Pros: This idea of the storage and access is great. It allows for ease of use for anyone to access and is intuitive.

Cons: Hardware is un-reliable. I havent even had it a year and its messed up as much as it works. I feel I wasted a chunk of money I could have used other wise.

Other Thoughts: Dont buy. Build your own.

Pros: Small stand alone box that can sit anywhere on your network. I have my PS3 and Xbox 360 linked up and able to view pictures, videos or play music stored on the unit. It finds the media for you, schedules backups of computers. Has user account management, on the road access from your laptop (uses tzo.com for ddns) and even has an iphone app for that!

Sets up quickly, software updates are automated. Supports Windows and Mac but requires 1 windows computer for initial setup. Any system that can access windows file sharing will be able to access the shared files (so your linux box could stream media too, which is good becase I us Linux on my laptop).

Cons: All of the features are limited to what HP has installed. You are not going to install custom antivirus or network backup within the unit. You are stuck with what it comes with. That being said, the features all work and work well. In some ways this is a benefit as the server won't ever be burdened with useless software just eating up resources.

Requires a windows system for initial install. For most customers this won't be an issue but it is worth noting before you buy!

Other Thoughts: I purchased the first unit to help a friend in need of an in home (small office) backup solution for him and his wife. It turned out to be so useful I later bought one for my own use. Adding hard drives is a snap, and the space is available quickly in most cases.

It does NOT use any kind of RAID level. Instead it uses folder duplication. Create a folder (several already exist for video, pictures, music, etc) and enable duplication so that data will exist on two hard drives.

S3 (online backup service by a site name filtered by newegg) pricing looks very steep and I have not set that up. You can access the shared folders and backup the data from your desktop system if needed.

Has a USB port for adding on temporary storage which I haven't used yet either. This is a slimmed down Windows Server, don't expect a full OS.

Pros: Super easy setup, automatic backups are super easy to setup and operate flawlessly with all pc's on my network. Free DNS hosting through my live ID was an added bonus. Remote streaming is a plus if you have a super restrictive firewall at work like myself.

Cons: None yet. The only slight annoyance to me is the limits Microsoft tries to place on you as an administrator logging in through RDC, like I said though, a minor annoyance and easily circumvented/ignored.

Other Thoughts: Adding drives was a snap, I added two more 750 Gig seagate drives and it was a no-brainer. My computers automatically wake up if necessary and back themselves up, then go right back to sleep again. The latest Power Pack from Microsoft adds some great features for MCE, Windows 7 and Netbooks, it's a must get if you're a techy. All in all, I'd recommend this home server to any of my friends.

Pros: I wish I knew.

Cons: Although the specs say this is mac compatible, YOU NEED A PC TO SET IT UP. I'm sorry, but this is just plain idiotic. How hard would that be to program the Mac software to set it up? Do I need to have a PC to maintain it? It doesn't discuss this anywhere in the instructions or in the support guide. I didn't even find it online. I guess they are just embarrassed.

Other Thoughts: By the way, the US customer service number in the support guide is not a valid number.

Pros: Everything works well and does what I wanted it to do. Set-up is easy. My primary reason for first looking at this was to guarantee regular backups of my main PC -- then I discovered what I could be doing with the media content on my home net and in particular enjoy streaming video to my HD TV thru my PS3! This was part of an overall upgrade of my home network -- I added a DAP 1522 Access Point and a DAP 1522 Bridge to get a high speed connection from my EX487 to my PS3 & Samsung which is also working well.

Cons: I only wish I had gotten this sooner.

Other Thoughts: When I got the EX487 I got an extra 750GB drive -- I had some issues with the 3rd drive -- HP tech support was very helpful in walking me through several ways to test my 3rd drive installation and we were able to verify that the 3rd drive was bad. When I contacted New Egg's support they were extremely helpful and I had a new 3rd drive in about a week's time and it works great.

Pros: I have had this appliance for about 5 months now. Setting up Users and Accounts is a snap. Small, a little larger than my old 2 bay NAS. Plus it uses less power compared to having PC on all day.
A great way to centralize media and storage. I love being able to Stream my media anywhere i go.
It is a great way of backing up everything!!!...... local machine ( PC & MAC,) add additional disk to back up WHS. Works great with online back up, like KeepVault. There is no way you can lose you files.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: i had to do a restore about a month ago due to network problems. Simple and problem free.

Pros: The HP MediaSmart EX487 WAS DELIVERED ON TIME,AND I SPENT 2 HOURS SETTING UP THE SERVER. tHIS IS A SERVER THAT IS EASY TO SET UP AND USE.
IF AT 93YEARS YOUNG, I WAS ABLE TO SETUP AND RUN THIS UNIT, ANYONE CAN DO IT.

Cons: NONE

Pros: Hardware seems to work.

Cons: Software is horrible. I've been fighting with this for 2 weeks now and still not able to get it all set up. The HP MediaSmart ControlCenter app has never run. It just crashes the moment I try to start the app. It seems that installing the software that comes on the CD is a major mistake. It was version 2.0 but the version on the server was 2.5. Only after installing 2.5, by mapping to the server's drive, was I able to do anything. Was VERY disappointed that HP finds it necessary to offer a $220 service to come set up and configure the server. Had I known that it was so difficult to set up, I wouldn't have purchased it. I bought it for the backup features which I've not been able to get to work. Despite following all of the Microsoft recommended fixes and applying all of the updates. I've tried on a Win XP Pro and a Vista Home Premium machine. VERY frustrated to learn the "support" phone number in the tiny doc. was bad. Don't puchase this unlesss u r a network/server expert.

Pros: Great for folks who are non-technical, and want a lowcost homeserver with some smart functions like streamed audio etc. Remote web is nice as well (if you can make it work correctly).

Cons: My original unit was severely underpowered - not enough RAM or drive space to get the work done. Console response was dogged slow because it got overworked quickly doing backups and such. After upgrading memory and drive (VERY hard to do, its not designed for home user upgrades) it functioned well, till we put 15000 photo's on the website. The responsiveness would cause timeouts.

Other Thoughts: I'm looking into the ex487 because of the new support for MAC backups, but intel celeron is a really low power processor. Consider this unit has to do:
File server, Print Server, Authentication, RAS, Web(s) server, DNS and DHCP as well as SQL services - i'm very concerned this is 2 year old level hardware and am exploring a larger unit or building it manually with the S/W.

Pros: You can backup to an external disk and move it offsite. Connect the HD to either the USB or eSATA port and configure WHS to backup files to the disk. I do it on mine and it works great.

Cons: none