I suppose external PSU, despite the clutter, is better for heat/noise, and leads to shorter approvals processes for the product.
Not sure about approvals, especially for companies like HP which go though that process quite often. Meaning: not sure what benefit is there.
Heat and noise: yes and I am reading noise is precisely the reason for it. You have one less small fan in the box. This is also the reason why I am leaning more towards Gen10 Plus, rather than Gen 10. I don't need any particular power here, so Gen 10 would be OK and it comes with internal sata port for SSD boot. But I am afraid it is slightly more noisy, while Gen10 Plus is supposedly very quiet, which is something I want/need.
Also, I usually replace stock fans with Noctuas. Not sure I can do that with these. Still looking into this.
I agree it would be nice to have an internal slot for bootable SSD of some sort (the internal USB2 port doesn't really count here..).
Now, with NVME on an external USB Gen2 enclosure should theoretically just work.
These guys here did a nice review job, and they mention this option specifically (see video index in description)
https://youtu.be/x-_CyKuJz9s I was a bit reluctant to even consider booting from a USB external unit, but that starts to look like a somewhat compelling option.
I wonder if making a mirror between two external USB 3.2 Gen 2 units is pushing it too much in terms of reliability.
So, my home servers have been confiured like this for years: two boot/OS mirrored SSD drives, and two (yes, only two) mirrored mechanical drives for storage.
I can still do this with the 4 HDD bays, and be happy with it. But, if I could retain 4 bays for storage, I may move to some more flexible configuration where I do not have to replace both HDD at the same time when I run out of space. Which happens every so many years, but still.
I wonder how long the power-up-boot process takes. That is, time from power-on to when it loads the Linux kernel from storage.
A lot of server boxes take multiple MINUTES to do what should take a second or two.
Yes, all HP servers I've worked on take forever. They're designed to be on 24H. That would be the case for me with this unit as well. If not your case...
37 seconds for the Gen10 (Win 10, which is admittedly very fast) according to this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e9elDLDatI I could not find any test for the Gen 10 plus.
I really wonder how quiet the Gen 10 plus is. No test I could find there, either.
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