Acer EasyStore H340 Windows Home Server Box with 2 TB hard drive space: $399 shipped at Newegg

joutlaw

Golden Member
Feb 18, 2008
1,108
2
81
Pretty good deal. I went the HP ex485 instead b/c I wasn't sure about the atom processor.

If I could have gotten this and the extra HDD for 399 versus 499 for the HP with the bundled 1TB HDD it would have been a harder decision.
 

jjmIII

Diamond Member
Mar 13, 2001
8,399
1
81
Originally posted by: mshan
* pics shows Western Digital Caviar Green 5400 rpm hard drive; don't know if it would be smart to pick up bonus 7200 rpm Hitachi hard drive and use that as system drive instead (?)

Might be better off with the free WD Green for a WHS box..
 

jalaram

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
12,920
2
81
Originally posted by: jjmIII
Originally posted by: mshan
* pics shows Western Digital Caviar Green 5400 rpm hard drive; don't know if it would be smart to pick up bonus 7200 rpm Hitachi hard drive and use that as system drive instead (?)

Might be better off with the free WD Green for a WHS box..

I agree with the WD Green option. First of all, the included 1TB HD has the system installed already. Why move to a new HD if you don't need to. Next, there won't be much speed improvement

I wish Newegg has the deal earlier. I paid $50 more to get a similar deal from NCIX (Acer WHS + free Seagate 1TB).

The Acer has been great so far.
 

California Roll

Senior member
Nov 8, 2004
515
0
0
Very good deal if you're shopping for a WHS. Assigning $80 to each drive and $90 to the OS, that comes out to $150 for the cpu/mobo/psu/ram/small footprint case with 4 hot swappable bays.

I also recommend getting the WD10EADS if you're planning on using it in the WHS.
 

ric1287

Diamond Member
Nov 29, 2005
4,845
0
0
anyone know the power consumption on this?

also, can you stream media from this to an appletv? (ie, can it run itunes?)

edit* research wins:

"We measured the server?s power consumption using a Kill-a-Watt power meter, which reported the server drawing just 45 watts at idle?which was about 120 watts less than the home-grown Windows Home Server machine we used for our benchmark comparisons. (That machine is based on a 2.6GHz dual-core AMD Athlon FX-60 desktop CPU.) And since the Acer doesn?t need a lot of fans to keep it cool, it operated in near silence."

Now all I need is a guarantee it will work with appletv
 

California Roll

Senior member
Nov 8, 2004
515
0
0
Btw, Amazon has this without the bonus drive for $350. If you don't need the bonus drive (tho 1TB Green drive for $50 is hot) and/or you live in California, this might be better. Newegg comes out to $437 after tax. Buying Acer + 1tb Green separately at Amazon comes out to $440. I like how Amazon tries to match Newegg+CA tax pricing haha.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Asp...&qid=1246264693&sr=8-1
 

Mongoloid

Member
Jan 12, 2007
96
0
0
I love my H340. Don't mind that I got it for $50 more at NCIX. It is far superior to the crappy netstorage devices of just a year or two ago. For Squeezebox owners, download the beta .msi add-on and run slim server on your H340! The unit is fairly compact and quiet. Just be careful about installing firewall apps on this thing. I made the stupid mistake of installing AVG Server security pkg trial and using the default settings--it blocked any access to my H340 and because the H340 has no video card, I had to reinstall the server software on it--luckily all my data was recovered.
 

Lean L

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2009
3,685
0
0
Originally posted by: Mongoloid
I love my H340. Don't mind that I got it for $50 more at NCIX. It is far superior to the crappy netstorage devices of just a year or two ago. For Squeezebox owners, download the beta .msi add-on and run slim server on your H340! The unit is fairly compact and quiet. Just be careful about installing firewall apps on this thing. I made the stupid mistake of installing AVG Server security pkg trial and using the default settings--it blocked any access to my H340 and because the H340 has no video card, I had to reinstall the server software on it--luckily all my data was recovered.

lol, firewall on a server... Shame on AVG

 

Lean L

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2009
3,685
0
0
Originally posted by: zerogear
LOL.... I did install ESET Antivirus though ;)

antivirus is not the same thing as a firewall though. I have anti vir on my server too. (Not this Acer, but seems like a good deal)
 

TeacherTim2

Member
Jun 1, 2002
77
0
0
Originally posted by: ric1287
also, can you stream media from this to an appletv? (ie, can it run itunes?)

I've got a HP MediaSmart Home Server and an AppleTV. I know you can have your WHS stream your media to AppleTV without much trouble, but it streams, so that relies on your network. I've also read online (and tried with what I believe is success) about installing iTunes on the WHS, and having that be the client that connects with the AppleTV. I don't think I have mine configured correctly all the way around, but basically your music is synced with the Shared Music folder on the WHS, which is the same folder that AppleTV uses for its music files.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
Originally posted by: ric1287
anyone know the power consumption on this?

also, can you stream media from this to an appletv? (ie, can it run itunes?)

edit* research wins:

"We measured the server?s power consumption using a Kill-a-Watt power meter, which reported the server drawing just 45 watts at idle?which was about 120 watts less than the home-grown Windows Home Server machine we used for our benchmark comparisons. (That machine is based on a 2.6GHz dual-core AMD Athlon FX-60 desktop CPU.) And since the Acer doesn?t need a lot of fans to keep it cool, it operated in near silence."

Now all I need is a guarantee it will work with appletv

It has a program/service installed in H340 that streams to iTunes. No idea about AppleTV.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
Originally posted by: iamanidiot
Originally posted by: zerogear
LOL.... I did install ESET Antivirus though ;)

antivirus is not the same thing as a firewall though. I have anti vir on my server too. (Not this Acer, but seems like a good deal)

Well, firewall install isn't necessarily bad, but on a headless server (like the Acer), it tends to hurt when you can't RDP into it. I think windows firewall suffices here.
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
18
81
seems like a good deal with the 2nd drive. the included hard drive is also a 1TB western digital green (not sure if its exactly the same though)


If you don't need 4 drive bays or 4 sata ports, you might honestly be better off building your own, as 1TB samsung drives are $60-65 and atom boards are down to $60 as well.


I figure 2 1TB drives , 1 atom board, a case with dual 3.5" bays like the chenbro one with dual hot swap drives at newegg ($110) would be around $300-320. All you'd need to add is ram, (not sure how much windows home server costs though, but you could always go linux for a server like the hp media select).

If you must have 4 drives though this is better as itx 4 bay cases , and itx boards with 4 sata are hard to find.

the fact its all preassembled is nice as well.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
WHS License is 100$, so basically, Acer WHS is about the same price as homebuilt with 2 drives...
 

Lean L

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2009
3,685
0
0
Originally posted by: zerogear
Originally posted by: iamanidiot
Originally posted by: zerogear
LOL.... I did install ESET Antivirus though ;)

antivirus is not the same thing as a firewall though. I have anti vir on my server too. (Not this Acer, but seems like a good deal)

Well, firewall install isn't necessarily bad, but on a headless server (like the Acer), it tends to hurt when you can't RDP into it. I think windows firewall suffices here.

The whole point of a firewall is to make the computer's presense disappear on the network/internet and block unsolitated traffic. In the case of a server, you don't want that. You could configure the firewall to allow unsolitated traffic on certain ports but that's a waste of resources. I think it's easier just to start off by disabling all services and programs that leave open ports then open them securely and individually.
 

ric1287

Diamond Member
Nov 29, 2005
4,845
0
0
Originally posted by: zerogear
Originally posted by: ric1287
anyone know the power consumption on this?

also, can you stream media from this to an appletv? (ie, can it run itunes?)

edit* research wins:

"We measured the server?s power consumption using a Kill-a-Watt power meter, which reported the server drawing just 45 watts at idle?which was about 120 watts less than the home-grown Windows Home Server machine we used for our benchmark comparisons. (That machine is based on a 2.6GHz dual-core AMD Athlon FX-60 desktop CPU.) And since the Acer doesn?t need a lot of fans to keep it cool, it operated in near silence."

Now all I need is a guarantee it will work with appletv

It has a program/service installed in H340 that streams to iTunes. No idea about AppleTV.

Did some more digging and found this if anyone else is wondering:

appletv+ whs

Looks like it should be good to go, I get mine today so I'll find out :)

Picked one up from amazon, I didn't need the drive and I figure by the time I do a TB drive will be about $50 anyway.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
For me, having Apple stuff = iTunes, which is a deal breaker for me. I personally love WHS + Windows Media Center (HTPC), works quite nicely.
 

ric1287

Diamond Member
Nov 29, 2005
4,845
0
0
Originally posted by: zerogear
For me, having Apple stuff = iTunes, which is a deal breaker for me. I personally love WHS + Windows Media Center (HTPC), works quite nicely.

Normally I'd say the same thing, but whatever they did to the latest iTunes update completely fixed it for me. It used to crash/lock up literally every time I used it. But now it runs (albeit still a memory hog) perfectly fine.

The only reason I made the switch was because of the iPhone/shuffle use, I hated having to use multiple sources for media. Now itunes will just run pretty much everything.
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
6,770
1
81
Dang, I really want to build my own WHS box (I have two copies of WHS) but this is still the best deal for me. While I would prefer to use a 330 instead of the 230 single core I just can't find a decent priced case with 4 HDD bays. Also, the 120mm cooling fan is a huge bonus since you can put in one low RPM fan and your done for cooling.

Now I wish I had not just spent all my extra cash...
 

ric1287

Diamond Member
Nov 29, 2005
4,845
0
0
Originally posted by: Spike
Dang, I really want to build my own WHS box (I have two copies of WHS) but this is still the best deal for me. While I would prefer to use a 330 instead of the 230 single core I just can't find a decent priced case with 4 HDD bays. Also, the 120mm cooling fan is a huge bonus since you can put in one low RPM fan and your done for cooling.

Now I wish I had not just spent all my extra cash...

Yeah I was in the same boat. They just don't, for whatever reason, make (cheap) cases like that. You'd think antec or someone would throw one together but oh well.
 

hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
18
81
Originally posted by: ric1287
Originally posted by: Spike
Dang, I really want to build my own WHS box (I have two copies of WHS) but this is still the best deal for me. While I would prefer to use a 330 instead of the 230 single core I just can't find a decent priced case with 4 HDD bays. Also, the 120mm cooling fan is a huge bonus since you can put in one low RPM fan and your done for cooling.

Now I wish I had not just spent all my extra cash...

Yeah I was in the same boat. They just don't, for whatever reason, make (cheap) cases like that. You'd think antec or someone would throw one together but oh well.

the chenbro one is like double what the dual bay costs for some reason. not to mention there are no boards with more than 3 sata ports. most only have 2.