HP debuts Mac-compatible MediaSmart ex485 / ex487 home servers

It's been a long, long while since we've heard the words HP MediaSmart, and in fact, the last mention that was made wasn't exactly positive. HP's looking to put the past away and forge ahead with two new ones in the line: the Mac-friendly ex485 and ex487. Both devices are (of course) based on Microsoft's Windows Home Server platform, and just like their predecessors, these are meant to automatically backup machines around the home and act as a network-accessible repository for all things media. The pair features HP's Media Collector (used to schedule, copy and centralize digital files from networked PCs) and also acts as an iTunes server and an external backup device for Macs running Leopard and using Apple's Time Machine software. As for specs, you'll find a 2GHz Celeron CPU in each with 2GB of DDR2 RAM, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA jack and four internal HDD bays. The February-bound duo can be pre-ordered on January 5th for $599 (ex485; 750GB) / $749 (ex487; 1.5TB), and each can be scaled up to 9TB. Full release is after the break.

HP debuts Mac-compatible MediaSmart ex485 / ex487 home servers

HP Launches New Home Server for PCs and Macs

HP MediaSmart Server centralizes digital media and files for backup, remote access, sharing and uploading to social media sites

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 29, 2008 – HP today launched a home server designed for use with both Windows and Mac computers.

Based on the Microsoft Windows® Home Server platform, the HP MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 is a central repository for automatically backing up and accessing digital music, videos, photos and documents from multiple computers on a home network.(1)

The MediaSmart Server automatically organizes files across all PCs, streams media across a home network and the Internet,(2) and publishes photos to popular social networking and photo sharing sites.

"A growing number of digital-savvy households have both Windows and Mac computers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices," said Jason Zajac, vice president of strategy, Worldwide Attach Group, HP. "The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected."

"HP continues to innovate on the Windows Home Server platform giving consumers even more options to enjoy and protect their precious memories and valuable data," said Charlie Kindel, general manager, Windows Server Solutions, Microsoft. "We believe consumers will embrace the new MediaSmart Server as one of the most exciting computing products for the home."

MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 features include:

· HP Media Collector: conveniently schedules the MediaSmart Server to copy and centralize digital files and libraries from networked PCs

· Media Streaming: remotely streams photos and music to any Internet-connected PC or Mac

· Server for iTunes: centralizes iTunes music libraries on the server for playback to any networked Mac or PC running iTunes

· HP Photo Publisher: easily upload photos to Facebook®, PicasaTM Web Albums and Snapfish(3)

· HP Photo Viewer: allows easy sharing of photos with friends and family

· PC Hard Drive Backup: backs up networked PCs via the Windows Home Server backup feature

· Mac Hard Drive Backup: backs up Macs running Leopard using Apple Time Machine software

· Server Backup: duplicates designated shared folders to a separate hard disk drive

· Online Backup: duplicates designated folders to Amazon's S3 online backup service for an additional layer of protection

· Smart Power Management: can schedule times for server to go to "sleep" and "wake up," saving on energy costs

· Processor: Intel® Celeron®, 2.0 GHz 64-bit. Two gigabytes (GB) of 800-MHz DDR2 DRAM now standard on MediaSmart Server

· Expandability: additional drives can be added for up to 9 terabytes (TB)

"Customers are always looking for the right mix of features and ease-of-use when choosing digital home products," said Danielle Levitas, group vice president, consumer, broadband and digital marketplace at IDC. "HP's focus and investment in software allows it to deliver a home server with compelling features for Mac and PC users while offering a great customer experience that helps simplify the complexity of the connected home. This unique offering will help expand the home server market."



Pricing and availability

Manufacturer's suggested retail price for the HP MediaSmart Server ex485 with 750 GB of hard disk storage is $599 while the HP MediaSmart Server ex487 with 1.5 TB is $749.(4)

The HP MediaSmart Server can be pre-ordered beginning on Jan. 5, 2009, from Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Buy.com, Frys.com and NewEgg.com; it is expected to ship in February.

The first 200 consumers who visit HP Home & Home Office (www.hpshopping.com) or call [phone] between Jan. 5 - 11, 2009, to reserve a MediaSmart Server and use coupon code "AC5674" will receive a $50 savings off their purchase.(5)

More information is available at www.hp.com/go/mediasmartserver.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 12:48AM]

Do these come with Galaga too?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 12:49AM]

these things are always to much money. id rather build one and i probably will sicne im running out of space on my 500GB external drive and want to build a server. even a built one is going to run me a few bucks but it would be cheaper then buying one and addin drives. i kno i want atleast 3TB. I have movies, but im on the way to ALOT of movies, i gotta prepare for the future.

[Nerdtalker Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:54AM]

Amen, I agree entirely and was going to post the same thing.

I went and built a simple "home media server" which runs Windows Server 2008 (I know, I know) and Debian in a VM. Simple, cheap machine with a Celeron 230, barebones Asus and a couple 500 GB HDs and a 750 GB HD I scrounged from a bunch of computers I've had laying around. Now I have 2 TB in RAID5, and the whole computer (minus the HDs) cost around ~$250.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 6:29AM]

Mine was three hundred and I swapped out the included hdd for a bigger one. Hardly expensive.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 12:49AM]

This would make an awesome itunes server. 9TB nice

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 12:50AM]

omg i just came in my pants a little looking at that, i want.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:46AM]

Talk about premature ejaculation...

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 12:56AM]

i love my media smart server. fuckin' top gear out the ass on that bitch!

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:47AM]

W00T

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:16AM]

celeron? did i read that correctly or was it a mistake on behalf of the author? you mean they are touting a PC with 10 year old celeron processor for that amount of money? tell me they are kidding, right?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:20AM]

It's not a PC. It's a media hub/server. Don't need much processor power for that.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:34AM]

"10 year old... processor"

I'm sure it's a newer revision of the Celeron, but if you still want to go that way, whatever CPU you're using is a 30 year old processor, x86 ain't getting any younger...

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:45AM]

kneeToTheGroin Here's what I'm using: XPS 730, Intel Qx9770 3.8 GHZ OCed, 4 GB Corsair Dominator 1333 mhz

Dual nVIDIA GTX 280 1024 MB GDDR3 on each card

H2C Liquid Cooling, Dual dvd/rw drives, 1 Terabyte SATA 2.0 HDD

Dell 30 inch Widescreen Ultrasharp Max Resolution 2560X1600

Win Vista 64 bit Home Premium

Win Vista 32 bit Home Premium

4 Years of Extended warranty and 4 years of Accidental damage care service

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:02AM]

"Intel Qx9770 3.8 GHZ OCed"

The processor uses the 30 year old x86(-64) archetecture! Just like the Celeron!

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 4:11AM]

The Celeron is obviously not the 10-year-old model. Intel seems to be reusing their old names (Celeron and Pentium) for their lowest end Intel-core architecture processors. Which is to say, it probably is just a very, very low end Core 2 Duo like model.

Looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_microarchitecture it seems the Celeron here is the E1400 "Allendale", with 512 KiB L2 cache. And according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Celeron_microprocessors#Dual-Core_Desktop_Processors the E1400 was released on April 20, 2008. Definitely not 10 years old =D

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 7:14AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86

Yep, that basic architecture is 30 years old.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 7:18AM]

ryback, what has my penis got to do with anything?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 3:03PM]

All that hot hardware and you're not even running an Intel X25-E?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:23AM]

WOW. Great review here: http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2008/12/29/hands-on-hp-mediasmart-server-ex487-part-1/

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:30AM]

I just read it.

lol

No video stream support = nobody but suckers will buy it.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:38AM]

I've posted the MediaSmartServer.net review here:
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2008/12/28/review-hp-mediasmart-server-ex48/

[michaspi Posted Dec 29th 2008 1:43AM]

Why does this not have FireWire? :(

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:16AM]

It doesn't add up, it only have 4 slots, how can it reaches 9TB? The best it can do is 6...

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:40AM]

Each bay supports up to 2.25TB

[iofthestorm Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:42AM]

External drives?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:50AM]

@Mike - yes, it does have video stream support, courtesy of both Windows Media Connect and Twonky Media Server. It can stream video across your home network no problem. The Web Media Streamer does not have native video support, so video cannot be streamed remotely across the net - however, you can use Orb or Webguide for WHS to do this, which are both free add-ins.

@micas_pi - what do you need firewire for?

For those wondering about the Celeron, it's plenty fast for what you need in a home server - video streaming is probably the most demanding process, and works really well on the 487.

Cheers
Terry

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 2:59AM]

what about people the ex470? please tell me there is an update......please....

[pika2000 Posted Dec 29th 2008 5:50AM]

I know. Please HP, release a software update for the previous version.

As for those complaining about the celeron processor, the previous version of the HP Media Server uses a lowly Sempron processor with only 512MB RAM, and those are within the recommended requirements for Windows Home Server. It runs fine. The 2GB RAM is definitely welcomed though.

Now, can engadget do a head to head between this and a drobo with the network share add-on? :)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 6:20AM]

This is actually a really excellent upgrade, I agree - the lack of RAM was the major problem on the previous version. I'll definitely be picking this one up.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 5:53AM]

aaaaargh I just wish I could have a blu-ray burner and disks for cheap for my backups... sad there is no more competition.

[jakem Posted Dec 29th 2008 6:03AM]

Although I love my HP Home Server the biggest problem I have with it is the additional software HP stuck on it much of which was extremely buggy. Now I see that they've added a whole lot more crapware for the small number of Mac users who might be interested.

Perhaps HP should concentrate on the hardware and leave all their crapware on a separate CD leaving it up to the user to decide if they want it.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 8:03AM]

Agreed 100%

Also, I *like* the deep blue LEDs - matches the rest of my (non-HP) gear.

And forgot to say in my previous rant...the one thing I *don't* want my home server to do is creepily scan all the PCs on the network and steal/copy/catalogue/covet all the jpg and mp3 files it can find!

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 6:34AM]

Honestly I have had no problems with my HP server. Just last night we watched a Blu Ray i had ripped to the server earlier that day. Playback went by without a hitch. I have also streamed to my Netbook(i know you arent suppose to say that word) without any problems. I love mine and would recommend to anyone.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 7:27AM]

I tried running Windows Home Server on a Celeron (2.4GHz) w/1GB of RAM & it was slowwwww.......

[Michael Scrip Posted Dec 29th 2008 12:26PM]

What was slow about it? Were backups slow? Were file transfers slow? Were you using Gigabit ethernet?

You know this thing isn't a computer, right? It's a backup server.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 10:44AM]

atom desktops plus some 1TB/2TB drives and xp pro are cheaper than this

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 29th 2008 6:37PM]

It's Scylla! (Prison break!) :P

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2009 2:14AM]

This is too much for a normal computer use man! In fact we can use it to be our own web hosting machine already. But how come HP make a such mistake that it does not have video stream support?