Forum Spotlight: MediaSmart Server demo unit becomes eSATA storage enclosure

by Alex Kuretz on April 29, 2009

in Forum Spotlight

If you’ve seen the MediaSmart Server in retail stores, you’ve likely seen the demo units that are created to show off the sleek form factor and soothing blue glow of the server. These demo units are stripped down to pretty much just a shell with a power supply and LEDs. The motherboard is in the unit but there are only enough components soldered on to power the LEDs and give the false appearance of functionality.

We’ve seen a number of these drifting through the forums, with some receiving it as a gift, while others thought they were getting a great deal at a Circuit City or COmp-USA close-out. Several people had the idea of converting one of these shells into an eSATA storage enclosure as sexy as the MediaSmart Server it would be sitting beside, but no one has followed through. Until now…

Long time forum member “erail” has today shared with us his creation, an eSATA storage enclosure that looks like the identical twin of the MediaSmart Server. He built the enclosure out of a demo unit, modified some HP 9000 SCSI drive trays, and borrowed the backplane from a donor enclosure.

MediaSmart Server and Enclosure Twins

MediaSmart Server and Enclosure Twins

Read all about how erail built the enclosure and check out a bunch more pics in this forum topic. Thanks, erail, for sharing your creation with us!


Article by

I'm Alex Kuretz, and I'm the founder of MediaSmartServer.net. I was the Lead Test and Integration Engineer at HP for the MediaSmart Server until April 2008 when I moved on to other opportunities outside HP. I've kept active in the Windows Home Server community, creating several add-ins and helping users make the most of their Home Servers.


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