I am torn between buying a mediaserver ex490 from HP and building my own.

The main obstacle right now for DIY is to find the right case. Bottom line is that I can't seem to find a small case (size of the ex490) that has the following:
1- space for 4 internal (6 would be great) - 3.5" drives
2- silent
3- no PSU if possible (I'd much rather choose one)
4- ITX (mATX would be OK if the case is small enough)
5- I don't need to have a DVD drive so no 5.25" opening is ok.
6- easy access to the 3.5" drives

I looked at:
- NaS case from fractal design, but it is hard to find in the US, is expensive and does not have easy access to the 3.5" drives
- Lian Li Q08 is big and has too many holes for noise containment
- chenbro Mini ITX case is expensive, the PSU is noisy according to the reviews and the backplane is not compatible with Sata 3

any other option?

Thanks

I think you will find your choices are limited or cost prohibitive with small enclosures with the compliment of drives you desire. The smaller cases with say 4 drives with trays will run you about $200. That kind of money puts you half way there to an EX490. I recently built a small server using a CFI Mini-ITX enclosure that provided me 2 external 3.5" drives with trays, 1 internal 3.5" Drive and a bay for an optical drive. Its foot print is larger then the Media Smart Server but not huge. One challenge with a small encloser is everything is tight and sometimes just finding the right heatsink and fan is a challenge depending on CPU placement on the motherboard..

Here is a link where I posted about the Mini Server I buit with some pictures so you can get an idea of the enclosure I am refering to.

viewtopic.php?p=69457#p69457

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

This looks pretty nice
http://www.wegotserved.com/2010/09/13/f ... croserver/

_________________
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.

Hey DieHard thats a nice looking unit! I started to look for information on it but what I really wanted to see was the internals and I found that on the link below on the HP Site because they do provide a maintenance guide for their ProLiant Line of servers so check it out:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... Id=4248009

Now I have to take a step back because I am tempted to order one to bring it in here to play so to avoid the impulse purchase I will just let it be for a few days. With the cost under $400 its very attractive but you have to add in the OS but still its a very attractive unit. With the processor being 15w I wonder what processor options might be avalable from HP for this unit, also it appears to have a passive cooling system much like the MSS but its expandable so its a good thing.

I wonder if you have one on order yet?

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Nope, not on order. Like you, I like the case. Nice that there is a slot for a DVD drive. Might be interesting for those with MyMovies3 and want to rip directly to the server using WHS v1. But with the lower specs, I'm wondering if it's enough horsepower. WGS will have a review in a few weeks, maybe they might have some answers. Having a technet subscription would be a good value to get WHS v1 on there and them have Vail or Auroura when it's released.

I'm guessing HP won't bring out the new MediaSmart servers until after Christmas so they can unload a bunch of the current product. Then there's a good chance of deals coming up. Even then, the X510 or EX495 will be able to handle Vail/Aurora. I'm sure the new boxes wil be priced at $550 again.

_________________
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.