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HP Adds ex485, ex487 MediaSmart Servers for PCs and Macs
The ex485 and ex487 are based on Windows Home Server and automatically back up media on a home network and online.
HP has launched a pair of home servers for use with both Windows and Macs.
The ex485 and ex487, based on Microsoft Windows Home Server, back up media and other files on a home network and online.
The ex485 comes with 750GB of storage, while the ex487 has 1.5TB of storage. Both are expandable up to 9TB of storage.
Each server has an Intel Celeron 2.0-GHz 64-bit processor and 2GB of 800-MHz DDR2 RAM.
Other features:
Each HP MediaSmart Server can be preordered online beginning Jan. 5 from Amazon, Best Buy, Buy.com, Frys and NewEgg. HP says the units will ship in February.
"A growing number of digital-savvy households have both Windows and Mac computers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices," says Jason Zajac, VP of strategy, Worldwide Attach Group, HP.
"The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected."
MSRP
ex485 — $599
ex487 — $749
The ex485 and ex487, based on Microsoft Windows Home Server, back up media and other files on a home network and online.
The ex485 comes with 750GB of storage, while the ex487 has 1.5TB of storage. Both are expandable up to 9TB of storage.
Each server has an Intel Celeron 2.0-GHz 64-bit processor and 2GB of 800-MHz DDR2 RAM.
Other features:
- Back up on Macs running Leopard using Apple Time Machine
- Amazon's S3 online backup service for an additional layer of protection
- HP Media Collector to copy and centralize digital files and libraries from networked PCs
- Ability to remotely streams photos and music to any Internet-connected PC or Mac
Each HP MediaSmart Server can be preordered online beginning Jan. 5 from Amazon, Best Buy, Buy.com, Frys and NewEgg. HP says the units will ship in February.
"A growing number of digital-savvy households have both Windows and Mac computers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices," says Jason Zajac, VP of strategy, Worldwide Attach Group, HP.
"The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected."
MSRP
ex485 — $599
ex487 — $749
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Steve Crowe, Web Editor
Steve is an editor for cepro.com. He graduated from Emerson College with a B.A. in Journalism. He joined the CE Pro staff in 2008. Steve is also a freelance sports writer for The Boston Globe and other various publications.
1 Comments
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Last week we got our first HP ex485 WHS unit. We had it on back order for a few months and were very pleased to get one of the first units that our distributor received in stock. Over those same waiting months, we also accumulated four (4) Seagate 7200.11, 1.5 TB hard drives (the ones with the corrected firmware), and wanted to see what that new unit would do with a gross of 6.0 TB of drive storage. We were pleased to see that the OEM hard drive in the new ex485 was, in fact, a Seagate 7200.11 drive (750 GB), so we figured the 1.5 TB drives would work. We were correct in that assumption.
Initially we replaced only the original OEM drive with a 1.5 TB drive and restored the entire WHS system with the restore CD-ROM that was provided with the ex485 unit. The restore went flawlessly and completely installed all the HP WHS software, just as it had come from the factory. Once we initialized the ex485 and got it functioning correctly (which was a very easy task), we sequentially added each additional hard drive to the array, until all four drive bays were humming along with 1.5 TB of storage in each slot.
That was a week ago, and the ex485 hasn’t skipped a beat since then. The HP tweaks to the original WHS software suite are also quite nice and very useful. I must honestly say that it will be hard to beat this new ex485 with a home built WHS unit (and I’ve built many of those during the past year). I’m damn impressed with this little shiny black box, and its awesome storage capacity of 6.0 TB. Try one, you’ll love it!
Best regards to everyone. Ima DingBat