Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

HP Mediasmart Server

spencecb

spencecb

Suspended
Original poster
Nov 20, 2003
1,187
215
I had a quick question about anyone's experience with the HP Mediasmart Server. It looks like it is a pretty decent storage/backup server and it is supposed to work seamlessly between Mac and PC.

So, what is the real-life experience of how it actually works? Does anyone own one? Satisfied with it?

They only thing I see that needs to be changed is the HDD that it comes with. It's only 640 GB of storage. My partner and I are looking in to getting one, but that would not be sufficient storage between the 640 GB HDD that is on my iMac and the 750 GB HDD he has on his PC.

Any advice would be great.

Or would getting and external 1 TB drive be a better solution?
 
I guess no one has any experience with this product...maybe that is the answer I needed.
 
Never seen or used one, but I will say this. It's obviously geared mainly at Windows users. If your client systems are Macs it doesn't make much sense to go down this route as compatibility with your system is merely an after thought, and you won't be able to take advantage of may of it's features.

You'd be better off with a simple external hard drive, or some sort of NAS (Network Attached Storage).
 
Rhalliwell1 said:
just a thought, mac mini + OS X Leopard Server edition?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea, but it doesn't seem to be very cost effective, nor would it be enough storage. My iMac has a 640 GB drive, and we were wanting something that would be able to back up both the iMac and the PC on one drive. I don't even think you can get a mac mini with 640 GB, and we need around 1.2 TB worth of back up storage.
 
You didn't give us much time to respond. ;)

I have the old model and I love it. It's hands down the easiest storage solution I've used.

It runs iTunes for my Apple TV, WMC Connect (or DLNA) for XBOX 360 and PS3 sharing and I use it for all my torrent downloads.

You can check my thread out here where I answered a few questions about it with screenshots:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/624228/
 
jaw04005 said:
You didn't give us much time to respond. ;)

I have the old model and I love it. It's hands down the easiest storage solution I've used.

It runs iTunes for my Apple TV, WMC Connect (or DLNA) for XBOX 360 and PS3 sharing and I use it for all my torrent downloads.

You can check my thread out here where I answered a few questions about it with screenshots:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/624228/
Click to expand...

Cool, I'll browse through your other thread.

Thanks.
 
I have a custom built WHS, so not exactly what you were asking about, but I find it easy to use, and think it is feature rich.

The HP version is actually better than the DIY solutions as they have added Time Machine backup capability as well as streaming capabilities etc as covered in jaw04005's other thread.

I have got my iTunes library on there, as well as everything else, and it is duplicated so if one of the drivers fails, my data is fine.

Also, I can sync my iPhone and previous iPod with my library on my WHS. I only sync and write to it from my Mac, any other devices use Firefly to stream
 
any other people have feedback on this hp mediasmart server? I have a mac mini so the best way to connect to the servers is Ethernet? Can it stream from the server without any issues?

thanks
 
pmcmvp said:
any other people have feedback on this hp mediasmart server? I have a mac mini so the best way to connect to the servers is Ethernet? Can it stream from the server without any issues?

thanks
Click to expand...

I do not have one of these, but have looked at them. Seems like a good solution. I imagine that you would connect the server to your wired router and the mini to your router. If you prefer to connect via 802.11 you can do that. Streaming should not be a problem.

Keep in mind you need Windows to at least do the setup on these. (on a separate PC or on your Mac)
 
MediaSmart Sever Vs TimeCapsule, OSX server.

I'm new to the forum world so if this post seems rather wrong; I'm sure l will get better with time.

My father-in-law has been a PC fan since the mid-80s and said that he will never get a mac. Well, since I'm a mac lover and a (little as possible through VMware) pc user, I just recently talked him into setting his home office mac style. He travels a lot and wants to access his files anywhere (via internet). I am struggling between Time Capsule (which allows remote access via internet), Hp 640 Media Smart Server and the Mac Mini OSX Server. (With the Mac Mini he gets both a server and desktop in one, right?) Which is best? What would be the best route for him? He has a growing itunes folder, uses doc's, whats a backup option (time machine), and remote access to his files outside of his home network.

Thanks for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back