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HP EX470 MediaSmart Home Server (AMD Live, Windows Home Server, 500 GB Hard Drive) | 
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| Brand: Hewlett-Packard
Category: Personal Computer
Buy New: See price in cart
New (6)
Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 40
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Hard Drive Size: 500
Shipping Weight (lbs): 19
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 9.2 x 5.5
MPN: GG795AA
Model: EX470
UPC: 883585222636
EAN: 0883585222636
ASIN: B000UY1WSK
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| | Conveniently centralize your files and access them from an internet-connected computer | | | 500 GB hard drive, expands via 4 hard drive bays | | | Automatically backup and protect the digital memories on your home PCs running Windows XP and later operating systems | | | Stream photos, music and videos to PCs on your network or to your TV or stereo system | | | Powered by Microsoft Windows Home Server software and 1.8 GHz, 64-bit AMD Sempron processor |
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Amazon.com Product Description
Maximize the power and potential of your home network with the HP EX470 MediaSmart Server, which enables you to conveniently centralize your files and access them from multiple PCs in your home. Based on AMD Live processing power, the MediaSmart Server enables you to back up your home's PCs as well as share and enjoy digital music, home videos and photos from any computer or entertainment system on a home network. The server also has the expandability to grow with your family's changing needs. 
The stylish HP MediaSmart Server easily fits into your living room or office decor. | 
Its small size will fit on top of even the most crowded desk, and it offers wireless access when connected to a Wi-Fi router (via the Gigabit Ethernet port). | This sleek, streamlined micro-tower design is perfect for use in the home office or the living room, and its perforated steel exterior panels provide cool, quiet operation. The EX470 MediaSmart Server features a 500 GB internal hard drive (SATA, 7200 RPM), 512 MB of installed DDR2 RAM, four hard drive bays for additional expansion using off-the-shelf SATA I or II hard drives, a Gigabit Ethernet port for ultra-fast networking (and connection to a wireless router), four USB 2.0 ports (1 on the front, 3 on the back) for connecting to additional hard drives, and an and an eSATA port for high-speed data transfer to external storage devices--up to 6 times faster than existing solutions. It's quick and easy to set up your HP MediaSmart Server and create up to 10 user accounts using the Microsoft Windows Home Server software. You can also open a predefined Guest account for additional file sharing capabilities. The HP MediaSmart Server also lets you set up your own secure personal web address to allow file access by remote users. Easily Enhance Your Network
Expand your storage possibilities with the MediaServer's four hard drive bays. | Every PC on your network will have the Control Center software, giving users the ability to browse shared folders on the HP MediaSmart Server, add photos to the HP Photo Webshare and perform an immediate backup of their computer. Set the access privileges for each user at the shared-folder level to allow Read/Write, Read Only or No Access. You also control the remote access privilege for each user. Approved users will then be able to remotely access shared files and even applications on their home PC through a secure connection from any Internet-connected PC. 
AMD LIVE Smarter Digital Entertainment | Share Your Media
Use included HP Photo Webshare software to easily and securely share photos stored on your HP MediaSmart Server with select friends and family. A quick link to Snapfish allows easy photo printing. Enjoy digital music, photos, video and files from any networked PC. Stream content directly to your home entertainment center using a digital media adapter (DMA). The DMA device accesses the media files and coordinates the streaming process between the HP MediaSmart Server and your entertainment device. Protect Your Data
Keep your PC files safe with automatic backup for multiple PCs. You can customize the frequency of backups and how many backups are stored. Files accidentally deleted can be easily found on the backup image and copied to your PC. In the event of hard drive failure, the included HP PC Restore disc is all you need to return your PC and all your data to their original condition. Other Features
- Centralize your iTunes music libraries and playlists on the server for playback to any PC or notebook running iTunes on your home network.
- Incremental backups: After initial backup, only changes are backed up.
- Efficient single copy backup: A single copy of each file is backed up, no matter how many computers that files resides on in your home network.
- Add an internal or external hard drive to the HP MediaSmart Server, indicate that you want to add the disk in the Windows Home Server Console, and the HP MediaSmart Server storage grows. No need to power down the unit or manage drive letters for multiple hard drives.
- Remote access compatibility: Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Media Center Edition 2004 or higher, or Windows Vista Ultimate or higher
- File sharing compatibility: Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional SP4, Mac, OS X, Linux.
- Backup compatibility: Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP
What's in the Box
HP MediaSmart Server, power cord, Ethernet cable, software installation disc, PC restore disc, server recovery disc, Quick Start and HP support guides. Important: The HP MediaSmart Server is not a stand-alone computer. You connect it to your networked computer system. No monitor is needed because its user interface is accessed from another computer.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
 HP QUALITY November 21, 2007
G. Hoza (USA)
81 out of 93 found this review helpful
I have owned and operated HP micro and mini computers since 1982. The name "Hewlett Packard" has for me always stood for quality (except when Compaq was acquired). I just got my EX470 direct from HP. Since the holidays are here I couldn't wait for a preordered unit from Amazon - so I paid a little more to get it direct from HP. [If you are not in a hurry then Amazon is the way to go - as I would not trust any other mail order house to order sophisticated electronics]. The EX470 is a one 500GB windows home server. The EX475 has two 500GB drives. I opted for the one 500GB drive so that I could fill the other 3 bays with 1 TB Seagates (7200.11) so that I could have 3.5TB of needed storage. [See Tomshardware dot com for a great review of those drives. If you are interested I ordered the drives for a great great price from NewEgg.] It is important that you have at least 2 drives in this unit to enable the server to make 2nd backup copies of important files that are backed up from your several PCs on your network, otherwise you risk losing your backup in the event that a hard drive on your server quits.
Anyway, the unit is a piece of art - you can't stick the thing in a closet - as it is too pretty! Very well made hardware. This is not a piece of plastic that rattles, rather it is tightly assembled, dense (surprisingly) and well, beautifully put together. Mark my words, you are getting far more for your money by buying this hardware than anything you have purchased for less than $600 in the past! I simply plugged in the power and the gigabit lan and presto - we're connected. After a minute or so system test you incert the appropriate discs into one of your networked computers and within 15 minutes you are up and running.
I have yet to configure the remote capabilities of the server and will wait until I understand what I am doing. One thing you don't want to do is make all your personal data available to anyone on the internet! So I will go a little slow in that department. Once I get my other Seagate drives on Monday I hope to add to this post. If for some reason I gave too many stars to this review I will make it known in that supplement that my opinion has changed. However I doubt that that will happen! :) Buy it - you'll like it.
UPDATE: OK it is now January 9, 2008. Since my initial review I have replaced the original Seagate 500GB drive with a 1TB Seagate 7200.11 one, and installed 3 other 1TB Seagate's in the other 3 bays. In addition, I have also added a Rosewill eSATA external HD enclosure and added another 1TB Seagate drive. Now I have 5TBs and I feel I will need more space after a year or so.
For those of you who are kicking the tires on this Windows Home Server, I would stick with HP. In a few more weeks both HP and Microsoft will be coming out with a series of software upgrades and enhancements. There will be features for you to actually backup all or part of your Windows Home Server. 64 bit clients as well as 32 bit clients will have complete functionality. Moreover, McAfee virus protection will be added on a 6 month free trial (which is good if you plan to do remote sharing). [Microsoft is also working on a fix of certain corruption problems people have had using certain software to edit and save to the server directly.] So far I am completely happy with my purchase. I am looking forward to the exciting new add-ins that will be available for this unit in the future. I would give this unit six stars if I could. :)
Amazing capabilities... and really fun to look at! November 14, 2007
moviebuff69 (Colorado, USA)
53 out of 57 found this review helpful
I've been haivng fun with this product for the past few days. The setup was a breeze - I was up and running in under 1/2 hour. I had heard of some people in the windows home server beta having trouble with setting up remote access, but it worked fine for me.
My favorite features so far... streaming my music and videos from the server over to my Xbox 360. My second favorite... having all of my PCs automatically backed up (and it's fast - the backups each night take only a few minutes on my 2 Vista and 2 XP PCs).
The remote file access works as advertised but I wish it had a better interface... like the photo sharing app. that HP includes.
I'll share more as I play with it more, but so far, it's surpassed my expectations.
Great server, great software March 26, 2008
JOEKC (Kansas City)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Disclosure: I was a beta tester on software of this product beginning a year ago, so I have a rather strong bias in favor of it.
Since I build my own computers, I used Microsoft's beta version of Windows Home Server as it moved slowly through various beta versions. I agonized as various bugs appeared, but never did I lose any backups and with each new version WHS became more stable. When the final version was released in late fall 2007, I managed to snag a copy and installed it on an old computer. It ran like a champ.
So why did I opt for the HP version? Quite simply, I wanted a small server (this thing's a lot smaller than it looks) that would use far less energy than my old "warhorse" from days gone by. So what do you need to know that other reviews may not have told you?
1. For optimal performance, you really need to be running a gigabit network. This may be as simple as buying a gigabit switch. You may have a salesman tell you that CAT5e cable won't run gigabit, but that's not true. As long as you don't have huge cable runs, you'll be just fine. If you can't run a gigabit network, you'll have a really long first backup, but after that WHS is smart enough to only backup what's changed, so things will go faster.
2 You can't back up a computer with FAT32 formatting. Surprise! My wife's old computer is still FAT32 and I get a message saying I have to convert the drive to NTFS. Ok, but that means I have to find a way to backup her data before I back it up. Hmmm . . .
3. Now this is cool: I set my computers to run backups between 1:00 and 4:00 AM. Then I put the computers in sleep mode, which effectively shuts them down. During the middle of the night the server wakes up the computers, does the backup, then puts them back to sleep. A lot of energy saved there! You can have up to 10 home computers installed, not likely, but it's there if you want it.
4. Adding storage is ridiculously easy. You just slide out a tray in the HP Server, drop in a drive and slide it back in. No screws or wires. And everything is on the front. Also, the server runs "headless" which means you don't need a keyboard, mouse, or monitor to set it up.
5. I added another 500GB drive (for $109) which gives me 1TB of storage. The HP Server comes with a Seagate 500GB drive installed and a 1TB version is also available. Here's another cool feature. In case you don't want to trust all of your backups to one drive you can set up your HP home server to write your data to two drives, so if one fails, you've got a complete backup on the other drive. Of course this takes more space, but . . .
6. The WHS software only backs up one instance of each file. So if you have the same picture on three computers, it saves space by only writing one instance of the file. Really smart.
7. Remember, WHS is not just for backups, but for sharing files across your network, and potentially across the world. Depending on your ISP, that may be easy or potentially difficult, but that's not really the fault of WHS.
Other goodies: You can check the server temperature, fan RPM's and voltages from any computer on the network -- if there's a problem you'll be alerted on your computer; the front of the server has status lights which change colors according to the health/status of the server, and you can set the brightness of the lights (in case it's in your bedroom). It's quiet, but I have it in the basement and anything would seem quiet next to the multi-fan monster it replaced.
And finally, WHS is based on the business Windows Server 2003, which is rock stable. While the HP EX470 is not going to wind up in every home in America, if you're a computer enthusiast you won't have much trouble justifying this purchase. I've spent a lot more money over the years on backup solutions that were tedious and didn't really put a backed up file within easy reach. With WHS you can restore a single file or the entire drive. I restored my laptop drive when I upgraded to a larger drive and it worked quickly and perfectly.
So stop worrying about your backups. Yes, it's a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for. Microsoft and HP hit a homerun with the HP EX470.
A Microsoft product that works - REALLY WELL December 23, 2007
ScOObydoo (USA)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
It's hard to describe how happy I am about this product without sounding like an idiot.
First of all the basics; it's a nice looking device. It's VERY quiet, and cabling is nice and simple; power and ethernet. Included in the box is the device, the cables you need, a set of CD's and a getting started guide.
On the back is an eSATA port (not shown in the Amazon photos or mentioned), 3 USB ports for more storage and a USB port on the front.
You plug it into your network, install the CD and you are good to go. No fooling around with product activation, no 30 minute setup.
The software; it's spectacular. Microsoft made this easy to use without treating you like a fool. Setting up shared storage and scheduling a backup couldn't be easier. If you ever need to restore, then you just pop in the included boot CD into the target machine and it'll let you restore backups stored on the server.
The 500Gb (or 1Tb) drive is fine for most people, but in my case I added some more drives. You just pop them into the cradle, slide them into the server and select "add" in the control panel. It automatically turns them into one large drive you can access. You can then select in the control panel which directories you want to duplicate (mirror) and it will make a backup copy onto one of the other drives. If you ever need to remove a drive, it will let you copy the contents onto the other drive(s) before doing so.
Another cool feature is the iTunes server; it will copy your local iTunes library onto the server in the background so you free up space on your PC and have a network accessible iTunes server on your lan.
All in all $577 WELL SPENT. There are other solutions out there (Drobo, Infrant, FreeNAS) but this integrates perfectly in Windows and is in my opinion the best value for money.
Outstanding multi-purpose device for home / small office use February 25, 2008
Steve Shimkus (Glenview, IL United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I absolutely love this device. I had seriously considered a Drobo before I saw this and bought this instead for several reasons. Simply put, it can do things that Drobo can't.
- It comes standard with Gigabit Ethernet (this costs $200 extra with Drobo),
- It behaves as a File Server (with folder level duplication) and offers similar data protection to Drobo,
- It automates the daily backups of all PCs (running Windows) in the house - similar to Apple Time Capsule for the Mac,
- It acts as a ITunes / Media Server - bringing music, photos, and movies throughout the house.
Two complaints - I wish I could change the default workgroup name of this device (doesn't change the product's functionality) and I wish this provided print server functionality.
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