There are several examples here of what people have done with their t610.
In January 2018 I heard from Attila in Hungary who was running Windows on his t610 and using it in conjunction with a smart TV. He also came up with an ingenious solution in how to provide extra (silent) cooling. more...
In January 2019 I heard from John in Cheshire who had a multimedia setup. more...
In October 2019 I heard from Jeff Witty in Canada who had expanded his t610 Plus more...
In May 2020 I heard from Simon who had set up a 'Zoom' Video Conferencing system for 94-year old to use during the Covid-19 lockdown. more...
September 2024 brought a contribution from Arek from Poland on setting up a t610 with four 2TB drives. more ...
In September 2024 I heard from Arek in Poland.
I have been using HP T610 for a long time. Your website helped me a lot and inspired me to expand it further.
I use my t610 (running Debian) as a file, copy and DLNA server. The various applications are Docker containers for OpenMediaVault, Home Assistant and UniFi Controller.
In the early days OpenMediaVault was acting as a recorder for 6 IP cameras, but had problems with overwriting archived files. That problem has since been fixed.
Currently my t610 is configured with 16GB RAM and 8TB of disk storage comprising 4 x 2TB 2.5" SATA HDDs.
For those interested: The double bracket STL file.
Then there is the issue of how to connect the four drives to the t610. Rather than mess about with the IDE connector I installed a more efficient Mini PCIe adapter that supports 2 x SATA 3.0 6Gbps. This adapter together with the two SATA interfaces on the motherboard provides the necessary number of interfaces.
Such an adapter is shown in the photo (right). Note that it only provides the data connections, there are no corresponding power connectors which leaves us with the problem of how to power these two drives.
When it comes to connecting everything up it turns out that the drives naturally pair up with each side having one drive connected to a motherboard socket and one drive connected to the mPCIe card.
To power the additional mPCIe connected drive I spliced in another SATA power connector into the standard SATA lead heading to its companion drive as shown in the photo. Ideally these should be soldered connections.
I routed the cables out through the bottom of the chassis. This did mean that a small amount of the chassis metalwork had to be cut away, but the existing ventilation grilles provided a guide to what to remove.
I also modified an existing design for a 3D printed foot for the t610. I increased the height of it to ensure there was sufficient clearance for the cabling. (My version of the STL file)
Internal cabling:
Drives and feet:
I have never tested drives larger than 2TB on the SATA ports as I don't have any.
The drives connected to the Mini PCIe adapter are not visible in the BIOS, but they are found by the installed OS as it boots.
I know that some people use the mPCIe slot with fast WiFi cards, but in a disk server the wireless network is pointless.
When installing the adapter, the BIOS message about the lack of ROM space to support the adapter is important.
Change PXE to Disabled.
After the modifications to my t610 I have an efficient 8TB of online storage. If necessary I can still expand it with an IDE-SATA disk and several USB drives.