Q: Do it come with the cd rom drive or does it have to be added like past generations?

No CD or DVD drive is included.\\ Be carful about which one you get. It has to be shorter than most. I have read that a good one is the Panasonic/Matshita UJ-262 9.5mm SATA Blu Ray Burner Drive. 9.5mm is the tallest that will fit if I understand correctly.

Question 1

Can someone tell me if the drive trays included with this when it ships are just blanks (in other words unable to just slap a drive in it) or if they are empty trays that you can add any 3.5" hard drive to any of the 4 trays?

Accepted Answer

It with empty trays which can hold hard drives. You need to use the trays to line it up properly. Also bay slots 0 and 1 are 6gb sata, slots 2 and 3 are 3gb sata (all four slots not hot swappable).

I've set mine up booting to 2.5" ssd connected to internal sata interface normally used for DVD to allow use of all four bays for data volumes. I placed ssd inside where dvdrom would mount. You can also boot to internal sd for VMware esxi.

Question 2

Do it come with the cd rom drive or does it have to be added like past generations?

Accepted Answer

No CD or DVD drive is included.\
Be carful about which one you get.  It has to be shorter than most.

I have read that a good one is the Panasonic/Matshita UJ-262 9.5mm SATA Blu Ray Burner Drive.

9.5mm is the tallest that will fit if I understand correctly.

Question 3

can you upgrade the cpu?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Gen8 has been shown running with intel's e3-1265l v2 upgraded processor. It's thermal spec is around 45W, which is above the maximum capacity stated for this server, but it works and so long as you don't do things like video processing it shouldn't be a problem.  I'm waiting for the price to drop on this chip before I upgrade my own server.

There's also an e3-1220l V2 processor that will basically give you hyper-threading over the current G2020T processor.  It only uses 17W so is well within range, but doesn't provide enough of a power boost for my liking.

Check out Intel's ARK site for a spec search for compatible processors:

Question 4

Two questions:

1). This is obviously meant to be a headless appliance, but can a monitor be attached if desired? I don't see a video socket on the box.

2). Is the RAID configuration "split-able"? Can I configure two bays and the first RAID set and the remaining two bays as a second, independent RAID unit?

Accepted Answer

Hello!

1). Yes it has a VGA port on the back for you to plug a monitor in.

2). The raid configuration is a bit confusing at times as HP doesn't do UIs very well but yes you can configure different raids per disk even you have complete control. However my recommendation would be to use Windows Storage Spaces instead (software raid) unless you absolutely want a hardware raid.

Question 5

Please reply with compatible memory brands/SKUs that worked for you - the HP brand is a bit pricey and overkill for freeNAS?
  Thanks!!

Accepted Answer

I used 2 x Kingston ValueRAM 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9S/4G from newegg.  Works great, no issues....only reboots are forced by Microsoft as I'm running Plex on a Windows Home Server 2011 copy.

Question 6

Can it be used with 2.5" drives/SSDs? I'm thinking about making one of these an ESXi testing environment, but would like to run SSDs in it. I'm concerened that using a typical 3.5 to 2.5 adapter will not put that SATA connector in the right spot...?

Accepted Answer

I have an SSD running the OS and the other three are 2TB HDD. I used a Newer Technology AdaptaDrive 2.5" to 3.5" Drive Converter Bracket and it worked fine. You are correct about it having to have the SATA connetor in a certaint area. This worked for me, SSD to the Newer Tech bracket and said bracket to the supplied HP HDD adaptor to slide into the bay. Check out the Gen 8 Micro Server form at homeservershowREOVETHISAND ADD THE MISSINGDOTcom/forums/index.php?/forum/88-gen-8/
For more info too.

Question 7

HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 Ultra Micro Tower Server System Intel Pentium G2020T 2.5GHz   are x86 or x64 ?

Accepted Answer

I run windows server 2012 essentials X64 on mine. Love it.

Question 8

what is the weight?

Accepted Answer

The Gross weight stated on the box is 20lbs

Questions & Answers