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Intel NAS Server w/ Intel Celeron 420 130$

this NAS supports only RAID 1 and 5, unless you install WHS, which requires an PCI-E 1 adaptor ribbon (for video card) and an external USB DVD-Rom (or USB thumb drive). You can get the adaptor for about $5 (you may need to modify the socket so you can use a PCI-E x16 card).
 
jlin101 said:
this NAS supports only RAID 1 and 5, unless you install WHS, which requires an PCI-E 1 adaptor ribbon (for video card) and an external USB DVD-Rom (or USB thumb drive). You can get the adaptor for about $5 (you may need to modify the socket so you can use a PCI-E x16 card).
Click to expand...

lol no. WHS can be installed headless and unattended from a USB thumb drive. No video card needed. Ever.

That said, be forewarned. The power supplies in these things are VERY sensitive. If your lines aren't very well conditioned, odds are the PSU will die on you within a couple weeks. Replacements cost more than the NAS itself.
 
I thought you have to have the -E model to do whs or freenas.
It was a year or so ago I thought about buying one of these and at that time you had to convert it and then install.
The conversion was not easy.

Is the SS4200-EHW now able to use freenas without the conversion?
 
etrin said:
I thought you have to have the -E model to do whs or freenas.
It was a year or so ago I thought about buying one of these and at that time you had to convert it and then install.
The conversion was not easy.

Is the SS4200-EHW now able to use freenas without the conversion?
Click to expand...

The -EHW is the "Hardware Only" version. The only difference is that it doesn't come with the 8GB SSD that has the Intel/EMC firmware on it (which you won't use for WHS/FreeNAS anyway). Other than that, both units are identical.
 
rfs830 said:
you can install whs with our the need of a video card. You can also run freenas on this if you like.
Click to expand...

Hmmm this is very tempting to replace my current WHS machine (overkill).
I've often wondered though how you install WHS headless. I mean don't you need a monitor to see the prompts etc? And how do you know when its done!?!?!
 
it's possible to do it headlessly, but you'd need to streamline WHS drivers into the install disc. I tried it using nlite without success (WHS's folder structure is different from XP's and Vista's). It'd be easier to buy a PCI-E 1x cable for 5 bucks.
 
Homerboy said:
Hmmm this is very tempting to replace my current WHS machine (overkill).
I've often wondered though how you install WHS headless. I mean don't you need a monitor to see the prompts etc? And how do you know when its done!?!?!
Click to expand...

The unattended setup file can do everything for you like users and even enable rdp and set the ip address of the machine. Just start it up and wait an hour or so.
 
SunnyD said:
lol no. WHS can be installed headless and unattended from a USB thumb drive. No video card needed. Ever.

That said, be forewarned. The power supplies in these things are VERY sensitive. If your lines aren't very well conditioned, odds are the PSU will die on you within a couple weeks. Replacements cost more than the NAS itself.
Click to expand...

Correct on the no video card needed.

The power supplies aren't the best quality to be sure, but I have had mine since the original sale of them at ~$140 on Amazon running 24x7 since I got it (IIRC this past spring, so 6-7 months) and no issues. My house has crap wiring, and there isn't any kind of line conditioning (outside of a Belkin power strip). That said, the PSU is crap in it.

Homerboy said:
Hmmm this is very tempting to replace my current WHS machine (overkill).
I've often wondered though how you install WHS headless. I mean don't you need a monitor to see the prompts etc? And how do you know when its done!?!?!
Click to expand...

http://www.wegotserved.com/2008/04/30/turn-your-usb-flash-drive-into-a-windows-install-disk/

It takes a few tries sometimes, but it works.

I recently modded the x1 slot so I could throw in my x16 graphics card for the Vail install (wanted to do it that way instead of unattended) with a dremel. It's not too hard, just be careful doing it.


My $.02 on this: It's a great little WHS box. I love the design, it's well engineered (outside of the PSU), and might be one of the sexiest designs I have seen in a PC. It's relatively low powered (so , you can easily upgrade to 2 gb ram and a Celeron E5200 for fairly cheap and get a very capable system.

Pros:
-Fairly cheap NAS
-Runs WHS
-Small form factor with 4 HD support
-Easily upgrade to very powerful NAS
-Realatively low power draw
-Very nice design IMHO

Cons:
-Power supply sucks and might die
-Need to modify x1 slot or get ribbon cable for video support
-With upgrade costs added in, there are many options in the ~$200 price range (sans drives)
-Lower powered options are out there
-Max of 4 drives (unless you use external enclosures)
 
SunnyD said:
That said, be forewarned. The power supplies in these things are VERY sensitive. If your lines aren't very well conditioned, odds are the PSU will die on you within a couple weeks. Replacements cost more than the NAS itself.
Click to expand...
That is just not true. I have had two running 24/7 for 11 months no problems. They are sitting in a closet. And if you are one of the very rare people with a PSU problem, they are warranted. The main problem with the very rare PSU problems is not line conditioning but people losing power. A $40 UPS with USB shutdown, which you should have with any server, handles that. Again they are warranted, and if it fails outside of warranty I am not going to sweat it since one can buy a normal PSU and stick it on the outside, it is not as if these servers are on display.

jlin101 said:
it's possible to do it headlessly, but you'd need to streamline WHS drivers into the install disc. I tried it using nlite without success (WHS's folder structure is different from XP's and Vista's). It'd be easier to buy a PCI-E 1x cable for 5 bucks.
Click to expand...
At the main forums in the Fujitsu section of Wegoteserved.com (or proably here as well) you will find people who know where to point you to the prepped slipstream with ss42 drivers and WHS install files and will share over pm. the entire thing is about 750mb. It isn't really unethical as people still need to buy their own license (unless you have technet with five WHS licenses :biggrin🙂

Installation is a breeze headless.

Installation: Extract package to usb. Edit one text file with your WHS license number. put one drive in the ss4200. put the usb stick in own of the four slots. turn it on. wait two hours. find it on your network from your pc and follow instructions. done.

I had two of these and just purchased three more. I got them for $115 as Newegg is crediting $15 for the fact it ships with no power cable.

My cost per unit for servers with three TB chock full of HD x264 content to give as Christmas presents: $115 + $50 one TB boot + $80 2TB secondary: $245. With Technet WHS purchase was not an issue

Of course you can install Vail for free. that can be done easily headless as well. Although I am sticking with WHS1.
 
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DisgruntledVirus said:
It's relatively low powered (so , you can easily upgrade to 2 gb ram and a Celeron E5200 for fairly cheap and get a very capable system.
Click to expand...

I would go with 22xx or e4300 to e4700 they are testing out perfectly stable on this and e5xxx is not.. IMHO you only need to upgrade if you will be transcoding (eg PlayOn)
.....
DisgruntledVirus said:
Cons:
-Power supply sucks and might die
-Need to modify x1 slot or get ribbon cable for video support
-With upgrade costs added in, there are many options in the ~$200 price range (sans drives)
-Lower powered options are out there
-Max of 4 drives (unless you use external enclosures)
Click to expand...

Disagree mostly.
- PSU is not that bad. My own anecdote of running two 24/7 for nearly a year. Also the new ones (I just got three) have a different model PSU than the ones form last year. Since Intel had a tech bulletin 16 months ago it is likely the batch last year may have had some with older PSUs that had problems that were taken care of.
- You do not need any mod for video support since you can do everything headless.
-I do not agree that there are many or even any decent options in the $200 range and this is $130 ($115 with neweggs discount for missing power cable). $130 for a case, psu, mb, 512 and processor?
 
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jlin101 said:
it's possible to do it headlessly, but you'd need to streamline WHS drivers into the install disc. I tried it using nlite without success (WHS's folder structure is different from XP's and Vista's). It'd be easier to buy a PCI-E 1x cable for 5 bucks.
Click to expand...
check your pm
 
I hope they get this back in stock. I got busy and forgot to order it and by that afternoon its was oos
 
JJ44 said:
That is just not true. I have had two running 24/7 for 11 months no problems. They are sitting in a closet. And if you are one of the very rare people with a PSU problem, they are warranted. The main problem with the very rare PSU problems is not line conditioning but people losing power. A $40 UPS with USB shutdown, which you should have with any server, handles that. Again they are warranted, and if it fails outside of warranty I am not going to sweat it since one can buy a normal PSU and stick it on the outside, it is not as if these servers are on display.
Click to expand...

Read what I said again. The power supplies are flaky at best. If it's not true, then please explain to me why Intel released an updated PSU for the unit (which costs about $100 to get), and why the previous vendor that had these on sale told me they were worried about finding a second source for replacement power supplies to support all the warranty requests they were getting.

I went through 2 units and 3 power supplies before I gave up. The second unit I had had the power supply die after a 10 days without interruption, with no outages at all. Even a power outage is going to cause line conditioning problems (by definition, an outage IS a line conditioning problem). Go read the Fujitsu-Seimens Scaleo Home Server forum, and you'll see this is a COMMON issue.
 
JJ44 said:
I Disagree mostly.
- PSU is not that bad. My own anecdote of running two 24/7 for nearly a year. Also the new ones (I just got three) have a different model PSU than the ones form last year. Since Intel had a tech bulletin 16 months ago it is likely the batch last year may have had some with older PSUs that had problems that were taken care of.
- You do not need any mod for video support since you can do everything headless.
-I do not agree that there are many or even any decent options in the $200 range and this is $130 ($115 with neweggs discount for missing power cable). $130 for a case, psu, mb, 512 and processor?
Click to expand...

I also haven't had any personal problems, but I have seen many people having issues due to the PSU. If this batch is using a different PSU then it's less of an issue most likely.
-Yeah everything can be done headless, but some people want to install with video. It's a possible con if you *want/need* video though, which I don't really see a point to.
-For $115 this is a great deal. At $140 it was an amazing deal (when I got mine). There are other options available though, depending on what your needs are. If you have case/psu/etc some examples:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.543707
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.543767
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.548003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboB...t=Combo.513339 <-- complete kit (sans HD) for $235. Quad core, 2 gb, PSU, case, mobo with built in graphics.

If you don't want an a PC like above and roll your own, then you most likely won't find a 4 bay NAS <$200. There is no question this is a great NAS. I have one and absolutely love it. My only complaint is that there is *only* 4 bays. If it was 6 or 8 bay it would be perfect IMHO.
 
That was quick. I was about to order one and its already on Auto-notify.

I take it that 2TB drives are the largest that these will easily work with?
 
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SunnyD said:
Read what I said again. The power supplies are flaky at best..
Click to expand...

Why don't you read what I wrote? all the new ones shipped from new egg have the new PSU!

As I said, I bought two last year and three now. One of the ones from I got from legend micro had the older PSU. I saw the tech service bulletin (and was first to post it on Wegotserved fujitsu forums). I called legend micro and they sent me a spare. I that spare has sat in the closet as both ss4200 I had have been running 24/7 for 11 months without a hiccup. one of 24/7 ss4200 have dual core processors, 2gb of ram and fully populated with hard drives, ie max load on the psu

The ones from newgg have the newer PSU!

I actually posted all the PSU replacement possibilities (and dimensions) here last year as a caution.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=29272527&highlight=#post29272527

As it turns out I had no issues, and neither did 95&#37; of buyers. and almost all the fails were within days on burn in and there were replacements from legend.

SunnyD said:
and why the previous vendor that had these on sale told me they were worried about finding a second source for replacement power supplies to support all the warranty requests they were getting.
Click to expand...
The ebay vendor you are referring to got a got a dump of old Ehw which they converted to E by, well how to put it: bootlegging the software. Theirs did not have intel warranties, these do.

So dont say the supplier had a hard time getting PSU. They were selling gray market self warranted ss4200 (the bulk of whcih worked fine) while this post is a fully warranted newer run model, ok?

You do realize the devices on this post is fully warranted by Intel for three years and they will send you a PSU for free if you are one of the very rare failures?
 
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SniperWulf said:
That was quick. I was about to order one and its already on Auto-notify.

I take it that 2TB drives are the largest that these will easily work with?
Click to expand...

AFAIK, yes.

Also, if you use WHS remember that it's based off server 2003 which means no WD Advanced format drives. So, if you buy those make sure to either jumper the drive or use WD Align tool.
 
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