HP MediaSmart Server ex487

The Hewlett-Packard MediaSmart Server ex487 stands tall, with four drive bays--two with a 750GB drive in each, and two available for user upgrades. The unit is the only one we looked at that uses Microsoft's feature-packed, but sometimes slow Windows Home Server software, which uses a process called folder duplication instead of RAID to span available disk storage across what you see as a single, redundant volume (in this case, for about 1.3GB of total usable storage).

The unit streamed media smoothly, including the high-definition video clips I threw at it. Unfortunately, when I tried to access several of the media types exposed via the unit's browser interface, I received expired certificate errors that I had to bypass before viewing anything. Even with this annoyance, the MediaSmart Server ex487 is a well-designed and versatile box. It has an iTunes server and remote access; but you can't use the remote access with a Windows Vista Home or Windows XP Home system. It can work with Macs on your network, but the initial setup has to be done on a PC.

The HP MediaSmart Server, the Synology DS209+, and the Linksys MediaHub are the only NAS boxes in our roundup that will stream music and photos across the Web to a PC's browser.

Because the MediaSmart uses Windows HSE, to configure it you must use a client app installed on a local PC instead of your Web browser. While this shields the user from having to determine a NAS box's URL--a string such as 192.168.1.100--and type it into a browser, the client was very slow to connect, and it sat in the system tray (yet another marginally useful background app using up memory and CPU cycles).

Once you actually get to it, Windows Home Sever is visually attractive as well as intuitive--particularly for anyone who's already used to Windows. However, in spite of its Windows Home Server operating system, the MediaSmart offers no clear advantages over the other boxes, and it costs more than competitors, too. One major gripe: Upon opening after installation, I was told that I needed to install a McAfee security add-on to protect the MediaSmart. You can disable this rather intrusive marketing ploy, but I found it disingenuous.