HP Microserver Gen 10+ - internal ports query (fit extra drives?!)

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luckyluke699

New Member
Jan 14, 2021
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Hello all, newbie here. I've recently purchased a HP Microserver Gen 10 Plus (entry), to replace my older HP Gen 7 N54L. I'd love some advice on how to best make use of the limited internal ports available for my TrueNAS build! :)

PORTS: Ideally, I'd like to keep the 4x internal bays free for RaidZ1 storage, and would like to fit 2x other drives into the system somehow. 1 to run TrueNAS OS, and 1 to run any plugins/jails/VirtualMachines, via the available ports left:
- 1x Internal USB 2.0
- 1x PCIE x16 (motherboard supports bifurcation x8x8 only, not x4x4x4x4)
- 5x External USB 3.2

QUESTIONS (Long shots...)?
- Confirmed working non-switched (cheaper) PCIE Gen 3.0 cards, which support 2x NVME/SSD drives, utilising the motherboards x8x8 bifurcation? This would be the ideal solution.
- Else cheapest/best confirmed working (probably switched?) cards, which would take 2 NVME/SSD drives?
- Is the ILO riser port a standard PCIE slot? Can we plug anything else into this (drive wise) apart from the ILO enablement card?
- Any other options I might have missed, which are not in the STH MSG10+ review or customisation guide, to get additional internal drives anyone has found


Thank you incredibly much for taking the time to read this, and hopefully I've given the required information to allow for some informed advice, but if not do please ask away! :)
 

Heathy65

New Member
Mar 13, 2021
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This is pretty much what I was just going to ask in a new post, so will add it here...

I'm planning to buy a G10 Plus and also want to use a m.2 NVME drive (something like a WD Blue SN550 NVME M.2 2280 PCI-E Gen3 or the WD Black SN750 M.2 2280 PCI-E Gen3) via the PCI-E slot.
I've looked at the various PCI-E to m.2 adapters and there seems to be various types, some very cheap and some very expensive. I appreciate there are different flavours but I don't quiet understand the detail. BTW, my requirement is for a single m.2 device (but if I could get a dual one for sensible money that would be nice). Lastly I should mention, I intend to have W10 on this storage so it must be bootable.

Any thoughts/comments appreciated.