HP MediaSmart Server LX195 - Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz 1GB DDR2 640GB (Upgradable)Windows Home Server, Mac Compatible

Pros: Started out as a great inexpensive server. My needs were backup, remote access and centralized storage of pics, videos,music for the family (7 PCs). Easy for me to setup, even the server restore went better than I thought it would. Support was good (during warranty period)...

Cons: Hard Drive Controller/Cable issues. I have researched, worked with support on this nagging issue. No one seems to have any answers. Event Viewer shows Parity Errors in the Disk and Controller errors all leading up to a system lockup. real intermittent. HP replaced the Drive....problem came back after 2 months. Then HP replaced the whole system...problem came back after 3+ months. Now that my warranty is out, I'm stuck with a door jam.

Other Thoughts: Going cheap...you get what you pay for. I am now going to buy a superior HW setup (Low End Server) and do my own install. I'll spend 70-90 bucks less than a new HP EX490

Pros: Small, very quiet, reports it has backed up all our PCs, though you're never sure about back ups until you have to restore

Cons: Sends annoying red security alerts to any active PC about AV and firewall security risks when other networked PCs can't be found, i.e., when they're powered down. The alerts say the AV and/or the firewall protection is turned off on those powered down PCs.

Other Thoughts: As you would expect, very first backup of any PC takes a while. Subsequent backups are painless. As mentioned in the Cons, the security warnings are annoying. There must be some settings that allow this to be toned down or otherwise managed, but I haven't been bothered to go hunting - yet.

Streaming music to my PC (over a Netgear N router) has worked like a charm.

I knew the specs going in, but still wish it had an eSata connector. The supply of USB ports is more than adequate, though. I've added a 500 GB port-powered USB drive that was laying around the house and it works just fine. I also have a 2 TB SATA drive I'd like to add. Guess it'll have to go into a SATA to USB case.

Pros: Small footprint; Windows setup is easy; remote access feature is useful despite clunky interface.

Cons: Doesn't play nicely with Snow Leopard; Mac interface is not good; Time Machine backups stopped working after two months.

Other Thoughts: I bought the unit knowing that I would have limited control over server functions from my Mac and that I wouldn't be able to restore from Time Machine backups, so I have no real complaints about that. What I can complain about is that though I was able to set up the unit to serve as my Time Machine backup drive (albeit with some difficulty--the process of getting the backup partition to the size I needed was ridiculous, requiring a time-consuming workaround), after a couple of months, I was no longer able to see the server from my Mac on my home network. I hadn't changed anything about my network configuration; the server just disappeared, and nothing I've tried has gotten it back. In fact, after I uninstalled and reinstalled the software at someone's suggestion, I couldn't even get past the login screen, despite using the correct server name and password--I just kept getting validation errors. I'll be eBaying this and getting something that works with my setup.

Pros: It does what it's meant to do rather well. The set-up was quick and mostly painless and I've yet to run across any real issues backing-up data or streaming media. It also takes up very little space and is very quiet.

Cons: It'd be nice to have additional room for another internal drive or two, but that's what you sacrifice for something as small as the LX195 is. The only other "complaint" is that it at times struggles streaming 1080p video, but it's a small Atom processor pushing the video through a network. It's likely a tad bit on the unreasonable side to expect seamless streaming with content like that. For music and more reasonable video though it's fine.

Other Thoughts: Unless you must have additional internal storage and/or hate the thought of USB expansion there's really no reason not to consider this small media server. As long as you're using it for back-ups and reasonable media streaming you should be fairly pleased.

Pros: - Not too loud
- promo price is spectacular
- 4 USB
- Fast for an Atom processor, emulates/has 2 cores

Overall, it's performed well.

Cons: No VGA/Audio out if you want to physically manage it.
only a 320GB drive included (should probably have been a 500)
It's actually a solid little box, and for the price you can't really complain about anything.

Other Thoughts: I got this little server in order to stream music to my local network, and also to have something which works with time machine. Time machine backups are not incredibly fast over 802.11g
I had issues getting remote access set up, and still have not been able to log into my server remotely.

Pros: -if you can get this at the promo price
-software as simple as humanly possible
-quiet operation
-very low power requirements. easy auto suspend mode.
-Window Home Server can duplicate all files to another hard drive (has to be external for this unit)
-4 usb ports for external hard drives

Cons: -biggest con, can only handle one internal hard drive.
-no esata
-RAID setup not possible.
-640GB is "Blue" series, not "Green".

Other Thoughts: Immediate upgrade to 2TB Seagate Low Power model hard drive.

Pros: Streams my videos to my XBOX 360
Backups my computers
very fast for a atom pentium cpu
windows home server

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: it has 4 usb ports so you can add more hdds

Pros: The WHS software is great. I do automated backup of two comps nightly, one XP and one win7 and it's trivial to set up and use. Best thing is the file duplication: you can set up any directory to duplicate and it will ensure a copy is on two different pieces of hardware for redundancy - instant raid1 but without the chunks. I just added a 2TB USB drive, increasing the pool. I'm currently running 4 USB drives. Has been ultrareliable and messages/doc clear. I've deprecated my win2003 raid5 server.

Cons: Slow. I'm pretty sure I failed to stream 1080p bluray across the network - but it was coming from usb drives so who knows which fault. I'm going to keep my smaller raid5 subsystem for caching high-bandwidth stuff since I love the usb support. Wish it were usb 3.0.

Other Thoughts: I love this thing.

Pros: Comes with Windows Home Server. Automatic nightly backup of 4 family PCs. Low power. Silent operation. Space-saving size. Remote internet access for myself, family members or guest accounts (for photo and video sharing).
I use Windows 7 Media Center on a HTPC to DVR our favorite TV shows, which are automatically archived to this WHS. They can be watched on either the TV connected to the HTPC or any of the other PC/laptops in the house. The movies, music, or other files stored on this mini-server can be accessed from anywhere in the house.

Cons: The WHS status shows that the Atom CPU idle temp is 55C with the case fan running about 900 rpm.
The standard 1gb of DDR2 memory and 640gb HDD are minimal for a home server, but it is easy and inexpensive to add more memory and external USB hard drive(s). Only one HDD will fit in this mini-ATX case.

Other Thoughts: A two-benjamins newegg newsletter deal on this mini-server was impossible for me to pass up!!! That left some cash to upgrade the memory to 2gb. I also mounted a small fan to the CPU heat sink, which lowered the idle temp to 43C. I'll add external HDDs when the internal drive fills up.

Pros: Sleek, cheap,

Cons: HD died after 1month of usage. HD replacement is on it way. Also, constantly losing network connection for some reason, small HD capacity, and last but not least, it is S..L..O..W. So if you wanted something for pictures editing...pick something else.

Other Thoughts: This is the update of the initial review. I am buying a difference one.