Hardware

Long time forum member Charles aka “cakalapati” and his company VOV Technology have recently announced the availability of the 4th generation of the HP MediaSmart Server VGA/PS2/Serial Debug Board. The board connects to the debug port on the motherboard of the HP MediaSmart Server and provides video, serial, and PS2 keyboard/mouse connectivity. This can be […]

I am pleased to announce that OverTek LTD in the UK has a new direct replacement PSU for the HP MediaSmart and Data Vault servers.   Back in July 2010 we first learned about OverTek LTD offering a direct replacement PSU for the HP MediaSmart Server.  Since then I have had the opportunity to actually test […]

My first Windows Home Server lived in a beast of a case with plenty of room for 12 hard drives at a push, so when I decided to scale down and go the MediaSmart Server route it was a thought always in the back of my mind…. “What if I need more than 4 drives?” […]

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Guide: Building A PC

by Damian on August 18, 2011 · 57 comments

in Guides

For a while now I have been wanting to upgrade my desktop PC. I had a Gateway Intel Q6600 Quad Core PC that had served me well, but was getting a bit long in the tooth for my needs (specifically more CPU intensive tasks such as encoding, commercial scanning, etc…). This combined with an itch […]

There’s plenty of information floating around that will tell you how much faster an SSD is compared to your regular platter based hard drive.  I personally use an SSD as the main OS drive in my Windows 7 desktop PC and just love how quickly the machine boots up and is ready for me to […]

Western Digital looks set to enter the small business market space with the release of storage servers based on Windows Storage Server 2008 R2.  Not too much actual detail of what’s to be released but if you skip through the linked video of the Microsoft Partner Conference one of the new devices makes an appearance […]

Replacing the CPU is a common upgrade for those that want to increase the performance of their MediaSmart Server, however there is sometimes risk involved with the upgrade and some users have “bricked” their server in the process. Christian Johnson of Maplegrove Partners has been in touch to let us know that he has published […]

The following is a guest article contributed by forum member (and one of my former HP co-workers) “Pete”, who has also shared his LX195 MythTV setup with us in a previous article. I have successfully setup Ubuntu and Raid5 on a couple of different Media Smart Servers, and found the process not all that bad. […]

Sans Digital enclosures have long been a favorite of many a WHS user when they run out of drive bays in their MSS or other server.  Sans Digital have just announced the release of four new 8 bay models now with a USB 3.0 port which, on paper, should give you 5Gpbs of throughput compared […]

The following is a guest article written by forum member Dan “Nomad” Muzenjak. The first generation HP Media Vault enjoyed a small but loyal following of users and in some ways was a precursor to the MediaSmart Server, so it’s nice to see Dan breathe new life into these older devices. Thank you, Dan, for […]