Comments on: HP EX490 1TB Mediasmart Home Server

By: T. Zarick

T. Zarick — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:56:13 +0000

Upgraded from the EX470 primarily for the faster CPU. Been playing around with it for 2 days now. Their is a noticeable performance increase, I’m happy to say. Would recommend it…
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Otto Brill

Otto Brill — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:18:39 +0000

This little box rocks!! You got to spend some time looking into this marvel’s specs. Trust me, it is worth the time!!! Close your eyes and buy it!
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Biff Bechenschnifter

Biff Bechenschnifter — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:55:00 +0000

I’ve been running the server for about 6 months now, and have had no problems with the basic functions. Backups run like clockwork, and the server functions are painless.

On the other hand, I’ve found the “media collector” software to be a huge pain in the butt. My network includes a 1-year old HP laptop and a 2-month old HP desktop. With everything relatively current, and everything made my HP, you’d think the whole thing would run with no headaches. Despite several calls to HP, though (HP support, by the way, is top notch and always available), the thing still gives me “media collection issues.” If you check the forums, you’ll see that HP included bad scripts originally, but they’ve pushed several patches, and those don’t seem to help. I tried turning the “media collector” options off, but doing that appears to also turn off the iTunes server (which also has issues).

Anyway, 5 stars for the server and the Windows software, 1 star for the HP media collector features.
Rating: 3 / 5

By: Anthony C. Toppins

Anthony C. Toppins — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:52:06 +0000

I purchased the EX495 the day it showed up on Amazon. I am an early adopter by habit. I was mainly interested in network Time Machine backups of my numerous Macs and also backups of my windows machines. I also wanted to utilize the Media Collector which is advertised to work with Macs and Windows machines to watch for new photos, videos, music files and copy them to the server. This works for the windows machines but so far is not working for my Macs. They are running Snow Leopard and I have tried all of the settings trying to get it to work. I have an open trouble ticket with HP but so far no solution. Curious if anyone else has experienced this issue?
Rating: 3 / 5

By: Nathan West

Nathan West — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:38:12 +0000

Was really excited about this product so I could centralize all my media. Used with a Dual-Core MAC Pro tower and wired ethernet through a router. Supplied user interface was extremely sluggish and locked up 50% of the time. PC interface wasn’t much better. Wasn’t able to stream video files to Apple Tv either. I’m not a tech head but do know enough to work through most problems. This proved beyond my abilities.
Rating: 2 / 5