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If you have a Fry's near you and you are wanting to build a brand new WHS setup, they've really been having some insane deals lately. This past Friday's ad (good through Thursday) http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2010/04/16/47646/Intel-Core-i3-530-Processor-Gigabyte-GA-H55M-S2H-Motherboard Intel Core i3 530 Processor & Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H Motherboard for $88.88 after a $20 rebate. motherboard is $89.99 at NewEgg + Shipping with 84% of reviews giving it either a 4 or a 5. It has 6 SATA ports. CPU is $114.99 at NewEgg with 97% of reviews giving it a 4 or a 5. It's 2.93 GHz, 73W, Dual-Core, Hyper-threaded, 4MB cache, 64-bit, with Virtualization support. The chip obviously has integrated graphics and the motherboard supports the integrated graphics. Of course most Fry's stores sell out like Friday morning 
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Apr 20, 2010 23:12
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AMD Wise: http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads/2010/04/16/47590/AMD-Athlon-II-X3-435-Processor-BioStar-TA785G3-Motherboard AMD Athlon II X3 435 Processor & BioStar TA785G3 Motherboard - $58.99 after rebate. CPU is $74.99 at NewEgg, it's triple-core, has virtualization support, 95W, and is 2.9GHz. Motherboard is $69.99 at NewEgg, only 4 SATA ports, but a lot of USB ports. To me it's not as good of a deal because 95W and fewer SATA ports, but it is $59 after rebate.
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Apr 20, 2010 23:15
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There are some 1TB Hitachi drives on sale at Fry's for $68.99 With 274 reviews on NewEgg, 86% of reviewers on NewEgg gave it either a 4 or a 5 (72% = 5, 14% = 4). Obviously you don't want to base every drive in your WHS on one make of hard drive from one batch, but it's a good deal to throw one in your WHS.
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Apr 25, 2010 20:12
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manwh0r3 posted:Seems to be available here, https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer Yeah, take the period off of the end of that URL. Got my key, downloading ISO now and it is slow.
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Apr 26, 2010 19:39
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SwiftStrikerInc posted:I'm really surprised adding in the media center stuff hasn't been somewhat of a priority, because otherwise you just need more than 1 computer on to do stuff. Or maybe they want you to buy an Xbox 360 and use that as a media front-end, especially since AT&T is/was working on DVR functionality for it. e: Just to be clear, this is R2 and they are not going to be adding anything at this point - what you see is pretty much what you get. Between the above and 3rd party functionality, it'll be like the original WHS. tonelok fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 20:02
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Wiseblood posted:When I click the join link all I get is this: https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/Downloads You'll have to click on the keys link for it to generate you a key obviously. See if you have a Downloads link on the left-hand side.
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Apr 26, 2010 20:07
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Wiseblood posted:The only download I have is Vail_Beta_Preview_V2.mp4 Starting at that screen: https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer I clicked on downloads on the left-hand side which led me to this: https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/Downloads e: skip everything else, they redid the page. tonelok fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Apr 27, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 20:20
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Wiseblood posted:Your last two links are "Page Not Found" for me. Maybe I'll try creating a new account. Actually skip the last two links and look here: https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer/Downloads They just updated the whole thing and broke everything out so those pages are screwy now.
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Apr 27, 2010 00:32
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Generalissimo posted:Response #3 sounds okay to me. I hope there will be enough feedback to get them to do more about #2 however.
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Apr 27, 2010 05:17
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Roz Ho was involved in this decision. I just know it. How could MS be this loving stupid? Yanking DE pretty much overrules anything that might have been added in Vail, and MS is going to lose everybody who jumped on board the WHS bandwagon prior to this. I like to joke about MS doing really stupid poo poo as much as anybody else, but this is on the level of the Kin, except that MS is yanking the rug out from underneath an actual existing customer base. This is so loving stupid. How could they go and make a product that was well received and had basically created a new market and then say "why don't you guys just gently caress off, we didn't give a poo poo about you." They've also just opened the door for Apple to roll out something in this area. It really loving pisses me off because I was waiting for Vail to build a nice system just for this.
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Nov 23, 2010 19:41
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Not a good sign - Microsoft Press has canceled the Vail-based Windows Home Server Inside Out Book. It could mean that Ballmer put the brakes on things and may force them to change, but it's still not a good sign. The Drobo people are gloating, especially since they signed an agreement with HP a few weeks ago for some small business stuff. Ballmer can't be too happy. Last time there was some HP business lost, he flipped out, and the DE fiasco could give HP/Drobo an advantage in sales of non-Microsoft goods.
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Nov 30, 2010 16:53
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Viktor posted:HP has dropped out of the WHS market. Looks like they are burning off the stock of the EX49x and leaving it to Acer and Lenovo. This on top of the Vail changes really looks grim for the platform. But MS loving around probably helped with that.
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Dec 1, 2010 14:13
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kri kri posted:I suggest we replace the NAS megathread and this thread with: It would not surprise me if he was chewing people out left and right behind the scenes and if we see some kind of movement within MS to bring back DE. I would give it a few weeks before talk of merging threads or new threads. This isn't just about WHS anymore - HP's deal is also about Small Business stuff, and that will piss off Ballmer to no end. He's liable to make MS throw a lot of money and resources into bringing DE back. Plus WHS v1 isn't going away anytime soon.
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Dec 2, 2010 00:47
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Cryptic Edge posted:I hope balmer is kicking heads in and throwing chairs over this. DE is the biggest attraction for using whs over something else. The bigger thing is the public black eye and the move by HP to come up with similar solutions using Drobo and/or some kind of webOS thing, which will not only target the WHS market, but small businesses. That gets Ballmer going. DE is kind of a smaller part of that, and HP probably made their decision before DE was officially removed, but if DE is seen as making WHS and the Small Business stuff more attractive, Ballmer might lay the smack down and tell them to work something out.
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Dec 2, 2010 03:37
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Tux Racer posted:The big thing here is that it isn't more attractive for Small Business, and as is WHS holds a niche market of enthusiasts while the rest of the market just has external hard drives. Also, as easy as WHS is, it still isn't easy enough for most people. If WHS is part of Microsoft's long-term strategy, they'll probably continue to support and iterate on it, but it will probably be something like Zune and be the base for something bigger. At least that seems to be the way Microsoft has been operating lately. Either way, HP moving home/small business stuff to Drobo or webOS is going to get Ballmer's attention focused on this group. http://www.thevarguy.com/2010/11/16/hewlett-packard-falling-for-drobo-storage/ quote:Starting now, the HP Small Business Direct online store will offer Drobo storage solutions, which target consumers, small businesses and corporate departments. You can also check out the Drobo Sync, which is designed to provide easy remote backup for small and medium businesses to another off-site Drobo. That kind of stuff gets Ballmer's pulse racing, because previously HP was selling Microsoft-based solutions.
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Dec 2, 2010 05:49
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El_Matarife posted:Maybe the WHS / Media Center hybrid everyone has always wanted will finally come under development. WHS would probably be the best way to give Media Center an easy multi-room viewing solution is so desperately needs. Stick a headless box in your closet with all the backup and file storage features of WHS, plus a decent amount of ATSC tuners or maybe a cable card and you'd have a really good whole house media and everything else solution. I think the WHS team should be operating under the media/gaming people. The Xbox existed to get a toe-hold on the living room before others do - Microsoft absolutely got that right. People mock the Xbox stuff and the amount of money that MS spent on Xbox, but it's the best home strategy MS currently has going. Ideally you have: - Windows Home Server in the office/closet somewhere - PC or laptop in the den/office and kids room(s) that sync/backup to WHS - Mobile phones that sync/backup to WHS - Xbox in the living room or den functioning as a game console, media player, and pseudo-DVR (if you're an AT&T customer) that streams from the WHS Digital photos and movies get backed up to WHS, both for redundancy reasons and so that they can be viewed on TV through the Xbox or through phones, peoples profiles get backed up to WHS, etc. so if a laptop or PC crashes, they don't lose anything, etc. Everything is there for that to happen, and HP, Acer, etc., were rolling the WHS boxes out to support that, but in typical MS fashion, they have make it obscure/difficult to play connect the dots for consumers. MS, in conjunction with HP, etc., should have been running mainstream/mass-market ads about WHS substantially raising the profile of WHS, and the Windows Phone 7 and Xbox should have been advertised as being front-ends for WHS, streaming family photos, movies, etc. Given the history that many people have had with crashes of their PCs in the past, they could have advertised it as a way to keep from losing your stuff, but I'm sure the Windows 7 team would have voted against that. I'm honestly surprised that Apple hasn't jumped all over this with AppleTV or a massively expanded Time Capsule, something that ties all of their devices together and makes it easy to do a lot more to have better redundancy. Time Machine/Time Capsule is loving brilliant as it is and Apple has done a good job of selling them (or the use of Time Machine) to those who are not technically inclined.
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Dec 2, 2010 21:38
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That's what is confusing. For once, Microsoft had everything in place product-wise. All they had to do was make it work well together and make it simple on the end user, and advertise the hell out of that. Given how many Xbox and Windows users there are, they should have been working a lot harder on those markets in terms of selling WHS. Toss in Windows Phone 7. Ballmer is a sales guy, I can't loving believe he never saw the value in leveraging these different markets to sell WHS and using WHS to help sell Xbox/Windows (and Phone 7). If you're gonna spend billions on the Xbox, you should be looking at ways to use that to sell new and additional MS products (and not just Phone 7). Gates understood the living room/home a lot better than Ballmer did as well as making things work with one another, and Ballmer seems to underestimate other companies way too often. Now HP is working against Microsoft's WHS/Small Business group with a non-Microsoft solution. As dumb as HP can be, they are liable to do just enough to come out with a half-decent solution in place of WHS/SBS that can be marketed to the masses and to small companies. I don't know if HP made the decision to dump WHS (And to a lesser extent SBS) before the DE fiasco - HP may have had a heads up since they were a major partner. I do know that HP sees the value in the living room/home. Regardless of how or what drove HP to do this, Ballmer understands that HP is rolling out a non-Microsoft solution(s) that will compete with Microsoft solutions. Everything else aside, that's going to get his attention.
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Dec 2, 2010 22:22
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kri kri posted:That is a good point about xbox integration. It seems Microsoft has been complaining about low sales numbers, but you mean to tell me they couldn't advertise the gently caress out of WHS xbox integration? He's shown time and again that he does not understand Apple or Google and does not understand why they do what they do. He sees the iPhone as simply a phone, and doesn't necessarily see it as a front-end to pay content, or as a gateway into buying into the Mac ecosystem. It probably does not register with him that Apple's Mac sales have been steadily increasing year-after-year with help from iPhones/iPods. He probably does not stop and think that Google is doing what they are doing in order to get people to eventually move much of what they do to online/cloud-type stuff, and away from being dependent on any particular computer platform. It's really bizarre that Ballmer can't see how everything could work together in a home environment and how the products could, individually, help sell each other, given his background and knowing how important ecosystems are when it comes to the business side, and using Office, Exchange, etc. to sell desktop licenses, as well as the reverse of that. Microsoft's two biggest threats on the home front are all about integrating a series of products together. I'm just annoyed, because WHS should be doing better and be treated better than it is. There's so much potential.
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Dec 3, 2010 01:43
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