58% Off an HP LX195 MediaSmart Home Server

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0021L9HKK?ie=UTF8&tag=digitalhomethoughts-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B0021L9HKK' target='_blank'>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ASIN=B0021L9HKK</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Automatically back up and protect your digital memories, centralize your media and content for sharing with friends and family, and enjoy your digital media while at home or away with the HP LX195 MediaSmart Home Server. The LX195 is the first HP MediaSmart to be powered by the efficient Intel Atom processor, which helps use less energy and save you money on your electrical bills. A Sleep Mode conserves energy and saves you money in more ways than one. The built-in sleep mode consumes only 3W of power, and the server can take on many of your PC's responsibilities, enabling you to turn off your individual computers to further save energy and money."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1259343543.usr1.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>People, this is an AMAZING deal! Amazon normally sells this for $472, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0021L9HKK?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=digitalhomethoughts-20&amp;link_code=as3&amp;camp=211189&amp;creative=373489&amp;creativeASIN=B0021L9HKK" target="_blank">but it's on sale right now for $199</a>, a whopping 58% off. This is a full-fledged Windows Home Server, with all the awesomeness that entails, but it's aimed at someone who doesn't need ungodly amounts of storage right out of the box - it has 640 GB of storage, and no internal storage bays for expansion. It has four USB ports though, so you can easily expand it using external USB hard drives. This isn't the right product for everyone, but for $199, this is a great product for anyone that doesn't have lots of digital media but has multiple computers and is looking for an easy way to keep them backed up. I believe that Windows Home Server is a truly fantastic product that should be in every home, and I've never seen such an affordable way to do it...and what a gift this would make!</p>

[Cold Flame]

Great deal Jason!

Unfortunately, as usual, they won't ship it to Canada. That really irks me.

[Jason Dunn]

Unfortunately, as usual, they won't ship it to Canada. That really irks me.

Yeah. :( I'm so used to it now, I don't even get disappointed. :rolleyes:

I signed up with these guys, but I haven't tried it yet:

Borderlinx (http://www.borderlinx.com)

The math is a bit scary:

<table class="data-table" summary="Estimated charges to Canada" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><thead><tr><th scope="col" class="hidden" align="left">Item</th> <th scope="col" align="left">USD</th><th scope="col" align="left">CAD</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Duty</th> <td align="left">$ 0.00</td><td align="left">CAD 0.00</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Taxes</th> <td align="left">$ 83.39</td><td align="left">CAD 89.24</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Shipping (3.77 kg)</th> <td align="left">$ 41.50</td><td align="left">CAD 44.41</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Total shipping charges</th> <td align="left">$ 124.89</td><td align="left">CAD 133.66</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Plus original product value</th> <td align="left">$ 600.00</td><td align="left">CAD 642.14</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Total cost</th> <td align="left">$ 724.89</td><td align="left">CAD 775.80</td></tr></tbody></table>
$125 USD extra on a $600 USD product is a lot. It's that damn import brokerage fee...if they shipped postal service, it would be much less expensive.

[Chris Gohlke]

Was out looking for a deal on an external drive this morning anyway for backups. This looks much better for not a heck of a lot more.

Is there much maintenance on this? Being a server, do I have to manage OS updates, firewall, antivirus, etc. or is it all taken care of?

[Jason Dunn]

Is there much maintenance on this? Being a server, do I have to manage OS updates, firewall, antivirus, etc. or is it all taken care of?

It's pretty much maintenance free. It's Windows Server 2003 under the hood, so it runs Windows Update and reboots when it needs to. You control is via a nice, user-friendly control panel interface from your PC. It's a "headless" design, so no mouse or keyboard required - it's all done remotely. It has it's own Firewall from Windows, and HP Windows Home Servers come with a version of McAfee AV I believe...I think it's a trial though. But since you're not running software on the WHS or browsing the Web, AV is overkill IMO.

WHS ROCKS! :D

[OKCrew]

Pretty good deal... I just got into the WHS with the recent deals on the HP MediaSmart EX470. It was a little more than this and I upgraded the memory which added to the base cost.

I think the LX195 would be great for backup and if you were going to spend $150 or so on a NAS than this is just a little more with a lot more capabilities.

[Tony Rylow]

Awesome deal - if I didn't already have a custom built WHS, I would jump on this one.

[Phillip Dyson]

This seems to be just what I've been looking/waiting for.
I am a little concerned about the Celeron, and the HP intermediary.

When MS releases PowerPacks, will I have to wait for HP to integrate it in before I get it?

I don't want to be in the same place that I am with my smartphone.

[Sven Johannsen]

When MS releases PowerPacks, will I have to wait for HP to integrate it in before I get it?I would say no, but hopefully an HP owner will chime in. WHS updates (including power packs) come via Windows Update, just like updates to Win 7, Vista, etc, on Dell, HP or whatever. Admittedly I only have experience with WHS installed on a PC myself, so it is a stock build, but Windows Update works on all my machines pretty much the same, regardless of OEM. This is not Windows Mobile, where we are at the mercy of the OEM/carrier, it is the traditional desktop windows model.

[ptyork]

This seems to be just what I've been looking/waiting for.
I am a little concerned about the Celeron, and the HP intermediary.

When MS releases PowerPacks, will I have to wait for HP to integrate it in before I get it?

HP's stuff rides entirely on top of whatever MS puts into the OS. You can install PowerPacks as soon as they are released from MS. And HP's stuff is truly value add. Especially if you are a Mac user. As for the celery proc, I'd say you won't much notice the difference unless you plan on having this serve up transcoded video. Even there, I'm running PlayOn server which scrapes flash and transcodes everything on the fly on my 470 (which uses some AMD processor from the 1870's) and it does fine.

This really is a great deal.

[Cold Flame]

Yeah. :( I'm so used to it now, I don't even get disappointed. :rolleyes:

I signed up with these guys, but I haven't tried it yet:

Borderlinx (http://www.borderlinx.com)

The math is a bit scary:

<table class="data-table" summary="Estimated charges to Canada" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><thead><tr><th scope="col" class="hidden" align="left">Item</th> <th scope="col" align="left">USD</th><th scope="col" align="left">CAD</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Duty</th> <td align="left">$ 0.00</td><td align="left">CAD 0.00</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Taxes</th> <td align="left">$ 83.39</td><td align="left">CAD 89.24</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Shipping (3.77 kg)</th> <td align="left">$ 41.50</td><td align="left">CAD 44.41</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Total shipping charges</th> <td align="left">$ 124.89</td><td align="left">CAD 133.66</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Plus original product value</th> <td align="left">$ 600.00</td><td align="left">CAD 642.14</td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" align="left">Total cost</th> <td align="left">$ 724.89</td><td align="left">CAD 775.80</td></tr></tbody></table>
$125 USD extra on a $600 USD product is a lot. It's that damn import brokerage fee...if they shipped postal service, it would be much less expensive.

There are a bunch of these shipping places available now. One I found is: http://www.montanashipping.com/montana_shipping_003.htm

They opened a location in SweetGrass specifically for Albertans to ship their parcels to. If you could coordinate a few items to be arriving there within a weeks period or so, it would be well worth a quick drive down and back up to pick up your items... I only wish they re-shipped via USPS as it would be great to drop ship there and have them resend everything via USPS to avoid the brokerage fees and pay their small fee. *shrugs* There are others as well, but this is one I have known a few people to use (all of whom were very happy with the experience!).

Cheers,

CF

[Jason Dunn]

I only wish they re-shipped via USPS as it would be great to drop ship there and have them resend everything via USPS to avoid the brokerage fees and pay their small fee.

Hrm - interesting! I've just emailed them to ask if they plan on adding USPS for shipping. If you do the same, maybe we can convince them. :D