HP MediaSmart Server EX490

Amid the buzz around Windows 7, Windows Home Server has largely dropped off the radar – not that it was ever more than a faint blip for most people. But we’ve always had a soft spot for HP’s MediaSmart range, awarding the original EX475 a five-star review back in 2007. And now the formula has been updated with the HP MediaSmart EX490.

From the outside, nothing's visibly changed. The compact micro-tower case remains discreet enough to hide away yet tasteful enough to leave on display, with gently coloured LED panels showing power and error states. At the front a door swings open to reveal the familiar four drawer-style screwless SATA drive bays, the bottom one populated with a 1TB Seagate 7200.12 hard disk. And, as with previous MediaSmart servers, there are also four USB 2.0 connectors and an eSATA port, yielding support for up to nine drives.

But in several ways the EX490 is a more powerful beast than its forebears. System RAM has been bumped up to 2GB of DDR2, and the old Sempron CPU is replaced by a 2.2GHz Intel Celeron 450. That’s still a very a lightweight processor, but it’s more than ample for everyday server duties and it contributes to a low power draw of just 35W while idle, rising to 50W under load.

And when it comes to software there’s plenty here that’s new. Naturally, you get all the standard features of Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2, including support for shared folders and automated backup. You can install drives of any size and type and they’ll all be merged into a big storage pool, with specific files optionally mirrored across multiple drives for insurance against drive failure. Home Server’s remote access gateway lets you access your files from afar.

Beyond this the MediaSmart EX490 has a predictable focus on managing and sharing media files. HP has retained the iTunes and TwonkyMedia server plugins from the original EX475, and added numerous new custom features that occupy a whole sub-menu within the Home Server Connector.

The key is the HP media collector, which can automatically copy any songs, photos and movies found on client PCs to the server, effortlessly creating and maintaining a central library for all your media. The streaming server can then pipe these audio and video files to devices both on your network and, via web access, beyond.

To help with the streaming, HP also provides an automatic video converter that monitors new videos and DVD dumps arriving on the server and quietly generates H.264 MPEG4 versions that will play on most video receivers. You can control the frame size, frame rate and bitrate, but be warned that the EX490’s Celeron processor can make high-quality conversions a slow process. We found it took around half an hour to convert a two-minute 1080p WMV9 file into a full-resolution MP4.

Another neat feature is the ability to publish your photographs directly to Flickr, Facebook, Picasa Web Albums and HP’s Snapfish service from within the MediaSmart interface. It’s a rudimentary browser-based wizard, but it gets the job done with minimal fuss.

Considering this is at bottom a Windows appliance, HP has even achieved an impressive degree of Mac compatibility: the MediaSmart server can serve files and music to OS X clients and can even be used as a Time Machine backup device.

Add in a user-defined sleep schedule and remote hardware monitoring and the EX490 is without a doubt the most persuasive home server we’ve seen. But we do have two reservations.

The first is with HP’s notion of the home server acting as a media hub. There’s nothing wrong with the idea in principle, and if you already have a front-room PC or a selection of receivers then the MediaSmart EX490 could be the jigsaw piece that completes the puzzle.

But the marriage of server and media features is imperfect because, in accordance with Microsoft’s Home Server specifications, the EX490 has no video or audio connectors of its own. To get the full benefit you'll need the sort of additional devices described above. Despite the name, what comes in the box is only half of a media system.

The second is the price. While home servers remain a niche product we can’t expect stunning economies of scale in this market; but now that a 1TB NAS box can be had for £85 exc VAT, you'll have to be quite firmly wedded to the niceties of Windows Home Server to pay over £400 for an appliance of the same capacity.

So while the MediaSmart EX490 gets a definite thumbs up, we suggest you take stock of your needs – and the devices on your home network – before taking the plunge. For basic home server duties a cheaper, simpler option, such as the Tranquil T2, may work just as well. But if the sophistications of the EX490 fit your home and your budget then go for it: it’s a capable and excellently designed little server.

Price when reviewed: £402 (£462 inc VAT)