I have been anxiously awaiting the HP announcement of the mysterious ENCORE. And now that it is out and after reading Alex' review in detail, I am even more convinced that I have made the right decision in the poll posted a month ago by saying: I am happy with what I have.

1. While the upgrades are nice, IMO they do not warrant spending the additional money. Even if HP were to made a trade-up option available, I still do not believe the upgrade it worth it.

2. $599 vs. $399 (average) + $30 for the 2GB memory? Coming back to point 1, I do not believe the upgrades are worth the difference in price. And if HP continues to stick to their commitment of making some of the improvements available to the "old" platform, it is even less worth it.

In essence, I knew that Home Server was an imperfect product when I bought the HP just after it came out. I have learned to live with its shortcomings and got some very good workarounds (mainly from users on this site). I will upgrade my server eventually, but will certainly wait for Windows Home Server 2.0.

Alex, it is actually good that you are no longer affiliated with HP. Your review is honest and straight to the point. Kudos!
Cheers,
Lars

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HP Microserver, 8GB, 2x1.5TB, WHS2011
HP G42, Core i3, 4GB, Win7 64bit
13" MacBook Pro, 8GB, OSX 10.6.7
Apple Network infrastructure & 2 Apple TVs

Thanks for the feedback, Lars, I'm glad you enjoyed the review. It's true, this site could not have grown to be what it is if I had not left HP.

I think many users will not upgrade if they already own a MSS, but the new Encore server is indeed a nice evolution for those new to the MSS.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?

Alex,

Do you know whether some of the software upgrades will be made available to the existing MSS ?
The user interface is certainly nice to have but not essential.
The MAC backup feature is certainly nice, so that I do not have to manually move files which I currently do.
The power management feature would also be nice to have but I use the Lights Out add-in to power down the server at night .

Thanks,
Lars

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HP Microserver, 8GB, 2x1.5TB, WHS2011
HP G42, Core i3, 4GB, Win7 64bit
13" MacBook Pro, 8GB, OSX 10.6.7
Apple Network infrastructure & 2 Apple TVs

See here.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?

Thanks Alex.

_________________
HP Microserver, 8GB, 2x1.5TB, WHS2011
HP G42, Core i3, 4GB, Win7 64bit
13" MacBook Pro, 8GB, OSX 10.6.7
Apple Network infrastructure & 2 Apple TVs

Review was indeed great, lots of detail!

I have to agree as well that I am happy to have been able to get an EX 470 for $399 and in no way regret it with this announcement.

I do hope eventually we get more besides Mac and Amazon S3 support since I do not use either feature. However, I am sure many users will be excited about those features.

On a side note... I like the blue better than the aqua, but that's just me

Thanks for the feedback, the aqua is slowly growing on me and does look a little more "sleek" with the dark top, but I do like the bright blue as well.

_________________
Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?

Thanks for the review, Alex. You've done a very good job. I used to write for PC Magazine and I know what is involved with such a review. Many thanks for the time and effort you put into the review. And I would like to particularly thank you for the follow up you have done directly with HP on the software update for existing customers and the eSATA port multiplier issue.

I was very happy with the new servers especially the software side of the upgrade. However, afer you alerted me to the eSATA port multiplier issue, I quickly soured on the new Encore machines. That is definitely a show-stopper for me for an upgrade to anything HP might put out in the future unless they reconsider their position on that matter. JohnBick has mentioned the possibility the port multiplier options still exist with a USB Sata backpane tower, but I know how much faster eSATA is and why digress to the slower standard? The HP position blocks me from buying HP unless they will reconsider how to deal with this issue, which apparently they have told you they do not plan to deal with it now or in the future.

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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle - Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)