Asus have just announced the TS Mini, a Home Server which is powered by the Intel Atom N280 (1.66GHz) processor and features 2GB DDR2 memory, Gigabit Ethernet, storage space for 2 internal SATA hard drives, with 6 USB ports and 2 eSATA ports for future expansion.

Remarkably the Asus TS Mini consumes only 24.5W when idle and just 27.9W during normal use, an area which is defiantly awesome.

Added on top of the Windows Home Server software, Asus have added their own pieces of software:

WebStorage Service
The Asus TS Mini also offers users a year of free 500GB Web storage space allowing you to boost your storage or synchronize backups online for improved data security. Additionally, you can save large peer-to-peer files on the Web, and share data with user accounts worldwide.

Media Streaming
The TS mini makes it easy for you to stream photos, music, video and other digital content to various devices including TVs, computers, Media PCs, and gaming consoles—for all-around content access as well as allowing you to stream music and multimedia content through the online connection.

Xtor Manager
With the ASUS Xtor Manager, you can directly backup, synchronize and manage your files and folders between external USB and eSATA storage devices and TS mini.

ASWM Management
ASWM, real-time system health monitoring tool, helps users to monitor online and system status of TS mini, including fans, temperature, disks, drives, network, memory and CPU. Once errors occur, the system will instantly send error report to pre-configured email.

The ASUS TS mini is available for pre-order in the US in 500G and 2TB models at $349 and $529, respectively from both Amazon (1) (2) and Newegg (1) (2).

More details are available from here.

For those of you who fancy a read, here is the press release for the Asus TS Mini Home Server:

ASUS Unveils TS Mini Server for Today’s Small Office/Home Office

– Compact, energy efficient and pre-installed with Windows® Home Server, the TS Mini serves the need to access and share content on-demand –

Fremont, California (November 18, 2009) – ASUS, a worldwide leader in personal computers, today introduces the TS mini small office/home office (SOHO) server. The TS mini targets modern home and small office users that frequently exchange data from multiple computers and require access from various locations. The TS mini secures documents, multimedia, and other digital content into a sleek repository. It further safeguards data on multiple computers across the home or office with automatic backups and cloud storage. TS mini allows centralized file access with local networks, attached storage devices and remotely over the internet. Equipped with an Intel® Atom™ processor, the TS mini delivers quiet, energy efficient, always-on access. Operating on the Microsoft® Windows™ Home Server Platform, it simplifies management of digital content. The TS Mini is available now for pre-order at Amazon.com and NewEgg.com starting at $349.99 USD.

“Consumer demand for rich content that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, on any device is fueling innovation in networking and storage of media and data in the home,” said Seth Bobroff, general manager, Data Center Group – Storage, Intel Corporation. “The Intel® Atom™ processor in the TS mini enables ASUS to deliver the ability to stream media, share files and protect data while remotely accessing it, all in a sleek and energy-efficient 2-bay design.”  

“We are pleased to welcome ASUS, one of the industry’s leading PC manufacturers, to the Windows Home Server family,” said Leslie McGuire, Microsoft Director of Windows Server Marketing. “Customers tell us they want an easy and inexpensive way to store, manage and protect their digital content. ASUS helps them achieve all of that with their TS Mini Server, which includes a robust option for adding data capacity through external Web storage.” 

Easy Backup and Restoration of Home Computers

The TS mini can automatically back up data from up to 10 computers daily. With six USB and two eSATA ports, the TS mini lets users directly back up, synchronize, and manage their files across various USB and eSATA devices and the internal hard disk drive. In a recovery scenario, users can bring individual computers or the entire office back online by loading the latest recovery information saved on the TS mini.

Convenient Content Sharing and Easy Remote Access

The TS mini makes it easy for users to stream photos, music, video and other digital content to various devices including TVs, computers, Media PCs, and gaming consoles—for all-around content access. With the Remote Access feature, users outside the local network can also leverage their personal Windows Live™ account to access the TS mini and its content. Additionally, they can stream music and multimedia content through the online connection.

Large Data Capacity with Exclusive Web Storage

For additional storage capacity, the ASUS offers TS mini users a year of free 500GB storage over the Web. Users can boost their storage or synchronize backups online for improved data security. Additionally, users can save large peer-to-peer files on the Web, and share data with user accounts worldwide.

Energy-saving Features

In line with global energy-saving initiatives, the TS mini uses minimal power—consuming 24.5W when in idle mode and 27.9W during activation. The TS mini is the ideal choice for 24/7, non-stop data center operation.

Pricing

The ASUS TS mini is available in 500G and 2TB models at $349 and $529, respectively.

Specifications

ASUS HOME SERVER TS mini
CPU	Intel® Atom Processor N280 1.66GHz
Memory	1GB/2GB DDR2-800
Hard Drive	500GB/2TB, 7200 RPM
Networking	1x 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) RJ45 LAN
Interfaces	6x USB 2.0, 2x eSATA, 1x K-Lock
LED Indicators	System, HDD1, HDD2, Network status indicators
AC Power Adapter (Watt)	Output: 19V, 90W  Input: 100-240V AC, 50/60Hz universal
Dimensions	9.6" (H) x 3.8" (W) x 8" (D)
Weight	3.3/3.9 kg; 7.26/8.58 lbs.
Operating System	Powered by Microsoft Windows Home Server
Accessories	Quick start guide User manual AC adapter (90W) Power cord RJ45 LAN cable Software installation CD Recovery DVD Restore CD HDD screws package Warranty card

Specifications are subject to change without prior notice. Please visit www.asus.com for more details.

The latest mini-itx main board from Intel is the D510M0 which is equipped with the Intel Atom Dual Core D510 processor (2x 1.66GHz and 2x 512K cache) and the Intel NM10 Express Chipset, providing more than enough power for a Windows Home Server home build.

As well as the 2x hyper threaded 1.66GHz CPUs (4x CPUs in Task manger) the north bridge controller is on the SAME silicon as the CPUs, improving overall performance.

An early tester of the D510M0 board is Tranquil PC who had this to say:

(We) will be using this new board in numerous new PCs and Servers, including the new MiDASS series of Home Servers.  There is talk, that the board will also be made available on it’s own too.

Due to be shipped in early January 2010 by Tranquil PC the TDP is only 13W (that’s the CPU and the North Bridge) and would suggest that, with suitable air flow, the D510 can be passively cooled by the fitting of a heat sink, making a quiet Home Server solution.

More details are available from here.

It has only been a few weeks since HP upgraded its MediaSmart home server range; we reviewed the excellent top of the range MediaSmart EX495, and found it to be a very capable and impressive little server. So what have HP got in store for us with the new StorageWorks x510 Data Vault range?

What’s different?

Well the principal difference from the EX49x server range is that the new servers are intended as small business servers rather than for home use. As such, they are essentially the same physical hardware albeit with different options on disk storage.

With the two consumer MediaSmart servers, the EX490 and the EX495 you get a single 1tb or 1.5tb hard disk respectively, but the x510 comes in three variants: a 1tb, 2tb and a 3tb (although they are all called the x510!) with the larger pair reaching their capacities using a pair of hard disks.

A pair of hard disks on the bigger two servers is a welcome addition as it allows businesses to set up folder duplication out of the box, although having said that, adding a second (or third or even forth) hard disk to the MediaSmart/StorageWorks family is so easy that it could be done by small children; well perhaps not, but the screw-less caddies do make adding hard disks very easy indeed.

A new addition for the StorageWorks x510 range is that HP are promising Amazon S3 backup storage integration in November 09, which could offer the potential of hassle-free off site backups for any business who want to have the extra data security this service can provide. No details of this service were available at the time of writing, but I am sure we will bring you news of how it operates and whether it will also be available to MediaSmart owners as soon as we know.

Hands on

The x510 ships in a rather business-like plain brown box, unlike the colorful and shiny one that the MediaSmart server pitched up wearing. Packed safely inside is the server itself, a power and Ethernet cable, three recovery disks (Software installation, PC Restore and Server Recovery) and a setup poster.

Unpacking the server reveals the first major difference; look it says HP Data Vault instead of HP MediaSmart Server on the front! But other than having a pair of hard disks already installed, there seems to be no obvious differences between this and the MediaSmart EX495 server. Also present up front is a single USB 2.0 port ready for connecting USB backup hard disks without having to grope around the back of the server.

Behind the mesh front door, and with the caddies removed we can see a pair of 80cm fans to keep the heat down and four sets of SATA and power connectors ready for the hard disks.

Finally around the back we find the remaining 3 x USB 2.0 connections, an eSATA, the Gigabit Ethernet port and the power socket and switch.

In use

When active, the server gave a very respectable power consumption of around 45w which dropped to around 30w when it was idle.  The dual core Intel E5200 processor and 2gb of RAM make short work of the regular server functions, and totally rip through the HP media conversion and streaming extras.

In addition to Microsoft Windows Home Server, the StorageWorks x510 has all the extra media streaming and conversion software that the MediaSmart servers have, so if you are unfamiliar with how cool HP’s extra software is, then check out our previous EX495 review.

Even though HP have used the same basic software for the x510, their attention to detail has extended to ensuring that any reference to ‘MediaSmart’ has been replaced with ‘Data Vault’.

Verdict

This has ended up being a pretty short review simply because everything that could be said about this server has already been said in our previous review of the EX495.

I am not really sure why HP have renamed the MediaSmart server in order to sell it to businesses; but if this means that HP are able to push more servers out though their business distribution and support channels, then great, if more of these fantastic servers are available to users. And if that means that more customers outside the US can get hold of one, then that is even better news to the consumers in countries who aren’t able to buy a MediaSmart server yet.

Even though this is really a home server wearing a business suit, for any small business or regional office of a large company, the combination of Windows Home Server and the HP x510 are a cracking solution to their storage and backup needs, which will provide immediate security that will grow easily with their storage needs. The protection of of the data stored on this server can only be strengthened when the Amazon S3 integration ships later in the year.

This is still a great server package whatever name HP call it.

VIA is pretty well known for its chipsets, processors and boards, but less so for complete systems. So I find myself here with the NSD-7800 server, which is a complete system from VIA, well not really a complete system as it ships without hard disks or operating system, so that makes it a bare bones system then.

Hardware

For the NSD-7800, VIA have taken their embedded NAS-7800 board and popped it into a compact little eight drive bay case, and the case is smaller than you expect an eight drive bay case to be, measuring approximately 13.5 L x 6 W x 13.5 H (34 x 15 x 34 cm).

Inside, the NAS-7800 board is equipped with VIA’s own C7-D processor running at 1.5Ghz, a DDR2 RAM slot with a maximum capacity of 1gb and 8 SATA connections. Interestingly this board also sports a bootable type-I Compact Flash slot for any system builders who fancy putting an embedded operating system onto that particular medium. An embedded VIA VT6130 LAN card and VIA Unichrome Pro Graphics are also present and correct.

Finally inside, we find a 300w ATX power supply, and a 120cm fan keeping everything nice and cool.

Outside, the case has normal glossy black finished metal we all expect our servers to be wearing this year, along with four rear USB sockets, a gigabit Ethernet connection and power in. Up front are some status lights an a power button.

Opening up the mesh front door reveals the eight hard disk caddies which can are removed by sliding the silver section on the right hand side and pulling the lever that pops out; all pretty straightforward stuff.

Installation

The NSD-7800 has been designed to operate as a headless server, and as such is has no VGA connection on the rear panel. Unlike the HP MediaSmart servers which use TFTP to load the operating system, the NSD-7800 requires you to install an operating system locally; so how do you manage this with no VGA connection? Well thankfully there is a VGA pin header on the motherboard, and VIA supply a VGA cable to convert the header pins to a proper VGA socket allowing you to connect up a screen.

With the monitor dutifully connected, the installation of Windows Home Server still presents a couple of challenges. For one thing, the lack of a built-in CD/DVD drive presents you with an initial hurdle of how to install the operating system. This is of course easily remedied with either a USB DVD drive or by transferring the WHS installation media over to a USB memory stick.

Installing a hard disk into one of the caddies wasn’t a great chore, four screws and in it went. Not as simple as a MediaSmart server, but easier than installing it internally on a regular case. The next question was which of the eight drive bays should the system disk go in? As I have been used to using an HP MediaSmart server, I automatically went for the lower bay. This turns out to be a mistake with the NSD-7800 as the lower 4 bays are connected to the RAID controller which means the Windows installer disk can’t see them. A better bet then is the top most drive bay which is connected to the regular SATA controller.

Lastly connect up a USB keyboard and mouse, power and Ethernet and you are ready to go with the installation.

Using my newly created installation USB thumb drive, the NSD-7800 loaded Windows Home Server without any problems, and everything seemed fine until I tried to access the server from another PC across the network. What could be wrong? Well simply that the Windows Home Server installation media doesn’t contain the drivers for the NSD-7800’s embedded VT6130 network card (it didn’t have the RAID drivers either, but never mind). A quick trip to VIA driver web site soon sorted things out and we are up and running on the network.

In use

Power consumption using a single hard disk was a respectable 40w, and the NSD-7800 ran pretty quiet and cool during use.

The NSD-7800’s little C7-D 1.5ghz processor and 1gb of RAM are never going to set the world on fire in raw CPU horsepower, but they seemed perfectly sufficient to power Windows Home Server to an acceptable level of performance. If you like to add a plethora of other applications onto your home server, then you should perhaps consider another platform as I would expect the NSD-7800 will run out of steam pretty quickly, but as a basic Windows Home Server box you should be fine.

And here lies the strength of this little system; as a simple file server this server can currently pack up to 16tb of storage into a small form factor, low power consumption package, not forgetting that this can be extended further using the four USB sockets up to a possible 24tb if you wish (assuming all of your disks are 2tb). Not many other systems of this size can boast that amount of storage capacity.

Verdict

It would be unfair to compare the NSD-7800 with complete and ready to go servers like the recently release HP MediaSmart server. This is because the NSD-7800 is a barebones system, supplied without any hard disk or even an operating system. In fact the NSD-7800 isn’t even specifically intended as a Windows Home Server, as other operating systems will work just fine on it.

However, it is impossible to ignore the fact that you can get a ready to go HP MediaSmart EX490 with all its extra media streaming bells and whistles for around $550, which is only marginally more than the NSD-7800 which is available for around $530 (www.e-itx.com or www.via-itx.com), and this is before you buy any hard disks or a copy of Windows Home Server.

So the NSD-7800’s strengths are as a workhorse system, able to provide a single box solution for a large amount of storage, but with weaknesses being the additional cost and perhaps lacking the extra power to offer the media conversion and streaming tricks of an HP MediaSmart server.

VIA NSD-7800 News Release

Launched at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the A2000 is a barebones server unit, which means that it comes as a case complete with motherboard and power supply, but without RAM, disks or an operating system.

It’s powered by the VIA C7-D  processor running at 1.5GHz and comes with the VX800 chipset. The VIA ARTiGO A2000 uses a custom Nano-ITX motherboard. On Via’s own website they state that the motherboard is “optimized for system stability in always-on home server, streaming and download applications. Its silent ball-bearing fan ensures that the system is remains sufficiently cooled without creating unwanted noise.”. The implication here being that VIA have purposely designed the unit to work as a Windows Home Server unit.

It features one slot for up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, two 3.5 inch SATA drive bays, 3 USB ports and a gigabit Ethernet. The system retails for £247 in the UK.

System Specification

• CPU: 1.5GHz VIA C7®-D processor
• Chipset: VIA VX800 Unified Digital Media IGP chipset
• Memory Support: 1 x DDR2 SO-DIMM Socket (up to 2 GB)
• Hard Disk Support: 2 x 3.5” SATA-II
• Bootable SSD: 1 x CompactFlash socket (supports DMA mode)
• USB Ports: 3 x USB 2.0 ports (1 on the front panel)
• LAN Port: 1 x Gigabit RJ-45 LAN port with LED
• Audio: Built-in high definition audio controller
• Audio Ports: 1 x MIC/Line-in, 1 x Line-out
• Display Port: 1 x VGA port
• Front LED: LAN active, LAN speed, power, HDD active, WLAN active
• System Cooler: 8 cm low-noise ball-bearing fan
• Dimensions: 5.3” x 4.5” x 10.2” / 135 x 115 x 259 mm (W x H x D)
• Power: 100~240 V AC/DC adapter

Artigo Unboxing Video

Pictures

Gloss black unit prone to picking up fingerprints!

Close up on the front of the unit

Side view

VGA connector, Ethernet port, two USB connectors

Tidy unit inside with the tiniest of motherboards

Inside the case

Side views

Overhead view of back

Behind the front cover

Front cover eased off by gently pushing the tabs seen on the left and right below

This is about as far as you want to pull the fascia without disconnecting any wires

Slide the drives in here

The front of the system board

Inside the Artigo

What Do I Need to Build a System?

So in order to build a complete Windows Home Server system you are going to need the following parts:-

• VIA ARTiGO A2000.
• 3.5″ SATA drives (one or two as required).
• a single 1GB or 2 GB DDR2 533 SODIMM.
• a copy of Windows Home Server.
• an installation method of some kind so a bootable USB hard disk/2GB USB memory stick, or a USB DVD drive.
• USB keyboard, USB mouse and monitor for the duration of the build and initial system set up.

The build process is very easy like any other PC or server system, install the RAM, then the hard disc(s). Then connect your temporary keyboard, mouse and monitor and enter the BIOS to temporarily change the boot device. You should then select USB and use your USB DVD drive or bootable USB device to install the OS. Don’t forget to change the BIOS settings back to the hard disc being the primary boot drive, before you return your keyboard, mouse and monitor to their usual homes! If you forget to do this, any time you leave a bootable USB device connected to your ARTiGO it will boot into that device and not WHS; but you won’t be able to see why!

If you built a WHS server with one hard disc, you would be paying in the region of £400 in total.

Conclusions

The ARTiGO A2000 does make a good entry level Windows Home Server system; and although it has room internally for 2 discs and USB connectivity to add further external drives, its growth potential is limited.

The unit is energy efficient, small, and quiet, so if you load it up with a couple of 1.5 or 2 Tb drives this could fulfill the average WHS users requirements. The C7 processor is not the most powerful CPU going, but used in the usual file server context of WHS this shouldn’t present any major issues.

All in all a good starting point for the WHS enthusiast, with the added interest of being able to build it yourself and specify exactly the RAM and disk space that you want.

Whilst exploring the HP support site I stumbled across details of a HP LX197 MediaSmart Server, which whilst looking like a upgrade model to the LX195 this new model has not been announced yet, but looks like it isn’t far away

Website WeGotServed also has details at his site which also links to an article in an Australian blog where a HP sales rep mentioned that the unit would be officially announced mid to late October. In the meantime further product information is available from the HP support site alongside troubleshooting and usage information.

More details from HP.

Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows has a review of the new EX49x MediaSmart Server from HP which takes a look at the hardware and software improvements in HPs third generation of Home Server.

Defiantly worth a look is a chart looking at the hardware differences between this and previous MediaSmart models.

Read the full review here.

The Xtreamer is a media player and streamer that enables you to play and stream movies and videos, listen to your music collection and show slideshows of your photos on your TV.

This device enables you to display all your media that is stored away on other machines on your home network, including of course your Windows Home Server machine. Connection to your television is through HDMI, (cable not provided), or component audio/video cables, so if you have an older TV you will have problem connecting via the old co-ax type connection unless you have some kind of intermediate converter. However as this device is all about High Definition Video and Audio, it would be rather a waste to connect it to your older television – a good excuse to upgrade to the latest HD televisions!

Package Contents

Xtreamer (HDD not included)
110~240V Power Adapter (supporting UK/EU and US)
1.5M length HDMI cable (optional)
Wi-Fi 802.11n USB Antenna (optional)
Audio & Video Cables (3 way)
Remote Control with 2 “AAA” batteries
USB Slave cable
Quick start guide

Technical Specifications

Memory – 256MB DDR SDRAM, 32MB Flash
Chipset – Realtek 128X (Special Edition)
Network – Ethernet 10/100, WIFI USB Antenna 802.11 (optional)
Connectivity – WIFI , UPnP SSDP, UPnP AV, NTFS
Dimensions – Width 10.5″(180mm) x Depth 1.25″ (32mm) x Height 2.25″ (82mm)
Power – 12V DC, 3A

Video containers:

MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG)
MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
VOB
AVI, ASF, WMV
Matroska (MKV)
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4
FLV – Flash Video

Video codecs:

XVID SD/HD
MPEG-1
MPEG-2 – MP@HL
MPEG-4.2 – ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
WMV9  – MP@HL
H.264  – BP@L3,  MP@L4.0, HP@L4.0, HP@L4.1
VC-1 – MP@HL, AP@L3

Audio containers:

AAC, M4A
MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
WAV
WMA
FLAC
OGG
AVC HD

Audio codecs:

Dolby Digital
DTS
WMA, WMA Pro
AAC
MP1, MP2, MP3
LPCM
FLAC
Vorbis
· Audio pass through : DTS, Dolby Digital, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus
· Photo formats : JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, HD JPEG
· Other formats: ISO, IFO, FLV, RM, RA, RAM
· Subtitle formats : SRT, SMI, SUB, SSA, IDX
· Streaming formats : RTSP, FLV

Web Services

Video: YouTube, Picasa, Yahoo Video, CNN, NBC Today, CBS Face the Nation and more
Audio: Live365 Radio, iPodcast, Radiobox, ABC News, BBC Podcast, CNN News , Indiefeed, Jamendo
Photo: Picasaweb
RSS feed: Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Xchange, MSNBC News and more

Networking details

The Xtreamer comes with Intelligent QoS technology, which analyzes and separates wired and wireless traffic into multiple data streams. The Xtreamer embedded Wireless Intelligent Stream Handling (WISH) technology improves wireless media by moving time-sensitive tagged traffic towards the front of the queue. WISH automatically detects multimedia and online movie formats, requiring no need for user configuration. It works transparently with other QoS technologies to immediately improve wireless media speed.

The Xtreamer supports the latest wireless security features to help prevent unauthorized access, whether from over a wireless network or the Internet. Support for WPA and WPA2 standards ensure that you will be able to use the best possible encryption regardless of your client devices. It will also appear on your network listing on your PCs as “VENUS”, which will allow you to transfer files to the hard disc on the unit if you have installed one.

Initial Impressions

The unit is nicely packaged and as is the case with most consumer electronics a lot of thought has been put into the ”opening experience” of the product.

The almost compulsory unpacking video is available below, (the audio is Dutch, but you’ll get the idea!):-

Images

The box is relatively attractive and informative

The contents of the box are well set out

The package contents in their entirety

The unit itself and the remote control

Side views

Various angles of the unit

A top view of the unit with the lid off and ready for a 2.5”SATA disc.

The wireless network aerial, (which can be twisted to the upright position if preferred)

Some further shots of the back of the unit

My standard unit of measure to give an idea of the size of the unit!

Usage

The unit initially takes a few seconds to boot but then presents you with the home screen as illustrated below.

There are four main options available on the (very red!) home menu – Media Library, Internet, File Manager and Settings. If you connect the unit via an ethernet capable and your network is set up with DHCP as  a matter of course, you will be able to delve straight in to the media library. However, if you have connected via the wireless aerial you will have to visit the settings menu first to swap the connection over to the wireless link and enter any WEP or WPA keys for your network. Visible SSIDs are shown as a matter of course, but if you have hidden this then there is a little more work to do.

Media Library

This is where you access the various libraries on the PCs and WHS machines on your network. If these devices require a user and password then the Xtreamer prompts you for this information, which you can then save away as a favorite shortcut.

I had samples of the many file formats supported and they all played and the unit had a very good picture quality. Any degradation of image would be down to the “ripping” quality of any DVDs into secondary formats such as AVI.  However all the professionally created MPG, AVI and MKV files that I have played nicely without any issues, and no “remnants” of any kind were visible.

One omission in the playback formats that I immediately found was a lack of support for .dvr-ms or .wtv, (as created by Media Center in Win 7), so I was unable to play back any recordings made on my Windows Media Center machines. To me this was the only real negative side of this unit, but frankly for the way that I use the media files on the network it was rather a large problem.

Internet

This menu gives you access to the online services such as YouTube and YahooVideo, but this is where I did start to encounter judder and latency in the playing video. However this is very likely to be down to your broadband connection rather than an inherent issue with the device. The “loading” icon which is just a square that gradually fills, is unattractive but of course doesn’t effect the eventual playback. This is also different from the other loading icon shown elsewhere which is a red circle that spins, much in the same light as some Microsoft offerings, but is red rather than the Microsoft blue.

This ability to watch internet based videos is a nice “extra” feature, but not really something that I think most users would make use of. If this was extended into making use of the BBCs iPlayer and the similar viewers from other channels, then the functionality would be of more use to the average viewer.

File Manager

This screen can be used to move files across your network or from any attached NAS drives onto the optional SATA 2.5″ drive that you can fit into the device. I feel that this would more logically sit off of the settings menu rather than as a front screen item. However this function is easy to use and its obvious how to move files around.

Settings

In the settings menu you can alter such things as network connectivity, interface language, output for 1080p. The options are logically set out under various sub-categories, and even non-IT people should be able to alter the products set up to suit their own viewing environment.

Playback

All the video files I tried, played cleanly with crisp imagery, (except those that had been encoded with less than optimum settings in the first place), so the overall view of this as a streaming device was that it accomplishes the job well. One issue with some videos is that if you paused and came out of them, and then went back to them; the unit offered to resume the video. You would presume that having been offered this that the video would start where you left off, but it didn’t. It just started right at the beginning again! It may be that those file formats don’t easily allow for resuming, but the Xtreamer should know the difference between those that do and those that don’t. This isn’t a major criticism as the Xtreamer allows you to fast forward at up to 32 x the normal speed, so you can get back to where you were quickly.

Music playback was equally easy to navigate to and the music played back cleanly and without any jerkiness.

The photograph slideshow worked well but there doesn’t seem to be very many options about how you want the slide show to play back, but I’m not sure that this would be a primary use for the Xtreamer anyway.

Although my kids, (aged 10 and 8), were well aware of the playback capabilities of the XBox, they were more comfortable watching films using this device. Probably just because it was a new gadget as much as anything; but this also proves that you don’t need to be highly technically savvy to use the Xstreamer.

Video Tour

There is a video tour of the unit if you click the link below:-

More screen shots are also available at http://www.thextreamer.com/screen_shots.html.

There is a lively support forum available at http://forum.xtreamer.net/viewforum.php?f=50 .

Pricing

£99 including VAT, + £8 delivery (including a free wireless aerial if bough during September 2009), if bought from the Xtreamer Shop.

Conclusions

Connection to my 802.11g wireless network was easy to do, and then swapping over to a wired connection was even easier. The unit quickly led me to the various network workgroups available on my network from which I could see all the machines on my network, regardless of whether they were XP, Vista, Win 7 or of course my Windows Home Server machine.

Once found it was easy to play pretty much any type of video or audio file, or display any of the photographs available. Even on my wireless connection there was no noticeable problems in streaming any videos and certainly no judder that you might ordinarily expect. This of course would depend on whether there are any other users on the wireless network using the connection heavily. Unfortunately I was unable to try a load test in this context, but the Xtreamer seems very clever in how it buffers the stream, so this may not even be an issue. Of course you are unlikely to see any latency on a wired network.

One trick that I think that the Xtreamer team have missed is that this unit could so easily have been the Media Center extender that we have all been waiting for. Apart from some early attempts at this genre of device, which seem to have largely left the market now; it would appear that the XBox 360 is really the only device that can make use of Media Center’s extender functionality. I don’t think that it would take a lot of work to incorporate this kind of capability into the device so maybe one feature for the future?

Once setup both my wife and children have found the interface easy to navigate round, and so for that reason the very rare wife approval rating has been awarded! The only other comment from the rest of the family, was the use of the color red throughout the interface was a bit “in your face”. So an option to change interface coloring would be a nice upgrade for the future.

All in all it is a great unit, (at a great price!), that so nearly does everything I would need it to do, especially as it so easily makes use of the centralized nature of having a Windows Home Server machine at the heart of your home network. I think this unit would do everything that MOST users would want from it, and just needs a few extra file formats to get to the right level of media support – but how about the Windows Media Center support guys?!

The HP MediaSmart server EX 487 was first announced at the 2009 CES show in Las Vegas and and forms the first of the second generation of the HP Windows home server line of products.

What’s in the box?

Inside the box there is the server itself, a power adapter and cable, an Ethernet cable, a software installation disc, a PC restore disc, a server recovery disc, and various documentation including warranty, packing list and quick start guide.

Technical Specification

CPU-Z Report

Processors

Number of processors  1

Number of cores  1 (max 1)
Number of threads 1 (max 1)
Name   Intel Celeron 440
Codename  Conroe-L
Specification  Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU          440  @ 2.00GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0×0)
CPUID   6.6.1
Extended CPUID  6.16
Core Stepping  A1
Technology  65 nm
Core Speed  1197.2 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 6.0 x 199.5 MHz
Rated Bus speed  798.1 MHz
Stock frequency  2000 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache  32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache  512 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control  no

Chipset

Northbridge   Intel P35/G33/G31 rev. A2
Southbridge   Intel 82801IR (ICH9R) rev. 02
Memory Type   DDR2
Memory Size   2048 MBytes
Channels   Single
Memory Frequency  399.1 MHz (1:2)

Graphics

Number of adapters  0

Software

Windows Version   Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition  Service Pack 2 (Build 3790)
DirectX Version   9.0c

Power Usage

Initial startup 96 watts settling back to a consistent 44 – 47 watts. Heavy file transfer didn’t take this beyond 50watts.

Initial Impressions

As you would expect from an organisation such as HP, the styling of the machine is very tasteful and restrained, and would look nice in any Home Office setup. The machine is very quiet in operation and wouldn’t disrupt anyone, even in the smallest of home offices. The case is a shiny hard plastic that may get easily covered in fingerprints, but realistically there aren’t many reasons why you would need to touch the machine! As per other WHS machines it works as a headless unit and only requires Ethernet and power connections.

As you can see from my usual unit of measure, (a 1 litre juice carton!), the actual size of the machine is really quite small.

The magnetically latched door opens easily to reveal 4 SATA removable trays

To remove the tray, you first need to turn the little “lock” dial from locked to unlocked, then you press the little red button down and then lift up the black handle and pull to remove it.

Four trays are available , of which two are filled with 750 GB disks out of the box.  The bottom tray contains the operating system disk and the other three caddies contain hot swappable data disks.

The neat little caddie doesn’t require any tools to swap discs in and out.

Right side view

View of the top of the machine with the lid removed by sliding it forward.

The tidy and functional rear view of the unit .

Close-up of all the available ports and the power button on the back of the unit.

The COA is on the bottom of the unit

Start Her Up!

To start the installation process of the HP MediaSmart Server EX487 all you have to do is insert the provided software installation CD into one of your existing home computers. If you have autorun installed then the Windows Home Server Connector will start automatically and go off and search for your new WHS machine on the network. (Alternatively if you have autorun disabled then start up the HPInstall.exe program).

Home Server Console Splash Screen

General

In the settings dialogue the general tab shows all the usual information you would expect from a WHS setup. The backup, passwords, media sharing, remote access and add-in tabs are also standard fare for WHS users.

HP MediaSmart Server Add-In

This add-in specifically addresses the EX487s capabilities, including such functions as sleep times, updates, other notifications, the brightness of the LEDs on the unit and fan speeds, as well as a generic support screen.

Interestingly as per other HP machines the option to show the health status of the WHS installation is set off as a default. Realistically this option should be set to on, so that you can see from the LEDs on the machine that there is possibly a network issue.

Media Collector

This add-in is likely to be superseded by functionality in the upcoming PowerPack3, but it’s nice to see that HP understands the value of centralizing the data from all the PCs on a home network. This add-in basically pulls Photos, Music and Videos from the connected machines.

Server Online Backup

Another neat add-in is integration into the Amazon S3 online backup service. Of course there are charges associated to this. Just be aware that large amounts of data being saved online using this service, will take a long time to upload and will cost a fair bit of money!

iTunes Add-In

Another add-in available out of the box is the ITunes server, (which is enabled by default). This may or may not be of use depending on how you plan to distribute music throughout your network.

TwonkyMedia

To quote the TwonkyMedia website, TwonkyMedia manager works with DLNA-certified digital media adapters, A/V systems, TVs, PCs, game consoles and mobile devices. It also works with most UPnP AV-compliant devices, even if they are not DLNA-compliant. This means it also works with hundreds of UPnP media servers (both software and NAS devices) and UPnP control points–including popular mobile phones and UPnP media renderer hardware.

Add-Ins

The TwonkyMedia server and HP MediaSmart Server online backup add-ins are installed by default. And the McAfee total protection service is available for installation should you require it.

Client Desktop Software

On all client PCs there is also a icon installed on the desktop that points to the HP MediaSmart Server control centre, which basically just gives you an easy way to get to various folders on the WHS machine and to various other tools are available to use with it. The interface that you get when you use this with Microsoft Windows is shown below, but there is a similar interface available for Mac users.

Pricing

The recommended price from HP is $749.

Conclusion

The HP MediaSmart Server EX487 is a sturdy good looking machine with plenty of software add-ins which accentuate any owners use of Windows Home Server. My reservation on other machines has been the ability to add further discs to expand the unit, but this will not be a problem on this machine with an initial 1.5TB available, and a further 2 bays supplied empty.

The HP MediaSmart Server EX487 also has further expansion possibilities available with 4 USB ports and an eSata port which are easily accessible.

This is a very nice machine and the only real downside I can see is that the cost is a little high. But for your money you get a great little machine with lots of expansion capabilities backed by one of the main names in the WHS market – HP.

If you have ever had a desire to build your own PC from scratch, the biggest hurdle to overcome is the choice of motherboard; for a beginner there is a bewildering array of sizes, chipsets and manufacturers. Where should you start?

Perhaps an easier route to self build nirvana is to use a barebones system. In case you are unsure, a barebones system is normally a PC supplied without a processor, RAM or a hard disk. You simply choose a barebones PC that suits your needs, fill it with the missing components, choose an operating system, and you are off.

Shuttle specialize in manufacturing small and compact barebones systems. For the novice system builder, this greatly simplifies the initial problem of motherboard choice, as most people will decide on the case design they like first and take the motherboard that comes with it.

Hardware

Shuttle has a history of cube-shaped mini PC systems, and the K45 is an entry level no nonsense device the size of a large shoebox and perfectly proportioned to build your own little Windows Home Server or NAS system (28 x 19 x 17 cm LWH).

The little Shuttle presents a very shiny face to the world as it is finished in a deep glossy black. Further visual customization is possible by using what Shuttle call MyKover. The reality of MyKover is simply a removable acrylic front panel that you can put your own pictures behind (or some suggestions from Shuttle); a simple idea and a neat touch for the style conscious amongst us.

Looking inside the case we find that the K45 has a proprietary motherboard comprising an Intel 945CG + ICH7 chipset and a socket 775 with a 533/800/1066 MHz front side bus support. This combination gives a wide choice of processors, and Shuttle helpfully publishes a supported processor list to aid your decision making.

It is important to ensure that you install a supported processor for a couple of reasons, as putting anything too power hungry into this device could give the little 100 watt power supply a hard time, and anything higher than 65w TDP is going to make things pretty warm inside the case as well.

The K45 has plenty of other things integrated onto the motherboard, which is just as well as there isn’t a great deal of expansion room inside the case. These include integrated video courtesy of an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, 5.1 audio and gigabit Ethernet. Also onboard is a single PCI slot, 2 memory slots with a maximum of 1gb per slot, 2 x SATA 300 sockets and a single IDE port. A full specification list is available here.

Around the back we naturally find the ports; they include: VGA Video out, 4 x USB 2.0, a single RJ45 LAN connector, PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports, a Serial COM port and a Parallel port.

Installation

Inside the case things are cramped, but not enough to make installing the remaining hardware components too much of a chore unless you have the hands of King Kong. The memory simply slots in at the front, and the processor and its cooler fan are easily installed toward the back of the case.

The K45 case accommodates 2 x 3.5” hard disks, which makes it perfect for a low-end Windows Home Server. You do have to remove the power supply in order to install the hard disks, but this doesn’t cause any real problems as it is only held in place by 3 easily removable screws. Once the disks are in, put the power supply back, connect up all the power, fan and hard disk connections and you are done.

Clearly you need to choose an operating system, and for this review we obviously loaded Windows Home Server. But remember that the K45 isn’t specifically targeted as a server, and it will be equally at home as a desktop Windows PC or running Linux.

There is no place internally for a 5.25” device, so you are not going to be able to have any optical device included with your new PC, although you are perfectly free to add an external USB connected DVD/CD device. If fact you are going to need to do this to install your chosen operating system unless you are going to copy the installation package to a USB thumb drive or hook up a temporary DVD/CD using the IDE connection.

In use

One of the main reasons for using a small device like this is power consumption, a home server by its very nature is going to be left on 24/7 so keeping it efficient is going to payback over time.

For the review, we installed a pair of Western Digital Caviar Green 1tb Greenpower (WD10EACS) and and Intel E2200 processor, which gave a power consumption of around 55 watts whilst the hard disks were busy and 45 watts when things had settled down a little.

Performance of these components in the Shuttle was perfectly acceptable for a Windows Home Server. Copying a 1gb file over a 100mb connection took 1 minute 40, and reading it back took around the same.

Audio and video media was streamed perfectly happily from the server without any issues, and all PC backups were performed faultlessly. In other words, Windows Home Server was perfectly happy with this hardware configuration.

Verdict

At the time of writing, buying  the hardware for a typical K45 system from Ebuyer.com in the UK would cost:

Shuttle K45 £84.41 ($134)
Hard Disks £57.99 x 2 ($92 x 2)
Processor £47.15 ($75)
Memory £10.40 x 2 ($16 x 2)

Total price of the hardware approximately: £268 ($428)

Ok so you need to add a an operating system. If your choice is Windows Home Server, that can be had for £70($111) which brings the total price to £338 ($540) for a ready to roll 2tb WHS home server.

If you are willing and able to have a go at building your own server, the K45 represents quite good value for a very capable and likable little server.

Shuttle K45 product page

Missing Remote has a great 7 page review on the VIA NSD-7800 8 bay Windows Home Server.

Specs, looks and performance are all taken a look at. In conclusion reviewer Mike Garcen added:

“…for enthusiasts it would be hard to ask for more.”

You can read it here.

Paul from S1Digital has been in touch to inform us of their recently announced Digital Entertainment Platform, which provides centralized archiving, storage and distribution of HD movies, live and recorded HD television, videos, music, photos and more and its all based on the Windows Home Server platform.

“The Digital Entertainment Platform is the most advanced digital entertainment offering on the market today,” stated Paul Heitlinger, President of S1Digital. “Our solution is unique and we consider it a new category of product. No media server has been able to integrate this many different types of media, much less stream high-definition TV and movies.”

The S1Digital Digital Entertainment Platform consists of three components: an Entertainment Server, Media Center clients and a control solution.

The heart of the Platform is the Entertainment Server which consumes and catalogs content from the built-in combo Blu-ray, DVD and CD drive, automatically downloading cover art and metadata. The Server supports 16 or 32 terabytes of protected storage in a 3U rack chassis, or 4 or 8 terabytes in a 1U chassis. In addition, the Server can stream live CableCard or ATSC HDTV to clients.

The Media Center clients play content stored on the server, streaming smooth 1080p video and 7.1 channel audio. Live and recorded HDTV can be streamed directly to the client, without needing TV tuners or a cable box directly attached. The custom designed chassis is small, quiet and can also playback Blu-rays, DVDs or CDs directly from the built-in optical drive.

An optional touch screen controller can manage the Media Centers from any room. It provides two-way control enabling browsing of content including cover-art and metadata and can integrate with existing control solutions from Crestron, AMX, RTI and other touch screen controllers.

The Digital Entertainment Platform can be purchased as a package supporting as many rooms as customers wish. The components can also be purchased separately so that users can add new zones or include existing S1Digital Media Center models or control solutions.

“Integrators will realize the many benefits of selling and installing the Digital Entertainment Platform,” said Heitlinger. “There is no need for custom wiring back to the server or for bulky components in each room and the platform communicates over local network. In fact, there never has been such a powerful solution that’s so simple to set up and use, yet the platform costs less than most other single use media server solutions.”

More details are available from S1Digital.

UPDATE: Episode #220 of The Media Center Show has an interview with Paul Heitlinger from S1Digital who chats about their new range of products including the Windows Home Server based Digital Entertainment Platform – you can listen to it here.

The Xtreamer player allows you to play and stream your HD (MKV H.264) movies or user-generated videos, listen to high-quality digital music and show high-resolution slideshows of your family photos on your TV.

And for a launch price of only £99, this tiny box, approximately the size of a small book, or a 3.5" Hard Disk, will play back almost all Media Files, up to 1080 HD.

So what can it do?

• Play back of Network stored files, i.e. from your Windows Home Server or NAS device
• Playback of local Hard Disk files (the unit can hold a 2.5" Hard Disk)
• Playback of local files from USB sticks
• Serving of local files to other players (it’s a server too)
• Internet file experience (i.e. YouTube, weather, themed sites, i.e. cooking)
• Simple to connect to HDMI or SCART TV
• Wired or wireless operation (Wi-Fi network and active antenna (£25.00) required)
• Simple operation

If you reserve the Xtreamer player now you will receive the unit during the first week of September with the FREE Wi-Fi option which normally costs £25.00.

Reserve your unit here.

Lenovo Press on Twitter have posted a pic of Lenovo’s first Home Server, the IdeaCentre D400.

The D400 is already available in Asia with 4 hot swappable hard drive bays 4 USB ports and an eSATA port and with a power consumption of only 40W.

Looking very similar to the Acer Aspire easyStore (apart from the hinged front door) the IdeaCentre’s (notice the UK spelling of "Centre") pricing will be announced later this week.

PCMag.com has a review of the Acer Aspire easyStore H340.

The review looks at the design, features and performance of the unit and give it 3/5. Why? Author Mario Morejon had this to say:

“I had to use everything I know when configuring the network on the Acer Aspire easyStore H340. It’s not Acer’s fault, but rather the Windows Home Server software that needs to be more flexible. WHS is phenomenal—as long as you don’t encounter any networking problems. The H340 shows a lot of promise, nonetheless, but isn’t for those without some networking experience.”

You can read the full review here.

So you have built your own Windows Home Server, all is well. But you look with jealousy at how easy it is for HP MediaSmart or Tranquil PC SHA-5H owners to chop and change hard disks using their built-in hard disk caddies. Well covet no more, as Icy Dock has a multi-bay backplane module that can bring the same flexibility to your home built server as well.

The Icy Dock MB-454SPF is a straightforward device; it allows you to store four 3.5” SATA hard disks in the space normally occupied by three standard 5.25” devices. A lot of server PC cases will have four 3.5” slots, so with the right case you should still have ample room for the Icy Dock module without needing to sacrifice an optical device. The physical dimensions of the module are 15cm (W) x 12.5cm (H) and 22cm (D).

In the box

Safe and sound inside some tough foam packaging you will find the module itself, a bag of assorted screws and a manual.

General impressions

The module is constructed in aluminum and gives the feeling that this is a solid and dependable device. Plenty of thought seems to have gone into accommodating the module into differing designs of PC case, with different mounting positions being catered for by numerous screw holes. There are even a couple of deep guide-slots down each side of the module in case your PC case has any protruding ledges between its 3.5” device bays. A nice and perhaps essential touch if you want to maximize the number of PC cases this module will fit into.

Features

Each of the four drive bays has a single multicolor LED status light for power (green), activity (orange) and hard drive fail (red). It is worth noting however, that the hard disk fail indicator requires a compatible motherboard or RAID card to provide the error status via input pins on rear; the module will not recognize a hard drive failure by itself. Other LED status lights include a fan failure and overheat warning lights, with an alarm reset button rounding off the remaining interest on the front.

Connection

Around the back there are four SATA 3.0 Gb/s sockets for connecting the hard disks, and two Molex inputs to provide power for module and all of the disks. You will also find the afore mentioned hard disk fail input pins, and some output pins if you wish to duplicate all of the front panel LED’s. Finally there is a switch to allow you to select one of three predetermined temperature settings which trip the warning LED and audible alarm should things get too warm inside.

Installation

Installation is fairly straightforward business; we had no problems mounting the review module into an Antec case that uses tricky side mounted guide rails, so there shouldn’t be too many mounting problems with less challenging PC cases. Once installed the module gives your server case a more professional or a less homemade look that perhaps it might have had before.

Hooking up the module to the PC is also easy. Icy Dock has helpfully located all the connections on the left hand side, so the ports are not blocked by the fan enclosure when the module is installed in the PC case.

Installation of a hard disk into a caddy is uncomplicated, taking only four screws and about two minutes to do; although I can’t help thinking a trayless system like the one used on the Drobo might have been a bit easier than having to mess around with fiddly screws.

With a hard disk installed the caddy slides smoothly into the module, ready to be secured by the reassuringly solid locking bar mechanism. Removal requires a press down on the blue safety switch before the locking bar can eject the caddy from the module. This additional step should prevent unintentional removal should your server be within the reach of children’s fingers.

Operation

In operation, the MB-454SPF is quiet and unobtrusive, with its fan adding only a minor amount of extra noise to the server and negligible power consumption. Talking of the fan, it is easily replaceable in the event of failure or removable if you decide you don’t need the extra cooling. It looks as if replacing a failed fan will involve some soldering as the fan enclosure has some hard wired power connections that will need removing.

Verdict

The question is do you need this? There are several potential reasons for using a module such as this:

• adding extra storage in a server case that has reached its 3.5” bay capacity
• useful for anybody who needs to change hard disks on regular basis
• cosmetic enhancement to an existing server to show off its server credentials

As a purely cosmetic upgrade, this device represents poor value. A lot of PC server cases will already comfortably hold four hard disks internally with adequate cooling, and at a typical UK price of around £85 this is a lot to pay for a bit or server case vanity.

However, if you have already fully maxed your server case with 3.5” hard disks, then paying £85 is much better value and considerably easier than buying a bigger case or four external USB hard drive holders should you need to add more hard disks.

Having the Icy Dock module in your server will also be of real benefit if you regularly need to change hard disks, either for upgrades or regular backups; and it makes the server look pretty good as an added bonus.

Prices at time of posting:

• Dabs : £84.67
• Eclipse : £87.34
• Scan : £77.04

If you like the idea of a stay at home server incorporating Microsoft’s Windows Home Server operating system, up until this point have really only had 2 choices so far. They could build their own,or they could buy one of the HP MediaSmart models. But fresh to the market is Acer with their Aspire easyStore H340.

What’s in the box?

Inside the box there is the server itself, a power adapter and cable, an Ethernet cable, a software installation disc, a PC restore disc, a server recovery disc, and various documentation including warranty, packing list and quick start guide.

Technical Specification

Interestingly this unit doesn’t support OS X backups. The easyStore H340 doesn’t support Time Machine and so it can’t backup OS X natively like the HP LX and EX MediaSmart WHS machines.

The specification including the Atom 230 processor and 2GB Ram, and whilst this processor is not the quickest available, it is certainly up to the task and helps reduce the power usage of the unit as a whole.

CPU-Z Report

Power Usage

Initial startup 60 watts settling back to a consistent 42 – 45 watts. Heavy file transfer didn’t take this beyond 48watts.

Initial Impressions

This WHS machine is a rather strangely attractive cube, which in reality won’t look out of place in any home study or office.It has a big power button at the top left of the unit, a number of blue lights, and a USB socket in the bottom left hand corner. The front of the unit is dominated by a door which opens left to right to reveal 4 hot swappable 3.5-inch SATA drive bays.

The case reminds me a little of the usual Shuttle PC form factor and it’s dimensions, [7.9" (200mm) W x 7.1" (180mm) D x 8.3" (212mm) H] mean that despite its potential storage capacity of 8Tb, (more on this later), it is still in fact quite a discrete unit.

Case Off

Huge internal fan but slow spinning in order to keep the noise down.

As you would expect internal cabling is kept incredibly tidy.

Expandability

This machine is immediately impressive on this front because of the 4 caddies that are available to the user. The review machine was supplied with 2 caddies already filled with two 640Gb Seagate Barracuda drives. The system drive is neatly labeled and logically is drive 1.

If you filled up all the caddies with 2Tb drives, (which of course would necessitate a WHS OS re-install on the system disc), this system could scale up to being a whopping 8Tb server…

All the drives, (apart from the system drive), are hot swappable, and so can be added or removed without having to power down the server. You just lift up the little orange tab, pull out the tray, slide in your new drive, and slide the whole unit back into the bay. There are four USB ports in the back, along with one eSATA port and a gigabit Ethernet port. Server back up is easily provided by connecting an external USB drive drive into the front USB port and touching one button.

Start her up!

The install process is the standard WHS install process, other than the almost mandatory custom splash screens.

A new user would simply put the provided CD into a client machines drive and start up the Acer installation utility if autorun hasn’t already prompted you to do so.

At this point you would give your new server an appropriate name and assign an administrator password. Whatever you do, don’t forget this otherwise you are going to have to install the system from scratch!

Home Server Console Splash Screen

When you start the console up from your client PCs you will be presented initially with the screen below, which is the same that you would see on any standard WHS implementation.

Server Storage

Lights Out

McAfee

System Information

Acer supply an extra add in that provides an extra system information tab, that shows information that would otherwise be on the WHS Task Manager which would only be available if you RDP into the unit – this is a nice time saving tool.

Settings

In the settings dialogue the general tab shows all the usual information you would expect from a WHS setup.

*General

*Backup

*Passwords

*Media Sharing

*Remote Access

*Add Ins

Somewhat strangely as McAfee and Lights Out are pre-installed on this machine, no addins are shown as installed, (and none are available). So it’s not entirely clear to the casual WHS user as to how you would uninstall these addins should you no longer require them. You would in fact need to RDP into the WHS and use the usual add/remove programs tool in the control panel to get rid of these programs.

*Hardware Health and Performance Monitor

*IP configuration

A somewhat strange addin, as savvy IT professionals would know how to change IP addresses on their WHS machine; and if you aren’t IT savvy these are settings you really wouldn’t want to be playing with!

*Lights Out

Lights out enables you to configure hibernation times for your server, so that you can improve it’s already impressive green credentials; by hibernating the server, when you are definitely not using any of the its capabilities. This addin is of course available to other WHS users here.

*McAfee Total Protection Service

Acer also includes a 60 day trial to McAfee Total Protection which includes an antivirus/antispyware security suite.

*Settings for DMS

Digital Media Server is a DLNA compatible program for streaming music, video and photos stored on the server, to DLNA compatible clients.

*Settings for ITunes Server

*Resources

Pricing

UK pricing hasn’t yet been revealed by Acer, but currently this unit is on sale for $399 at NewEgg in the US – so would probably expect UK pricing to be in the £300 – £350 range.

Conclusion

If you directly compare this machine to any of HP’s MediaSmart machines, Acer’s Aspire easyStore H340 doesn’t have much in the way of extra software or features, but the pricing looks like it is going to be very sharp compared to these machines. In fact compared to the base LX195 machine with which it is likely to have comparable pricing, the H340 looks like a complete steal because of it’s expandability, larger memory and extra ESATA port. Any software that is “missing” can easily be found in the vast array of other WHS addins available.

If you need Mac support then out of the box the Acer cannot currently support you, but there are possibly addins out there that can assist you with this anyway.

This is a machine I like, (a lot!), and would definitely recommend that you consider this as your Home Server. It’s nice to look at, it’s well configured, and has masses of scope for expansion – if the price point comes in right then I’m not sure why you would currently look at anything else.

Introduction

HP, who were one of the original entrants into the pre-built WHS market have introduced the MediaSmart LX195 to complement their existing range of machines. This unit is very much an entry level Windows Home Server machine as compared to the specifications of its EX siblings, because of a lower price and hence lower specification processor and available built in disk space.

What’s in the box?

Inside the box there is the server itself, a power adapter and cable, an Ethernet cable, a software installation disc, a PC restore disc, a server recovery disc, a setup poster and HP support guides.

Technical Specification

The specification including the Atom 230 processor and 1GB Ram, is not going to win it any awards for being a speed demon, but this is a perfectly adequate specification for an entry level server product such as this, and of course will keep power requirements to a minimum.

CPU-Z reports the following:

Processor

Number of processors 1
Number of cores 1 per processor
Number of threads 2 per processor
Name Intel Atom 230
Code Name Diamondville
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM) CPU 230 @ 1.60GHz
Package Socket 437 FCBGA8
Family/Model/Stepping 6.C.2
Extended Family/Model 6.1C
Core Stepping C0
Technology 45 nm
Core Speed 1596.2 MHz
Multiplier x Bus speed 12.0 x 133.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 532.1 MHz
Stock frequency 1600 MHz
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache (per processor) 24 Kbytes, 6-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache (per processor) 32 Kbytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache (per processor) 512 Kbytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size

Chipset & Memory

Northbridge Intel i945G rev. A2
Southbridge Intel 82801GB (ICH7/R) rev. A1
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 1024 Mbytes
Memory Frequency 199.5 MHz (2:3)
CAS# Latency (tCL) 4.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# (tRCD) 4 clocks
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 4 clocks
Cycle Time (tRAS) 12 clocks
Bank Cycle Time (tRC) 16 clocks

System

System Manufacturer HP
System Name MediaSmart Server
Mainboard Vendor Wistron
Mainboard Model LX19X
BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Version HPMSS-01-B
BIOS Date 03/04/2009
Memory SPD Module 1 DDR2, PC2-6400 (400 MHz), 1024 MBytes, Elpida

Software

Windows Version Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 3790)
DirectX Version 9.0c

Product Description

The HP MediaSmart Server LX 195 is a very small unit, (8.2” H, 3.9” W, 8.2” D | 202mm H, 101mm W, 202mm D), so should fit into any existing home office setup easily. In fact that is really small, as illustrated here!

The product itself is made of a matte finish plastic which is corrugated around the sides, with an internal metal cage, and I think is quite attractive and neatly understated for this type of device. Given enough space for air to move around it for heat dissipation, I see no reason why this couldn’t even be put discretely on a bookshelf!

Initial Impressions

My initial problem with the review unit came when I realized that it had been supplied with a US style plug, (which no doubt will be fixed for shipping units). No problem I thought, I have loads of kettle type leads around from other projects – I’ll just swap it over… But it wasn’t to be as the HP power supply unit, (which fortunately is also a 100 – 250 volt switching unit, so I wasn’t likely to blow a US unit up with UK voltage!), uses a less conventional connector! So job one, was to find a US to UK adapter.

It reports itself to the world through 3 status lights. These status lights are for health, power and hard drive. The at rest status of these lights is 3 blues, (and the intensity of the blue can be altered from the WHS console if required!). However other statuses are communicated via the lights using different colors and various blink states. All of which are listed of course in the user manual, which interestingly is not available on the supplied disk but is easily found on the HP website.

As per all other WHS machines all you need is power and Ethernet connections, because it works as a headless device.

When you initially start working with the HP MediaSmart Server LX 195, you must connect with a Windows PC, which of course may cause issues for those with Apple only install bases, unless they have a dual boot machine. However there is no reason why you can’t create a Windows virtual machine on your Mac and do this initial setup using this. In fact to see whether the software provided will work with Windows 7, I decided to create a Virtual Machine, (using Microsoft Virtual PC, but having used VMWare Server before, I know that this would be equally capable. So the client PC in this review was in fact a Windows 7 virtual machine. Did Windows Home Server treat it any differently? No, it was just seen as any other machine on the network.

Also because of an inadvertent power cut during my review period I was also able to test the units ability to recover from this situation. And you will be pleased to hear that it came up once the power was restored with no problems at all.

When you insert the supplied installation disc into your system, a web browser page opens and guide you through the initial server setup. This also includes the normal Windows home server connector setup which enables you to locate the server on your network.

Expandability

It’s clear from the outset that if you are going to need more storage space than the 620Gb provided, (don’t forget WHS takes a 20Gb partition for itself), or you want to take advantage of the disk duplication capabilities you are going to have to add extra hard discs. These will have to be external USB 2.0 devices as there is no capability for the HP MediaSmart Server LX 195 to have extra drives added internally.

If you take the side off of the HP MediaSmart Server LX 195, you are presented with a heat shield and fan.

However with the removal of 2 screws at the side you can gain access to the innards of the machine, by a very nice opening door mechanism.

The hard disc is neatly attached to the lifting door, which locks in position when opened fully

And this reveals the tiny but neat and tidy motherboard.

You can see at this point why there are basically only 2 upgrade options – upgrade the existing 640Gb hard disc to a larger one; and upgrade the single 1GB memory DIMM to a 2GB DIMM if you really feel the need.

Start her up!

The process from this point will be very familiar for hardened WHS users, but I will document it for those who are less familiar.

All the new owner of the HP MediaSmart Server LX 195 has to do is insert the provided software installation CD into one of your existing home computers. If you have autorun installed then the Windows Home Server Connector will start automatically and go off and search for your new WHS machine on the network. (Alternatively if you have autorun disabled then start up the HPInstall.exe program).

It will also start the HP MediaSmart Server page on the disc as shown below which you can peruse at your leisure to find out further details about your HP MediaSmart Server LX 195.

All things being well you are presented with the following screen which will allow you to start the install process.

Once the server has been selected the install process goes off and downloads further software directly from the server.

Home Server Console Splash Screen

When you start the console up from your client PCs you will be presented initially with the screen below, but otherwise this is a standard WHS implementation.

General

In the settings dialogue the general tab shows all the usual information you would expect from a WHS setup. The backup, passwords, media sharing, remote access and add-in tabs are also standard fare for WHS users.

HP MediaSmart Server Add-In

This add-in specifically addresses the LX 195s capabilities, including such functions as sleep times, updates, other notifications, the brightness of the LEDs on the unit and fan speeds, as well as a generic support screen.

Media Collector

This add-in is the one that I would like to see available to the WHS community as a whole. Currently on my own WHS, I have scheduled MS Synctoy synchronizations scheduled to collect up music, picture and documents and placed them on the server. But this seems a much neater solution, especially directly integrated into the WHS interface.

Server Online Backup

Another neat add-in is integration into the Amazon S3 online backup service. Of course there are charges associated to this. Just be aware that large amounts of data being saved online using this service, will take a long time to upload and will cost a fair bit of money!

iTunes Add-In

Another add-in available out of the box is the ITunes server, (which is enabled by default). This may or may not be of use depending on how you plan to distribute music throughout your network.

TwonkyMedia

To quote the TwonkyMedia website, TwonkyMedia manager works with DLNA-certified digital media adapters, A/V systems, TVs, PCs, game consoles and mobile devices. It also works with most UPnP AV-compliant devices, even if they are not DLNA-compliant. This means it also works with hundreds of UPnP media servers (both software and NAS devices) and UPnP control points–including popular mobile phones and UPnP media renderer hardware.

Therefore it is quite likely you would use TwonkyMedia Server over the iTunes server because of its broader range of capabilities.

Add-Ins

The TwonkyMedia server and HP MediaSmart Server online backup add-ins are installed by default. And the McAfee total protection service is available for installation should you require it.

Client Desktop Software

On all client PCs there is also a icon installed on the desktop that points to the HP MediaSmart Server control centre, which basically just gives you an easy way to get to various folders on the WHS machine and to various other tools are available to use with it. The interface that you get when you use this with Microsoft Windows is shown below, but there is a similar interface available for Mac users.

Conclusion

It is a clear that the add-in software HP includes as a matter of course, are intended to extend its media capabilities, and it seems to do this task very well. Of course this depends on you having appropriate other devices that can make use of this capability. This would include devices such as the Xbox 360 to play videos and music, but there are other devices that can take advantage of these capabilities.

The inclusion of a free trial of antivirus software on this device will also help to ensure the security of your data. Of course on the WHS community as a whole, there is still some debate as to whether antivirus is actually required on a server machine, but that discussion can be had elsewhere!

Overall the unit is very quiet and although not completely silent, the very faint hum of the fan is not going to disturb anybody.

The HP MediaSmart Server LX 195 is a very nice machine with lots of extras in the form of software add-ins which really make the machine a joy to use, especially the media collection tool. However, my big reservation about the unit is the lack of capability of adding just one further hard disc to the set up internally. My personal feel about all Windows Home Server machines is that they should have at least 2 separate physical drives, so that you automatically get the security of data duplication across the discs.

The HP MediaSmart Server LX 195 is well appointed with 4 USB ports to support the required external discs, but one possible omission is a eSata port for speedier throughput.

All in all I feel that the HP MediaSmart Server LX 195 is a great little machine, and it’s very close to being the perfect entry level Windows Home Server, but just misses that goal because you can’t internally expand its storage capabilities.

DesktopReview.com has a review of the Acer Aspire easyStore H340.

The review goes through the specifications and looks at the build and the design of the unit. The setup and features are taken a look at as well as the performance of this small unit.

You can read the review here.

The Home Server show has a review of the ioSafe Solo hard drive.

This external drive is both fireproof and waterproof and to prove a point David McCabe sets fire to it in his own back yard!

You can read more details as well as view a video from here.

UK based Tranquil PC have just launched the T3N.

Based on the popular T3 chassis, the T3N is powered by Intel’s Atom N270 processor and is compact, cost effective and finished in a range of colors. The most interesting feature is the power consumption, even with a HDD spinning you will be using much less than 20W.

And as the current global financial situation appears to be not getting any better, we can breath a sigh of relief at the T3Ns price tag of only £119, which is approx $196.

More info is available from here.

“The hardware is solid, the performance is acceptable, and the price is stellar…”

Gadget blog "CrunchGear" have a mini review of the Acer easyStore H340 Windows Home Server unit which you can read here.

Japanese website "+D PC User" has a 3 page review of the Epson Endeavor SV120h .

The small low energy Home Server is benchmarked and taken a look at both inside and out.

All the details are here (in Japanese).

For those of you wishing to build your own Windows Home Server, Tranquil PC are now selling the new Intel D945GSEJT mini-itx main board.

The low profile, low power consumption main board is powered by the multi thread Atom N270 CPU which consumes only 12W when fully operational.

The Atom N270 CPU used on this board is a 1.6GHz model, with 512K of L2 cache, based on Intel’s latest 45nM process. The supporting chipset, the Intel 945GSE + ICH7M provides desktop connectivity and performance. Intel high definition audio, 10/100/1000 LAN, PCI, MiniPCIe, SATA2 (3GB/s) , SODIMM RAM etc are all there to ensure connectivity, expandability, performance and ease of build.

More details are available from here.

Fellow MVP and friend Donavon West has started to manufacture a unique Windows Home Server into a working cigar humidor which can hold a dozen of your finest cigars.

Called the Home Servidor, the top of the humidor holds the cigars whilst the bottom chamber contains a powerful yet “green powered” home server.

Donavon West added:

Why settle for an ugly grey box? I designed the Home Servidor for the person who wants more. The Home Servidor looks great on the desk of your home office. No one even suspects that there is a server hidden away inside.

Care should be taken to store cigars in a cool dry place. Most experts recommend a temperature of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity of around 70%. With that, we have taken great measures to thermally isolate the cigar storage area of the Home Servidor from the warmer computer equipment below. The Home Servidor incorporates an air gap between the compartments as well as a special insulating foam strip that forms an air tight seal.

The handcrafted Home Servidor start at $799 and is available in both 1TB and 2TB models. Using Intel’s Atom processor and “green” hard drives, both are energy efficient, a feature that is a must for an “always on” appliance such as a home server. A welcome side effect of these low power technologies is that very little heat is emitted, which is desirable for use in a humidor.

More information is available from here.

The Acer Aspire easyStore AH340-UA230N with built-in Windows Home Server went officially on sale in the US today.

Retailing for $400 the small 8.3 x 7.8 x 7.08 inch unit is powered by an Intel Atom 230 1.6GHz processor with 2GB of DDR2 RAM and comes with one 1TB HDD and gigabit Ethernet.

Hard drive space can be expanded via three internal 3.5-inch hot swappable bays and 5 x USB 2.0 ports as well as an eSata port.

Apart from the top mounted power button there is also a one-touch copy button which enables quick file uploading to a USB device, including sorting files by type into designated folders.

The Acer Aspire easyStore AH340-UA230N also supports a DLNA 1.5 certification (DMS) and digital media player (DMP) to enable music playback as well as photo and video viewing on a TV.

• Intel Atom Processor 230
• 2GB DDR2 Memory
• 1TB Hard Drive (2)
• Three Empty Hot Swappable Hard Drive Bays
• Five USB 2.0 Ports
• One eSATA Port
• 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
• 200 Watt Power Supply
• RJ-45 LAN Port

RipNAS combines Windows Home Server with audio CD ripping which can then stream through your network to network audio players like the Sonos, Squeezebox, iTunes and other DLNA compatible devices.

New to the range is the RipNAS Statement which comes which comes in both solid state SSD format (with no moving parts), and HDD format with more storage capacity.

The ATOM dual-core units with Gigabit Ethernet come with 2GB of memory and are expandable via 4 USB 2.0 ports. They are practically silent with a silver finish and whilst the SSD model comes with 2 x 250GB SSDs the HDD comes with 2 x 1.5TB drives.

Whilst pricing is to be announced, more details are available from here.

Computer store Clevery which is based in Akihabara in Japan have announced their Mini HomeServer SP9C WHS.

The unit comprises 2TB of storage space (2x 1TB), 1GB of PC5300 RAM and an Intel Atom 330 Dual Core running at 1.6GHz. The famous Japanese store have said that the unit will sell for 65800 Yen (€490)

Details from Akihabara News in Japan.

Home entertainment company hFX have just announced the HFX mini storage WHS which is a slim storage box housing 3 HDDs, an Intel Atom Duo 330 (2×1.60GHz) and Gigabit LAN in a thick silent rubber box to keep things silent.

The HFX mini storage WHS is available with 3TB, 4.5TB or 6TB of storage space and a second storage box in the same design can be stacked which adds up to 8 TB in addition.

More information is available from here.

Samsung has launched the EcoGreen F2EG hard disks which deliver upto a massive 1.5TB of capacity on 3 x 500GB platters.

The blurb states:

“Lower platter count means less power to start the motor, less power to continuously spin the motor and a lighter head-stack which takes less power to seek,” said Andy Higginbotham, director of HDD sales and marketing for the Samsung Semiconductor Storage Division. “With fewer heads and disks, the F2EG hard drive has a lower probability of head-disk failures, enabling customers to build more reliable systems.”

As hard disk capacity increases from an increased number of disks, so does power consumption. However, Samsung’s F2EG drive offers low power consumption by using EcoTriangle™, a low-power, low-heat, low-noise operation technology. With its advanced design and fewer components, the F2EG drive is 40% lower in power consumption in idle mode and 45% lower in reading/writing mode than competitive drives. Samsung’s Eco-Triangle™ technology offers more energy efficient and high performance hard drive options to manufacturers of home media PC, external HDD, set-top box, and personal NAS.

Samsung’s EcoGreen F2EG drive, which is suitable for both external hard disks and desktop PC, comes in a 500GB/1TB/1.5TB capacity, 16MB/32MB buffer memory, and 3.0 gigabytes per second (Gbps) Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) interface. The F2EG hard drive, employing advanced PMR technology, achieves greater aerial density and improves transfer performance as well.

The F2EG family of drives is currently being shipped with the 1.5TB HDD being available for $149.00 MSRP.

A PDF spec sheet is available from here.

Epson Japan has a new Windows Home Server.

The SV120h comes with either a 2GHz Celeron 575 or a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo P8600 with a 160GB  to 1TB (2×500GB) hard drive.

Powered by the Intel GM45 Express chipset, the SV120h has 1GB of RAM (expandable up to 4GB) and comes with multi DVD.

The entry price of the SV120h will be around 65,000 Yen for the Celeron version (€520).

Information courtesy of Akihabara News.

Website PCStats takes a look at the ICYDock MB674SPF-B, which is a serial ATA hard drive backplane module fitting four hard drives into a case with at least three open 5.25" drive bays.

The 3 page review can be found here.

The Windows Home Server 100 is another small form factor home-based server, this time from CyberPower Inc. a manufacturer of custom gaming machines and high performance workstations.

The unit features a Intel energy-saving ATOM 330 Dual Core CPU (45nm, FSB 533MHz, 1.6GHz, 1 MB L2) on a Intel Mini-ITX mainboard with Gigabit Ethernet, a 500GB SATA-II hard drive, 2GBs of PC2-4200 DDR2-533 memory complete with Windows Home Server. List price of this configuration is $399

The CyberPower Windows Home Server 100 is available direct from CyberPower and can be customized from the company web site with numerous component options. The CyberPower computer system comes with a 3-year limited warranty and free lifetime labor and phone support.

More details are available from here.

Mini-ITV enclosure manufacturer Travla have a great case which is great for Windows Home Server. The 1U 19" rackmount case incorporates 4 hot-swappable 3.5" SATA drive caddies and can be further expanded thanks to space for a further 2 x 2.5" drive bays as well as a slim CD/DVD bay. Travla recommend using the VIA SN10000 or SN18000 mini-ITX motherboard in this chassis, but the inclusion of a universal I/O shield makes using other mini-ITX boards possible too.

Specifications:

• 1 x Power switch
• LED indicators: 1 x disk activity  1 x power on
• 1 x Audio In/Out 
• 1 x RS-232
• 2 x USB port
• 1 x Compact flash slot (does not include CF card reader)
• Optical drive support: 1 x slim type
• I/O shield design: 2 x Travla patented universal I/O shield
• 2 x PCI Expansion slot
• System cooling: 2 x 40mm fan
• Memory height: Accept standard size
• Internal HDD bracket: 2 x 2.5" IDE/SATA brackets
• External HDD tray: 4 x 3.5" Serial ATA trays
• Dimensions: 19"(482.6mm)x1.75"(44.45mm)x15"(381mm)
• Applied M/B form factor: Mini-ITX
• Material: Heavy duty cold-rolled steel
• Surface: Black wet paint with texture coat
• Colour: Black

The chassis costs approx $349 (£270 UK)

More information is available here.

Tranquil PC have just released a great add-in for Windows Home Server users with large CD or DVD collections.

Called AVA Media, the add-in collects and compares the meta data (track titles etc) from multiple data providers, including GD3 which is a premium data provider and then rips your CDs to high quality (lossless) formats.

The software can also convert to a second format for mobile use (MP3 players etc) and then stores the files on Windows Home Server, making it available on your network as well as on portable music players (subject to the server type), i.e. SONOS etc.

There is also an option to upgrade the add-in to a fuller DVD/Film monitor version, with the following additions:

• Rip DVDs to the server for archiving
• Your current videos will be indexed and shared in your new "video" library 

All you need to add is an external USB CD/DVD drive connected to your Home Server, to rip from and the AVA Media software does the rest. And if you haven’t got one, then Tranquil PC can provide that for you too.

The CD software costs £39 and the CD/DVD software £49. Adding the external drive only adds an additional £40 to the price.

More information is available from here.

The PC news and review site “Computing on Demand” (C.O.D) have reviewed 2 pieces of hardware which may be useful to Windows Home Server users.

The first is a 4 bay hard drive module, which occupies three 5.25′ bays and allows you to mount up to four 3.5" hot swappable SATA hard drives.

The review can be found here.

The other is a rack which holds one 3.5" SATA hard drive and is designed for quick and easy installation of a HDD which occupies one 5.25 drive bay and comes with a security key-lock. An ideal rack for those who test a lot and need to add or remove a drive without the hassle.

You can find the review here.

New hardware partners for Windows Home Server has been announced at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas where the latest consumer electronic products are shown to the public. At the Microsoft booth at the convention center are 2 large displays with new hardware from Acer, Shuttle and VIA alongside the existing “Squash” SQA-5H from Tranquil PC and the newly announced MediaSmart Server’s from HP.

Acer will be entering the market with the Aspire Easy Store Home Server, powered by Windows Home Server.

The unit is equipped with a Intel Atom 230 Processor and has a maximum storage capacity of 4TB and space for up to four 3.5" internal hot-swappable SATA hard disk drives.

The model shown (TS.R360W.011) will come with 1×1GB DDR2 800 memory and 1×640GB HDD and also comes with a 6-month free trial of McAfee Total Protection Service, although other 1 drive and 2 drive models will be released including one with 2 x 640GB hard drives for the Japanese, European and Taiwan markets. The Acer Aspire Easy Store Home Server is expected to hit retail in March.

The Acer Aspire Easy Store Home Server will also include add-ins to:

1. Save energy by scheduling standby and resume times for the server, by using the Lights Out add-in.
2. A DLNA complaint media streaming server similar to TwonkyMedia Server.
3. A "One-touch USB copy" button will upload data on a device connected to the front-loading USB port; the data is automatically sorted and stored by file type into designated folders.

Shuttle famous for their small form factor (SFF) PCs have 2 models which will be available from the 1st quarter of this year in the US.

The SH-K4500 has 2 hard drive bays and the SH-K4800 which has 3 bays. Both are powered by the Intel Celeron 450 and come with 1GB of RAM. Both models will also come with 1 x 500GB hard drive and will cost $450 and $499 respectively. Both models will be sold online at retailers like New Egg.

Via who is a pioneer in low power, high performance chipsets have 2 models in their lineup.

The 2 drive bay ARTiGO A2000 which is powered by the Via C7 and the NSD-7800 which can hold up to 8 hard drives, again powered by the Via C7.

Both units are available in the US, Europe and Asia.

The new HP MediaSmart Server’s codenamed "Encore" have today been officially announced.

Using the same chassis as the original versions, “Encore” will be available in two configurations the two new models will be available in early February and will consist of the EX485 which comes with 1 x 750GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM and the EX487 comprising 2 x 750GB hard drives (1.5TB in total) and again 2GB of RAM. US pricing is $599 and $749 respectively whilst UK pricing and availability is still pending.

I have had the privilege of testing the EX487 extensively for the last month or so and must say I am really impressed. It’s good to see that HP took notice of consumer criticism and upped the RAM from the 512MB which came as standard in the EX470/EX475 to the 2GB in the new range which is more than enough to run the MediaSmart Server even whilst streaming and backing up at the same time.

The English dictionary definition to encore is:

"an extra or repeated performance; usually given in response to audience demand"

OR 

"a second achievement especially that surpasses the first"

And the new range of MediaSmart Server’s defiantly live up to both expectations. Extra performance is there courtesy of a Intel Celeron 2.0 GHZ 64-bit Processor and in response to consumer demand HP have packed in additional features on top of Windows Home Server and in addition to what was in the existing models.

So what’s new?

The HP MediaSmart Server now includes three types of streaming media servers which stream media from the HP MediaSmart Server to your devices:

Packet Video’s TwonkyMedia allows you to share your music, photos and videos to connected media receivers and mobile devices throughout your home like a XBOX 360 a Sony PSP and other Digital Media Receivers (DMR) including Generic Media Players, WinDVD, Windows Media Player, Archos, DirectTV DVR, generic Media or Music Receivers, HP MediaSmart TV, Roku SoundBridge, and generic DLNA 1.0/1.5 device’s to name a few.

The Web Media Streamer streams your media to the internet where you can access it via any computer with a web browser.

The Server for iTunes allows you to stream your music and playlists, even protected content to computers that are running iTunes or compatible devices.

Within the setup, a Media Collector provides the ability to copy your iTunes music library and playlists to your MediaSmart Server, centralizing your iTunes library for playback on any computer on your home network that runs the iTunes software.

The Media Collector also has the job of taking your media files from computers on your network and copying them to the HP MediaSmart Server and organizing them.The Media Collector continuously copies files allowing you to maintain a comprehensive library of music, photos, and videos in one location in your home.

You can also stream media to a television and/or stereo which is attached to a Digital Media Receiver.

Mac backup is now supported with Mac OS X 10.5 or later on the new HP MediaSmart Server. You can use Time Machine to back up a Mac to the HP and get easy access to the shared folders on the server using the Control Center.

Accessible by clicking the desktop “HP MediaSmart Server” shortcut icon, the Control Center is a a panel which provides shortcuts to valuable resources and tasks within the MediaSmart Server.

Online backup is now taken care off via a supplied add-in from HP which uses the services of Amazon S3 to save your selected important shares to a remote location on the Internet.

As well as scheduling backups you can also do immediate online backups and also browse and restore your online files.

The HP Photo Publisher allows you to post photos which are stored on your server to the following photo sharing sites. HP’s snapfish, Yahoo’s flickr, Google’s Picasa Web Albums, the social networking site facebook and the internal generated MediaSmart PhotoViewer.

Uploading your photos is a simple 4-step process enabling friends and family to see your photos on the internet.

The HP Photo Viewer allows you to open, rename or delete an album as well as allowing you to view the albums in a Filmstrip or Slideshow view via a personal URL.

A Power Management screen within the console settings enables you to define a time period to let you put your MediaSmart Server into sleep mode thus saving power. The server will automatically wake up, either for a backup, from input from the Control Center, or by pressing a button on the server.

US pre-orders will be available from the 5th of January from Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Buy.com, Frys.com and NewEgg.com. Both models will be officially announced at both the International Consumer Electronic Show (CES 2009) in Las Vegas and Macworld in San Francisco. Availability is expected in early February.

What an amazing start to a New Year!

Here is the new ARTiGo A2000 from Via Technologies.

Based around a 1.5 GHz VIA C7-D processor and using the VIA VX800 Unified Digital Media IGP chipset. The ARTiGO A2000 can support up to 2 GB of 667/533 MHz DDR2 SODIMM memory and comes complete with Gigabit LAN. As well as space for two SATA-II compatible hard drives, there are also 3 x USB sockets and a type I Compact Flash socket for further expansion. And all in a very small 5.3” x 4.5” x 10.2” package which makes VIA’s Nano-ITX offering quiet and energy efficient.

Available from December 15th, the ARTiGO A2000 will cost from $299.

More details here.