New Windows Home Server beta improves Mac support

@FreeRange

I'm not a Microsoft fan at all, but they are kicking Apple's ass in this area. I love the idea of a Mac mini server, but its useless. No expansion. No eSATA connector. With iMacs, Mac minis, iPads, and iPods marketed at consumers, its clear Apple doesn't care about home networking or storage. Its all about "personal". Thats why you can't find an expandable Mac for under $2500. Its crazy. Apple likes to dumb things down and maybe they haven't figured out how to dumb down network storage or servers yet. Like I said, I love the idea of the Mac mini server. But I need home storage. It doesn't cut it. Give me something like it with 4 or 5 drive bays and I'll buy today.

@FreeRange:

Why? I hate to say it, because this is exactly what I'm looking to do and have been planning on a Mac Mini Server, but it's easy in this case. HP MediaSmart PC with four bays of expansion plus additional external options via eSATA and USB sells for less than $500. Mac Mini with ZERO internal expansion - yes, it comes with a pair of 500GB 2.5" drives but before you trust data to them please check the failure rate of 2.5" drives vs 3.5" drives - sells for a mere $500 more. That's what they call a no-brainer, son.

@Freerange: Why do it ? Maybe it's the best tool for the author's particular needs. Apple as a corporation doesn't love you any more (or less) than Microsoft, so please - get over the "M$ is teh evil!" nonsense.

I'm also sold. This would be especially useful in my house, where there are both Macs and PCs. It also has a real advantage over a Time Capsule in that it has user replaceable drives and many useful extensions (such as the iTunes server). I wonder if it cam stream to an Apple TV?

Sorry I forgot one last thing :)
I also want to watch podcast and live Internet streaming shows on my TV such as TWiT shows from Leo Laporte.

Oh I also have a new XBox 360 and a Samsung Blu-Ray player. Both my TV and the player have Internet connectivity.

I'm not against using a Windows Media Server if it works well for what I need to do.
I have a 40" Samsung LED TV that has a feature called Allshare but it's not Mac compatible. I do have a network drive that it will see and if I convert my video files to DVix they work but I think I might want a Windows home server with multiple drives? Any advice or knowledge of getting my Samsung to work with Macs? It would be nice to have RAID so there is a safety factor. It really bothers me that Apple hasn't put a SATA external connection on the iMacs.
It seems like it would just be nice not to have to worry about finding and keeping up with a hack to get it working, in other words just use a Windows machine.
Also any hardware recommendations for streaming content to my Samsung? I don't have to have the top of the line but I want it to handle what I want it to do without problems.

I'm glad you posted this... I've been going to apple stores asking for advice about NAS. Like you, I want multiple hard drives RAIDed together.

I DO like that the QNAP and Drobo and Netgear ReadyNAS can all grow their raids as you add larger disks one at a time... and that all have built in AFP.

Can the HP also expand it's raid as you add larger disks one at a time? (honest question - not flame bait) or do you have to match all of them at one time?

I already own an apple time machine - but I'd like to have multiple TB of storage accessible to all computers in my house... agreed about the lack of drive space in mac pro... plus $2.5K is too much for what I'm after.

Thanks for advice.

Drobos use less power than a Macmini. A 5 drive Drobo FS, which costs $599 uses 56 Watts with five drives. AND it supports AFP and has seamless integration with Time Machine.

Drop in a new CPU. Running an EX490 with an Intel Pentium E6600 (Wolfdale) running at a full 3.06GHz. Dual core goodness, much better then the stock Celeron. Easy swap to do, and worth it.