HP EX470 MediaSmart Home Server (AMD Live, Windows Home Server, 500 GB Hard Drive)

After following the development of WHS for the last year, I can now say that now is the time to take the plunge. Power Pack 1 is now freely available to the public and along with new features it fixes the glaring bugs that most reviews have noted. Including the following:

1) The data corruption issue. This seems to be the most infamous bug with WHS, but was easily avoidable by not editing files remotely. But it is a mute point now that it is fixed.

2) Did not work with 64bit clients. This was the bigger issue for me as I have been using Vista 64 on a laptop for while.

Some other thoughts:
I think the 470 is a better deal than the 475. Installing a second 500GB hard drive is easy and cheaper than buying the 475. You really need a second drive to use the folder duplication feature. A feature I consider essential.

You will need atleast one windows pc. This is not a problem for me as I have several along with a linux computer and a Macbook. But for set up and administration you need to use windows.

Third party add ins are a nice bonus.

And it could not be easier to set up.

I set up this server and installed the required software on 3 computers in less than 2 hours, including purchasing a custom domain name for remote web access.

It allows you to run a shared iTunes library from the home server, which is great because it permits easy syncing of new music purchases from multiple users in a single database.

The photo webshare is nice, if a little clunky. Setting up web photo albums is done in a similar fashion to other web applications. It can be tedious adding photos to an album. I would prefer to be able to create albums via a desktop application, like one can do via Google Picassa.

The backup feature is fantastic and idiot-proof. Installation of the web server software on each workstation enables default backups and you can either leave the settings as they are, or specify directories on each computer to exclude from backups (to save space, etc.). It does a full backup initially and incremental backups thereafter.

Regarding the custom domain name, I was actually able to browse to my custom domain almost immediately after purchase/registration, but in my experience that's unusual, normally propagation of a domain name to in IP address takes a bit more time. Please note that in addition to registering your domain name, you'll also have to purchase Dynamic DNS service (so your domain can always point to the dynamic IP address of your home network, since most ISPs assign IP addresses dynamically.

I installed a couple of add-ins very, very easily. I installed the Whiist web server add-in and it's great for running small web sites from your home server. It even supports Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) so you can leverage VBScript.

I haven't installed any additional storage, so I can't speak to that, but my experience so far with this server has been fantastic. It's too bad Microsoft's other operating systems are not as easy to set up and use as this one is, and HP has done a great job of making that experience even better.

I had this product on my list for long time. But I was a afraid of buying it since I read a review where a person lost all of his weeding pictures, and his wife was really angry about it. Now that I have one I understand what could happen, if you connect a external hard drive this server will execute a disk format of this unit inmediatly in order to incorporate this new device as part of his storage capacity. So, never plug a USB external hard drive. If you want to transfer the information to the new server use your computer as the bridge. Other than that I love it. Works fantastic, very quiet, nice feature to set up you personal web site to share picture, able to stream iTunes, pictures and videos with MPEG4 format to your PS3, you can also access your computer remotely from your work. It is a great solution to keep a common folder for picture, videos, installation files, documents, etc. Worth every penny.

Make sure that you realize that you will NOT be able to backup those new 64-bit Windows Vista installations that HP and others have been hocking that finally take advantage of the 64-bit CPUs that have been on the market now for years. If you have 64-bit Vista just wait a while. By the time Microsoft gets around to delivering this capability, more vendors will be selling boxes with 4 drive bays and Windows Home Server pre-installed - at significantly lower cost.

Super easy set-up. I've added a WD 500G so I have 1T of storage. They made it extremely easy to add HD's. I've had this running for about a month and it just works flawlessly. It actually does everything as advertised and with little or no set-up hassles. The remote access amazed me and it does auto backup on 4 CPU's every night. The picture sharing has been a big hit with distant family members. It really is a good choice for file sharing, multiple backups and photo share. I haven't tried the itunes backup and sharing so I have no comment on that.