[mightyw]

Hi folks

I'm having real trouble getting my XFX HD 6450 to work on WHS 2011 on this machine. I plug in the card, boot up the machine and see nothing from a directly connected display. I can, assuming the boot process goes fine, access the desktop via remode desktop and it shows the machine working perfectly and the card installed, but no directly connected monitors work. I was using the latest Win7 drivers for it. I assume you plug the monitor into the card's slot, not the onboard. Neither work for me, though.

Have I done something wrong? Installed the incorrect drivers? Is there a step I've missed? Couldn't see anything obvious in the bios that I needed to change before installing.

[Zfish]

An excellent thread - thanks all

I built an HP N36L with WHS, XBMC and XFX Radeon HD6450, and had lots of trouble with tearing/stuttering ripped Bluray M2TS files, although SD or 720p video was fine.

What eventually fixed it was uninstalling the whole Catalyst suite and reverting to Catalyst 11.5 (thanks again QLink!)

To be sure I downloaded from the xfxforce.com. The install package was called 11-5_vista64_win7_64_dd_ocl.exe - about 87Mb.

On reboot, the nag screen about 'catalyst not supported with this display adapter' appears - just uninstall the AMD Vison Engine Control Center.

This leaves the ATI Display Driver v8.850.0.0000 and the HDMI/DP Audio Driver v7.12.0.7701 installed.

In XBMC, make sure to have DXVA2 switched on.

The only other difference in my setup is I run DSPlayer (the alternate DirectShow media player in XBMC), which didn't particularly improve tearing.

If you are too, ensure you choose AMD HDMI output audio renderer and the VMR9 renderer in XBMC/System/Video/DSPlayer. For me that's got rid of ripped Blu-ray tearing for good.

Hope this helps someone!

[JoeMoon]

Since several people in this thread are running WHS2011, just wondering if anyone might have a solution for the question I posted in the Windows Support forum regarding WHS and XBMC official remote app:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=133849

I just got the N40L with WHS2011. Even with just the onboard graphics, everything seems to be running fine for XBMC (of course, no sound!). I've got more memory, an HDMI graphics card and 2TB drives on the way.

[Digital Vortex]

power consumption:
under idle my N36L with above mentioned config is using ~36W and under heavy load a maximum of 45-50W.
idle results should als lower down with the whs2011 AddIn "Lights Out" but i haven't measured this yet.
update: idle with spun down drives: 24,3W

The above is a quote from the first post. I have an N40L running WHS2011 and everything else as it comes out of the box (no extra drives or graphics card). Mine uses 16watts when shutdown fully and 46watts when running idle. I haven't even added my storage drives and graphics card yet and the power use is so high.

I have seen other reports of N40L's with 4 green drives and no graphics card idling at 15watts but this seems impossible for mine.Does anyone know why it is using so much power?

This sounds about right, but I think the reason it's running so high is that the default drive is a relatively high speed drive (7200rpm) and green drives are lower than this, and spin down when idle.. (higher RPM drives use more power) My power draw is about the same, I have 3 green drives and a 1 TB 7200 system drive.. and it idles around 30W and just under 50W when busy.

People have had a lot of issues with the default drive, I wouldn't use it, but if you want to lower your power consumption, you could try looking into a PICO PSU - have a search in the Overclockers Oz forums (http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showth...08&page=43)
Have a look here too: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showpo...count=2153
You'll need a PICO Psu, a power adapter brick, and several Molex splitters - so it will take several years to 'pay for itself' if you're looking to save money. For me the benefit would be to eliminate the noise from the power supply fan. (If yours has some!)

[nagachendur]

I just bought HP micro server N40L. I wonder if I can use my old Compaq laptop's ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics card with this machine. If yes can you guide me how? I may stupid asking this?

[QLink]

i don't see how you could use a laptop gfx card in a desktop pc. laptop gfx cards are first of all most of the time onboard so there is definitly no chance to use it in a normal pc. however there are some laptops out there, which have removeable gfx cards using a mxm port, but although i don't know it exactly, i hardly believe you can buy an adapter to use a mxm laptop gfx card on a pcie slot al all.

so in my judgement you can't use your laptops gfx card. better buy a low profile HD6450 and you're fine ;o)

[twe69]

Hi guys, been a while, but am tempted to swap from Windows Home Server 2011 to XBMC Live on my N40L with AMD 6450....

Do you think this is a good idea at all? Is there a build spcifically for this hardware?

I mainly use it at the moment to stream movies via dnla (Serviio), storage drop for the laptop and then locally use xbmc......

Thanks.

[cable_guy]

Hi Twe, I use XBMC Live Dharma on my Microserver and it runs like a dream, it's not specifically for the chip.

Funnily enough i'm tempted to go the other way, come from XBMC Live to Windows, to see if I can put Hyper-V on it and run XBMC Windows version alongside some VMs running in the Hyper V Role. I have no idea what the performance would be like tho

[Tozmo]

I started a table on the Wikia that is an attempt to continue the OC Google doc of everyone's configurations. Wikia has a crappy built-in table ability, and the page doesn't really "work" because all the right side crap can't be removed from a free page.

Please add your own configs to the table, and update the new Expansion Card page so that we know what does and doesn't work for port multiplying and the like.

http://n40l.wikia.com/wiki/Owner_Spreadsheet

Thanks!

[Brampieke]

Dear,

I want to buy an N40L to use as a XBMC or Plex server.
Do I need the same grafics card as you described
"CLUB3D Radeon HD 6450 Noiseless Edition"

Or is there a different version for the N40L?

The HDMI and DVI port can I use these to connect to two TVs symultanious as a splitter (both same image).


Config I would by:

- HP ProLiant N40L € 196,60
- Kingston 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC € 58,90
- Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011, 1pk, 10u, x64, DSP, OEM, ENG € 50,60
- CLUB3D Radeon HD 6450 Noiseless Edition € 36,20
- LG BH10LS38 € 71,60

What do you think abouth this?

Brg
Bram

[QLink]

hi,

no you don't need exactly the same gfx card as i described.
take any HD6450 lowprofile card you want

the only difference between the N36L and the N40L is a 200Mhz faster CPU.

yes you can use both ports to get same image on two screens, but you won't get an audio signal through the DVI port...

your config seems to be fine, there should be no problems with these parts...

[Digital Vortex]

Config I would by:

- HP ProLiant N40L € 196,60
- Kingston 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC € 58,90
- Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011, 1pk, 10u, x64, DSP, OEM, ENG € 50,60
- CLUB3D Radeon HD 6450 Noiseless Edition € 36,20
- LG BH10LS38 € 71,60

Hi Bram, I would suggest a few hard drives! Most Microservers only come with a 250 GB hard drive.
Be prepared that some units are noisy - I have a N36 and N40.. when the N40 was in the lounge room you knew it was running (can hear hum) but the N36 is quiet/silent.

[Brampieke]

Hi QLink,

Thanks for your quick reply, is there a gfx card that has 2 hdmi ports or a way to use without using an additional splitter to use on two tv's?

---

Hi Digital Vortex,

I have already an 2TB drive in a media center that I would transfer to the N40L.
It would be placed in the storrage room on the back wall of the TV where now is already all recievers placed.

---

Any addititional drives best suted for this unit? Schould they have a specific standard to be used in the server (lifetime), low consumtion vs performence to watch movies?

[JUICESIX90]

Just bought my Microserver and currently looking into graphics cards. Like most I'll be using this primarily for xbmc and a NAS, but if I was to sneak a few games onto it, what graphics card would you recommend?

[QLink]

The maximum (from performance view) for the microserver is a Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 low profile, 1GB GDDR5.
People have reported it works without problems, although its max tdp is 44W and HP stated a max tdp of 25W for the pcie x16 slot.

so if you want more performance than a HD6450, you should give that i try, but i can't guarantee you if it will work without problems, cause i never tried it myself.
i just read about it.