Why You Can Trust CNET HP MediaSmart EX495 Server review: HP MediaSmart EX495 Server
HP MediaSmart EX495 Server
Editors' note: The HP MediaSmart Server EX495 has a very similar feature set to that of the already reviewed LX 195. For this reason, you might have a slight feeling of deja vu while reading the feature section of this review.
HP MediaSmart EX495 Server
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Priced at around $700, the HP MediaSmart Server EX495 is a great upgrade to the Editors' Choice winner, LX195.
The LX495 has 1.5TB of storage (as opposed to the 640GB of the LX 195), includes three empty bays, 4 USB ports, and one eSATA port, giving it a host of expansion options. The server offers great performance and a comprehensive set of networking features. Unfortunately, despite its four bays, the EX495 doesn't support any RAID configurations. Also, there's no support for IP cameras or USB printers.
Nonetheless, for homes or small offices, this is one of the best NAS servers on the market.
Design and setup
At its core, the EX495 is a Windows computer, powered by a Pentium dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, running the Home version of Windows Server 2003. The only difference is that it doesn't include a video-out, nor does it have mouse and keyboard support. Windows Home Server has slowly become the standard for NAS server operating systems, over Linux. The benefits of this alternative include the fact that the server can be controlled like a Windows computer and, in case of hardware failure, the hard drives can be removed and put into any Windows computers to recover the data--something much harder to do with hard drives formatted using the Linux file system.
The HP MediaSmart Server EX495 is shaped like a mini tower computer. The four front-access hard-drive bays are stacked vertically with the bottom bay occupied by the server's included 1.5TB main hard drive. This drive contains the server's operating system, which will have to be installed during the setup process. Each bay comes with hard-drive tray that can be removed without tools, making installing or removing an existing hard drive an easy job. Aside from the drive that includes the OS, the rest can be swapped out on the fly, one at a time, without turning off the server.
The door of each bay incorporates a sleek-looking, color-changing LED that indicates the status of the hard drive. For example, blue indicates the drive is in good shape and ready, while red signifies there may be an error. Also, on the front are a USB port and three other LED lights that show the overall condition of the server, the network connection, and the power-on indicator.
On the back of the server are another three USB ports and an eSATA port. These ports are used solely for additional storage. They don't support anything else, such as a printer or USB camera. Also, on the back, is the on/off switch, which is so sensitive, you could accidentally turn the server off just by lightly touching on it.
The server comes with three DVDs, labeled "Software Installation Disc", "PC Restore Disc," and "Server Recovery Disc." The first covers installing the operating system onto the main hard drive. The second DVD restores a network computer from a backup image stored on the server. Finally, the third DVD is something you want to have, yet never want to have to use. It will recover the server from a backup if need be.
The process of getting the EX495 up and running is easy and straightforward. Just plug the server into your router and run the Software Installation Disc on any of the PCs connected to the network and follow the onscreen instruction. Note that this is a time-consuming process.
Once setup, the EX195 can be accessed via either the HP MediaSmart Server Control Center software, by browsing through Windows Explorer, or any network browsers. If you use Mac, the server will automatically appear on the Finder. To use the Server's support for Time Machine, you'll need to install the "HP MediaSmart Server" software included on the first DVD. We didn't run into any problems setting up on OSX 10.5, nor Windows, and were ready to go within about 30 minutes.
Features
Like the LX195, the EX495 share the unique photo management feature of HP NAS servers, which is the Web-based PhotoPublisher application, which can be launched from the HP MediaSmart Server Control Center. The features allows for uploading photos stored on the NAS directly to popular photo-sharing sites including Snapfish, Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook.
This is very different from many NAS servers we've reviewed, such as the Synology DS209+, that comes with a photo-sharing service of its own and the photos are stored on the server itself. The PhotoPublisher is a useful feature as most people who are into sharing photos would likely have an account with one of those photo Web sites. The feature makes it easy to upload an entire album directly from the NAS. Just make sure there are photos in the "Photo" default share folder, log in to run PhotoPublisher, and the rest is very self-explanatory.
If you don't have an account with any of those Web sites, the NAS' photo-sharing service and HP Photo Viewer can be used to quickly organize photos and make them available online via the remote access connection mentioned below.
Other notable features of the EX495 include the following:
User account and share folders: Like any Windows machine, the EX495 features a standard user management setup. To create a new user, run the Windows Home Server Console and click on the tab called User Accounts. Here, you can create new users just like you would in a Windows computer, with one difference: you have the option of giving the user remote access to the NAS server. Once a user is created, the wizard will display a list of existing share folders that the new user can be given access to. Access privileges include Full (write and read), Read (read only), and None (no access).
Creating a new share folder is similar to creating a new user; simply click on the "Share Folder" tab and follow the wizard. Once a new folder has been created, the wizard allows you to assign access to that folder via a list of existing users. An unlimited number of share folders can be created.
The EX495 comes with seven default share folders. Five are media-related, including Photos, RecordTV, Music, Video, and Converted Videos. Files inside these folders will be streamed to any media server-compatible devices, including set top boxes, game consoles, iTunes, and other computers. The EX495 supports all media streaming standards, allowing you to stream media via a Web-based player and it works seamlessly with Windows Media Center. Also, the EX495 has the ability to automatically collect digital contents (photos, music, and videos) from network computers and convert video into formats for different types of players, including the iPod Touch and iPhone--a useful feature for media-streaming enthusiasts.
The other three folders include Mac, Users, and Software. Mac is for use with Mac computers using Apple Time Machine; Users contains private folders for each user account; and Software that has add-ins for the server. Add-ins can be anything from antivirus or any other third party programs designed to work specifically with the Home version of Windows Server.
Storage and backup: The EX495 comes with 1.5TB of storage and three empty bays for another three SATA hard drives. Unfortunately you can't set them up in any RAID configurations. While the server comes with a great feature called Folder Duplication that redundantly spreads data over multiple disks for protection, this doesn't offer any protection against the failure of the main hard drive, which houses the server's operating system. It would be great if the server supported RAID 1 and allowed the main hard drive to be mirrored to another one. For now, if this hard drive fails, you'll need to do a server recovery or reinstall the server from the beginning. Should this happen, data in folders that have been chosen to be duplicated will be safe.
Folder Duplication is easy to use and offers protection at the folder level. Once turned on, the folders will be protected against single disk failure. When a new hard drive is installed, it will automatically rebuild the copies of data that have been lost. You can use this feature with any shared folders of your choosing; however, you'll need at least an additional hard drive installed. This hard drive can be internal or external (connected via the USB or eSATA connections).
The NAS accepts extra hard drives in two modes: extension and backup. In extension mode, the added drives will be the extension of the internal hard drive with their storage blended together. You won't have control over which hard drive your data is stored in, unless you use the duplication feature mentioned below. In this mode, the NAS will format the drive before you can use it, meaning you won't be able to use a hard drive with existing data on it. In order to add a drive that already contains data, you'll need to use the backup mode. In this mode, the added drive will act as a separate volume that can be removed later. You can only use this drive to be the destination to back up the NAS' internal hard drives. This is also useful, as it allows for backing up the server's main hard drive for recovery in case it fails.
The EX495 also comes with excellent backup solutions.
For PCs, the NAS can silently pull backups from any network computers with Windows Home Server Console installed without any interaction from the user. The NAS can even automatically wake the computer from standby mode to do the backup if need be. Restoring files is made simple, thanks to the interface. When viewing a backup file, the NAS will convert it into a virtual drive. Then, you can just browse for files and copy them over using Windows Explorer just like you would do with an external hard drive.
Unfortunately, the NAS doesn't allow for backing up one PC and restoring another simultaneously, so you if you have multiple machines in a network, you might run into situation where you have to disable a backup that's in process before you can restore.
For Mac users, the EX495 comes with external hard drive emulation software called HP MediaSmart Server that makes the NAS appear as an external hard drive to the computer, which helps it work well with Time Machine (available in OS X 10.5 or later.). Once installed, the software allows for allocating an amount of storage on the server for Time Machine. Pick this number carefully, as once a backup has been made, you can't change the size of this storage without losing the backup data.
All in all, we found the EX495 offers one of the easiest-to-use and most comprehensive backup solutions for a home network.
Remote access: The EX495's remote access features are some of the most comprehensive and intuitive we've experienced in NAS servers. Unlike other NAS servers, such as the WD My Book World Edition, which offers vendor-assisted remote access, the EX495 lets you customize the Web address using a dynamic DNS (DDNS) service provided by TOZ. The service is free for the first year and costs only about $10 for each additional year. You can also use Windows Live Custom domain service, which is free but would have no support from HP.
Also if you choose to use TOZ, and if you use a router that supports UPnP standard, which most Wireless-N routers do nowadays, the EX495 will take care of the configuration, which includes forwarding certain ports to the NAS server.
We set up the remote connection in about 5 minutes and could then access the NAS remotely. The remote access has several options, including access to the aforementioned HP Photo Publisher and HP Photo Viewer. Also included is the Web media streamer, where you can play content such as music or videos direct from the NAS. Computer Access lets you access files stored on the NAS server and other shared folders on the local network.
The EX495 allows for downloading files and entire folders to the remote computer. If you choose to download a folder, you have the option of downloading that folder in the form of a ZIP file or an executable file that will decompress the downloaded content for you. You can also upload files from the remote computer directly onto the NAS server.
Performance
The EX495 performed very well in our testing, though not as well as the LX195. In our throughput test, it was consistently faster than most NAS servers we've tested and is comparable to most USB external hard drives. This is impressive as typically direct-attached external hard drives are faster than any network storage devices.
In the write test, the EX495 scored 279.6Mbps, compared to the 256.3Mbps of the Synology DS209+. The read test was even better, as the EX495 scored 380.4Mbps, again besting the 375.5Mbps of the Synology. These scores, however, are still lower than those of the LX195, which registered 279.6Mbps for the write test and 380.4 for the read test. Nonetheless, so far the EX495 is the second fastest NAS server we've reviewed.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
 | Read | | Write |
Service and support
As with the LX195, HP backs the EX495 with a rather short one-year warranty. The company offers free 24-7 technical phone support and server restore discs in case the server software itself becomes corrupt. There is no standalone support application included, as you'd find on HP desktops, but there are many links in the Home Server software itself explaining the ins and outs. Other than the short warranty, we feel you will get plenty of help when you run into trouble.