There is no standalone support application with this system like you can find on HP's Pavilion desktops, but there are so many links in the Home Server software itself explaining what does what, that you should be well taken care of. You get a year of parts and labor coverage, plus 24-7 phone support. The warranty coverage for the MediaSmart Server ex475 is about the same you'd find in a desktop of this price.

Velocity Micro is promising higher-end specs in its Home Server systems, and we'll keep an open mind, but we didn't have any particular performance gripes with the HP. The ex475 comes with a lowly 1.8GHz AMD Sempron processor and 512MB of system RAM. As these are servers and mostly just shuttling data around, they don't need a fast processor or gobs of system memory. You can also add external drives via the aforementioned USB and eSATA ports. With four internal slots overall, you can extend the internal storage on either of these systems to 4TB with the current drives on the market. It also offers the 500GB MediaSmart Server ex470, for $599. The Home Server software will format drives as necessary, and it all works on the fly.Īs far as this particular MediaSmart Server ex475, HP gives you two 500GB, 7,200rpm hard drives, for 1TB total. Each new drive or storage device you connect to the system become part of a single drive partition. They require no screws or cables, and pop in and out of the system easily. Inside you'll find the same hard-drive sleds that came with the HP Blackbird 002 gaming PC. HP also lets you hot-swap the internal hard drives, via an easy-open front panel door. Via the HP MediaSmart Server ex475's USB ports or its single eSATA port, you can expand your storage pool with various kinds of drives, and they'll pop up onscreen. The Server Storage tab shows you the amount of space on the various hard drives you have connected to your Home Server. The major drawback is that it requires Internet Explorer, which excludes Firefox users, Macs, and any other non-Microsoft systems from using the remote access capabilities. This is another stand-out feature of Windows Home Server, as it essentially lets you get at all of your media and other data from any connected computer in the world.

You can also access them remotely over the Web. These folders can also stream content to other media devices on your home network, such as an Xbox 360.

You can set permissions granting or restricting different kinds of access per user to each different folder. In addition to the basic dedicated Music, Photos, Videos, etc., each user can also create a personal folder for general storage. The Shared Folders tab is where you manage and create the central location for your media files, or whatever other data you want to access remotely.

Home server hp ex475