Just bought Microserver rm799 with DVDwriter + free keyboard + mouse.

HP lowyat plaza. Installing MS server 2k8 R2 now

I own a hp microserver and DS411j. Microserver at my house and 411j at my office. Both served me well, but the synology is abit exp... around rm1.5k for a NAS.

the microserver with 4G ram add on and a hd5450 then it run smooth as a server. Im more on the microserver side coz it is more powerful than the synology (MS Server 2008 R2 vs Diskstation)

me too 4 x 2TB WD green... cant hear the noise at all.
try it before with 2TB hitachi & samsung, not as quiet as the WD green

My Current Setup:
1. HTPC & NAS
HP microserver w/o OS = rm800
4 x 2TB WD Green = rm250/pc
1 x MS Windows Server 2k8 R2 standard = i got it free
(optional) GPU (HD5450 / GT210) + 4GB RAM
Pros: cost effective, very customizable, speed is not bad for daily computing, Power saving, quiet and stable
Cons: Not much RAID option provided, need to setup everything by urself, the blue light from the HP logo very annoying at night

2. NAS
Synology Diskstation DS411j = rm1500
4 x 2TB Hitachi = rm300/pc
Pros: User friendly UI, quiet, power saving, wireless file transfer speed is slow but stable (better use LAN cable)
Cons: EXPENSIVE, first time RAID setup is very time consuming, my WD GREEN running on this system failed once just within 3 months and u need to contact online support to rescue ur data now using hitachi so far so good

i still recommend the HP Microserver more than the QNAP/Synology NAS because its almost a perfect htpc + NAS for me.
It is cheaper, easy to swap HDD (not hotswap), gigabit NIC, etc... I just recently add another usb soundcard for it. The temperature is good (i use it 24/7 in my bedroom, cant feel any heat)

Im using 4x2TB WD green (no RAID) on it and cant hear any disk spinning noise. totally SILENT
i tried the Hitachi drive and is more noisy than the wd green. i not recommend using the WD black because is too noisy when loading (hv it on my gaming desktop) and u need to have SATA 6G port. So better use those green/low rpm HDD

I tried these OS on it: FreeNAS (SLOW), Win Home Server 2011 (Nice UI), Windows 7/XP (cant find some of the driver), Win Server 2k8 R2 (currently using, almost perfect but lack of windows media center )

This post has been edited by wwkkww: Aug 27 2011, 10:42 PM

if i upgraded to DSM4.0 will all the settings gone?
how long does it take for the upgrade process?

plan to get a logitech harmony remote for xbmc purpose on a WS2008R2.
Do I need an IR receiver for it and which of them hv the driver for my os?
Any other recommendation for remote control?

currently using my ipad and my galaxy note as the remote. but to complicated for my parents to use it need to get a traditional one

anyone knows how to recover bios on a N36L, i got a RED hp after i update my bios...

i use the usb Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro + HD5450 on N36L with WinServer 2k8 R2. So far so good

I assume the N230 is more or less same with the N36L processor. On the N36L my CPU usage is average 70% while downloading with utorrent & jdownloader. Still manage to surf the web smoothly.
But while extracting some LARGE files (>5Gb) the usage is 100% and everything is lag. I have 4GB on it and i think you should add more ram to run Win Server 2008 R2. The 1GB is sure not enough.

---

Added on September 8, 2012, 2:26 pmThe codec processing happens on your TV. If all your files are dvix or rmvb i think the TV should be no problem handle it. But with MKV, TS, ISO, BDMV, with some trueHD audio then you will need a dedicated htpc/media player to process all the codecs.

I have 1 HiMedia player in my parents bedroom and it works awesome as a media player with modded firmware. Create a nice catalogue with all my NAS media files and able to handle all kinds of format. Stream China shows perfectly and sometimes can watch EPL live (work few months in China that time and this model sell like hotcakes at the mainland)

If you looking to get the best picture quality then i would suggest the ultimate solution:
HTPC + XBMC + MPC-HC +madVR + LAV
I think you will eventually come to this solution if you enjoy the HD experiece

This post has been edited by wwkkww: Sep 8 2012, 02:30 PM

Yes you can. but make sure your HTPC is on gigabit LAN and got enough sata port to become a NAS.
Just like my signature the asus H67-I mb got 6 sata port and my Q25 casing can fit up to 8 hdd and the size just fit nicely next to my 50" plasma

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