CursedSilicon: Created page with "Microsoft's first (and so far, only) attempt to break into the then much smaller "home NAS" market. (Ironically Synology was founded in the year 2000 by an ex-Microsoft employee) The EX495 and its brother?...cousin? whatever. The Acer EasyStore (along with several other devices that I don't own) were a fleet of home NAS appliances sold by large OEM's for consumers. The main selling point (I guess?) was the inclusion of "Windows Home Server"...."

2024-09-10T06:48:51Z

Created page with "Microsoft's first (and so far, only) attempt to break into the then much smaller "home NAS" market. (Ironically Synology was founded in the year 2000 by an ex-Microsoft employee) The EX495 and its brother?...cousin? whatever. The Acer EasyStore (along with several other devices that I don't own) were a fleet of home NAS appliances sold by large OEM's for consumers. The main selling point (I guess?) was the inclusion of "Windows Home Server"...."

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Microsoft's first (and so far, only) attempt to break into the then much smaller "home NAS" market. (Ironically Synology was founded in the year 2000 by an ex-Microsoft employee)

The EX495 and its brother?...cousin? whatever. The [[Acer EasyStore H340|Acer EasyStore]] (along with several other devices that I don't own) were a fleet of home NAS appliances sold by large OEM's for consumers.

The main selling point (I guess?) was the inclusion of "Windows Home Server". A re-skin of Windows Small Business Server 2003 with a web UI and some PC administration software attached. Unsurprisingly both of these features are long-defunct now

The HP is significantly more capable than its Acer counterpart. Its stock configuration can be modified with a larger PSU, additional RAM can be installed and the '''''miserable''''' stock [https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/29734/intel-celeron-processor-420-512k-cache-1-60-ghz-800-mhz-fsb.html Celeron 420 CPU] can be replaced with a much more capable Core 2 Quad '''Q9550s''' (the S is important as it needs to be low power!) or an equivalent Xeon if you prefer.

To that end the unit I own (pictured below) is currently outfitted with all of the described upgrades. I have also replaced the rear case fans with 92mm Noctua fans for extra quietness

'''At this time the unit is not currently in active use as I do not have 3.5" hard disks to install into it. Due to the age of the system it also does not support 2TB+ (GPT formatted) disks without swapping the OS for Linux or similar'''

[[File:HP EX495 (Front).jpg|alt=HP EX495 (Front)|none|thumb|HP EX495 (Front)]]
[[File:HP EX495 (Rear).jpg|alt=HP EX495 (Rear)|none|thumb|HP EX495 (Rear)]]

HP MediaSmart EX495 - Revision history