Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: media, server | Themes: Networking
2. Introducing the HP EX475 MediaSmart server
Though it’s possible to use the EX475 MediaSmart as a media server—and certainly, the name HP has bestowed upon this offering leads us to believe that’s how they want you to use it, too—at its very core this unit is really a network attached storage device. That’s because the guts of the unit are built around a four-bay RAID controller that supports hot-swappable SATA 150 hard disk drives. Don’t get us wrong, however: the EX475 makes a very good, if somewhat expensive, media server and does a good job with all kinds of streaming media, particularly iTunes and those types of digital media associated with Windows Media Player (.wav and MP3 music files, all kinds of digital video and DVR recordings, and more). It’s also a pretty good-looking piece of hardware, even if it is most probably destined to wind up somewhere in a closet or elsewhere out of sight (ours wound up in the wiring bay in our bedroom closet, one shelf down from where the patch panel hooks up to our Netgear FVS124G firewall/GbE Switch and the WebSTAR cable modem that links our household GbE network to a Time Warner broadband connection).
The HP MediaSmart is packaged in an attractive and stylish mini-tower that’s a little smaller than a typical mid-tower PC case.
The EX475 shows its slightly rakish lines best when viewed from the side.
From a side view, notice how both front and back sides on the EX475 MediaSmart taper in from top to bottom. Alas, its ultra-slick black plastic housing shows smudges and fingerprints all too well, as a careful look at the upper right corner of the photo shows. Despite our best efforts with a soft cloth and a little glass cleaner, we couldn’t buff out the mars and marks that time conferred on the plastic housing. You’ll either want to handle this unit very carefully or learn to live with a slightly distressed finish.
The font panel on the EX475 swings open to the left, showing four drive trays above, and the power supply and circuitry bay below.
From an access and usability standpoint, the EX475 is well designed. It’s easy to open up and access any of the drive trays. Our unit came equipped with two 500 GB hard disks, leaving two of its four drive trays unpopulated. It would be easy to double the storage capacity with a couple of the same 500 GB 7200.10 Seagate Barracuda drives already installed in this unit (currently available for about $100 each on the open market). If you want more capacity and don’t mind putting its current drives to work elsewhere, you could install four 1 TB drives for about $240 each (which should get you into at least one of the current Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital or Seagate offerings available at that size). We were able to pop drawers in and out easily, including those already populated with drives.
The EX475’s extensibility doesn’t end with a nice set of drawers, however. A quick look back at the front shots (door open or closed) shows a single USB 2.0 port on the front. Our next photo shows the additional connectors on the rear, which include three more USB 2.0 ports stacked on the lower left, as well as an eSATA port immediately to the left of the RJ-45 network interface connector. The unit was happy to recognize our Seagate 7200.10 750 GB eSATA drive, as well as two more USB drives, as we checked to see how easy it was to expand the unit’s storage via external connections. Only (and all) of the four internal drives work with the unit’s integrated four-port RAID controller, however.
From the rear, the EX475 makes three USB 2.0 ports available, as well as single eSATA and Ethernet (RJ-45) connectors.
Table 1 summarizes all of the HP EX475 MediaSmart specs and characteristics, including size and weight, plus as many internal elements that we could identify.
HP EX475 MediaSmart Components and Characteristics
| Item | Data/Remarks |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD 1.8 GHz AM2 Sempron 3400+ 1.8GHz |
| RAM | 512MB PC2-5300 (DDR2-667 MHz) |
| Network | 10/100/1000 RJ-45 Ethernet (rear) |
| Drives | 2xSeagate 7200.10 SATA-300 500 GB hard disks |
| USB 2.0 | 4 ports (1 front, 3 rear) |
| eSATA port | 1 rear |
| Dimensions | 5.5" x 9.8" x 9.2" / 140mm x 245mm x 234mm |
| Weight | 12 lb 15.3 oz / 5.88 kg |
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The review of the Mediasmart server was good but missed the mark, specifically in failing to mention the community of enthusiasts who continuously develop new software to expand the machine's capabilities. There is so much more to it than just backups and NAS!
The author also refers to the Mediasmart as having RAID, which it doesn't. It uses a somewhat different system of spanning multiple disks and making them appear as a single drive, but will make critical files redundant on multiple drives if a user wants.
Sure, it's an expensive machine, but like anything, there are deals to be found if one looks for it.
While this article is an interesting and informative read, it veered off course badly in its conclusion when the author stated “For those with home networks, we think the HP EX475 (or its less powerful and costly EX470 cousin) make sense only for those with lots of PCs and devices to manage”.
Every network, large or small, needs to provide a backup of important data. The HP MediaSmart Server does this often forgotten task automatically, through its daily backup of Client PC’s and Duplicate Folders on the server. The LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition does not provide this capability, because it is an NAS, not a true Server, as evidenced by its lack of hard disk expansion, file redundancy, and Network Health monitoring, etc.
The old adage, “You get what you pay for” is never more true than when you compare the HP MediaSmart Server to the LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition! There is no comparison, and the price reflects that.
While it might be convenient for basic Windows users to buy a solution like this from HP, an experienced user could get more mileage out of a low-end notebook computer with a decent hard drive and all of the hard disk expansion you might need with either USB, firewire, or eSATA drives externally. Several Linux-based server packages are available for media servers as well as Unison, rsync, or simple SMP or FTP for files and backup. Mac users can use Time Machine for a more elegant automatic backup. Mac & Linux users are not likely to want Windows Home Server packages.
Good article. I have a LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini Home Edition and I love it. The author made an error though when he said the LaCie has an embedded 900 MHz Marvell processor. In fact it only has a 400 MHz Marvell processor.
As well, Interlude in his comment above made an error when he said 'The LaCie Ethernet Disk mini – Home Edition does not provide this capability'. The desktop applications which come with the LaCie does provide a Windows and Mac application for automated backups of data on my PCs to the HipServ OS on the LaCie drive. Its based on rsync and it works really well for me. It does folder and file backups, but thats all I need. To boot, the LaCie device fully supports both the Mac and Windows which I love. The Windows Home Server does not provide this capability - Microsoft says Windows Home Server supports the Mac, but when you read the fine print it only supports the Mac if you install Vista on it. That is NOT supporting the Mac. As well, Interlude was incorrect when he said that the LaCie is not a true server - the LaCie drive runs HipServ which uses as its base the RedHat Linus Enterprise Server 4 OS. The same server OS that many banks around the world depend on.
The LaCie device even allows me to make a secondary backup to an attached USB hard drive through the HipServ MySafe feature. The LaCie may not have multiple drives, but it least that it will not corrupt my data... unlike the Windows Home Server does.