I got started in 2008/9 on a EX495 that my dad bought me and used it to run different VMware images on websphere doing labs and stuff in college made it better than having several Server boxes around. After college, and new job I moved 200 miles from family. My dad kept server and used it for backups, until primary drive failed and he shipped it to me to fix since I am in IT professionally. He said get my data and keep the thing.. He did not like the no video card interface and built his own super server.

Another use in 2012

I started getting more free time and I got my dads data back and box got thrown in closet until I saw this site called IHomeserver http://www.bizmodeller.com/iHomeServer/. I had a lot of movies Ripped in my collection of owned dvd's and tired of looking for all the time, Since my family is all Apple it was a no brainier. I considered xbmc , now Kodi, but had to use separate program to get movie art and tag videos, IHomeserver does tagging and embeds In MP4 files and no clutter plus much more, it streams to any device in HTML 5 anywhere. I have 2 Apple TV,s and Home Server delivers and works well with all our Apple, Mac and Android tablets.

So now I have replaced primary drive with 500 gb ssd, replaced WD green drives which all failed, I went to seagate NAS 4TB * 3, memory I had 4gb which really helps streaming and other little things. Last month I got a board for hdmi and a Bluray burner with anydvd , I use Server to rip all my media and it still streams movies well while doing so. My collection is over 1200 moves all for personal use.

I don't understand why HP and Microsoft gave up on this great gadget...I am perfectly happy with it and still using version 1 2003 server. I guess if it fails for good I will have to take a look at qnip and Plex but until then....

Great story, thx for sharing.
I also was one of the lucky ones that happened to be looking for a better file storage solution and happened onto this web site and got to reading about the "Home Servers" from HP. Sounded kind of cool and very easy to run.
I started with the ex-470, upgraded the ram and cpu, replaced a dead power supply and ran it till the X-510 came out.

I went all in and bought 4 of them, upgraded the memory and cpu and got a couple of extra power supplies.
Future proofing my systems I bought two of the VGA/Mouse adapters and two copies of WHS 2011.

I am still running WHS V1 and have 9 clients being backed up on it, (1) Vista and all the rest are Win 7.
I will run these little dudes till they don't work anymore.
I am refusing to upgrade to win 10 (as it will become a rental OS) in the future.
When win 7 won't go anymore, at least the servers will still be good file servers, which is all I had before anyway.

I look forward to Microsoft getting a new CEO and stopping the madness of a Service OS.

I built a DIY win2012E box just in case, have a win7 vm running on it, all just for fun.
It will be a sad day when I have to let go of whs v1. I was so very lucky I found this site when I did. Love these little guys
Good luck and enjoy. Again, thx for sharing.

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[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
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