HP Boasts New MediaSmart Home Servers that can Run on Mac

HP is offering hardcore PC users and Mac users something to drool upon. The new HP MediaSmart ex485 and ex487 home servers promise to lift up MediaSmart’s tainted name in terms of back up servers.

The two new machines apparently came a long way from its predecessors. According to Jason Zajac, vice president of strategy, Worldwide Attach Group, HP, “The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected.”

Although they are Mac-friendly, the servers are still based on Microsoft’s Windows Home Server platform. The servers automatically back up data and at the same time stand as a network-accessible repository for all things you can digitally store. Living to its tag smart, the servers uses HP’s Media Collector, a special program that allows scheduling and automatic copying and data centralizing of files from networked workstations. In Mac, it can work as iTunes server and external backup storage for Macs running on Leopard.

Both of the MediaSmart home servers have 2GHz Celeron CPU and 2GB of DDR2 RAM and four USB 2.0 ports for connectivity. They also have eSATA jack and four internal HHD bays. MediaSmart ex485 has 750GB while MediaSmart ex487 has 1.5TB capacity and is tagged $599 and $749 respectively. It will be available for pre-order this January 5.

Source: HP