Customer Reviews Of HP MediaSmart EX485, Intel Celeron 2.0 Ghz 2GB DDR2 750GB HDD, Mac Compatible, Powered by Windows Home Server

Customer Reviews

Customer Reviews for HP MediaSmart EX485, Intel Celeron 2.0 Ghz 2GB DDR2 750GB HDD, Mac Compatible, Powered by Windows Home Server - Retail
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Review Summary (58 Reviews):
Excellent	33ReviewsExcellent	56%
Good	15ReviewsGood	26%
Average	1ReviewsAverage	2%
Poor	4ReviewsPoor	7%
Very Poor	5ReviewsVery Poor	9%
Excellent	0Reviews	0%
Good	0Reviews	0%
Average	0Reviews	0%
Poor	0Reviews	0%
Very Poor	0Reviews	0%
Excellent	6ReviewsExcellent	37%
Good	6ReviewsGood	38%
Average	0Reviews	0%
Poor	4ReviewsPoor	25%
Very Poor	0Reviews	0%

Reviewer	Product Review
James Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	12/19/2009 8:15:19 AM HP Not mediasmart Pros: Does back-ups which did work the one time I needed it to. Although you need to read cons below on that. Easy to Share Files and media with computers on network. Cons: Twonky Media is not a streaming solution. Very clunky and tends to just sit there and do nothing when it does work. I have rebuilt database several times. No real controls. If you have copies of music or pictures there is no way to factor out the copies. If you play an album and it sees the song three times in the database you hear the song three times before it goes to the next song on album. I have had to do multiple factory resets and wipe out the everything on the server and reinstall software. Disk become unhealthy a lot and have to be repaired. Last night after repairing disk it had to reindex and repair my backups. After it finished and I looked this morning I now have one backup for each computer. It wiped out about a month and a half of backups for both my computers. That one I have not figured out yet. I have talked to Tech Support quite a few times. They answer fast. Unfortunately the answers you get from them is do a factory reset or a workaround. Not user friendly. Other Thoughts: This server is a great concept. When I bought this I thought this would be a great piece of equipment. Unfortunately it is like a bad beta version. There needs to be of work done just make it stable and do the things it is advertised to do. Did you find this review helpful? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	12/2/2009 8:30:10 PM Incrdible Machine. Pros: Awesome box. Ive upgraded mine to 6.75 tbs and the thing still kicks just as fast as the day i got it. Have it running MyMovies 3 and it rips my dvds all day without a hiccup. Also the remote access feature is great. Cons: none. gets pricey once you start upgrading the storage. Did you find this review helpful? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
eireog68 Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	11/2/2009 5:07:40 PM hp media server not mac friendly Pros: unit is nice and small, you can call it plug and play and extra drive instalition is easy it works great with all pc's Cons: does not work with mac's running leopard,or snow leopard not sure about other mac os's hp states this will be fixed with next upgrade which was to be this month, after wating several months so far but i still do not have a server that works with my mac with 15000 photos and counting. they are running out of time before i send it back. Other Thoughts: i purchased this server because it was recomended for mac and pc I have one mac and 2 pc and 2 laptops that i need to bakup at the time of purchase i also got 4 1tb drives for the server setting up the server was a snap untill it came to the mac, mine is an 24" imac running leopard the software installed fine but that was it it just does not work I spent hours then days on the phone with hp tech support support with no results. it has been a few months now and it still does not work with my mac and hp's answer is it will be resolved with the next upgrade. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Rob the Elder Tech Level: high Ownership: more than 1 year	10/29/2009 5:59:56 AM 3 WHS servers running Pros: Works. Provides great support for a home network or business network. I ordered my first HP WHS before release. I guess I am an early adopter. I have had one running since release and its still running. I loaded it with 4 .5TB drives and filled it up. Then went to 4 external USB .5TB drives and filled it up. So I went to 1TB drives and am keeping an eye on it as I fill it up. Currently that first WHS has the .5TB drive with the OS running that it was delivered with and 3 internal 1TB drives plus 4 external 1TB drives. All are WD Green. I maintain my ITUNES library there, 6000+ tunes, 400 TV shows, 900+ movies streaming via a Win XP home host to 4 Apple TVs. Got so much data there that I bought a second HP WHS a year ago, and grew it to back up the ITUNES library + MPEG4 copies of movies. That got full so I built my own WHS on a refurburished Dell Inspiron and use that to back up critical data and as scratch storage. LOVE THEM Cons: the first gen HP WHS are relatively slow. They do the job and are as reliable as a boat anchor but it can take 5-10 seconds to bring up a streaming movie. Because they are so convenient and easy to use, you can easily get tons of data on them. Then if you have for example 900 movies in a folder, you have to back that up. Cloning on the same server is ok but you get nervous about the hundreds of hours you have into that irriplacable data. So you get a second WHS to back it up. Then you have to learn that each of your 12 home computers will only associate with ONE of the servers. So if you want ot manage the WHS you have to learn how to reassociate a computer with one of the WHS boxes. No instructions. No support. But I figured it out. :-) Have rebuilt 3 computers from their backup files on WHS successfully. Only challenge is you have to have the drivers for network cards for a box on a USB drive so you can get the computer to talk with the WHS. Pre planning is good. Other Thoughts: The HP WHS has unique code that does a great job of supporting ITUNES. I would buy it just for that in my particular case. Having a home built WHS backing up the two HP WHS has worked out great too. I use a piece of code free from Microsoft that makes a copy of a folder on the HP WHS to the Dell WHS, let it run once a week and I sleep well at night. The connector software does not allow renaming the WHS server so they all look the same. Keeping track is tricky. I generally use shortcuts and have renamed all my WHS uniquely so I can keep them straight. When you look at the two HP boxes, they look the same LOL. I LOVE mine and do not know how I would stay sane without them. The one challenge I have not solved is getting them to connect through my Comcast cable modem. No real tech support from anyone. I need to swap out the Comcast hardware some day . . . 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Mo Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/20/2009 7:06:50 PM Fantastic machine Pros: Very easy setup, cheap (with shell shocker), nice disk expandability, easy scheduling for on and off times, solid availability of apps for media streaming. Easy and quick backup utilities for client PC's... so quick in fact that I'm mildly concerned at how well the restoration is going to go. I'll comment further when I have more experience in that area. Cons: I managed to pick this up as an shell shocker with a combo 750 gig drive for ~$400. I wouldn't purchase this machine for anything over that price. I'd instead spend a little more for one with a faster processor. All the backup warnings from the HP backup software can get a bit tedious. Other Thoughts: It would be nice if it made raid configuration easier. Perhaps if they had some options during setup whether you want it to be a raid 5 or a raid 0 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
EnvisionMore Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/14/2009 4:17:43 PM Worth The Investment! Pros: Shell shocker great buy!! (EX485 +WD750GB + WD 750GB = 408 shipped), easy setup, sleek and stylish, reliable Cons: dual ethernet, advanced features require a learning curve, WARNING - WILL FORMAT DRIVES PLUGGED INTO IT) Other Thoughts: I'm brand new to WHS. At first seemed a bit limited until I dug a little deeper. Remote connect to the mediasmart using RDP (Start Menu + Search:Remote Desktop Connection). Computer name can be found using [windows key] + [pause key]. For username use (YOURSERVERNAME\Administrator). For password use the same password that you set up your mediasmart. Logging in with RDP allows you to connect as if it is your desktop. I installed utorrent and set it up to run in the background so it doesn't tax my main computers cpu. I also found a program that I can run on the server called SCRU.. It automatically unrars archives in a folder structure. It is really nice to have all these tasks run in the backround of the server and has made my main PC considerably faster. For most tasks it seems pretty fast but make sure your network is running at gigabit speeds. Upgrade your cable to cat6 and make sure your router and nic supports 10/100/1000. Once I upgraded, network transfer speed jumped 5X. 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Neweggfan Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/13/2009 9:35:39 AM Terrible Pros: Not many Cons: Advertised features are hit-or-miss in real world applications. Media Collector stopped working after one time and even with HP tech support help I could not resolve the problem. Many of the advertised features are too complicated to setup and are unreliable. Save yourself the headaches and skip this one. Other Thoughts: If HP reads the blogs about Media Collector they must know it's a widespread problem, but they have not offered a patch or solution to customers. 0 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
alkonman Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/9/2009 6:25:26 PM Glad I did Pros: NewEgg price, got a great deal on a combo 2nd 750gig drive. Be patient if it seems during the install if it appears to hang. alt tab and you will see there is a dialog looking for permission to update acknowledgw and it rocks on. The help fikes rock when it comes time to help configure remote access.Works very well and lookin forward to getting my kids in college set up for remote. Adding drive is a piece of cake, Backups have work as described. Hope I don't need to try the restore. Been looking since 1st gen but didn't see the need to get the newest ones out know Cons: The HP addons (Media Collector) are a bit finicky so far. Come on spend 10 bucks more for a quieter cooling fan HP Other Thoughts: check out the site wegotserved and do a bit of homework. supersite for windows as well. Sure is nice to see and know I have some room to breath and store now. 0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
number1contact Tech Level: average Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/8/2009 1:40:09 PM HP MediaSmart EX485 Pros: Newegg made sure to package the proper hard drive, as to avoid challenges; HP sys has an easy to use interface; compact; low heat emissions; cool blue lights. Cons: Service packs take a bit of time to load; on the first try, the server hasn't located on the network. Other Thoughts: On a related note, my experience with Newegg was great: their site was easy to navigate; the price was super competitive ($100 less than EVERY Other competitor); and my gear arrived early, so kudos to Newegg-I'll buy again from them! 0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/4/2009 3:15:14 AM Dandy little server Pros: Installation was very easy considering I canceled it when it seemed to lock up at 34%. I believe it was updating the OS and even though I canceled and restarted it a few times the install came to fruition without error. The server appears to operate fine. I do have one problem machine (so far) that it WHS says does not have any drives formatted with NTFS, so it won't configure the backup for this machine. I have not yet figured that one out. May take a reinstall of that OS??? But with that said I am very happy with this little server. Cons: None so far. Other Thoughts: I hope HP and MS continue to enhance configuration options for WHS. There is a little room for some enhancement/improvement, but all in all a great product. 0 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Rodger1958 Tech Level: high Ownership: less than 1 day This user purchased this item from Newegg	10/1/2009 3:34:55 PM HP MediaSmart EX485 Pros: Nice style case, very light weight, cool blue lights. Cons: Out of the box this server would not load the software, and I followed all of the instructions that came with it. I finally got the software to load, but I am not sure how I managed that. Mind you I am a very technical person as it is my profession, so it's not as if I am new at this. 15+ years experience. Other problems encountered were slowness on boot up, would not connect to the Internet, and would not accept the password to logon to the console. Other Thoughts: I would not recommend this product to anyone wanting to setup a home server. 0 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	9/24/2009 2:58:24 PM Does not work with Snow Leopard Pros: Easy setup, fast data transfer rates, small footprint. Great for PC's on my network but not a complete solution Cons: Home network has 3 PC's and 5 Mac's with Snow Leopard OS X 10.6. It would not install on the Macs. Spent 2 hours on the phone with HP sending them logs, network topology data etc. Then was thanked for providing data to address a problem they have been seeing from other customers. Newegg was great about accepting a return. I will replace with either the 490 which HP says works better with Mac's or with a simpler NAS. 2 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
aart12 Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	9/11/2009 5:12:27 PM Very Nice Pros: Very much worth the money. I have bought and used many NAS units, but ALL were SLOOOWWww. The SmartMedia is basically another computer on the network and data access is as fast as access from another client workstation. And the expandability (Disk Space) is a snap. Installing and configuring a new HDD takes literally under a minute, and its ready to go. I was not sure if I would like the JBOD-like 'community' disk space that all the drives creates (all the drives, together act like one big drive), but it actually makes things a lot easier, in that you don't need to assign drive letters for every drive. I LOVE the remote access to the server from anywhere with an internet connection and the ability to set up users with their own access to specific folders, which works great as an Online Project Folder for businesses who need an FTP or a means to transfer large files or to keep a project online for clients. Cons: Its not 'hard' to initially set up... BUT, it was not easy either. A Novice would be lost. I never had to call HP, but came close a couple times. You need to READ EVERYTHING. Really educate yourself BEFORE buying, or trying to set up. The biggest problem actually was with my AT&T-supplied router (runs the TV, Phone, Internet). After much modifying of the built-in firewall, I was finally able to successfully complete the SmartMedia setup. But I had to do a lot of research to find the right settings. The client connector software is very slow too, to connect. Once connected though, it is ok most of the time. Some of the time the server seems to be doing other things and can't be bother because you want to check backups or server status. Other Thoughts: Other cons are 1) the occasional hang when trying to connect to the server from a client workstation within the network. 2) The backup software is o.k. but is severely lacking customization options. 3) The HP SmartMedia CLAIMS to be a media server. I wouldn't go that far. I have yet to be able to play a movie or music that does not hesitate a lot, which means the bandwidth is lacking or the hard drive access is busy. A server should not have that problem, and I am using 7200RPM 16MB cache HDD's and a GB network. Luckily I'm not using the MediaSmart as a media server. Mainly a fancy NAS and remote access point. 4) No way to identify who got what or when in remote access. There needs to be a way to log access (it is possible it is an undocumented method, and I just have not found it yet) All-in-all, I would still recommend this unit. Microsoft has a lot of improvements to make in their Windows Home Server OS though... but its still in the early releases. I am running v2.5 with powerpa 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Darrell Tech Level: average Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	9/10/2009 3:33:15 PM Media Smart Server Pros: Easy to setup... Much faster than any NAS I have tried and I have 2. Transfers files fast and streams media nicely. Supports 3 simultaneous connections nicely without connection issues. Cons: Needed to use HP support for several issues because the documentation is a poor in the troubleshooting department. Other Thoughts: HP support for this product is excellent! Although I didn't have any issues with the drives as stated in other reviews. I also installed 2 640GB 7200RPM WD black drives which are very fast and seem to have a low occurrence of DOA's 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: average Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	8/27/2009 4:24:34 PM Great Media System Pros: The server is extremely versatile and extensible with dozens of plugins for streamlining media use. Very slick look, and quiet HDD (don't feel it in the bedroom). Extremely easy to use. Look forward to using a DVR to stream content. Currently use an IPOD touch to stream music through wifi to my sound system. Backups my happen over wifi automatically. Use web interface to access media and docs over the web remotely. Cons: None. 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	8/15/2009 7:44:07 AM Great for what its supposed to do Pros: It does what its advertised to do flawlessly. The media duplication is a must. Supports 2tb hard drives. Cons: Pricey. Install can be iffy with constant software lock ups. Other Thoughts: The guy who is trying to convert movies on this thing, you're an idiot. ITS A FILE SERVER. Not a high end production server. 4 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Home Theatre Guru Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	8/5/2009 2:37:02 PM Power Consumption Pros: The server works as intended hence the 3 eggs. Cons: My electric bill went from roughly $45 a month to over $120 a month with just this one addition. It is using the default 750GB HDD that came with it, plus 3 1TB WD HDD's. The server whines too much to set out in the open, but get's too hot in a closet or enclosed area. I believe my power consumption is due to the heat generated in the small part of the closet, but there is no way it should almost triple my electric bill. Other Thoughts: Be sure you have some place cool and out of the way for this thing as the noise is extremely negligible, but the power consumption is outrageous if not kept very cool. 2 out of 16 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	7/25/2009 7:53:27 PM Worst HP Product Made Pros: I really did not want to give this thing a 1 egg but it's almost impossible not to. There are a lot of pros for this product but the few cons over weigh the pros. All though this thing does not have a hardware raid, It does provide a form of protection better then the standard windows software raid. User interface is simple and nice. Web streaming is simple to setup, and file sharing comes configured for you. It took longer to update the software on the unit the initializing and using hard drives. Cons: I have acquired a few certifications over the years and thankfully the HP certification is not one of them. My co-worker is HP certified and was present with me when contacting HP. There is no possible way to upgrade this unit (excluding hard drives), this includes purchasing the said part from HP and having an HP certified tech install it. The cpu on this thing is a $12 piece of trash made around 2001. It is a shame HP even sold this thing as a server with such a horrible CPU. While converting movies, expect the cpu to run HOT (60°+). Yes converting movies will max out your cpu, do not expect to accomplish any other tasks while converting. You must also enable your shared folders for duplication, by default only user folders will be protected. Other Thoughts: Of all my years in the IT field working with HP and Dell, this is the first product I have heard of that will cause you to void a warranty if you attempt to upgrade. 2 out of 28 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
millersoftsys Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	7/21/2009 8:20:38 AM Absolutely Great! Pros: Takes all the guess work out of creating a internet exposed windows server. Set it up with full functionality, web exposure, Xbox connectivity, UPS shutdown support, and back up on one laptop in less than a day. More than expected especially for the price. Cons: Does not support adding UPS attached shutdowns out of the box. However, just download the "GridJunction" add-in and plug in your supported UPS. One one desktop, I get a "PC unresponsive" message when trying to configure automatic backups to it. This appears to be a known Windows Home Server issue that at least one colleague has also experienced. Other Thoughts: Great Value. I now have access to all my photos, videos, and small business data over the internet for around $500 plus auto backups. Unbelieveable! 3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
$ Wasted Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	7/13/2009 4:59:17 AM Do Not Buy! Pros: ... Cons: The server restore disc does not work. There is no way to recover from a catastrophic failure. Other Thoughts: The instruction manual, even if the recovery actually worked, leaves out critical information. 0 out of 13 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Wonky Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	6/29/2009 8:38:56 AM Not Good At All Pros: I lost a PC hard drive - restore from backup worked perfectly. Remote access of files and streaming media across the internet works (once you figure out port forwarding in your router). Cons: Maybe I got a bad one. It takes 90 seconds to 2 minutes to log in to the console. I don't have that much stuff, it has been collecting my media for 2 months and still not finished. The media shares enforce a nonsensical view. If you have a movie in a folder with a text file synopsis and image stills, only the movie gets copied to the VIDEO share, the images get copied to the PHOTO share. The text file is ignored. iTunes server goes down at random times. The video converter may not finish in my lifetime. When you first get the thing up and running it needs to install an update to .NET on every machine which takes just short of forever. Other Thoughts: I complained to HP support about the slowness and they told me to make a firewall exception for every EXE that the server uses and do this on every machine. I did but it didn't help. Also there is a serious design flaw. Every time you plug in a USB drive, 'network health' goes to 'at risk' status and the drive is automatically added to backup. Nice if you happen to plug in a drive with 160Gb of ISO files. So each time I have to log in to the console and run the backup config and tell the server to ignore the USB drive. 5 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	6/14/2009 4:15:35 AM Handy Little Server Pros: Nice enclosure, lots of free-add ins for WHS, stable, easy GUI to control the server (although I also recommend you have remote desktop on your client computer for some things). Customizable. Cons: fan is a little loud, diagnosing remote access issues could take a while if you have issues Other Thoughts: I was going to build one for a little less, then Newegg had a sale that made it a wash. The enclosure is really cool and something you'll want to have out. Make sure your router/modem are set up correctly if you have both, otherwise you won't be able to access remotely. I got a 1TB harddrive and made that my system drive and demoted the HD in this to a data drive. Still have more storage than the EX487...and it cost me less. 2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
goap Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	6/9/2009 10:46:55 AM Excellent Pros: Excellent interface works right out of the box. Huge capacity expanasion potential. Drives slide right in and out no screws and can be hot swapped. Video converstion, offline back up, file replication, backs up your client PCs. Remote access works as advertised and streaming videos over internet and also ipod/iphone works great. Cons: Runs windows server 2003 so might get a little outdated in future Other Thoughts: Get this and you can move all your data off your client PCs effectively making them terminals. This one is better value than EX487 as you can pick up an extra hard drive more cheaply. 2 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	6/5/2009 4:53:09 AM ex485 + WHS = WIN Pros: Easy UI. Best case I have found for it's form factor for a WHS box. Hot swappable drives. Low energy usage. Was bundled with a 1 TB HDD for free. My wife likes it. Cons: None whatsoever Other Thoughts: I have MSDN from work so I had a WHS license I could evaluate. I tried to build something similar to the ex485. With my bundle of 750GB and 1TB... the low TDP celly and a legit license was about seventy less than what I paid for this product without the case and psu. The case is what really sold it. It's form factor is hard to beat. HDDs run around 41 and the celly runs around 50-55c. This is in the south with lots of humidity and 90F+ degress already with a house that stays around 77F. 4 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Yoshi Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year	6/1/2009 9:00:13 PM Best Gadget I've Bought in 5 Years Pros: Easy to setup and use; Easy to add new drives; Automated PC backups; Shared storage inside and outside your home network; Remote proxy to any registered PC in your home when you're away; the list goes on and on... Cons: It's expensive (unless you find an awesome deal, like I did), but it's definitely a case of getting what you paid for. Worth every penny. Other Thoughts: Not sure what that guy is talking about when he says not to use the Seagate drive that came with it, or 'green' drives. I'm using the 750 Seagate plus a 1TB WD 'green', and there are absolutely no issues. 5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Moxie Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	6/1/2009 6:17:38 AM Not perfect, but very good and it meets my needs perfectly Pros: It fits my needs perfectly: - User-selected file replication. I don't have to waste drive space replicating files I don't want/need (i.e. 500GB of ripped movies and music). - Enough drive bays and maximum capacity to last me a good long while (4 bays, 9TB max capacity. Currently running 1.75TB with 500GB to spare after full backups were taken of all machines on my network and all media moved to the server) - Centralized system volume backup repository. I wasn't actually looking for this feature, but now that I have it, I realize it's indispensable. - Media Player streaming to Windows clients, including X-Box 360 - iTunes streaming as well with support for Apple's DRM - Supports add-ins for additional features. I have two Tivos in the house, so the Tivo Publisher add-in was a requirement. - Unrestricted remote administration via Remote Desktop. Although if you install the Advanced Admin Console add-in, much of the functionality you'd use in RDC becomes available in the Cons Cons: - Client software is quirky as heck. Out of the four machines I've installed it on, 2 gave me trouble and required various amounts of Windows hacking to get working. See "Other thoughts" for details. - The iTunes Server, Firefly, didn't want to start out of the box. The Bonjour service had to be enabled via the Services Control Panel. - Slightly noisy, but quieter than what it replaced - a Dell Optiplex 260GX slim form-factor desktop - The HP MediaSmart Server Control Center software doesn't seem to be very useful. Most of the time you're going to access the box either using network shares/mapped drives or via some client that supports the protocols you're streaming (Windows Media Player/iTunes/Tivo). - HP Photo Publisher doesn't support RAW files, only JPEG. - There is no free anti-virus solution available. Currently I'm running naked :-( - Windows Home Server Toolkit doesn't work on Vista 64-bit clients. Other Thoughts: - The latest Windows Updates will try to install Internet Explorer 8. This causes a problem with the initial run of the client installer because it will run Windows Update on the server for you. The IE8 install stops for user input, but the client installer doesn't know how to handle this, so it just hangs at 18%. The solution is to login via Remote Desktop as Administrator using the password you just set via the client installer. Run Windows Update from there and you'll get the prompt to install IE 8 and you can choose whether or not to accept it. Once that's done, re-run the client software and it will complete successfully. - I've only had the unit for 4 days and I have not used all of the features, only those which I require. Therefore, I can't comment on Internet-based backup or the HP Media Collector system. - Shame on Newegg for not providing additional protection during shipping. I got a bare, banged-up retail box. Lucky the unit itself wasn't damaged! 9 out of 12 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Brian Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/31/2009 4:41:12 PM Best computer purchase I've made in years. Pros: Incredibly easy to use, small, quiet, feature rich! This thing is just incredible, what can I say. Newegg had a great combo deal I took advantage of - $499 ex485 + 1TB Hitachi HD + Free shipping. Pretty slick. Cons: I wish it shipped with a dual core cpu. The celeron in the unit is pretty fast, and I understand that it was a great choice when price and thermal properties are considered - but something like AMD's 4850e would have been a better choice, imo. Other Thoughts: You may not think you need one of these...and maybe you don't. Once you have one, however, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. I'm still enjoying showing off how I can access my entire movie & music collection from my iPhone to everyone grin. 2 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/29/2009 10:32:30 AM Great Tool!!! Pros: One of the best technical tools I have purchased in years! After running an evaluation copy of WHS on an old AMD system I decided to dive into the EX487. This server has completely allowed me to automate backups for 5 PC's both wired and wireless running Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 on 32 and 64 bit. Added 2 1.5 TB drives to store a large Photo/Audio/DVD library supported by Windows Media Center. Supported IIS for Web site development. Redirected all data storage for 7 users to this server flawlessly. This is a must if for nothing else the backup features through WHS, save me 6 hours or more a week. Cons: does not support IE8 with the current version but I expect the next version release will. Other Thoughts: Remote access to the server and networked PC's is a huge benefit when traveling or you just want to share files with relatives across the globe. Sure you could build a WHS cheaper but for the cost difference why would you give up the support from HP? 2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Marc Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/26/2009 4:24:22 PM Great Back-up Server Pros: This device is a real workhorse for such a small footprint. I like the way I can set up the back-ups to run for any folders I deem on any of the other computers connected to my network. I have also taken advantage of the photo exchange feature and set up a share site for family members. You do have to configure your router for this bit, but it is so useful and eliminates the constant need to email photos. Just load them on your system and ensure access is given for users to logon. Very simple to use the overall server system. Cons: I did not like the initial Seagate hard drive (haven't had much luck with them inthe past) and therefore, purchased two of WD hard drives. I still can expand to two more in the future. I wish that HP would offer WD drives in future systems. Other Thoughts: I also kept my older WD Passport drive and used it as an external drive off of the server. This drive backs up my personal files, photos, home movies, and Itunes files specifically. Great little feature knowing that there are two copies of my sensitive files. 1 out of 2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
TheSnarkyOne Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/15/2009 8:32:17 PM Home Server Pros: This system from HP is an excellent build that matches the operating system. So far almost everything has gone flawlessly. Any hiccups that I have had has been just from a learning curve. The hardware is adequate for what this server does. Cons: Could use some more video codec support out of the box. Other Thoughts: If you can afford it right off, go ahead and get the largest hard drives you can. That way you can take advantage of MS version of Raid for this OS. It is not turned on natively 3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
DFWHD Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/12/2009 7:13:41 PM Nice little box Pros: Easy to setup and get running. Enough spare drive bays to keep you happy for a long time to come. Easy to add more SATA drives. Looks cool on the desk! Cons: Windows Home Server has a few quirks - like some systems won't backup that have Norton Ghost 14 or Internet Security 2009 loaded together. This apparently varies from case to case however... Media Collector creates a task to collect the music and such off your PC, but it installed the task on my Vista 32 system to run only once. Once you figure out the quirks, you are good to go... Other Thoughts: Newegg is great - ordered the server on Tuesday and it was delivered on Thursday! For the price, this is a great deal. 2 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
bean1981 Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/11/2009 7:17:58 AM Nice product Pros: Small, easily upgradeable, very useful. I set this up to hold backups of all of my computers.. but mostly to store TV shows and whatnot for the media center. Installing new hard drives is dead simple and once you're all set up and running there's not allot more to think about. I have come on in the morning and turn off at night. Online access is awesome. my girfriend uses her smart phone to stream tv shows from the server to the phone while shes at work. very cool. 7TB in one little box is just a dream come true :) Cons: It may just be my unit but the fans for such a low powered device seem to be a little on the loud annoying side. I would have liked to see a larger quieter fan. But it is by no means "highly distracting".. just louder than I had hoped. Other Thoughts: I could have built something comparable.. but the time saved and the HP client software really are worth it to me. I'm very happy with this purchase. 4 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
grr1212 Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/7/2009 8:01:57 PM The Best Pros: Easy to setup, got it to back all 7 devices at home. Mac and PC included. Seems to backup regularly everyday. Great for sharing all media as well - true centralisation of home media. Was super simple to setup a secure web based sharing site - so now I can get to all my content over the web and what's more, even stream my music over the internet from my home. Tested 2 restores recently, a file and an entire machine - both were smooth. Highly recommended. The additional storage bays are super and I've already packed the unit with 3 x 1.5TB drives. Cons: none Other Thoughts: take your time to work everything out 2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Wags Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year	5/7/2009 10:22:28 AM HP MediaSmart EX 485 Home Server Pros: Easy hard drive install, literally takes 20 seconds. Great place to store all your files Xbox 360 and PS3 can access all my files on the server Easy setup Mac TimeMachine compatible now (old EX475 series not) Plenty of RAM and a faster processor than old EX475 series Gigabit port for high speed home network connectivity (make sure to use a Gigabit switch or router though) Cons: The only con I have is McAfee Antivirus software comes preloaded. Obviously HP and McAfee have a deal as HP tries to force you into using McAfee. I uninstalled McAfee through Remote Desktop and installed Endpoint. Other Thoughts: Great piece of gear. 2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/7/2009 9:57:26 AM Pros: Very easy setup and management. Runs with Windows or OS X and can provide a good storage and backup solution once extra drives are added. You can stream media to other computers or devices like XBoxes and PS3s. You can set it up so you can connect from any internet access point to have access to all your files. Cons: Very little in the way of scheduling or advanced options with WHS. This is not a con for people who are looking for a very simple storage solution, but it may be frustrating to advanced users. Some what noisy while active. I have this setup in my bedroom and when it's not sleeping, I can usually hear it over the Macbook Pro I'm using. Must be setup with Windows. Other Thoughts: There are add-ons that will allow you to dig into some of the more "complicated" settings and features of WHS, from what I've read. I haven't tried any of these yet. This most definitely needs additional storage if you're going to be using it as a back up solution as well as a storage solution. WHS can provide a RAID type setup by adding extra drives but does not require you to manually set this up like you would with a normal storage server or device. For the cost, this is a great option for those that want a cheap and simple solution. I'm running a Macbook Pro as my primary photo editing machine and so I had to set this up with a Windows install. I do have a Vista partition on my MBP which I used to set this up. Once setup, functionality in OS X is reduced and most things have to be setup manually. It's still a great option as opposed to using something like a Linux machine and setting it up manually if you're not versed in how to use that certain OS. 2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Coop Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	5/6/2009 12:26:53 PM Love This Server Pros: I am able to store all 640 Gigs of music in one place and access it from anywhere in the world using a real nice user interface. Cons: Due to the large amount of music I have, It can be slow at times. Other Thoughts: Love this server. I can add additional storage at any time. 3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
chunky Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/29/2009 8:03:11 PM it's nice and I like it Pros: attractive, small, sorta cheap, keeps my stuff accessible and safe from HD failure, Gigabit LAN connection, Easy to use, it doesn't make fun of me for my poor grammar Cons: won't mow the lawn, just sits there Other Thoughts: It does just waht it said it would. Wish it would have shipped with a 1TB drive instead of 750,I'm too chaep to pay what they wanted for a 1 TB. I've added 2 1 TB drives and am duplicating folder and backing up PC's all over the house. 2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Average Joe Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/12/2009 5:52:22 AM Worth the price Pros: Easy to set up. Easy to connect to Network. Easy to add drives, manage, install add-ins. Makes coffee too...not really. Newegg got this to me in 1 DAY. I'm sure they violated the laws of time/space to make this happen. Thanks Newegg. Cons: Base software doesn't allow for customization of sleep time - I'd love for this thing to be in sleep mode until I need it. I'm sure there's an add-in that will fix this. Other Thoughts: I hate HP, but have to say I'm impressed with this. I was going to drop a grand or two on a laptop, read the return policy regarding them, then decided the home server was cheaper and a safer bet if anything went wrong. I haven't regretted that decision. I'm running 2 WD 1TB drives, a Seagate 1.5 TB and the stock 750GB. I've always had solid performance from Seagate, so going WD is to see if all the reviews touting them over Seagate are true. We'll see which drives fail first, hmmm. Adding drives is a breeze, it even gives you the option of adding the drive to the pool or backing up data on the server to the drive. Cool. The WHS console is tricky. Anytime I do anything, install an add-in, drive, whathaveyou, I end up rebooting both the server and my client machine. I'm sure they didn't intend it that way, but that's how it works. Post reboot, everything is great. This is worth the money. 5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
jnadal Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/3/2009 1:24:59 PM All-In-One-derful Pros: Much faster of a machine than I expected. Came loaded w/ fun add-ins that really improve functionality. As for the WHS, it's fantastic. Restoring PC's is a breeze! Backups are fast and differential! Drive mirroring is easy, extension is easy, and this machine has an external eSATA port. Cons: HP Media Plug in was redundant. Warnings that MCAffee suite could be installed angered me. Other Thoughts: This with Avast family pack is a great thing! 8 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
taritz Tech Level: average Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/2/2009 9:47:02 PM HP MediaSmart EX485 Pros: Low profile. So far everything is working. Cons: None so far 3 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/1/2009 1:42:27 PM Worked great until it died. Pros: Worked as promised. Easy to set up and is nice & small. HP customer service/tech support was outstanding. Cons: Died the second time I turned it on. Hardware was completely dead. On phone with tech support ratehr quickly and they geared up to send me a new one without me having to ask. I will get a new box, use my old drives and send the old box back, apparently without the loss of any data. Very happy with support. No SATA port multiplier blows. That is why I bought this and recently had to eat 150.00 on restock fees when external JBOD enclosure would not work. Other Thoughts: Worked great until it died. Tech support was very good. New one on its way. No SATA port multiplier in this gen blows, I would pay for the old gen if it were available. 8 out of 11 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Bamafan Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	4/1/2009 5:28:28 AM Home Server Rocks Pros: This thing rocks as others have stated. It backs up your computers for you automatically, duplicates the folders you deem important, and allows media center to record shows directly to it for unlimited add-a-drive type capacity. You can get to your data remotely or control your PC(s) with this product. I see one of these boxes in every computer advanced home in the USA within a few years. You can pay $300 for a 2TB drive or buy this box + a 1 TB drive for a couple of hundred more and get tons more functionality and expandibility. Cons: You have to configure the authorities and systems to get them to play together. While Microsoft has made as easy as possible for the average user, I'm not sure my grandmaw could do this. It required some port forwarding work on my Bellsouth router before I could get to it remotely. 3 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
DJT Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year	3/30/2009 9:08:03 PM Great product! Pros: I love this product, I was shopping for a home storage device to consolidate all my digital media in one place and to obtain a level of data protection & security that I can't find on my family's two laptops and desktop. Backup works great, really seems trustworthy and reliable, I've used several backup applications that seem flakey and buggy and not very reliable, not the case with this server. The ability to add any drive and expand the total storage exceeded my expectations; I've found this to be complicated on some more basic NAS devices. I was interested in the remote access, I like the ability to access my files over the internet from anywhere, but the media streaming and photo album applications for remote streaming I really like. My daughter loves the remote music streamer over the web which works well from anywhere. Great application. Cons: I bought the ex485 for $599, I've seen it on line for $524. still a good deal. Other Thoughts: When I researched this, it was all the very positive reviews and articles that convinced me to buy the HP Media Smart Server. I have to say that I am completely satisfied with this purchase. NewEgg is great too! 5 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Dave Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year	3/30/2009 6:30:39 AM eSata now has no port multiplier Pros: Well made product, and well-priced for what it does. I bought it to use as an NAS and don't take advantage of the WHS backup software, yet it's still a good deal for the money. Cons: eSata on this, the second generation, lacks port multiplier capability, which the first generation had. This cannot be 'fixed' because the intel chipset on the second gen doesn't support that. This is only a con if you know and care about what eSata port multiplication is. Other Thoughts: I bought the first gen (EX470) just before the EX48x's came out and considered returning the 470. However, for two reasons I did not: 1) I didn't want to lose eSata port multiplication. 2) (This only matters if the device is where you see it all of the time which mine is.) On the first gen, if you didn't assign a drive to backup use, the LED just continued to glow purple rather than turn blue. Since I don't let WHS use 2 of the 4 drives (I mount then NAS-style), this is fine. But on the second gen, the LED's for the drives are only one color, and an 'unassigned' drive's LED will blink forever. 5 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
sa Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/25/2009 10:59:14 AM Useless Pros: Can potentially do backup. Cons: Not worth it 2 out of 76 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
NJ computer guy Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year	3/25/2009 8:03:15 AM EX 485 Pros: I installed a WD HDD and now I have no problems, can’t stress enough how highly recommend you get rid of the Seagate drives that come with these units! When paired with good hard drives the EX485 goes beyond my expectation and works flawless! The boys and girls at HP do need to product test more effectively before shipping off to customers, I do think considering that this is simply a revision product they should have done a better job. Cons: These ship with Seagate 7200.11 drives and the firmware as we all know, well it doesn't work and the new firmware to fix these issues is just as bad! HP Tech support spent well over 20 hours with me before anyone said “hey maybe it's the firmware”! They really really don't want to replace these drives and do everything in there power to drag out the process. I think both HP and Seagate know they have a major problem and they are not sure yet how to fix this issues. I am glad to see most people have not experienced this problem, just be aware it is out there and when it does happen it makes you loose everything on your server! I lost everything twice before I told HP no more and switched to a WD drive. Basically I bought software and a Box to hold a drive, HP was not willing to send me anything other than a Seagate drive and I just can’t afford to loose my information for a third time! Other Thoughts: Before you buy the EX485 just beware that there is a firmware problem with the hard drives in these units the 750GB Seagate drives that HP has used do have a firmware bug! Also be aware that green power drives are not recommended to be used in these servers and they also say Spinpoint drives have had problems as well as RE3 drives and any drives specifically used for a RAID setup! HP recommends using a non power saving SATA model not specifically designed for a RAID setup! If you have any questions call HP Tech support they will confirm this information. I find it a shame HP shipped these servers knowing there were firmware issues, this could be such a great product, but it has been marginalized by using Seagate drives. I understand that HP has a contract with Seagate and they are going to stick with them, bad move especially since a lot customers are not buying in this market environment! BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE 64 out of 98 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Jim Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/20/2009 6:32:31 AM Very Simple Pros: Is just plug and play on everything and so much imfomation on the forums for the add in. I have a Mac, 4 pc and 1 PS3. Stream better than Tversity and I dont have to use more than 1 computer for keep my picture Actually I can see my pictures it thru my PS3 in my family with friends =) so nobody im my office. I can look my comp files from work and collegue. With this small investment and little patience the sky is the limit (for Home and small bussines) Tips: Google "We got serve" is a forum and you will know what Im talking about. Cons: Well with Mac everything is manual but I dont know much about Mac and WHS. I have to move my picture in manualy in Picture Foulder. Other Thoughts: I recomend this for everyone is very easy. 8 out of 11 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Slampana Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month	3/19/2009 11:43:39 AM Excellent Product Pros: This has been the best computer related purchase I have made in a LONG time...probably the best ever! My reason for buying the Media Smart Server was to: 1. Backup computers 2. Stream videos and music to my PS3 3. Stream music remotely This thing does all of these PERFECTLY and it was super easy to set up. The media collector is great. It searches my computers every hour and copies the files onto the server. I love the remote streaming functionality. No need for an I-Pod at work. Just connect to the server and you have access to all of the music that you have on your home PCs. The remote media streamer is better than I expected. For music it is set up like Songbird, which keeps the music well organized and easy to play. Cons: NONE! Other Thoughts: I absolutely love this thing! It's easy to use, powerful, easy to upgrade (I have added 2 1TB drives so far), and the price is reasonable. Buy it! 10 out of 14 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Mike Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/17/2009 5:08:05 PM Great unit! Pros: - I have it setup to back up one desktop and three laptops. It works perfect. - Media Collector is great. It scans all PC's and moves music, photo's and videos over on the units allowed. It will only move one copy if the same file in on more than one PC. - Twonky media share works great. I am using it for the media share option on the DIRECTV HD DVR's. - Downloading and uploading files using remote access is great. - Unit is very quiet and I have added two 1TB drives (three drives installed in total). - Very easy to setup. I am using two PC's with Vista 64-bit and two Vista 32-bit PC's and they work great with it. Cons: None so far. Other Thoughts: I think this is the best purchase I have made in a very long time. 8 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Schu Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/17/2009 8:31:47 AM Great for Backups Pros: As long as network connection is live, backs-up your connected computers and everything works great. Cons: There's an Online Backup add-in which is great for those who want to use it, but for those who don't can't uninstall the add-in w/out a few minor glitches. one being that the power management feature seizes to run. You can set it, but it doesn't follow the schedule. Also, while the add-in is uninstalled, a certain Easter Egg feature becomes erratic and doesn't function anywhere near what it should. One other con is that the server tends to not go back to sleep after a backup if the backup session is in the middle of the sleep time. To be honest, it may have something to do with my defrag time scheduled just after the backup time, but the server should still be smart enough to go back to sleep after X minutes of no activity. One last con is the console is laggy. I'm guessing it's either the processor can't keep up, or the fact that there's just too much software trying to run all at once. Other Thoughts: All in all, this machine does a great job of backing up your computers and collecting media. Seems a little pricey at first, but you have to realize this is basically a whole computer with server software on it. It is headless, thus making future trouble shooting a possible nightmare should anything other than a hard drive fail. TwonkyMedia Server is a great little add-in, but is a complete resource hog and quite possibly the reason behind most of the console lag. With TwonkyMedia uninstalled, there is still some console lag, but is greatly reduced; even after all the initial server balancing has had time to settle down. There are a few quarks with the machine, but that's common with most new products. Am happy with this machine thus far, and can't wait to see improvements made as time goes on. 3 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/16/2009 5:38:12 PM Pros: The best investment I have made in a long time. Copied all my files on to it. Then my laptop hard drive began to fail. Got a replacement hard drive from my computer manufacturer and did a restore. Everything is as good as gold. Only uses 54 watts of electricity when it is on with 2 hard drives. Only 1 watt when it is sleeping. Cons: You can only set it to sleep and wake for the same times everyday. I'm one a different schedule on the weekend, so it's a bit of an inconvenience. A little confused why WHS doesn't just use a raid instead of folder duplication. It would have been nice to have a choice since raid 1 is equivalent. 3 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
r00t3r Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/14/2009 4:18:51 PM Love It Pros: Very simple to setup and easy to use. Cons: None 2 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
dbarjim Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/10/2009 10:23:56 AM HP MediaSmart EX485 Pros: It works as advertised. It is very easy to understand and it is very easy to add or remove drives. Backups are GREAT. I can consolidate all my music (iTunes) in one location and access from any workstation on my home network. Supports GB speed.... WOW!!! Cons: It does not support RAID. (but it never advertised it did). Other Thoughts: I love it. I can backup all my local workstations. 6 out of 9 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 month to 1 year This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/9/2009 9:12:02 AM Home Media Server Pros: This machine was very easy to set up. It looks great and comes configured with many features that make it really powerful for a home server. Installation is a breeze. Plug it in, turn it on and install the client software on a PC. It walked me through setting up a free domain (xxxx.homeserver.com) and now I can get to my documents and media from any Browser. It provides a very nice media player over the internet so I can listen to my music from anywhere. I added an extra drive (from newegg). Just drop the drive into an available tray and slide in. No need to power down the server. Wait 2 minutes and the server, recognizes and mounts the drive. Adding users and shared drives is a snap. With two installed drives all the user data is shadowed onto both drives for extra security. It backs up all my PCs automatically (1 exception, see below). There are many snap-in snap-in applications available (www.wegotserved.com). I have just begun to play, but so far it’s been great. Cons: One of my laptops (Dell 600m) doesn't wake up from sleep automatically and has to be backed up from the menu. I also wish that the power saver features offered more scheduling options. Currently I can schedule the server to sleep (using only 1 watt), at a certain time. I would prefer to be able to schedule different times on different days. Multiple on-off cycles during the day would be very useful. Other then that everything works fine. Other Thoughts: I strongly recommend a second drive. It add data shadowing capability to specified folders. 8 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
LarsFromMars Tech Level: high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/6/2009 8:21:00 AM More mature than the 470 Pros: Overall a more mature solution to the earlier model EX47x. - Better processor - More RAM (which is essential) - More refined software solution (HP addons to WHS) Cons: - Photo Webshare solution went away (unfortunately) - Still use Seagate drives, which rattle like lawnmowers, which makes the unit not as green as it could be. 5 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
Feynmanfan Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month	3/4/2009 5:24:59 PM Excellent Tech Support for a Great Product Pros: I based my decision to buy this product upon the many glowing reviews out there on the web, however it was only after I installed that I discovered the most compelling reason to choose this over any other WHS option – HP’s excellent technical support. While the setup process is extremely simple, I still managed to come up against several snags during the first week of use that prompted me to call tech support. In each instance I was connected in less than two minutes to a courteous and knowledgeable support rep who patiently worked with me to resolve my issue. In this age where outsourcing and customer-no-service is becoming seemingly more prevalent, I couldn’t be more delighted with treatment I received. Way to go HP ! ! ! Cons: Much to the chagrin of my darling wife, the HP MSS has not quenched my thirst for electronic gadgetry. Indeed, it has opened up a whole new world of possibilities that I am only now beginning to discover. First on my list is to explore home-theater equipment including a wireless network media player, HDTV, and a new surround-sound system. I’ve tried to explain to my beloved that these purchases aren’t driven by hedonism, but rather a deep sense of patriotism. I am willing to do my part by making financial sacrifices in order to stimulate the country's ailing economy. Unfortunately, she's not buying any of it, which means, I suppose, neither am I. :-( Other Thoughts: Even though this slick piece of hardware has only been gracing the corner of my desk for couple weeks, I can’t dream of going back to the days of trying to manually manage data on all the computers and laptops in our home. With the MSS I can not only access my files easily from any computer on our home network, but I can also do so when traveling via a web browser. This feature alone has been worth the price of admission to me. While I could have built my own server with spare parts I have accumulated over the years, I chose to spend the extra bucks on the MSS to take advantage of its integrated features such as easily swappable drives, low power consumption, and classy form factor. This baby blows away any NAS device due to its broad functionality and expandability that will allow it to grow according to your needs in the months and years to come. Sure it's pricey, but you deserve it. Take the plunge into the future of home computing! 48 out of 59 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
gotshoo Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 week to 1 month This user purchased this item from Newegg	3/2/2009 2:11:43 PM Awesome server in a little box Pros: A great solution for backups, remote access, data streaming, and automated data copying. HP has put together a great flash interface for streaming your music and photos over the web. Also like web interface to upload photos to Flickr and Facebook directly from the server. Cons: From what I've read, the max storage pool is 9TB (still a ways away). And the eSata port on the back can only handle a single drive. Not a multiplier port. Other Thoughts: It's small, only the size of a large PC speaker, but packs a punch. Look up the HP easter egg to change the light colors. 8 out of 10 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!
N/A Tech Level: somewhat high Ownership: 1 day to 1 week This user purchased this item from Newegg	2/28/2009 9:37:26 PM Easy to intergrate Pros: Easy to set up, backs up my two wireless laptops and my home computer flawlessly. Windows home server is amazing and it is what made me choose this over a NAS box. Streams music with no problems. Cons: The remote access can be a pain to set up, but that isnt HP or WHS's fault. 2 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Did you? Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!