Looking for a replacement for a HP N54L

[ovizii]

Any recommendations to replace it with something more up-to-date?

I'm looking at the following criteria:

- similar size (6 drive bays are OK, 8 would be great but unrealistic in this size)
- similar power usage
- slightly more processing power
- ideally able to use more than 16GB of RAM
- price-wise the N54L was awesome, not sure anything comes close though...

Open to build my own, any suggestions for cases/mainboards which fit these criteria?

 

[Dice]

Have you looked into the FreeNAS mini?
https://www.ixsystems.com/freenas-mini/

 

[ovizii]

Looks awesome but from what I can see the 4-bay version with "nothing but RAM" in it is basically 999$ which is about 4x as much as aN54L but yes, this is more or less what I was looking for expect maybe something slightly less expensive.

 

[Dice]

The sooner you'd become used to the thought of a FreeNAS machine being quite a bit more expensive than u'd hope, the better.

In the budget range indicated, I cannot recall a setup that beats a Qnap box in terms of budget.
But what you get under the hood on that budget - is not even close to comparable to the Qnap.

If you didnt already - read this (it is slightly outdated due to the arrival of Skylake x11 CPu's, so some model names have changed to more or less the same price. RAM has dropped though.)
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ll-a-proper-home-freenas-setup-cost-me.28936/

 

[gpsguy]

While not the form factor of the NxxL series, the 2 budget servers these days are Dell's T20 and Lenovo's TS-140. For most of the summer, the Dell was selling for $179 in the US, it's now $279. Both come with 4GB of RAM, so you'd need to upgrade it. You are limited to 4x3.5" drives. Watch Ben's Bargains to see what's on sale - http://bensbargains.com/search/server/?sr=1

If you want to build something using a mini-ITX motherboard, you're limited to a couple of Asrock and Supermicro motherboards. As I recall the latter is quite expensive, as is RAM for it. Here's a thread regarding DIY versions of the FreeNAS Mini XL - https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/freenas-mini-xl-hardware.42514/

 

[ovizii]

Thanks guys, I'll look into all these options.

The motivation behind my question is that I will probably outgrow my N54L in terms of RAM and processing power as I'd like to switch to the upcoming freenas 10 version and start using some virtual machines so my current hardware is a bit slow and has not enough RAM for my use. Other than that I'm perfectly happy with the N54L. Aiming for sometime next year so I was just window shopping to hear what's out there.

 

[Dice]

Window shopping is the best shopping. Satisfying curiosity without expenditures.
Worst part is, sometimes it gets all too real and you end up buying stuff you'd up until recently not even fantasized about owning.

Been there, done that, SC847.

 

[danb35]

Been there, done that, SC847.

Right you are! I was just looking for an 846 chassis, ended up buying a dual E5 server in an 847. Ah well, at least I should have room to grow for a while...

 

[SweetAndLow]

Same thing happens to me. I had a nice node304 build then next thing I know I have a sc846 and e5 system. I'm even thinking of topping it if with 128GB of memory.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Stux]

Hehe.

I was planning a MiniXL scale build. Next thing you know, E5-1650 in a 24 bay case ;)

Still planning a MiniXL scale build, but with XeonD. Just need the damn case :(

 

[Dice]

I'm even thinking of topping it if with 128GB of memory.

I was on a 48GB Skylake build, then I went full retard and got an X8, 847 kit.. AND bumped ram from 24 to 144GB...

 

[SLIMaxPower]

ML10v2, 32gb ecc + e3-1231 v3 cpu

Powered by MaxPower

 

[ovizii]

ML10v2, 32gb ecc + e3-1231 v3 cpu

Powered by MaxPower

This sounds very much like what I was asking for, seems to have 6 bays for HDs, the processor is way better than what I have:Intel® Xeon® Processor E3-1220 v3, 32GB of RAm is twice what I have now.

The price is close to the HP N54L.

@SLIMaxPower what power supply do you have in use and do you have any idea how much power your build draws in idle/full-power mode? Feel free to share more details about your built by PM if you don't feel like disclosing them here.