Bit of a chronicle–started 6 months ago as a complete noob looking to set up Plex for myself + a few family members. Up until last week I ran Unraid on an HP-290 with one 4TB HDD. On a whim I bought this deal for an HP ML310e Gen 8 Proliant server and migrated to the recommended two-box system with the ML310e running Unraid and the HP 290 as a dedicated transcoder running Plex on baremetal.
Some thoughts on the ML310e: this thing is insanely user-friendly. It is essentially a NAS–completely plug-and-play, literally no cabling or assembly required. There are essentially four steps required from the box to get it up and running with Unraid:
Place hard drives into drive caddies and insert them into the drive cage. You need to order the caddies separately; the server comes with blanks.
Plug in Unraid flash drive (there’s an internal slot for it right on the motherboard)
Add an SSD for cache (all you need is one SATA data cable)
Change boot order in BIOS to launch from USB
There’s some additional BIOS stuff that I didn’t mess with that runs during boot–I’m sure more experienced users will have use for that functionality. I ignore it and it launches Unraid after about a minute.
Pictures
Front with all drives mounted (removing bezel requires key):
Question: if I stuck a GPU (e.g. 1060) in the server, would it be enough with the E3-1230V2 for some Unraid remote gaming? I don’t need to run Cyberpunk but it would be nice to run most games on medium.
I actually thought it was a great way to start. Aside from the case, you only need two things: drive caddys (see link above), hard drives, and (optionally but recommended) an SSD (250-500 GB). You just need to make sure you buy the right caddys/hard drives for the type of drive bay your server has: it can be 8 SFF (2.5") or 4 LFF (3.5"). You can link it and I can tell you which is which. Any SSD will work–SATA or M2 (for M2 you will need a PCIe mount which is $20).
You do not need anything else–no drive cables, no ram, no power supply, no building, etc. It’s also super easy to open up and maintain.
It will do just about anything us newbies may from a NAS except Plex transcoding. Best practice for that is to get a separate Plex transcoding box like an HP-290 (as you see in my post).
Since I posted this I’ve added a GPU and set up Unraid gaming per JDM’s guide, and this was actually quite challenging due to some BIOS issues with GPU passthrough, but I was able to figure it out and now have it up and running. I’ve also figured out how to use the ILO system, which is basically a remote management system for the server. You can go into it through a web browser just like UNRAID and can power the server on/off, update firmware, and (super cool) view the console, so you can modify boot options etc. without needing to hook up a monitor.
Feel free to DM me any questions! Happy to help out any way I can since I just did this and had a lot of fun.
Thank you so much. I build is not bad but for noob I’m leaning more towards the prebuilt. I’ll let you know once I get one of the HPs on a good deal. Once again. Thank you
ML310e V2 (mine is the regular, V1 version). I’m not sure what difference it makes but V2 is slightly newer I think.
16 GB RAM (mine was 8; I added another 16).
Comes with 2 drive caddys (mine came with none). You will need to buy the other 2 if you want to have more than 2 drives.
Ways it’s worse:
The processor looks to be substantially worse. 1220v3 vs 1230v2
Frankly, I’m not sure how much difference the processor makes; maybe @JDM_WAAAT can speak to that? It may help if you specify your use-case (what are you planning to run?).
Hello, I was surprised with what you did with this server, I recently bought one for 90 dollars, but from my little experience I thought it was enough to have my own movie server with Plex, and searching, I found that you are the only one that is better It explains how I use this PROILAN Gen8. Now, I don’t know if you can help me by answering this question, I don’t have the money for an HP 290 as a dedicated transcoder running Plex, however, if I install a graphics card, it would help the transcoder issue or nothing happens. I wait your answer. thank you so much.
I just got my hands on a ProLaint ML310 Gen8 v2. I managed to get an SSD I to the 1st bay and install Windows 10. I’m out of my element but really want to learn. Can I put in a video card to manage the transcoding, and put drives to store media in the other bays? I also have 32gb ram installed. (I got all the parts for free, including video card)
When I put in other drives windows doesn’t see them.
(I’m replacing an Intel nuc i3 with an external drive bay as my Plex server).
