Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)What I did: got an OEM copy of the software (it's like XP Media Center - MS doesn't want to sell these without hardware) and bought a PC off of UBID - a refurbished unit with the specs to handle this OS. Because the experience is designed to be hassle-free out of the box, MS isn't encouraging do-it-yourselfers to get the product at retail. And yet, I wanted my own machine to save money and to play with the install to see how it went.
In a word, (almost) flawless. I got the ubid pc with windows home basic on it, and popped in the WHS DVD. It installed with minimal input from me, and booted right up.
There was one error message, because I was using a do-it-yourself machine, I needed to install the network drivers for my particular box. The error message and troubleshooting guide led me directly to the problem. Because this is Windows at its core, I went to the internet and downloaded an old XP driver for my network card, and it installed without a problem. I was a little bit worried that there would be a compatibility issue, but it has worked flawlessly since I installed the net driver.
Bottom line: this unit is great. It works completely as advertised, and I'm anxious to set this box up as an iTunes server, a media server for WMAs, a repository for recorded media center TV shows, and because this is a windows box at its core, it won't be long before someone ports a torrent client over to this box and has it trickling content 24-7.
The machine I used has 512k, a 1.7 amd chip, and a couple of hard drives. Any old tower case will have enough drive bays for expansion, and this one has plenty. I can fit 4 or 5 more drives in there as I need them, and the whole hardware setup cost about $340 for 650 gig of redundant storage.
Great work, Microsoft. Now get out there and tell people about this product.
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Microsoft Windows Home Server
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