the wheeled cube, houses all my amps and hi- fi gear, also have one at work, which is 2 coffee tables foot to foot, so one base is on the floor, then some cheap castors from ToolStation, and I have a double height mobile rack for lesson capture (fitted it out with rack shelves) https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack oh and lots of colours too!

 

Thanks, I may have a look at this! Happy New Year!

 

Whistler.