| Manufacturer: HP | Model: X310 Data Vault |
| Price: $549 | Web: HP |
HP entered the small business market with the Windows Home Server-based X510 Data Vault back in October last year. It was a rapid rebadge of HP’s consumer positioned EX495 MediaSmart Server, with additional storage options and extended warranty. At the time of launch, we praised HP’s move to extend Windows Home Server into the small office category, but were critical of a lack of hardware and software differentiation from the consumer server.
It’s good to see HP and Microsoft expand the market for Windows Home Server into new segments – but in truth, as a rebadged MediaSmart Server, the X510 Data Vault is only a tentative first step in that direction. We look forward to seeing a lot more to come from the product line to add additional business value to the SOHO user.
Put simply, for a market that is highly price conscious, the X510 packed in too much power and too many consumer-oriented media features, driving a $699 price point that doesn’t stack up. Whilst the existing file sharing, client backup, restore and remote access features of Windows Home Server are spot on for the small business user, unsurprisingly, they ask the question why they need to pay more for a box that can also do video conversion, media aggregation and iPhone media streaming, none of which drive business value. With similarly priced NAS drives offering true business-grade features like Active Directory, and iSCSi Target support (both of which are missing in Windows Home Server), there’s too big a question in small business customers’ minds for HP to be comfortable.
Taking this feedback on board, the company have got to work re-designing the Data Vault. The resulting X300 series (X310 in the USA, and the similarly specced X311 in Europe) is a scaled back, cost engineered re-interpretation of the Data Vault, taking the most popular elements of the previous model and stripping out many of the peripheral consumer-targeted features. That re-engineering has led to a lower price point ($549) that HP hopes will persuade many more business owners to invest their trust, and their cash, in their new entry level backup solution.
What’s in the Box?
The X310 is packaged identically to its big brother, in a functional brown box with HP branding.
There’s no manual so to speak, other than a brief, multi-language setup poster which provides a visual guide to setting up the X310 hardware. In the box you’ll find:
- HP X310 Data Vault
- Power Cable
- Ethernet Cable
- Setup Poster
- Installation CD
- PC Restore CD
- Server Recovery CD
The software accompanying the X310 is marked as version 3.1 of the Data Vault software suite. Whilst this sounds like an “upgrade” compared to the X510’s v3.0 software, in reality, the new version has a number of features removed.
First Looks
At first glance, the X310 looks very similar to the previous model. However, look a little closer, and you’ll spot a number of changes to the chassis, designed to reduce cost and create a more sober, business like aesthetic. The chassis materials have been switched from high gloss piano black to a matt plastic finish. The metal mesh drive door has been replaced with a plastic door with ventilation holes and more noticeably, new drive indicator LEDs at the base replace the light pipes on the X510. Whilst the changes sound significant, they do not spoil the overall design of the X310 compared to its cousins, but do create a more “serious” looking server, befitting an office location.
Inside, not a lot has changed – behind the drive door, you’ll find four hot swappable drive trays, with one drive populated by a Seagate 1TB drive. As we’ve stated in most HP server reviews, the drive trays are relatively flimsy and whilst they do the job, they feel cheap and take a bit of wiggling to get in and out of the chassis.
A closer look at the front of the chassis reveals a front USB 2.0 port for convenient attachment additional storage (for copying files from a USB thumb drive, for example) as well as the revised LED line up – from left to right: Power, Network, Home Server Health and Drives 1-4. A small, recessed reset button is also on the front of the chassis, which will require a paperclip or similar to activate, if a Server Recovery is required.
The rear of the X310 has a further three USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA port (which is port multiplier aware, so can be used with drive enclosures), a Gigabit Ethernet socket, power button and power socket. A K-lock is also present on the rear to improve physical security.
