The HP N36L is an "ultra mini server" introduced Sep 2010.
Specifications
- One x1 PCIe slot
- One x16 PCIe slot (can be used for discrete graphics)
- One (x4 PCIe?) proprietary slot (advertised as a "PCIe holder") for a management card
Observations
Does not include a optical disc drive SATA cable
Uses Torx screws (size?) for hard disks, optical disc drive
Adjacent the x1 PCIe slot is a x4 PCIe slot (the "PCIe holder"); wouldn't be usable without a modified card.
Reviews
Silent PC Review has a forum thread on the introduction of the HP N36L.
People who have one
Amrit has one.
My review
Internals
The N36L is powered by an AMD Athlon II Neo processor running at 1.3 GHz, a processor intended for low-power systems like netbooks. While it has a slower clockspeed, this AMD CPU benchmarks faster than Intel's Atom CPU which runs at 1.6 GHz. For the enterprise crowd, the Athlon II Neo has hardware virtualization (both virtualization and nested paged), unlike Intel's Atom; this CPU is ideal for running partitioning services into lightweight VMs. With two DDR3 DIMM slots, the N36L can accommodate up to 8 GiB of RAM.
The mainboard provides a respectable amount of expansion. It has two PCIe slots, an x16 (you could easily use a discrete graphics card, though you'd have to be picky about dimensions) and an x1. Adjacent the x1 slot is an x4 slot, supposedly for use with HP's proprietary management card. You could probably hack a conventional x4 card into the slot, but I rather HP have made the x4 slot usable and used the x1 slot for it's proprietary add-ons (does a management card really need more than PCIe x1?).
The chassis' disk racks connect via a mini-SAS connector. There's one internal SATA connector for the 5.25" bay, but the system's eSATA connector faces outward so your dreams of putting six drives in this tiny system are dashed.
There's an internal USB 2.0 port, a feature commonplace on servers. It makes running an OS off a USB flash drive that much easier—sequestered internally, such a drive won't accidentally get knocked off.
Externals
The backside of the N36L is austere. The only ports: two USB 2.0 ports, one D-sub VGA port (powered by an integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200), a Gigabit Ethernet port (Broadcom), and one eSATA port. The power supply, fortunately, is integrated (power bricks are a pet peeve of mine), and uses a standard AC power cord.
There are two fans: a 120 mm fan that serves as the systems main cooling, and a 40 mm fan internal to the PSU. Fortunately, both are quiet; HP rates the system at 21 dB. There are no top or side vents; air is drawn in through the front and exhausted out the back.
Unlike other PCs, the N36L does not use Phillips-head screws for the user-accessible bits. Two sizes of Torx screws are used (I'm unsure of the size), and HP was pleasant enough to include a Torx screwdriver that snaps into the inside of the machine's front door. Screws for hard disks and the optical disk drive are also screwed into convenient holes in the front door—no little baggies of screws to lose here! There is a single thumbscrew on the top-back to remove the top cover, and two thumbscrews hold the motherboard plate in place.
Other than the handle mechanism which has a metal spring, the N36L's disk caddies are simple plastic affairs. The plastic does not appear to be particularly high quality, but since the only purpose of the things is to hold disks (and not face the environment), it probably good enough.
Cons
- Low height clearance for RAM. I found this out the hard way when my heatspreader-equipped DIMMs would not fit
- In the USA, at least, the N36L ships with 1 GiB of RAM, and a 160 GB disk… Which I immediately replaced with 8 GiB of RAM and four of Western Digital 2 TB Green series disks. HP could have easily knocked $50 off the price by not including RAM and the disk.
- No SATA cable included for the 5.25" bay. This is a minor quip, and was probably done to save that last extra $0.50—but it makes the decision to include the RAM and the disk seem that much more strange.
If you're looking for more photos, see my HP ProLiant N36L set on Flickr.
