HP EX495 1.5 TB MediaSmart Home Server (Black)

Manufacturer : Hewlett Packard
Model : EX495
ASIN : B002N8A098
Price : 691.99$
Last Price : 799$(Discount -15.4640963019697%
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Product Description

The HP EX495 Media Smart Server is the all-in-one solution to manage your media: a home server that can automatically backup and protect your digital memories, centralize your media and content for sharing with family and friends, and enable you to enjoy your digital media while at home or away.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

Useful and solid quality - for the committed user but not for picky people ~ Rev. July 2010

This review is from: HP EX495 1.5 TB MediaSmart Home Server (Black) (Personal Computers)

I'm technically inclined, but not an engineer. I have some experience with this topic... I first built my own server with spare parts and run it at my home. I am reviewing this because I bought it for my parents and installed it.

Preface - as of 2010, I've seen a lot of heartache about Mac Compatibility. Please, do some research before purchasing this product for a Mac to see if this will fit your needs. There is a TON of outside forum support about this. Otherwise my original review still stands:

Part 1: The software, and what HP brings to the party:

Windows Home Server is actually a program (based on Windows Server 2003 with enhancements, optimized and pre-configured), and is easy to use in a home. And it is good, all by itself. HP's contributions by adding on its own 'add-ins' make the software better.

As a sample of what this means for you, an example: If you are recording tv shows on in Windows 7 media center you can offload your shows here, and still stream them giving you instant access anytime over your home network from a windows 7 PC. The new update to the software also makes it so you can set windows 7 up to offload your recordings from your Windows 7 pc to the server automatically so you don't tie up your computer's storage space. If you want to take a look at what that kind of pc setup might look like, just search listmania for "Win 7 HTPC build"; I'm the first search hit.

So what does HP bring to this? If you have media files that you want to convert for viewing on a mobile device, HP bundled an add-in transcoding software on this so you can offload that work to server's CPU and not tie up your computer while you'd rather be surfing or playing games or whatever else you do to make things better (Note: HP's transcoding will NOT remove DRM). There are a lot more add-ins they bundle with this, but it's exhaustive and there isn't the space.

Bottom line, there are plenty of 'WHS' solutions. But my take is that HP has put a lot behind making this a great software bundle, and I have to say I'm impressed with the bonus they bring. Emphasis on the word Bonus, because they are 'nice to have-s' not designed for the people who consider them 'must-have-s'. The core functionality of streaming video, storing shares and back-up is what this is designed for.


Part deux: What's so great about the hardware.

The pictures make it look big. But it is small - about the size of a small bread box turned on end. I was surprised when I unboxed it. It's also easy to add hard drives. It comes with one, but you'll get hooked and want to add one. Just take out a tray, pop in a recent generation "SATA II" drive and replace the tray in the server and it self configures. I recommend buying one straight away anyway because then you can turn on 'file duplication'. That means the server at your specific direction will keep duplicate copies of folders you select on two separate hard drives in the server as insurance against mechanical failure.

You can also back up the system drive, which I'm learning how to do, and you need an external USB drive to do that.

Energy-wise It pulls about 4 to 6 watts under normal operation. Yet another reason to buy this if you are power conscious. Don't let that figure fool you. There's plenty of hardware oomph for most people's needs.

Part Three - Documentation.

There is a lot of documentation! Just not in the box that comes with the server. WHS started out of a user community/company initiative that blossomed into a server software product that now you are seeing hardware being made for. So, if you aren't sure if this is for you - please take a look online about what other uses this is for and what alternatives are out there.

Summary:

Good build, solid software, continuous integration to Windows backed by a very committed enthusiast community that makes it so you don't have to think 'what if my hard drive crashes/computer shorts out/child vandalizes my computer?

It's automated and low/no maintenance. For a commited user: a 'no-brainer'. For someone who needs to purchase tech support from a computer vendor, I suggest that a home server is not likely a good fit for you. You are probably better off with an online backup service for your needs.

I like this one because it has extra drive bays. There are configurations that just use one hard drive, but I would pass on that.



Update - 7/9/10 WHS (the program, not the HP MediaSmart server) does random things when stuff starts failing, meaning if you ever get random restarts, can't find drives or things like that, it's not the software it's just not that robust to tell you when something is broken. On my HOMEMADE server, I had a stick of ram go bad and it gave me random errors until I figured it out. (But that's no different than any standard computer, just thought it was good to update about how its going)

Also, MSFT is working on a new version of WHS software called "Vail" that is in beta right now. It should handle errors like dying hard drives a bit more cleanly than what some folks are experiencing now...


For those of you who are adventurous, I've put a listmania list together for you on how to build your own. http://www.amazon.com/lm/R1NJKRJG6H78L6/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm_bb=

99 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

Not easily impressed... but I am now

This review is from: HP EX495 1.5 TB MediaSmart Home Server (Black) (Personal Computers)

Working in the computer industry for over 25 years, I'm not easily impressed. Two quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and 2.5 TB of storage in a home pc... nice, but just "more of the same".
Most of the computer innovation of the last couple of years has been "more, faster and bigger", but nothing revolutionary.
However, the new MediaSmart EX495 is truly amazing: the speed, the capacity, but more importantly: the ease-of-install, and ease-of-use that DON'T "handycap" the "power user", are fabulous.
I had the server up and running in a few minutes. It's now supporting 6 users, 1 MediaSmart Connect x280n (why did they stop making that!?), and 1 Roku M500. I added a second 1.5-TB hard drive and have already filled almost half of the total capacity (25,000 songs, 28,000 pictures, 600 videos, and loads of other stuff). This includes doubling almost every directory (I like this feature over Raid 1 as it provides much more flexibility), and backups of all PCs. The most impressive was how it enables external (secure) access by directly interacting with the router to open/forward the right ports. And it was immediately successful.
Still to do: connect a USB cable to my UPS and try to set up graceful shut down.

54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

Idiot proof...even for an idiot like me

This review is from: HP EX495 1.5 TB MediaSmart Home Server (Black) (Personal Computers)

This little guy got delivered by Amazon a few days before it's original release. I am not much of a directions guy, but was extremely pleased with how easy this was to set up and how intuitive it was when it came to setting it up. I've got 1 workstation, 2 netbooks, and 2 laptops that backup wirelessly to this guy. If they are already on the same wireless network, it's simply a matter of clicking the 'add computer' button. There's no need to fuss with any of the backup settings unless you are particular, as it will do the work automatically for you. You can then either access your files via the console or remotely at your convenience.

I can't stress enough how nice and convenient it is to be able to centrally access all my files without having to shuffle files back and forth between the local hard drives and having piece of mind knowing it's being backed up automatically. I previously did this with Time Capsule which while it worked at times, was tempermental and slow. I'm not sure how well this will work on Mac, but I am running various flavors of XP and Vista in 32bit and 64bit configs.

I even decided to add another storage drive (Seagate Barracude 1.5tb 7200rpm)for redundancy. Adding storage was a simple as pulling out an open drive bay, popping in the new drive, then going into the management console to click through the add storage wizard which took less than a minute. Now I've got 2.6tb's of storage, more than I'll probably ever need and 2 open bays to expand down the road.

Most Recent Customer Reviews Not good not not good I bought this item in May 2010 after weeks of research looking for a reliable back up for my home office which has 3 laptops and 3 pcs. by K_Hart HP EX495 a solid home server It's a good small server for home use, has lots of flexibility and can easily be set up. Transfer speeds are pretty good. by ben dover Great Customer Service Experts I have been using this product for about 10 months. It is actually a little bit complicaated for a non-techy guy to fully utilize its functions. by OH TAE HO horrible experience I am having a horrible experience with this server. Very little has come easy. My scenario is that I have a bunch of content stored on external hard drives and cd/dvd's. by Christopher Konrad DO NOT BUY THIS! Bought new and the hard-drive failed within the 1st six months. Most important,as of December, 2010, H.P. no longer makes these and is getting out of this market. by P. J. Smiley Another awesome piece of technology from HP... I purchased this with a suggestion from a friend and I don't regret it. Does everything as advertised. I only wish the remote feature was a little bit more "fun. by DRock Great while it lasted This was my first experience with a Windows Home Server. The MediaSmart software made it a cinch to set up and I LOVED it...until it broke. by JasonDFW ex495 maravilla Customer Video Review Length:: 0:34 Mins by rodolfo gomez Glad I bought it - Too bad that HP discontinued such a terrific product. This is my first Amazon review, and I wanted to enter my 2 cents worth, as I see that customer reviews for this item vary quite a bit. by Norwegianblue Good, but not great. Good value for the price. I bought this as a backup/file sharing device for a small business network. It was fairly straightforward to set up and works nicely IN the office. by J. B. Doty

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