[geeks] [rescue] little low-wattage servers

[Mark Benson]

On 24 Jan 2012, at 17:34, Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at gmail.com> wrote:

> My MicroServer arrived today, doing a test install of Windows Server
> 2008 R2 from a USB DVD, progressing fine.

Excelllent.

> Seems a bit snug inside, but it all fits and looks like it has decent
airflow,

Open the door while it's running. That big fan in the back moves a crap-ton of
air and the whole thing is designed for thru-flow. It is cosy which makes
maintenance of the board interesting at times. Mine has a Radeon fanless gfx
card in that probably generates more heat than the CPU - no heat issues here!

> I wanted to up the memory, but I had a hard time with the "custom"
> (AKA most-likely a standard connector I'm not familiar with) SATA data
> connector, so I'm gonna leave the thing as-is for now and see how it
> runs (noise, heat, etc). Anyone know the right way to remove that 4x
> SATA connector from the MB? Squeeze and pull didn't quite do it, but
> may not have used enough force...

That is a pain, yeah. There's a knack to it. I think I slipped a thin flat
blade screwdriver down the outside of the metal holding tab. I think the metal
clip doesn't compress far enough to release it fully.

AFAIK that's a standard SATA raid connector for 4-channel RAID arrays.

> Also, it appears I need to supply my own SATA cable from the MB to the
> optical bay on top, is that correct?

Yup. The Optical drive is optional. You'll need to provide a molex to SATA
adapter for it too unless they updates the loom fromm the N36L.

> Now I need to figure out what to do with the copy of WHS2011 that
> saved me $50 on the combo deal...

eBay it from 50 bucks... ;)

--
Mark Benson

http://markbenson.org/blog