NCIX - Acer Aspire Easystore H340 Windows Home Server

[feejai]

For those that are searching for a NAS storage device, NCIX has a great deal right now on the new Acer Aspire Easystore H340 Windows Home Server (WHS). This is a new device being released to the market, so not many reviews on it yet. The reason why this is such a hot deal is that NCIX has a promotion right now that includes an extra 1TB SATA hard drive with online purchase. $499 @ NCIX including additional 1TB HD. Everywhere else I've searched for has it for the same price or more without the "bonus" drive.

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=37...nufacture=Acer

By the way, add the $10 gift card to the cart and you should get free ground shipping as well.

Cheers!

[ShylocK]

i wonder how the atom fares compared to the celeron in the hp boxes,

or even the amd semprons in the older hp boxes.

[feejai]

Good question. Seeing that there are not many reviews on this unit (I will post one when I get mine ). I can say that the much more expensive QNAP TS-439 Pro's use the same/similar hardware (running linux mind you). Couldn't pass up that deal, even though I just built my own WHS.

[Cero21]

I'm interested to see how the Atom performs as well.

[Jon Lai]

Interesting, but $499 is too much for me to spend in a recession, especially when you can build a machine with $300-320 with 1TB hdd.

[gambit_360]

Without any reviews, it'll be hard to say how this would perform.
Would a single-core Atom be enough? It would have been nice if this was at least dual-core.

[WalnutCrunch]

This is a really good price. My biggest beef with the HP MediaSmart Server is that it's way overpriced unless it's on sale or clearance. The Acer is slightly bigger but looks very nice, IMO.

$500 is very comparable to a DIY build of a WHS box. Say the 1TB drives are each $100, the OS is $100, it means you're only paying $200 for a compact 4-bay case with CPU, mobo, and RAM. It's very reasonable.

I think the Atom will run fine. This is a file server, not an HTPC.

[feejai]

It's a file server, surely the atom will be enough (well, at least i'm hoping), but yes the dual core atom would have been nice to see . As far as able to build one of these for $300, I would love to see that including the OS (Windows Home Server OEM is $140 alone, no to mention 2 x 1GB hard drives, one that comes with the device and the "bonus" offer by NCIX). Add a case, processor, board, hot swap trays (do I need to list more).

[airodus]

nice deal, too bad i just setup a WHS. i totally would have gotten this one instead if I knew about it a month ago

[Jon Lai]

This is a really good price. My biggest beef with the HP MediaSmart Server is that it's way overpriced unless it's on sale or clearance. The Acer is slightly bigger but looks very nice, IMO.

$500 is very comparable to a DIY build of a WHS box. Say the 1TB drives are each $100, the OS is $100, it means you're only paying $200 for a compact 4-bay case with CPU, mobo, and RAM. It's very reasonable.

I think the Atom will run fine. This is a file server, not an HTPC.

You math doesn't add up, it's $300 for the CPU/mobo/ram/etc...

I didn't realize the device itself came with a 1TB though. So 2x1TB included in the device for $300 is a good deal, although personally I wouldn't price the OS... I use Academic Alliance

[fredsmith]

I went for the EX-470 (tried to get the 475, but it went OOS) when they were being cleared out by Staples earlier this year. Paid $279 shipped plus taxes.

I increased the RAM to 2 Gigs for about $30 and added in 2 500 Gig hard drives I had lying around.

It is VERY stable and quite fast. I have it running some extra processes for me as well.

I suspect the Acer unit will have enough power to be a server, but not much extra for 3rd party applications.

Seagate has a new one com,ing out that looks interesting.

[Moosebox]

This is also on sale this week for $10 off, 8 left. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...6&promoid=1033

Since you're getting 2 HDDs, 1 with the system and 1 as a gift, I would think this is a really good deal.

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on this... but does anyone know if the total capacity of this 4gb or is that per drive, so 16gb total. Specs say: 4gb max hdd capacity.

[NuggyBuggy]

I'm wondering if these boxes can run Linux easily, and what protocols it supports beyond SMB (which I assume underpins sharing in WHS ?)

I'm sick of Windows and not interested in investing one more thin dime that might tie me further to that platform, not to mention that SMB performance sucks.

Also - is the eSATA port (not mentioned in the NCIX link, but mentioned in other articles....hmm) for using the device as an external drive, or for attaching another external drive ?

[y2k-inc]

Geez ... great "TOY" i must said ... look at it i'm still wonder how they manage to sell it? it have 4 Sata controler but don't do RAID in the hardware manner just hotswap???

the software (OS) is totally on the Hard Drive and no "instruction" of how to re-install it?

All is does is a "shadow copying" the folder you specify to one or more disk ...

Until the spec is more clear i will stay out of it ...

True that it's attempting with 2TB hard drive and a Atome base PC with 2GB of memory ... but for a Home Storage Server, i would want to have a Hardware RAID and OS build right into the Bios (or system board) ...

I would go with QSNAP or PROMISE or DLINK for more peace of mind data safety

[fredsmith]

I'm wondering if these boxes can run Linux easily, and what protocols it supports beyond SMB (which I assume underpins sharing in WHS ?)

I'm sick of Windows and not interested in investing one more thin dime that might tie me further to that platform, not to mention that SMB performance sucks.

Also - is the eSATA port (not mentioned in the NCIX link, but mentioned in other articles....hmm) for using the device as an external drive, or for attaching another external drive ?

They're PCs running a variant of Windows Server 2003, so of course you can port Linux to them, though you'll have to figure out what to do for a keyboard, mouse and display since it has no conenctors for thsoe.

Also, the eSATA port is to connect additional storage to the box . . . it is NOT NAS per se, but rather a full 10 CAL server.