Topic: HP Microserver N36l, N40L, N54L SSD in the optical drive bay

[TerryF]

Just some musings relating to use of a SSD in a N54L microservers OOD using the free sata 5 connector and installing a modified bios to enable AHCI and full speed on that port.

I have had a N40L and a N54L for about three years now, installed the modded bios to the 54L approx two years ago, and have been using ESXi on a ssd along with extra HDs for storage in the 54L as my test box etc.

Have recently been playing with proxmox 4 on a new SSD and a 1tb Hd as extra storage.

Revisited modded bios for the microserver and found there had been some updates, all good, BUT, it was that I reread the details for the original mod that I noticed I had NOT been making full use of the potential on offer..bugger..

After setting the  SB SATA Configuration correctly this time as per modded bios instructions the improvement in speed out of the SSD drive on sata 5 was bloody amazing , absolutely chalk and cheese .

So for those who use the 36L, 40L or 54L and are looking for a performance boost and are not into ssds yet, a SSD on sata 5 with a correctly setup modded bios is a more than welcome boost.

Links:
Original Modded Bios: https://www.avforums.com/threads/hp-n36l-n40l-n54l-microserver-updated-ahci-bios-support.1521657/

Instructions: http://homeservershow.com/hp-proliant-n40l-microserver-build-and-bios-modification-revisited.html

New Modded Bios Thread: http://homeservershow.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3397-modified-bios-for-microserver-n40l-enables-hidden-features/page-22#entry72904

Vantec 2.5 Caddy for OOD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817986003

Added: the 54L has 16gb of RAM as well and an extra intel nic