I've been very happy with my 470 for several years. Did the 2GB RAM upgrade a while ago. Did the 3.0 upgrade last year. Big improvement there. Use Squeezebox around the house and Subsonic for out of the house. etc. etc. Still have the stock cpu.

I see that NewEgg has some 495s in and there's a discount code on this site. If I wait, will the channel dry up? The increased power and usb ports would be nice. It would also be nice to get the last model made as this whole product line changes.

Migration of data would be a separate question. I guess I can't just move the hard drives over, that would be too easy.

Thoughts?

I had the same dilemma 475 or 495. I choose to upgrade to the 495, I never upgraded to the 3.0 software on the older model. Probably would have kept me from upgrading if I had. I like the extra power under the hood the 495 is going to offer if I ever get time to set it up. I also like the option the quad core if I ever need more power.

DIY and build a i5 WHS. No Limitations like the 495 with limited cpu upgraded path, limited ram. I built mine a year ago on the Zotac 55 with an i5 650 and 4 gig ram. It has run flawless. I stream videos to PCH and the new WD Hub and it works great. I almost bought the 495. Wanted the cool looking case. I went with the little chenbro server case, a bit expensive but nice. You can build an i5 for less then the 495 if you dont overdo it on the case like I did. See DIY i5 in the DIY section. I like the 495 but think the upgrade path on a DIY is hard to bet. Actually looking to pull out the i5 and go witha Quad i7

Or if you don't want to DIY go with the 490 and upgrade the processor/RAM yourself.

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EX490 w/E6700 & 4MB Mushkin RAM
WHS 2011 w/Stablebit Drivepool
Sans Digital TR5M-BP, 2 x TR5UT-BP
32 TB

The 49x supply will dry up. It will be very difficult to upgrade the 47x now with a dual core. But a 490 can be upgraded to a dual core without a BIOS mod as the 47x did. Also, the 49x is quieter, a big plus. The price of the 4 gig ram is also lower, around $80. The HP Media Collector seems to break after an upgrade from HP.

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HP MediaSmart EX495 E8600 3.2Ghz CPU, 4GB ram, 8TB storage including 3TB drives in pool. WHS with Active Directory, WDS, Media Center Master, Logitech server. Office 2010 server with client add-ins.
Microsoft MVP - Windows Home Server.

I upgraded to a EX490 and put in a quad core processor (Q9300) and came out ahead price and processing power wise over buying the EX495. So far I see a big improvement over my EX470. I like the MSS platform and think we'll be able to keep it going for quite awhile. It may not be as easy in some respects as a DIY especially regarding Vail but that's OK. I agree with Diehard that the EX49x supply will dry up and it won't be too long before it does at least for new systems.

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HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool