Power consumption
1. HTPC with i3 2100 processor will consume around 80W-120W.

2. N36L(NAS) around 50W-60W max + Media Player 8W-10W

This post has been edited by wwkkww: Sep 9 2012, 09:19 AM

In addition..
N36L has a 35W TDP and Passmark of 798.
Under heavy load a maximum of 45-50W.

oh interesting. thanks!

Which Atom and mobo are you planning to get?

I'm a little old school. I prefer to run the hardisk in the NAS without power down. It's better and less stressful for the hardisk.

That's true but even then, you'd still find some problems playing certain files. Best, most powerful and most configurable is to run a HTPC connected to the TV. The trick is to get a low powered, small but powerful enough to play your files. The N36L or N40L (if you're willing to fork out extra) fits that bill nicely. Put in a HD 6450 graphics card and it can double up as a NAS and a HTPC.

Nowadays, raw CPU power is mostly not required to decode files. Perhaps only the older types might rely on brute CPU power but the trick to smooth playback of newer files is in the graphic card.

Bought my first N36L for RM 999 also. That time they give HP mouse, HP keyboard and HP DVDROM (not that I needed all of these). For the RM 699 price, they only give you the HP DVDROM but they upgrade from 1GB to 2GB memory.

You can find them at those nicely decorated HP reseller shops in Mid Valley, Low Yat Plaza or Digital Mall. At the moment, it looks like HP is clearing old stock of the N36L. Newspaper say that the N40L is around RM 1.4k thereabouts but to me, just a modest upgrade in the CPU and bus speed does not warrant double the price. Strange thing is I tried to look up for the N40L in those shops but everyone says no stock.

Not that it makes a lot of difference but the official Passmark scores are 803.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php...+N36L+Dual-Core

This post has been edited by jchue73: Sep 10 2012, 01:11 AM

Planned on the latest D2500HN or DN2800MT, but I won't be getting it so soon, probably another few more months.
I feels the old N230 (Intel D945GCLF) still can serve me well, just very slow.
And, it's pretty hard to sell off this junk, no one gonna use a slow old hag, and this also coupled with a PCI gigabit network card for one hell of transfer speed
Next upgrade probably will be coupled the board with PCI(-E) SATA card, since the new Intel Atom now has gigabit network port ready

Just notice the DN2800MT is uses different power input approach

You may need an expansion card for more sata ports on an atom platform. I seen some atom platfroms with 6 sata ports, but is sold on amazon/newegg. Cant seem to find them locally.

Hi,

From the specification sheet, the N36L only support maximum 8TB and 8GB memory. Can we really go beyond 8TB and 8GB memory?

The D2500HN and the DN2800MT looks to be decently priced. I'm curious how many hardisk are you planning to run? These boards look to be more suited for HTPC use than for NAS since it only has 2 SATA ports. Paying that
much just for 2 SATA ports is not worth it.

I too am fond of using old hardware. Too much sentimental values. Anyway, I find that trying to maintain old hardwares to work better by updating them sometimes end up costing more than just getting a new platform. Some more their performance will not be as good as a new platform after being updated.

Anyway, interested to know what throughput you're getting from your network card. PCI theretical max is 133MB/s.

This one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813153212

Nice find but Newegg sells them for USD 205. That's RM 640 without shipping, without casing and without memory and without boot drive ! Furthermore, the Atom D525 is way lower in terms of CPU power compared to N36L (PassMark 714 vs 803).

If you're willing to go for the Atom D525, might as well get Acer's Revo RC111 that gives you 2GB memory, 1TB hardisk, 4 bays (albeit one bay taken up by the 1TB hardisk), 1 x gigabit port etc for RM 1159. The cube chassis is slightly smaller than the N36L / N40L.

Yes they do on both. I'm currently running 4 x 3TB = 12TB hardisk space and 2 x 8GB = 16GB memory in one of my N36L. I believe if you can find 4TB hardisk, the N36L can even support 16TB.

When the N36L came out, that was back in 2010. Largest hardisk were 2TB. So therefore officially, the largest supported was 4 x 2TB = 8TB.

On memory, if I'm not wrong, there were no 8GB DDR3 memory module DIMMs back in 2010. Largest was 4GB and therefore officially, max is 2 x 4GB = 8GB. Anyway, you'll find reports that some 8GB DDR3 memory modules from some manufacturers are not compatible with the N36L or N40L for that matter. I can safely say that the 2 x 8GB Kingston DDR3 memory modules work in the N36L. I've read reports that while some memories work in the N36L, the N40L is a little more picky and that detection of 2 pieces of 8GB DIMMs were a hit or a miss. After several reboots, only 1 can be detected and sometimes if you're lucky, both can be detected.

I plan on 4 SATA hard disk, that's as much as my chassis with 4-in-3 module can hold, I don't think the expansion card is expensive (PCI SATA). I may go for the lowest D2500HN, does not really needs DN2800MT extra features.

My current setup able to transfer up to 60MB/s from my Intel Atom to my main PC, back is quite slow, only about 30MB/s, which does not really bother me much, only transfer from it most of it time.
The speed is pretty much depends on the hard disk speed, my previous one is WDC 1TB Green, slowest that I got is 20MB/s on average, that was when it's about to die, I haven test on the current hard disk which is Samsung HD203WI, should be plentiful faster.

And my setup is Seagate 500GB used as system, programs and some other misc downloads, the huge movie, music will always goes to the larger hard disk (now is 2TB). Currently only 2 hard disk, the PCI slot is for DLink Gigabit network card.

Was researching for this type of Atom board as well, but found it's really hard to bring in to Malaysia, includes the tax and custom, might as well just buy the branded NAS system.

Possible to buy N36L online? I'm from Penang, is there any HP reseller shop in Penang selling this? Thx.

Thanks for your clarification. Guess I will go and hunt the N36L during weekend at LYP while stock at last.

according to cpubenchmark.net the E350 is ~75 points less then the N36L, however I am quite sure it can easily saturate a gigabit LAN anyway. Depends on what other background processes you are running I guess.

If anybody out there looking for a NAS and can get the RM699 price I can tell you that is a real bargain. Slap in a free OS like FreeNAS or Ubuntu and presto! Enterprise grade server.

I am using 3TB hard drives in my N40L right now with no issue what so ever (the N36L and N40L is exactly the same except for the lightly faster processor in the N40L). The 16GB memory is a hit or miss thing. Some users manage to get them working some didnt. But unless you are running very special NAS environments, I hardly think you will hit a RAM performance bottleneck in the either model. Most likely it will be the CPU bottleneck before the RAM. As comparison Qnap highest end model have a maximum of 4GB.

This post has been edited by CocoMonGo: Sep 10 2012, 09:45 PM

I must qualify myself and explain a little more in detail. For support over 4GB memory, you would require x64 OS (64 bit).

Sorry, I missed that info you given earlier. Yeah PCI SATA cards are cheap and it's just at the limit to saturate gigabit speeds. You need to check compatibility with the PCI SATA card because they are usually much older and would probably not support the newer hardisk.

That's true. But, computer got tax?

Can you try the numbers below?

http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/kungfup...rs_p_pinang.pdf

I'm not familiar with Penang but the shop facade must look decorated like this;



I think if you're just running it as a storage server, should be fine. The E-350 is actually quite famous for HTPC usage though because of the built-in HD 6310 GPU.

Oh, if anybody wants to have enterprise support from HP, one can opt for the HP Care Packs for the Microserver.

This post has been edited by jchue73: Sep 10 2012, 10:04 PM

Thanks for your reminder. Most probably I will opt for Win 2008 Data Center 64bit and run Hyper-V. But I doubt the processor can support 3 Hyper-V.

Yes they can. The N36L / N40L are x64 processors are come with Virtualization technology built-in which are critical for Hyper-V. Just don't expect enterprise grade performance. Home usage is fine.

Well, I think should be fine since I just plan to run a 2 debian continuously and another win 7 for testing purpose.

[quote=jchue73,Sep 10 2012, 10:03 PM]
When the N36L came out, that was back in 2010. Largest hardisk were 2TB. So therefore officially, the largest supported was 4 x 2TB = 8TB.

On memory, if I'm not wrong, there were no 8GB DDR3 memory module DIMMs back in 2010. Largest was 4GB and therefore officially, max is 2 x 4GB = 8GB. Anyway, you'll find reports that some 8GB DDR3 memory modules from some manufacturers are not compatible with the N36L or N40L for that matter. I can safely say that the 2 x 8GB Kingston DDR3 memory modules work in the N36L. I've read reports that while some memories work in the N36L, the N40L is a little more picky and that detection of 2 pieces of 8GB DIMMs were a hit or a miss. After several reboots, only 1 can be detected and sometimes if you're lucky, both can be detected.
[/quote]

I must qualify myself and explain a little more in detail. For support over 4GB memory, you would require x64 OS (64 bit).
Sorry, I missed that info you given earlier. Yeah PCI SATA cards are cheap and it's just at the limit to saturate gigabit speeds. You need to check compatibility with the PCI SATA card because they are usually much older and would probably not support the newer hardisk.
That's true. But, computer got tax?
Can you try the numbers below?

http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/kungfup...rs_p_pinang.pdf

I'm not familiar with Penang but the shop facade must look decorated like this;


I think if you're just running it as a storage server, should be fine. The E-350 is actually quite famous for HTPC usage though because of the built-in HD 6310 GPU.
Oh, if anybody wants to have enterprise support from HP, one can opt for the HP Care Packs for the Microserver.

[/quote]

TQ so much for the info, appreciate it.

Bro, this list is out dated liao. Many no more selling HP products.

Sorry lah. That's all I can find. I do not work for HP and neither am I a Penang lang.

Anyway, you can always walk into the big shopping malls and I'm sure you'll come across those dedicated HP shops that sells HP notebooks and desktops. Chances they have the Microserver is very high.

Last time my HP microserver also bought from lowyat Plaza in KL.
In Pg the HP sales person dun even know what you are talking about also.