Ask HN: What's your favorite small server?

#1

Post by IbJacked » Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 11:06 AM UTC

I'm replacing an old system that resembles Frankenstein's monster, one that I have been using as a FreeNAS server off and on for a few years.

I want to modernize the system, and so far my top pick is a Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 70A4001LUX which nets me a system using ECC memory and 4 drive bays (OS would boot off an internal usb connector). The drive bays are not hot-swappable, and a bit awkward, but I can live with that. All for only about $350.

I'm looking for a home FreeNAS box, something with ECC memory, minimum of 4 drive bays (more and hot swappable would be nice-to-haves), quiet operation, enough power to transcode video on demand when using Plex media server.

What are your favorites?

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite small server?

#2

Post by svennek » Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 2:13 PM UTC

In short... Proliant Micro Servers (the black "g7" not the silvery g8's)...

Cheap, 4 bays, ECC mem and an (optional) mangement card... but I don't know if it is fast enough for you (probably not....)

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite small server?

#3

Post by ahazred8ta » Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 3:16 PM UTC

For reference: the google results -- http://google.com/search?q=%22small+server%22+%22hot-swappab...

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite small server?

#4

Post by IbJacked » Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 5:12 PM UTC

ahazred8ta wrote: post #3

For reference: the google results -- http://google.com/search?q=%22small+server%22+%22hot-swappab...

Thanks, but I was hoping to get a feel for what HN crowd might be using, to see if there are some systems that keep coming up.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite small server?

#5

Post by IbJacked » Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 5:16 PM UTC

svennek wrote: post #2

In short... Proliant Micro Servers (the black "g7" not the silvery g8's)... Cheap, 4 bays, ECC mem and an (optional) mangement card... but I don't know if it is fast enough for you (probably not....)

Thanks! I've seen a few comments that also mention the Proliants, people seem pretty satisfied with them. And it might not be too slow, my current Plex server is my 2010 MacBook Pro.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite small server?

#6

Post by Aheinemann » Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 9:46 PM UTC

HP N54L.

4x 3.5" internal drive-bays with trays (no hot-swap), 1 External 5.25" bay, 1 internal 3.5" bay, 2 PCI-E, 8 GByte ECC, takes 4 TB drives, 6 external USB2, 1 external E-Sata, 1 GB/s NIC. There is an HP-ILO Card for out-of-band servive - access to bios, power down. 1 internal usb (could boot OS from USB...)

excellent VPN / and storage server (VPN ~ 340 MBit/s AES 256 throughput) (put VPN Server in virtual machine)

mini-server ist suff. powerful to run data server at high speed. 5x4 TB raw ~ 16 TByte Raid 5 storage size, 1 additional external hot spare possible.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favorite small server?

#7

Post by IbJacked » Sun, Oct 26, 2014, 11:37 PM UTC

Aheinemann wrote: post #6

HP N54L. 4x 3.5" internal drive-bays with trays (no hot-swap), 1 External 5.25" bay, 1 internal 3.5" bay, 2 PCI-E, 8 GByte ECC, takes 4 TB drives, 6 external USB2, 1 external E-Sata, 1 GB/s NIC. There is an HP-ILO Card for out-of-band servive - access to bios, power down. 1 internal usb (could boot OS from USB...) excellent VPN / and storage server (VPN ~ 340 MBit/s AES 256 throughput) (put VPN Server in virtual mach…

There seems to be a lot of love for these things. It's hard to give up the 4-core xeon and the lower price of the TS140, definitely food for thought. Thanks!

Edit: Based on the reviews, it looks like it has previously been on sale for as little as $229 after rebates, which would make it a much easier choice than the current $399.