Hey guys... check it out... the LX195 is now being sold on eCOST for $390...

http://www.ecost.com/Detail.aspx?edp=45 ... =155441519

Maybe they jumped the gun, or maybe HP gave them a deal for being such a big HP recertified reseller.

Is it me or does $390 seem rather pricey for something that only has one drive? You are forced to go out and buy USB storage if you want to truly take advantage of WHS data protection. I am not quite sure where i see the market for this device being? For the average user this is probably too pricey for what it does. For the more technically advanced folks this offers very little. Maybe I am just missing something, I would think this needs to be priced somewhere in the $200s

I agree. $390 seems way too much for what you're getting. You can pick up a used EX47X for no more than that and can pick up a new EX485 for only $60 more if you find the right deal. A limited product like that at such a high price point might leave many users disappointed and could end up resulting in bad PR for WHS.

I agree 100% with dBone. You can get an HP recertified EX470 from eCOST for $324 or an EX475 for $400. IMHO the EX47x machines offer greater high-performance (SATA and eSATA) expansion capability than this new machine. (No I'm not affiliated with eCOST... bought my EX475 from them... just sharing with y'all).

Looks like this unit is running EX48x package so I'm guessing it will take the 2.5 update and run well on the Intel Atom 1.6 GHZ Processor 230, so according to HP that machine is better then the EX470

Where does HP say that???

I'm being somewhat sarcastic, they say ( from podcast 41 on homeservershow) that the EX470 does not meet the hardware requirements necessary for the 2.5 update yet the LX195 does.

Too expensive!! I'd buy an Acer EasyStore or referb EX-470 before I'd shuck out 400 bones for this very limited box. I agree with the others, 299.00 sounds about right.

I disagree. This needs to be at $199 -- under 200. Just about all the others (all??) permit at least two drives. This is limited to one. Should have turned the drive 90-degrees and allowed for two if they wanted me to recommend it at $299.

With a single 640GB drive the unit cannot duplicate and is really quite limited in terms of what it can stream. It's fine for client backups and some "convenience" folder sharing but it really does not have the capacity needed for streaming video over the long term. Marginal today but once it gets set up and used it will quickly need to be upgraded. With two high-capacity drives (not the 640GB provided) the unit could be set up to duplicate shared folders and/or store a reasonable volume of items for streaming. There should not be a dependency on external drives for these basic functions.

From the perspective of many of the members of this site, I think the LX is not a great fit as many of the comments are saying. However, I do think that this product has a place in the home server market. There's many people that don't have their video or audio libraries ripped and stored on the server, and this is an easy way to get introduced to the concepts of the home server, start storing and streaming some files, and backup the PC or two that are in the home. I think a $299 price point would be preferable to get more people to buy, it'll be interesting to see how well it does.

I think the thing to do would be for HP to market this at $199-$249. This would give new users a chance to test out WHS. Once they get comfortable with WHS/LX195 they would then be more willing to upgrade their hardware to an EX48x or later. After all, HP is all about getting their customers to upgrade hardware

Agreed on everything except the price point. Don't forget about HP's Linux-based MediaVault. I doubt they're going to price a WHS box (which has more and better features) the same or cheaper than the MediaVault. I do see the LX195 as a good introductory server, or a machine for those who don't need or want a full-blown EX-47 / 48 server.