let me tell you a story...
first off, i don't recommend that you buy that server. That runs whs1 and whs2 (code name: vail) is imminent and hp cannot (when i spoke with them 3 weeks ago) guarantee that there will be any native upgrade pathway for the server. so that means that you will be locked into the old platform. i should add that with the current package, there is an outcry because the move to whs2 means that you cannot just pull files off of your hard drives if your server crashes, as you can today with whs1. this is important to me but...
let me say that the concept is amazing; i had a mac, a desktop, an xbox, and 2 laptops running connected to my hp ex470. i dropped 2 1-tb drives in for a total of 2.5 TB, and then i mirrored the drives to give me duplicates of everything. good stuff. set the computers to backup nightly, and it worked awesomely! i was really impressed and really happy with it. if i could have kept using it like that...well...you wouldn't be reading what i am about to write.
here is where my experience goes south. hp decided to introduce a number of "enhancements" to the whs; i suppose in a generic sense they were to enhance the experience. so while i loved the features of the whs, i always had upgrades and updates dropped onto the server, and the only way you could find out about it was the lights flashing different colours. i literally spent hours managing the stuff that got passed through to my server, and making sure that everything was ok.
i should tell you what i used it for; i backed up my computers and i used to stream music etc through to the xbox. i can't remember if the ex495 uses time machine, but i think it does. my 470 couldn't do macs, but it was very good with the PCs and it was excellent to manage the backups as well. sharing stuff is no problem. media provider is also no problem, although i didn't use the wdtv i did use my 360 and it was great for that. i could also stream to the mac.
my server died less than 2 years after i bought it. the warranty is 1 year. i bought it with my visa which extends the warranty and extra year. hp will not touch it. they won't send me parts to fix it. i can't return it to them. they won't tell me what is wrong. the internet tells me that it is either a power supply or the mobo, however hp won't send those to me and i can't send it to them. so i now have a piece of junk sitting literally right beside me. is this common? from what i have read on the internet, it isn't that common. i would have appreciated being able to buy the parts and do the work myself, or even send it to hp and have them fix the thing. no, no, and no. i even asked them if the would send me a little email saying that it was unrepairable and hp wouldn't support it, to help with my warranty claim from visa. no dice. the guy was very helpful, but obviously his "helpdesk script" didn't allow him to help me. to top things off, he suggested that i buy the one that you are looking at. i asked if there were any discounts for people that had a 470 crash, and of course there wasn't.
i loved my little server but i now realize that it was due to the software and not the hardware. people were amazed when i showed them what i could do with it and how i used it.
if you are still interested in the ex495, i recommend that you get the one that has the dual core processor and the 2gb (IIRC) of ram.
i will also add that of the last 4 HP products that i have bought, 3 have died on me and only 1 got support, and that was after i emailed mark hurd (hp global president at the time) to complain about the runaround that i was getting from his canadian operations. i won't ever buy another hp product. in fact, it led me to write quite a rant against microsoft's hardware partners here:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...icrosoft+apple
the only, and i mean only good thing to come from my experience is in fact a positive from microsoft. whs1 data was stored in hidden folders on the drives themselves; by plugging the drives in and knowing where to look, i found all my pictures and stuff and was able to move it to one of my computers to save my server. not really what i bought a 24x7 server for!
in that thread that i posted, there are some most excellent posters and i really appreciated the time that they took to talk me down off of my ledge...or at least make change in my home network at a more managed pace than i was prepared for at that time.
thanks to those posters, i am now looking at the drobo fs with the memory express support package and the mozy for offsite backup. haven't pulled the trigger, but i am definitely looking right at that. i am using an iphone and a blackberry for work, comparing them as it were, and am far more open to the concept of apple than i have ever been. i will never lose the microsoft platform completely, but it will likely be boxes that i build myself and of course never an hp.
i am happy to answer any questions via PM or on thread; i owe my fellow CPers big time for all of their posts and the time that they took to write in my thread and i have to "pay it forward"!
no matter what you do buy with a credit card that extends the warranty!
Advice - Windows Home Server?
