March 2009

I just received an email from Amazon Web Services announcing that they are celebrating 3 years of Amazon S3 with 3 months of transfer-in for 3 cents per gigabyte instead of the normal 10 cents per gigabyte. This is particularly good news for owners of the EX485 or EX487 which has the built in ability […]

Popular gadget news site Engadget has released the results of their 2008 Engadget Awards, and while the HP MediaSmart Server EX487 lost out to the Apple Time Capsule in Reader’s Choice, it did win the coveted Editors Choice award. Congrats to HP and Microsoft for well deserved recognition for a great product.

Forum user Skeeter, a self-proclaimed former Compaq/HP employee, has some pictures of what appears to be a new MediaSmart Server. The pictures are blurry but some details can be made out. The unit is labeled MediaSmart Server with a LX195 model designation, has a Windows Home Server logo on the packaging, what appears to be […]

Microsoft has another big announcement today, with the news that Windows Home Server is now (officially this time!) available for download on MSDN/Technet. I’m hopeful this will broaden the exposure of Windows Home Server, as it seems once people get an idea of what this product is capable of they really do love it. And […]

Microsoft normally rolls out larger product updates as Service Packs, however Windows Home Server utilizes a methodology called Power Packs to deliver new product features in addition to the bug fixes. With Power Pack 1, the Home Server Team delivered the fix to the Drive Extender corruption bug, support for 64-bit Vista, and the ability […]

Forum member “dbone1026″ aka Damian has spent the last few months testing, evaluating, and comparing many of the different Media Center software packages that are available, and he’s been documenting this process the entire time with us in the forums. His reviews include detailed descriptions, impressions of the features and user experience, and several screenshots […]

The HP MediaSmart Server EX487 in the running for “Storage Device or Technology of the Year” in the 2008 Engadget Awards. You all know the MediaSmart Server is not only the best Windows Home Server but is also the best home storage technology around. Make your opinion heard and get the vote out! Thanks to […]

Forum member Loren has let us know that Windows Home Server is now available to TechNet members and provides a free key to give Home Server a test drive. This is a big step, and I believe that the more people try out Windows Home Server the more people will be won over by the […]

In my initial review of the EX485 and EX487 MediaSmart Servers, I noticed that the published power consumption statistics did not match the measurements I observed. For my testing process I was using a P3 Kill-A-Watt to measure the power consumption, and fully loading the system using the free utility Prime95 to stress the electrical […]

Ed Tittel has written a great article for Tom’s Hardware that covers the full extent of hacking the hardware of your HPMediaSmart EX47x Server. This is all info that is available here in the Wiki and various forum posts (as well as other popular sites) however Ed has done a great job of aggregating the […]