HP MediaSmart LX195 boasts 640GB HDD, 1.6GHz Atom, $400 MSRP
By Ross Miller 
posted Apr 29th 2009 8:39PM
posted Apr 29th 2009 8:39PM
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Hmm, very interesting. I could use a new HTPC to replace my jury-rigged frankenstein machine that I currently use. If this is reasonably priced I might have to pick one up to use.
Ya I would jump on this if it was $300 and Windows XP could be installed on it to play HD movies with DTS and AC3 audio. Otherwise, a waste of my hard earned money...
This is a home server, not an HTPC. Note the complete lack of video output on the box.
Well then it looks like I am back to the drawing board for a nettop (I know that this was not a nettop). Does nettop have two t's or one...
I can't tell if the photo is dramatically angled or if the chassis actually has a trapezoidal shape to it.
not a bad deal
Are you joking? You can get the a lot more by going up to the ex485 for $100 more.
no expandable other than usb ports. i would rather have the Acer Aspire Easystore H340 Home Server 1tb to start and 3 open bays and at 499 Canadian or 420 American (aprox) its quite a bit better. sorry hp try again.
agreed... I ordered the acer just a few days ago. $399 and it came with 2.0 TB of storage (they gave you a free tb disk). And this thing still has 2 more hot swap drive bays to expand with.
Interesting... How does it support time machine? I thought Time Machine was only officially supported on Apple Devices an that to get it to work with some sort of 3rd partyserver / NAS, there was a work around. Am I wrong?
it's hp, they are a big company...
aka time machine support
apple only hates on diy'ers, modders, etc etc
You can actually use Time Machine with any SMB/Samba/CIFS drive anywhere on the network. You need to make a change to the Mac client to allow it to see those drives, but it does work.
Word of warning on the Time Machine support. It doesn't work for complete disaster recovery, or at least it doesn't on other HP Home Servers that claim TM support. Basically this means you can back up all you want, and restore files while the OS is healthy just fine. But if you have a hard drive meltdown and need to restore from the Leopard DVD, it won't work.
This is doable for 3rd party products, as my ReadyNAS NV+ allows me to do full disaster recovery. Seems the "big company" HP didn't quite do it right. Really a shame too, as they have some attractive addons for their servers for media streaming.
OK - so wait a minute....let me get this straight. The Media Vault 500 is $234 bucks at Amazon and has two accessible drive bays....
WHY exactly is this thing $390 bucks again?!!!!
This looks really great actually. If I didn't already have an ex 487, I'd be tempted to pick one of these up instead. For the guy above complaining about price, really who actually pays MSRP for anything these days?
Nice little compact bit of hardware, looks to be fanless. HP has a great software stack that sits on top of WHS and really provides a lot of extra value.
Tempted? Why's that? Don't know how much it'll retail for, but the EX485 I just picked up was only $100 more retail than the 195's MSRP. And I get a better machine with expandability.
Umm...Apple customers still pay retail :/
Can it handle playing streaming HD videos over LAN?
With 640gb, why would you do that?
With 640gb available, why would you do that?
945GC chip I'd assume like the H340 has, no it do HD at all. wait for the dual core w/Ion or GN40.
640 GB fills up quickly... Most of my media is stored on a file server that I would not want to transfer over even if it had enough capacity.
sorry, I'm illiterate and high. No, it does not do HD.
Pointless then, way to much money for 640gb....
I'm all for more convection-cooled WHS boxes running Atoms... but getting to a couple of TB with this is going to be a kluge of wallwarts and USB cables.
Agree with comment above that the Acer box looks like a better fit to what I see as the emerging NAS-plus-media-server niche for WHS.
Eddy
Why get this over a refurb ex470 for about $300 or a new ex485 for $400. I will assume one can get this for about $300 with discounts eventually.
no eSATA ports? total FAIL.
@VedicHymn Looks like it actually IS $390 http://homeservershow.com/hp-announces-the-hp-mediasmart-server-lx195.html
eCost.com had it listed for $390 and it looks like it was a leak.
It's already on a bunch of retailer's sites and yes, the price is $390 as noted by other commenters:
http://www.pcrush.com/product/Entry-Level-Servers/305270/HP-MediaSmart-Server-LX195?refid=1238
First hands-on review right here:
http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/2009/04/30/hands-on-hp-mediasmart-server-lx195-1/
A server without redundancy is simply a bad idea.
amen!
Pretty much what I was coming to say. If it had at least two hard drives that were user replaceable I might bite, but solo drive-olo is a no-go for me.